Broken Vows Read Online Free
Author: Tom Bower
is an essential prop that keeps him afloat during his involuntary exile from Britain.
Many believe redemption is impossible for a man so tarnished. For the moment, the best way to judge the man is to uncover the previously unknown story of his government. Discovering the truth was a surprise to me, and perhaps will be for you too.
ONE
The Beginning
----
One week before the 1997 general election, Tony Blair was facing Robin Butler, the fifty-nine-year-old Cabinet secretary. On the eve of his landslide victory, Blair had invited Britain’s most important civil servant to his home in Islington for a meeting. Uppermost in Butler’s mind as he drove from Downing Street to north London was the fate of Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff.
Ever since Blair had first met Powell in Washington in 1993, the Foreign Office diplomat had fed Blair’s suspicion that most civil servants were unimaginative conservatives opposed to modernising Britain. Two years after that meeting, Powell had resigned from his job and joined Blair’s private office, and over the following years Blair came to accept Powell’s belief that Whitehall’s inertia would sabotage New Labour’s mission. Anticipating his party’s victory, Blair expected Powell to move into Downing Street and issue orders to his former colleagues.
‘When I arrive next week,’ Blair told Butler as the two men faced each other, ‘I want Jonathan to be my principal private secretary.’
‘I advise very strongly against that,’ replied Butler. ‘You’ll need someone experienced to operate the levers of power. You’ll have Alex Allan for the first three months. After that, see how it goes.’ Allan was an experienced civil servant trusted by Butler.
‘I see,’ replied Blair.
‘There are some things that a PPS has to do that should not be done by a political adviser,’ explained Butler. ‘Like relations with the Palace, civil-service appointments and intelligence matters.’ He mentionedanother factor. Powell’s elder brother Charles, also a former Foreign Office official, had been a close adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and Butler believed that Thatcher had been brought down in 1990 partly because her reliance on Powell had isolated her from others.
Not mentioned was Jonathan Powell’s reputation. Many in Whitehall considered him to be politically naive and even trivial. His belief in himself extinguished any self-doubt. Butler, a former head boy at Harrow school and now an accomplished patrician on the eve of retirement, was seeking to protect the young future prime minister from an early mistake.
‘Right,’ said Blair reluctantly, ‘let’s keep Allan for the first three months and see how it goes.’
Butler was relieved. Sharp words, he thought, had been exchanged in the stand-off. ‘I’ll make the legal arrangements using an order-in-council to give him and Alastair Campbell the necessary powers,’ he told Blair. Powell would remain Blair’s chief of staff and would be given executive authority to issue orders to civil servants.
Blair smiled. In their confrontation he had acted with the self-confidence of an insider, although he had been bored after an hour. ‘Amiable but out of date,’ he told himself as he bid his visitor farewell. His natural politeness had concealed his judgement that Butler’s protests were the death rattle of the old mandarin class. Under his regime, Whitehall would be occupied by a network of friends ruled by himself as self-styled chief executive. By giving both Powell and Campbell, his spokesman, executive powers, he had cleared his first obstacle. Henceforth the civil servant’s tainted advice would be ignored. Blair had modernised the Labour Party. Now he would modernise Britain.
*
‘He’s scared of me,’ Butler concluded during the drive back to Whitehall. ‘He didn’t even ask me how to make the government machine work.’ He was puzzled by Blair. Since they had first met in 1993, his attempts to explain
Many believe redemption is impossible for a man so tarnished. For the moment, the best way to judge the man is to uncover the previously unknown story of his government. Discovering the truth was a surprise to me, and perhaps will be for you too.
ONE
The Beginning
----
One week before the 1997 general election, Tony Blair was facing Robin Butler, the fifty-nine-year-old Cabinet secretary. On the eve of his landslide victory, Blair had invited Britain’s most important civil servant to his home in Islington for a meeting. Uppermost in Butler’s mind as he drove from Downing Street to north London was the fate of Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff.
Ever since Blair had first met Powell in Washington in 1993, the Foreign Office diplomat had fed Blair’s suspicion that most civil servants were unimaginative conservatives opposed to modernising Britain. Two years after that meeting, Powell had resigned from his job and joined Blair’s private office, and over the following years Blair came to accept Powell’s belief that Whitehall’s inertia would sabotage New Labour’s mission. Anticipating his party’s victory, Blair expected Powell to move into Downing Street and issue orders to his former colleagues.
‘When I arrive next week,’ Blair told Butler as the two men faced each other, ‘I want Jonathan to be my principal private secretary.’
‘I advise very strongly against that,’ replied Butler. ‘You’ll need someone experienced to operate the levers of power. You’ll have Alex Allan for the first three months. After that, see how it goes.’ Allan was an experienced civil servant trusted by Butler.
‘I see,’ replied Blair.
‘There are some things that a PPS has to do that should not be done by a political adviser,’ explained Butler. ‘Like relations with the Palace, civil-service appointments and intelligence matters.’ He mentionedanother factor. Powell’s elder brother Charles, also a former Foreign Office official, had been a close adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and Butler believed that Thatcher had been brought down in 1990 partly because her reliance on Powell had isolated her from others.
Not mentioned was Jonathan Powell’s reputation. Many in Whitehall considered him to be politically naive and even trivial. His belief in himself extinguished any self-doubt. Butler, a former head boy at Harrow school and now an accomplished patrician on the eve of retirement, was seeking to protect the young future prime minister from an early mistake.
‘Right,’ said Blair reluctantly, ‘let’s keep Allan for the first three months and see how it goes.’
Butler was relieved. Sharp words, he thought, had been exchanged in the stand-off. ‘I’ll make the legal arrangements using an order-in-council to give him and Alastair Campbell the necessary powers,’ he told Blair. Powell would remain Blair’s chief of staff and would be given executive authority to issue orders to civil servants.
Blair smiled. In their confrontation he had acted with the self-confidence of an insider, although he had been bored after an hour. ‘Amiable but out of date,’ he told himself as he bid his visitor farewell. His natural politeness had concealed his judgement that Butler’s protests were the death rattle of the old mandarin class. Under his regime, Whitehall would be occupied by a network of friends ruled by himself as self-styled chief executive. By giving both Powell and Campbell, his spokesman, executive powers, he had cleared his first obstacle. Henceforth the civil servant’s tainted advice would be ignored. Blair had modernised the Labour Party. Now he would modernise Britain.
*
‘He’s scared of me,’ Butler concluded during the drive back to Whitehall. ‘He didn’t even ask me how to make the government machine work.’ He was puzzled by Blair. Since they had first met in 1993, his attempts to explain
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