Blair on war: That Blair appeared privately to "relish" sending British

[roguevalley]

troops to war in Iraq as his "first blooding", while publicly claiming he did it "with a heavy heart".

# That the Government promised media mogul Rupert Murdoch it would not change its policy on Europe without telling him first.

# That the Prime Minister repeatedly bawled out in rage 'f****** Welsh' when an election in the principality was going against Labour.

Two leaked letters obtained by The Mail on Sunday show how the diaries by respected former BBC journalist Price have thrown the Government into a panic. The first, sent by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to Price's publishers nine days ago, angrily accuses him of "betrayal" for refusing to be gagged. The second, sent by one of O'Donnell's senior officials on Thursday, secretly warns up to 20 Ministers that they feature in Price's exposé, and tells them how to protect their reputations.

snip

He paints a damning and chaotic picture of a Government that makes major policies on the hoof, sometimes minutes before Blair goes on TV; of Ministers constantly at each other's throats; and of a Cabinet reduced to the role of impotent bystanders as Blair, and sometimes his spin doctors, make the big decisions.

The media is bullied, browbeaten and bribed with favours to report Labour favourably and the BBC is cowed into revealing its questions in advance to Blair at Press conferences in return for having the chance to pose them first.

The diaries are the most sensational political memoirs since those of the late Tory MP Alan Clark. Nearly every page is packed with colourful and shocking anecdotes. And it reveals how two Labour officials were caught having sex on a sofa in Mr Blair's office on Election night, yards from partying Ministers.

continue here for the whole thing:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=362725&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5

[mr blur]

1. Nothing about him would surprise me any more.

# That the Government promised media mogul Rupert Murdoch it would not change its policy on Europe without telling him first.

Quite right - everybody knows that Murdoch's opinion is far more important than the opinions of those of us that Bliar was elected to serve.