Stories from Tony Blair’s inner circle and an inner city comprehensive inspire Gerald Isaaman while below and right we reproduce some excerpts from the book

Tony Blair is blazing the campaign trail, zo omi ng around the country in a red helicopter signing six pledges in six different places, declaring with that inimitable grin that he doesn’t know the date of the next election, putting his opponents and the media on the back foot.
It’s classic New Labour, love or hate it, trust or abhor it, but it stems from that first time in 1997 when Blair and company, determined to wipe out the stain of Neil Kinnock’s shock 1992 defeat, were insistent that only integral change could put the antiquated Labour Party into power. How marvellously he succeeded – thanks, in part, to Peter Hyman, the Labour Party researcher who came from nowhere and did, in fact, produce the idea of that first pledge card of promises on which Labour did deliver, and which the country accepted, putting Blair into power now as the longest serving Labour premier. But come May 5 or whenever, Hyman will not be helping Labour triumph for a third time. He has given up his powerful communications strategy post at Number 10 and gone back to basics.