Books
It is inconceivable that there will be another politician like David Blunkett. Fiercely principled, brutally honest and with a poverty-stricken childhood behind him, the Sheffield-born socialist has nonetheless risen to (and now fallen from) the highest echelons of power in Britain - despite possessing a handicap that would prevent most even from dreaming of such success. Stephen Pollard's study of the world's only blind politician has already itself become the object of substantial debate - famously featuring, as it does, a number of less-than-complimentary remarks by Blunkett aimed at former Cabinet colleagues. Yet the greatest irony is that this is surely the most complimentary piece of literature ever to guarantee a politician's resignation.
The chief problem faced by Pollard is that the events leading up to his subject's resignation were continuing to unravel as the biography went to press - ensuring that even the hastily-added concluding chapter (an open-ended 'Will he survive the Budd enquiry?' musing) already appears markedly dated. Indeed, though the author claims to have had information about Blunkett's affair with Kimberley Fortier prior to certain leaks revealing it in the press, the three chapters in his work that do address the 'socialist and the socialite' seem very much an afterthought, with the relationship only ever mentioned in potential 'stand-alone' paragraphs. Had Pollard been gifted a little more breathing space, he would doubtless have wished to integrate more fully this affair that has so shaped David Blunkett's recent life.
The biography suffers from a couple of other stylistic problems. The first two chapters proper appear to be an effort, in the author's own words, to "paint a picture" of the former Home Secretary, dealing in turn with his political abilities and community-orientated socialist views. Yet they are followed by a more standard, chronological 'life story' - with the effect that a number of the quotations and anecdotes used initially appear unstructured, detached from their more natural place within the book. Given that the majority of the more 'controversial' quotes are featured in this first, anomalous section, one wonders the extent to which populist-minded editing is at play. Michael Howard only had to read the first chapter.
Moreover, Pollard has opted to include a bizarre prologue, talking the reader through Blunkett's reaction to '9/11'. This would be all very well were those infamous attacks later deemed a unique turning point in the outlook of his subject, but instead the author demonstrates well a surprising degree of consistency throughout Blunkett's career - never wavering from a desire aggressively to defend the interests of those he deemed society's most vulnerable. The biography would be no poorer without this melodramatic introduction.
Yet frustrations such as these aside (along with the risible reference to Blunkett's "deafness" (sic) at one stage), this biography certainly makes a fascinating read - and not just for purposes of schadenfreude. It would be difficult to select a politician who had experienced a less 'standard' rise to power (at the time, Blunkett was the only youth on his Sheffield estate ever known to have secured a university place), and the tales of his time spent heading the Education and Home Office departments underline just how phenomenal are the barriers he has overcome in life: at one point, for instance, Blunkett successfully absorbed a 300-hour tape recording of the Treasury's report on British membership of the Euro.
Pollard has few original sources relating to the early years of his subject's life, drawing heavily from Blunkett's own autobiography, On a Clear Day, to tell of his experiences when forced into a special boarding school aged just four. Nonetheless, the descriptions are at times chilling, demonstrating again the more sentimental side to this politician's character (as exposed to the public last December, when his career lay in tatters): "The anguish I felt was heart-wrenching as I stood bewildered, fighting back the tears, in the assembly hall of Manchester Road School for the Blind."
Unusually for the genre, the author has made an active decision to use direct quotation, rather than narrative professing to 'know' Blunkett's innermost feelings. It is a style that has been criticised by some - such as Peter Riddell - for straying too close to the 'As told to...', footballer's biography. Yet the simple fact that so much of the information contained within this book has been gleaned from Blunkett himself, either through original interviews or from On a Clear Day, ensures that the approach at least softens potential allegations that Pollard has written a hagiography: the reader is left to judge independently whether policies such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders were genuinely intended to enable "progressive politics" to
"flourish". Indeed, Pollard is at his weakest when he fails to back up the countless assertions made regarding Blunkett's actions during the Fortier affair: to be told simply that "Blunkett had not wanted to resort to legal action", after 300 pages of carefully supported claims, contributes further to the impression that this addition to the work was hurried.
In terms of political content, the book delves in much detail into Blunkett's ascent through the Labour Party, with a hefty chapter devoted to his time on the NEC in the 1980s; only in the final hundred pages are the years after 1997 addressed. The internal divides that plagued the party during Thatcher's time in government are expounded upon with clarity, Blunkett presented as epitomising the 'soft left' sector of Labour - constantly at the throat of the social democratic Roy Hattersley, but equally prepared to compromise when the political climate rendered more extreme socialist measures unfeasible. It is this flexibility, Pollard argues, that enabled him to become a Home Secretary so apparently authoritarian in outlook - for Blunkett, being 'tough on terror' was a necessary evil rather than a central philosophy, if his biographer is to be believed.
Yet one is left with the impression - sadly not hinted at by Pollard - that this unique politician is a man exceptionally talented at finding problems, but far less gifted when advocating solutions. When leader of Sheffield Council, for instance, his local economic strategy saw unemployment in the city double, over the course of his tenure.
None of which detracts, though, from the fact that David Blukett has overcome the types of barriers in life that would leave others wallowing in self-pity. It is testament to just how well he overcame them that he could have been so reviled in office.
13th Jan 2005