HOWZAT

The Blunkett Tapes is a tawdry book: page after page of self-justification, moaning and betrayal of confidences. It need not have been. Buried within it lies an insight into the upper workings of this government that will fascinate political junkies. But it says much about his lack of self-awareness that Blunkett can imagine that his book will do anything other than further demean an already floored reputation.

It is very sad. Blunkett should have been an inspirational figure, not just for reaching unprecedented heights with no concession made to his blindness, but for his rise from poverty. Instead, he has destroyed his good name and turned himself into a laughing stock. For a man with such a powerful sense of self-worth, that is perhaps the worst aspect of all.

Extract from THE BLUNKETT TAPES: My Life in the Bear Pit
by David Blunkett

God knows who is going to believe what by the time the report Sir Alan Budd’s investigation into allegations that Mr Blunkett had “fast-tracked” a nanny’s visa application] comes out. Even I am beginning to doubt myself. I think I am going mad. I know the facts — but these are then widely presented as being completely untrue. I am in the middle of a sustained campaign and because of sub judice I can’t talk about private matters, and publicly I can’t speak about the detail because it would interfere with Sir Alan’s investigation and the neutrality of the report. In any case, I can’t get stuck in as Home Secretary, even if the inquiry gave me permission to speak — which it won’t.

My Private Office, the press office and my special advisers are being run ragged. How the hell are we managing to get any work done I do not know. Our opponents say that I cannot possibly do the job because of the distraction, and then throw everything possible into distracting me and those around me. But we are holding on . . . . We are holding meetings. We are keeping going. We are making decisions. I don’t know how, but we are . . .
My ex-wife Ruth has turned down £50,000 from a Sunday newspaper to dish the dirt on our marriage. That is the other side of the coin of human nature, and what a contrast.

My sons and their friends are being followed, investigated and harangued by Sunday papers. It is not sufficient to have a go at me, hour by hour.

I have to say that at this time, December 2004, and from May 2005 onwards to my resignation in November 2005 and regrettably beyond, my family and friends were subjected to what can only be described as the equivalent of the Stasi secret service in East Germany . . . It is, in the words of one fellow minister who has experienced it, “like a form of privatised non-violent terrorism”.

(David Blunkett’s reflection on the tapes is in italics.)

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