A Journey
Anthony Blair
 A Journey covers Blair's time as leader of the Labour Party and then British Prime Minister following his party's victory at the 1997 general election. His tenure as Labour leader begins in 1994 following the death of his predecessor, John Smith, an event Blair claims to have had a premonition about a month before Smith died. Blair believes he will succeed Smith as Labour leader rather than Gordon Brown, who is a strong contender for the job. He likens them both to "a couple who loved each other, arguing over whose career should come first." To him, Brown is a "strange guy". with "zero" emotional intelligence. Having been elected as leader Blair moves the Labour Party to the political centre ground, repackaging it as "New Labour", and goes on to win the 1997 general election. At his first meeting with Elizabeth II following his election as Prime Minister Blair recalls the Queen telling him, "You are my tenth prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." Within a few months his government must deal with the aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and following the Princess's funeral, Elizabeth&nbsp;II tells Blair that lessons must be learned from the way things have been handled. Social occasions with the Queen are also recalled, including a gathering at Balmoral Castle where Prince Philip is described manning the barbecue while Elizabeth&nbsp;II dons a pair of rubber gloves to wash up afterwards. From the outset Blair's government plays a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace process, during which Blair admits to using "a certain amount of creative ambiguity" to secure an agreement, claiming the process would not have succeeded otherwise. He says that he stretched the truth "on occasions past breaking point" in the run-up to the 2007 power-sharing deal which enabled the return of devolved legislative powers from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Executive. Both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin are praised for the part they played in the peace process. One of the themes that dominates the latter part of Blair's time in office is his decision to join U.S. President George W. Bush in committing troops to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the aftermath of which he describes as a "nightmare", but that he believes to have been necessary because Saddam Hussein "had not abandoned the strategy of WMD [weapons of mass destruction], merely made a tactical decision to put it into abeyance". He would make the same decision again with regard to Iran, warning that if that country develops nuclear weapons it will change the balance of power of the Middle East, to the region's detriment. Blair believes some problems in Iraq still require a "resolution" and will fester if left unattended. Of the war dead he says, "I feel desperately sorry for them, sorry for the lives cut short, sorry for the families whose bereavement is made worse by the controversy over why their loved ones died, sorry for the utterly unfair selection that the loss should be theirs." A year on from the invasion he hopes Bush will win a second term as U.S. President: "I had come to like and admire George," he writes. In 2003, Blair promises his Chancellor, Gordon Brown that he will resign before the next general election, but later changes his mind. Brown subsequently attempts to blackmail him, threatened to call for a Labour Party inquiry into the 2005 cash for honours affair during an argument over pension policy. Brown succeeds Blair as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister in 2007. But while Blair praises Brown as a good Chancellor and a committed public servant, he believes his decision to abandon the New Labour policies of the Blair years leads to the party's 2010 election defeat. However, Brown is right to restructure British banks and introduce an economic stimulus after the financial crisis. The book closes with a final chapter offering a critique of Labour Party policy, and discusses its future. Blair warns Brown's successor that if Labour is to remain electable they should continue with the policies of New Labour and not return to the left-wing policies of the 1980s: "I won three elections. Up to then, Labour had never even won two successive full terms. The longest Labour government had lasted six years. This lasted 13. It could have gone on longer, had it not abandoned New Labour."