Book Review: Point Of Departure by Robin Cook

Did you know that only two countries in the world allow hereditary chieftains to make laws? Neither did I until I read this book. The answer to the question if you're interested is Lesotho and the UK. One African leader said that he could not be expected to bring full democracy to his country in 50 years when the UK had failed to do it in 500 years. You have to say that he has a point!

It shows how badly we need to be rid of the mockery that is the House of Lords. That is what Robin Cook was tasked to do in Tony Blair's government-reform the House of Lords and bring it screaming out of the Dark Ages. Cook tried so hard to deliver this and his battles with senior Lords members and the Blair government itself were fascinating. It really was a thankless task and ended up in failure when Blair gave his support to the Lords members, effectively killing the reform bill. It was fascinating to see how Tony Blair did everything he could to sabotage this attempt at change after telling the public that his government would do it. It's just another example of what Tony Blair is really like-saying one thing to your face and then going behind your back to undermine you.

Cook's insight into political interviews is something else that I agree with. He thinks that it should give the politician a chance to answer questions, defend his policy and explain to the public what he or she is actually trying to achieve. I agree that political interviews at the moment are very frustrating to listen to. A lot of interviewers aren't interested in getting the facts for the viewer, instead being more interested in their own agenda which usually involves trying to catch the MP out and scoring cheap points. I cannot stand when a question is asked and when the politician tries to answer, the interviewer is interrupting and not letting them speak. It drives me mad! I want to actually hear the answers to the questions!

The more books I read written by Labour MPs the more I see that Tony Blair was always style over substance, telling people what they wanted to hear, caring more about his public image than delivering on his promises to the people. Blair seemed so fearful of damaging his popularity that he dithered over plenty of policies that he should have delivered. It is disappointing because I was so excited when he won the election in 1997...I sat up through the night to celebrate that Labour Party win with a few beers and some snacks, and it was great! Now I look back with a feeling of utter disillusionment, and reading these books confirms it. The irony for me is that the one time he decided to push ahead with an unpopular policy was the Iraq War, and it was the one time when he should've shown more sense.

Cook basically seems to be saying that Blair was obsessed with being the number one ally to the US, which would also increase his own world standing, and I think that is pretty accurate. While it is a good thing to be allies, it should not come at the expense of common sense and blindly backing a policy that is wrong. The US on the other hand, didn't seem greatly bothered by the opinions of its allies, allies that were tolerated rather than needed. That is shown in the way Bush basically told Blair that he was going to invade Iraq with or without Britain, causing Blair to rush to his side. It was a mistake that destroyed Blair's popularity, which seems somewhat ironic!

There were also some pieces of information that surprised me, like the then head of the US Armed Forces Committee being unaware that Austria and Hungary were seperate countries and no longer a single empire! That was pretty shocking to me. As were senior US officials being unaware that the International Court dealing with war crimes was in the Netherlands not Belgium. It makes you wonder how we can trust these people to decide on when they take us to war when they know so little about the world around them.

I think what I liked best was Cook's analysis of the 'proof' that Iraq was a danger to the UK. He went through it in great detail and I thought is was so interesting-and pretty shocking. It seems insane to me now that we chose to go to war on such flimsy and questionable material, which became known as the dodgy dossier. I confess that back then I didn't have the internet so I was relying on what the government said about why we had to go to war. Had I access to the news sources I have now, I think my opinion would have been very different.

This book was really interesting and gave a full insight into the inner workings and chaos of the Blair government in the run up to the Iraq war. I very much enjoyed reading it. 

 

Read March 2018.

3.5 stars.