Over the coming weeks and months there is going to be a seemingly endless queue of people trying to cash in on the "Blair years" (headed by Tony himself, of course). Alistair Campbell's memoirs are due to be published in July, though there are reports that he has cut out the juicy bits to protect Blair. No such luck for Tony with regard to the former cabinet secretary Lord Butler. He has got some pretty damning words on how the country was run under Blair's premiership. It seems the rumours that the country was run by him and Alistair Campbell were pretty accurate. He claims the cabinet only took one decision during Tony Blair's first eight months in office. Brilliantly, that one decision was to delegate the matter of the Millennium Dome to the prime minister! It gets better - "And the only way they could get that decision was Tony Blair left the room to go to a memorial service and John Prescott was left chairing the meeting. There were in fact more people against than for it and the one thing that John Prescott could get cabinet agreement to was that they should leave it to Tony. That was the one decision." He also claims that papers on critical issues, including, he implied, intelligence reports on Iraq, were not given to cabinet ministers. So much for collective responsibility - it is a wonder so many have remained so loyal. I don't imagine things will get any better under Brown either - he is notorious for having his small circle of trusted individuals.
