Product Description

THE BLAIR EFFECT is a collection of authoritative and (reasonably) unpartisan commentaries on the first administration of Tony Blair as it approaches a General Election. The authors demonstrate that it is possible to write contemporary history about even the most recent past in an accessible yet scrupulously objective manner. How much has changed since the landslide election victory of May 1997? What was prompting the changes, and to what extent were they the fruit of number 10's intentions? How far might they have happened anyway? How effective has the Blair effect been? Peter Riddell, Vernon Bogdanor, Dennis Kavanagh and a host of other star analysts pose these questions and do their best to answer them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177852 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 661 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Blair Effect, Arthur Seldon has brought together a group of academics and journalists to produce the best book on the Blair government we are likely to get this side of the general election. In an unprecedented period of news management and spin doctoring, they knock the shine off the ball and tell it how it how it really has been.

There is no disinformation to deal with here, but instead deft and analytical dealing with all the reverse swing--the 28 experts in their own fields cut through the political cackle and objectively lay down the effects of Blair's first four years.

They are by no means hostile. The contributors coolly and conscientiously analyse what Blair and his ministerial colleagues have achieved. No Labour government in history, as Seldon points out, has come to power with so many initial advantages.

Seldon is especially instructive in his overview, synthesising the arguments in two revealing tables on the net effects and the quality of the government work, but it is invidious to particularise on a book which is so full of astute observations and reflections. All of his contributors have important points to make across the whole spectrum of politics and the workings of Whitehall. Anyone seriously interested in politics, whatever their persuasion, should put it at the top of their reading list.-- Michael Hatfield

Review
'The best book on the Blair government. Essential reading.' David Butler 'Relax, we can still produce commentators and critics of the highest class. Anthony Seldon has put together an admirable collection of essays on the work of the Blair government to date.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'The indispensible new guide to what has happened so far.' GUARDIAN 'It is a treat.' OBSERVER 'Comprehensive, dispassionate and authoratative, it is essentiial reading.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

About the Author
Anthony Seldon is the headmaster of Brighton College and edited THE THATCHER EFFECT and THE MAJOR EFFECT. He is the biographer of John Major.

Customer Reviews

Non Party-Political Look at the Blair Government
A well researched series of essays looking at the workings of the Blair government 1997-2001.

Whist it was at times hard work sifting through the sheer volume of information provided, this is a fascinating look at the inner workings of Whitehall and the Labour party. If you are looking for a work that either praises or damms New Labour then this is not for you, rather it is a carefully balanced look at the successes and failures of the administration.

Though it focuses on the most recent government, it achievements, or lack thereof, are put into historical context thus providing a broad view of the workings of government in Britain this century.

Non Party-Political Look at the Blair Government
A well researched series of essays looking at the workings of the Blair government 1997-2001.

Whist it was at times hard work sifting through the sheer volume of information provided, this is a fascinating look at the inner workings of Whitehall and the Labour party. If you are looking for a work that either praises or damms New Labour then this is not for you, rather it is a carefully balanced look at the successes and failures of the administration.

Though it focuses on the most recent government, it achievements, or lack thereof, are put into historical context thus providing a broad view of the workings of government in Britain this century.