The End of the Party [Paperback]

 

 

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Andrew Rawnsley has toured the TV studios for weeks making numerous robust defences of his latest book not least of the thesis underpinning the "Gordon is a bully" scandal. He has in turn been subject to the full wrath of the current government spin meisters and elected politicians such as John Prescott(oh the irony) who could barely contain his anger on a recent Newsnight. But what of the book itself?

Tom Paine had a wonderful phrase addressed to Edmund Burke that "he pities the plumage and forgets the dying bird". The same could apply to the media's reaction to this since despite the heat and noise of the "bullygate" scandal no one at all disputes the mind boggling levels of dysfunction, the sheer levels of poisonous acrimony and full force backstabbing of the Blair/Brown relationship which dominated the "heart" of British politics for so long and in one sense is still being played out.

Of course politics is a Machiavellian business and not for the faint hearted but Rawnsley's chronicle is not so much a story of a new Labour permanent revolution as a permanent row. It is a world turned upside down where Peter Mandelson can go from stating that Gordon Brown "wants to kill me before I destroy him" to one where the Prime Ministers survival depends on his former arch enemy. Clearly Armando Iannucci's brilliant "The thick of it" is actually rather tame and I must admit I laughed out loud at Margaret Beckett's guttural reaction to being made foreign secretary.

This is a very long book but to be fair to Rawnsley it is also a story very well told with real pace. It does suffer a fair quota of political clichés and the Westminster "bubble" is portrayed as the totality of British politics bar nothing else. But I like Jeremy Vine's comment that "it reads like a thriller" and like it or not Rawnsley is a key insider in this world and if only 50% of the facts are right (and it appears in some instances they go both ways) then this is fascinating if damming indictment of the current state of our politics and government.

You suspect Rawnsley is more Blairite than Brownite and his analysis of the tragic march to war in Iraq is thorough but his judgement on Blair as "a sincere deceiver. He told the truth about what he believed; he lied about the strength of the evidence for that belief" is a cop out. The best chapter in the book however is on the election that never was and Brown's chronic indecision which could ironically turn out to be the right decision in the next few months. It is here we see Brown at his worse and the idea that the thuggish Damian McBride was a bit part player is decimated by Rawnsley who charts how this attack dog would rubbish anyone in defence of his master and with his full knowledge. Brown as the brooding, moody and tempestuous Scot is portrayed here in all his glory/weakness (it depends on your politics) but clearly during that period Number 10 was a truly awful place to be.

Like "Servants of the People" this insiders view has considerable strengths but also weaknesses. Rawnsley's ranges of sources inevitably are secretive and in some cases might even be fictional. Yet the key message of this book is that the last two decades have been one of "government by ordeal". This is about a style of politics which is brutal and thoroughly depressing. Recent events in the expenses scandal suggest a plague on all houses but at the end of the day someone has to govern. We should hope whichever party wins the forthcoming general election that some of the lessons in this excellent book are learned.

This is a decent, enjoyable read. Rawnsley writes very well and as a politics student I actually got a fair amount out of his account of the New Labour years.

However my big criticism of this book is that it is incomplete. The story ends abruptly in the months leading up to the 2010 general election, and this is no place to finish. I can only assume that this is so the book could be released at that time in order to maximise revenue.

Sure enough, the paperback is due out on 30th September and contains exactly what this book is missing. It is updated with two new chapters to take the book to its logical conclusion - through the election and the coalition negotiations that followed to the moment when Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister.

Having purchased and read this book I feel ripped off as I feel it is now essential to purchase the paperback in order to read the ending. I therefore recommend that people avoid buying a book that is missing the final two chapters by waiting until the paperback is out.

As soon as I am finishing one book, my mind turns to what sort of read I will want next. Maybe a classical novel, or a Greek tragedy, or possibly something with a bit more humour. In this fascinating new account of the demise of New Labour by the Observer journalist Andrew Rawnsley, I got some of the best elements of all these genres. Very Shakespearean, and also just like watching my favourite TV comedy ` The Thick Of It', complete with weak but power crazed politicians and their malicious spinning side kicks, who battle with each other in a stunningly vicious way. The phrase `you couldn't make it up' comes to mind again and again during this complete page turner of an account. And lots of pages to turn in it there are too - with the meat of the book taking up nearly 700 pages.

Rawnsley takes us to the heart of the New Labour action, taking up the story from the start of their second term in office in 2001. Predictably, it is the insight into the relationship between Tony Blair, the dashing, charming and media savvy Prime Minister, and his jealous, bitter and resentful Chancellor next door, Gordon Brown, which makes the most compelling reading. Blair obsessed with power and his legacy; and Brown so obsessed with taking that power away and having it for himself that he seemed to completely forget to plan what he would do with it if he got it. Some of the more astonishing revelations have unfortunately already been released to the media and splashed across newspaper front pages. Even so there are some episodes that have not been given so much publicity that seem just too bizarre for words. One such is the apparent anger felt by Brown when he believed that the Blairs kept leaving their young son Leo's pram outside their flat door deliberately so that it would remind them of the death of their baby daughter Jennifer. That seems frankly preposterous but apparently that is exactly what Gordon thought.

Blair comes across as stymied at every turn by the antics of his rival. Rawnsley claims that Brown stopped him from doing many things during his premiership, just because he could - apparently even refusing on occasion to let Blair know what was going to be his Budget. And the hapless Tony refused to believe that his old pal Gordon could be quite so cruel, and so gave him the benefit of the doubt again and again, until it was too late. In fact the two men seem to have been so unhealthily obsessed with each other that it is a wonder that they managed to achieve anything at all. There is certainly no sense of any political project being undertaken here, just factional infighting; very unprofessional behaviour by themselves and their many followers; and amazing hubris by both.

Apart from the TB-GB issue, as it was fondly referred to by the inner circle, this account charts the journey to war in Iraq that Blair made, and his poodle like behaviour in the face of the war monger Bush. The shameful episode of the `sexing up' of the case for war dossier, and the death of scientist David Kelly is well known to us by now, but it still incredible to peek into the minds of the main protagonists as they played the terrible story out. Alistair Campbell (or should that be Malcolm Tucker?) in particular was obsessed at his own fight with the media, rather than the actual truth. You just would not want to come across any of them in a dark alley at all.

And so when Tony is finally ousted, hoisted on his own petard of the war, it is unbelievable the Brown seems to continue is his bullying manner, only this time not aimed at a single rival, but rather anyone who he sees as vaguely standing his way. It is frankly amazing that his character has not been revealed before. The various crises of his leadership are explored from the credit crunch to the expenses scandal. Brown comes across as a very weak leader, who lacked the charm and charisma of his predecessor, and lamely followed in his footsteps without conviction. For example, in his handling of the continuing war in Afghanistan, Rawnsley says that `Brown would never be mistaken for Henry V', as he read out the few speeches he did make on the war `with the passion of a man reading out the weather forecast for Kirkcaldy.' And the bitter irony of his increasing dependency on old foes to shore up his leadership, such as Prince of Darkness Peter Mandelson, Alistair Campbell, and even his old friend Tony Blair is quite ironic.

Towards the end of the book, as the events Rawnsley is retelling seem more like news than history, the analysis is less compelling. Indeed it is rather a gamble to prophesy to end of the New Labour project when opinion polls are still subject to such fluctuations, giving rise to differing predictions of who will form the next government on a daily basis.

But Rawnsley has given us a riveting account of the dangers of power without conviction, check or morality. And of course of the way an obsessive rivalry can grip a government, and the reader, from the very first page of this fascinating book.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book!
This is a superb book exposing the strengths and frailties of New Labour, reading increasingly like a Greek Tragedy. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mr. R. Whittle

5.0 out of 5 stars The ring of truth
As the book quotes at the very beginning, a press review says this book has "the ring of truth", and that it certainly has. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Tom Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
This book is the companion volume to Rawnsley's Servant of the People, which detailed the events of the 1997 - 2001 Labour administration. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Jimbo

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put this long book down
This was such an interesting read that I just couldn't put it down, even when I should have been getting on with my work. It may be long but it never flags or loses impetus. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Mungo

5.0 out of 5 stars Rawnsley's masterpiece and an absolute eye-opener
My wife purchased this book and I got into it out of curiosity more than anything. There are 760 pages here (excluding references and index) and I could hardly put it down! Read more

Published 6 months ago by maksutov

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting expose of the rise and fall of New Labour
The End of the Party is a brilliant expose of the rise and fall of New Labour. As a Labour supporter I was horrified by the war in Iraq, Blair cosying up to one of the most right... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mr. Craig Henderson

4.0 out of 5 stars Who would have thought politicians could be so interesting?
I have just finished this book and would thoroughly recommend it. This book grabs you from the first page and really does read like a novel. Read more

Published 6 months ago by C. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Best ever account of New Labour's decline and fall. Every petty row and back-stab has been validated via other sources. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Shupi

5.0 out of 5 stars I knew it!
For the first time I'm reading a thoroughly researched book about the last Labour Government - sorry - New Labour Government. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mrs. J. A. Pritchard

5.0 out of 5 stars New Labour, Old Failures

Andrew Rawnsley makes mincemeat of the thirty year rule with a brilliantly written book about New Labour between 2001 and 2010. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Neutral

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