'I was sure God would want peace'
Tony Blair advised Ian Paisley to "let God guide him" in the final stages of the Northern Ireland peace negotiations which led to the historic power-sharing agreement between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin in 2007.
As prime minister, Blair was wary of talking about his Christian faith on the advice of Alastair Campbell, who famously said: "We don't do God."
But in his chapter on Northern Ireland Blair writes that he held long discussions about faith with Paisley, who co-founded the DUP and led it until 2008.
Blair writes that his meetings with Paisley in his Downing Street "den" dealt with Northern Ireland "at a spiritual rather than a temporal level". At one point Paisley gave him a prayer book for his youngest child, Leo. Of one such meeting, he writes: "Once, near the end, he asked me whether I thought God wanted him to make the deal that would seal the peace process. I wanted to say yes, but I hesitated; though I was sure God would want peace, God is not a negotiator. I felt it would be wrong, manipulative, to say yes, and so I couldn't answer that question, that only he could and I hoped he would let God guide him."
Blair also writes of strong relationships with Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, even admitting he developed a soft spot for them. "They were an extraordinary couple," he said of the two men, who have been at the highest levels of republican movement since the early 1970s. "Over time I came to like both greatly, probably more than I should have, if truth be told … They were supreme masters of the distinction between tactics and strategy. They knew the destination and they were determined to bring their followers with them, or at least the vast bulk of them."
A large part of the British intelligence community believes there is no distinction between the leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA, Blair writes. But he says the relationship was more complex in a telling analogy: "I came to the view that the SF/IRA relationship was a bit like that of the Labour leadership and the Labour party NEC [national executive committee]: yes the leadership is powerful, yes it usually gets its way, but not always and rarely without a lot of persuasion and negotiation."
'Except on law and order, I'm by instinct a liberal'
The giants of liberal thinking are praised by Tony Blair. He offers support for their philosophy in every area but one.
"Except on law and order I am by instinct a liberal," he writes, praising Lloyd George, Keynes, Beveridge and Roy Jenkins. He says his liberalism explains why New Labour redefined the role of the state to give individuals greater control over their lives. "It seemed inconceivable to me that any modern idea of the state could be other than as an enabler," he writes.
But, drawing the line at law and order, he strongly defends his "respect" agenda and plans for identity cards. He even comes close to understanding the way in which the IRA kneecapped drug dealers and beat up rapists. "I could tell that for the first time he might warm to republicans," Blair writes of a constituent's reaction when he outlined the IRA's approach to dealing with antisocial behaviour.
The former prime minister says it was important to introduce special laws to deal with antisocial behaviour because the individual crimes were too small to warrant major police effort. But he says people "reasonably" objected to the new laws because "they did involve short-cutting traditional procedures".
Blair dismisses objections to ID cards on civil liberties grounds as "absurd". The cards were necessary; they would help deal with illegal immigration and aid transactions that were the "warp and woof" of life. "I could envisage that it might take time. The civil liberties argument I thought a little absurd – many well-functioning democracies have identity cards and the information stored [on them] is less than most supermarkets have."
'We said, forget structures. That was bunkum'
New Labour's approach to reforming Britain's public services was "bunkum" in its early stages in government, according to Tony Blair.
In a searing description of mistakes made in the early years, the former prime minister writes that his government lost ground by believing initially the key was "standards not structures".
He refers to the early approach to education, which focused on raising standards in literacy and numeracy. In later years, Labour did focus on structures – such as setting up academy schools – as the best way of raising standards.
Blair writes of his earlier approach: "We were saying, forget about complex, institutional structural reforms; what counts is what works, and by that we meant outputs.
"This was fine as a piece of rhetoric; and positively beneficial as a piece of politics. Unfortunately, as I began to realise when experience started to shape our thinking, it was a bunkum as a piece of policy. The whole point is that structures beget standards. How service is configured affects outcomes."
One of the greatest battles was over tuition fees. "It aroused unbelievably tenacious dissent," he says of the fees, which he accepted after it became clear British universities were losing out to those in the US. "Those who paid top dollar got the best," he writes. "Simple as that."
