Jon Davis and John Rentoul jointly teach a course on the Blair government at King's College London, which began at Queen Mary University of London in 2008.

Dr Jon Davis is Director of The Strand Group at The Policy Institute, King's College London, and author of Prime Ministers and Whitehall (2007). He is the lecturer and coordinator of several other teaching modules including 'The History of the Prime Minister since 1945--in partnership with No. 10 Downing St', and 'The Treasury and an Introduction to Economic History--in partnership with HM Treasury'. He worked as an investment banker before turning to an academic career, and also spent a year in the Cabinet Office's Modernising Government Secretariat.

John Rentoul is Chief Political Commentator for The Independent, Visiting Professor at King's College London, and the author of an acclaimed biography of Tony Blair. He has worked previously as a political reporter at The Independent, the BBC, and the New Statesman. Together with his co-author Jon Davis, he ran the Blair Government course at Queen Mary, from 2008 to 2011, in which many of the leading figures of the Blair administration participated, including the former prime minister himself.

• Prologue


• Introduction


• 1: The Blair-Brown Coalition


• 2: Sofa


• 3: Spin, Spads, and Sir Humphreys


• 4: The Treasury: The Brown-Balls Partnership


• 5: The Iraq War


• Conclusion


• Notes


• Index