The Blunkett Tapes

Originally recorded onto tape and now transcribed into a full narrative, with the addition of David Blunkett's contemporary reflections on the political events of the past nine years, The Blunkett Tapes are a rigorously honest self-portrait as well as an astonishingly cogent and intimate insight into New Labour's years in power, the personalities, the triumphs and the debates. Not only are they an unprecedented and immediate record of life in government with all its excitement and frustrations, they are a testimony to the extraordinary achievements of a man born into a working-class Sheffield family who though blind reached one of the highest political offices in the country. David Blunkett is fascinating about the consequences of his disability and the steps he took to compensate for it, as he made his way through arguably the most people-sensitive business in the world. The book will be as unsparing in its depiction of the events of the last year as it will be about the making of policy and the daily grind of putting it into practice from 1997 to the present day. The Blunkett Tapes reveal a man and a politician passionate about making life better for people.