Having preluded the release of his new book, The Journey, with a reintroduction to the British media, Tony Blair has shot to the top of best-seller lists all over the UK. Kick-starting it all with the Tony Blair Andrew Marr interview that has generated its own notoriety over the last few days, he has suddenly become the biggest name in UK politics once again.
With David Cameron and Nick Clegg busy battling it out over the budget cuts that should be announced in October, Gordon Brown well and truly on the back burner and the rest of the Labour Party torturing themselves over the 2010 Labour Party leadership race, the only real contender for publicity is William Hague right now, and that’s unwanted and marginal at best.
The book is the autobiography of his life as Prime Minister, taking in Kosovo, the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, the ideals of New Labour and his relationship with Gordon Brown. If nothing else, the book will give us more of an understanding of which he made some of the more controversial decisions of his time at the head of the government.
All of the proceeds from The Journey have been earmarked for the British Legion charity, so Blair will not be raking it in as a result of the massive sales figures for the book. However, the jokes from Andrew Marr during the interview would seem to imply that money is not that much of an issue based on his work over the years since he left No. 10.
