Blair's autobio

I'm wondering when the penny is going to drop for British politicians, press and people that Blair was the first British prime minister for whom Number 10 Downing Street was never more than a stepping stone to greater things. James Kirkup's piece in today's Telegraph identifies the dots, but shrinks from joining them up.  

Often, [Blair's autobio] reads like a management school textbook written by an evangelical preacher. Or perhaps a modern history lecturer who’s read too many self-help books.

Or, a book written by someone with his eye firmly set on the US market, where bookshop shelves groan under the weight of self-help books (alien to modern British culture) and where Christianity is still a living force.

It’s written for an international (or at least, non-British) reader. Lots of fairly basic features of British political life are explained as if to someone unfamiliar with them. Most British political books are aimed squarely at Westminster and the UK electorate. I’m guessing Mr Blair is thinking of a rather larger stage.

Good guess! Now then, develop that thought - d'you suppose he was thinking of a larger stage all along?

Then there's the exclusive he gave the newspaper he bribed so heavily while in office:

Speaking to the Guardian before he left for White House talks on the Middle East peace process, Blair said that his 700-page memoir showed New Labour would in time come to be seen as a "great reforming government" in which Brown played a very significant positive part. But his book reveals numerous occasions on which the struggle between the two New Labour titans sapped the strength and direction of the government, leading Blair to delay his handover to his chancellor.

Titans? Only in Lilliput.