What's life without a little controversy?

 

You lucky, lucky people. Twice in two days? Blimey. You should feel especially privileged, because (and I don't want to alarm anybody) but I have just had quite a few cups of Lemsip and fought my way through my own Berlin Wall of tissues. I am ill. I like to imagine that you're all there now like 'oh, that poor girl', but I know that you’re probably not and instead are thinking 'why can't we even get rid of her when she's ill?'. In fact, as I write this article I am wrapped up in my fluffy pink dressing gown and struggling to keep my eyes open. But I’ll soldier on, don't you worry about me...In fact, the whole plan was to come home and sleep for eternity, but the pull of history proved just too much for me and I had to have a little read of my history book. And then one thing just led to another... and well. Here I am. So my apologies if this article is a jumble of gibberish and letters unrecognisable as words, but hey. At least I tried.   So, as you have hopefully noticed, underneath the ridiculous ramblings about my life, there is usually some kind of point to my posts.
You just have to really dig for them to find them. But I was reading my book a few minutes ago, and it made a pretty interesting point about Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Now, (as with most things) I know very little about either of them, but I don't really think that this time, it's my fault. You see, I’ve have the extreme misfortune to have been born in that time period where I’m close enough to the whole 'Thatcher' thing, and even closer to the 'Blair' thing, but I’m far enough away from that period to know absolutely nothing about it. The topics are still a bit too controversial for people to bother breaching it with my generation, and frankly, the majority of us couldn’t care less. The result is that I know nothing. At all. I know more about the exact function of a rubber duck than I do about Thatcher and Blair. And, to be honest with you, I'm a little miffed about that. I've always loved controversial leaders, I really can't be doing with wet-blankets. I like my prime ministers to ruffle loads of feathers, even if what they do goes completely against my emerging political values. Maybe its slightly childish of me, but if they're not fiery, I simply don't care. It's the same kind of feeling I used to get from gathering round two boys fighting in the playground and chanting, slightly madly, the word 'Fight'. Just in case they weren't aware of exactly what they were doing. So although there are many things I don't like about Blair, and many things I’m not too keen on with Thatcher, I still have a kind of admiration for them.

You see, both changed their party for good, which sometimes proves more difficult than changing the country itself. Blair moved the party slightly more towards the right, and Thatcher did the one thing that pre-Thatcher conservatism hated: reform. She shook things up big time, whether for the good or the bad, and that’s what I think makes them both pretty cool in my eyes. They weren't afraid to make a bit of a difference.
 So take a leaf out of 'Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher', of 'Tony Bliar's book. And I’m not suggesting that you run your country and make changes that will make half the country hate you with a burning passion that they can't quite understand themselves. But don't be afraid to shake things up, even if you worry that you'll be laughed from the room. Because you may just be the one to change things...

E.C

The tenth anniversary of the War in Iraq

The War in Iraq which began 10 years ago tomorrow cost 179 British soldiers' lives, over 100,000 Iraqi and nearly 4,500 American lives and caused one of the UK's biggest ever demonstrations against it in London. Why did it happen? What was involved? Was it worth it? As a result of the anniversary there is a wealth of information on the conflict. The BBC have a wide range of interviews with the people involved particularly Tony Blair , John Simpson and Panorama have done a special programme on the intelligence involved in the decision to go to war. The Daily Telegraph also has some interesting interviews especially one with Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who was accused of lying about the government's intelligence dossier just after the war started. Also interesting to look at the USA's coverage of the anniversary, here in USA Today Obama pays tribute to the troops involved and the Washington Post suggests 10 great books, fiction and non-fiction, to read on the event.

Jon Davis

Dr Jon Davis will be speaking in the library during Tuesday lunchtime about Tony Blair and his Premiership, which he has researched extensively for his new book. Dr Davis teaches political history at Queen Mary University and previously wrote "Prime Ministers and Whitehall", and exploration of the relationship between Prime Ministers and the Civil Service. He has also worked closely with the influential political historian and writer, Peter Hennessy.

The Special Relationship

Another interesting Tony Blair drama on BBC2 on Saturday night (on iplayer) starring Michael Sheen, this time on the 'special relationship'. This is the name Britain tends to give to the relationship between the United States and Britain. From the US's point of view, this name is a little optimistic, considering Britain's competition - Mexico and Canada to name but a few. However, it is a subject that both historians and journalists find fascinating. It is a very interesting relationship; made only more so by the recent personal relationships between Blair and Clinton (the programme's subjects) and Blair and Bush. The programme is excellent to give you an overview of the issues that involved the US and the UK at the end of the 1990s, especially Kosovo. Peter Riddell, the Times journalist and author, has also written an excellent book which is very readable and informative on this topic.
What do you think the relationship is between Obama and Cameron? Is the relationship between the US and UK 'special'?

Blair at the Iraq Inquiry

Here is a link to live video feed from the BBC of Tony Blair at the Iraq enquiry. Here is regularly updated commentary from the Guardian.