{"title":"David Blunkett","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the insightful works of David Blunkett, offering unique perspectives on British politics, society, and personal resilience. Discover memoirs and analyses shaped by a distinguished career in public service.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"blunkett-tapes-book-david-blunkett-9780747588214","title":"The Blunkett Tapes","description":"Born into a working-class family in Sheffield, David Blunkett ascended to one of the highest political positions in the country. But his remarkable rise was anything but smooth. The Blunkett Tapes is an intimate diary of his past nine years at the centre of power, unprecedented in its candour and rueful humanity. His story is all the more remarkable for the gritty tenacity that he has demonstrated throughout his life, dealing daily with the challenges of working without sight. With vivid immediacy and characteristic bluntness, David Blunkett chronicles the inside story of New Labour as it has occupied the corridors of power, and as he progressed from Education and Employment Secretary to Home Secretary, eventually finishing his front-bench career as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Never before has David Blunkett written about his relationships with key Cabinet colleagues in the hurly-burly of day-to-day politics, the challenge of developing policy and bringing about lasting change. Woven into the diary entries are Blunkett's personal reflections, as unflinchingly frank as they are incisive. Rarely does a politician so willingly admit where he went wrong, what he should have done better, and the unforeseen twists which affected his professional and private life. From the blistering confidence of New Labour's early days as they burst jubilantly on to the scene in 1997, through the troubled years that led to his two resignations, The Blunkett Tapes is the compulsively readable journey of one of the most fascinating politicians of our time.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49546893000977,"sku":"GOR003437781","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547165663505,"sku":"GOR011064321","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49649208590609,"sku":"GOR003048211","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53072087384337,"sku":"GOR003837132","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/074758821X.jpg?v=1751431063"},{"product_id":"politics-and-progress-book-david-blunkett-9781842750247","title":"Politics and Progress","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562225541393,"sku":"GOR004335988","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49647887450385,"sku":"GOR004568064","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1842750240.jpg?v=1750724666"},{"product_id":"david-blunkett-book-david-blunkett-9781843170075","title":"David Blunkett","description":"This extraordinary autobiography includes new chapters and has been updated since it was first released in 1995. This is by no means a conventional 'political' autobiography, but rather an inspiring, and often hilarious account of a man overcoming disability and beating the system - with the help of a dog. David Blunkett was born blind, which makes his struggle to the top - he is now the Home Secretary - all the more remarkable. At the Manchester Road School for the Blind he began learning braille and at sixteen joined the Labour Party, then Sheffield University beckoned. David chose to train with a guide dog, and Ruby, his golden labrador, was allowed to sit by him in the Commons, as were her successors, Offa and Lucy. Being an MP meant that the author could start to bring about the changes he hoped to effect. David Blunkett talks candidly about the good times and the bad.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49569364508945,"sku":"GOR000598549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49666739634449,"sku":"GOR003397196","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1843170078.jpg?v=1751411367"},{"product_id":"blunkett-tapes-book-david-blunkett-9780747589310","title":"The Blunkett Tapes","description":"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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571530408209,"sku":"GOR001959143","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0747589313.jpg?v=1750784960"},{"product_id":"on-a-clear-day-book-david-blunkett-9781854796844","title":"On a Clear Day","description":"David Blunkett was born in 1947 in the slums near Sheffield Wednesday football ground. Currently a member of the Shadow Cabinet and born blind, David Blunkett's struggle to the top has been one of determination. The optic nerve behind each eyeball had failed to develop owing to the incompatibility of his parents' genes - a one in a million chance. It was only when Blunkett went to university that he decided to take a guide dog. Ruby was the first of four retrievers to help him with the \"inconvenience\" of his blindness, and subsequently became the first dog allowed in the Palace of Westminster. When the House began to be televized, it was his guide dog, Offa, who won over the British public. Now Lucy, a black retriever, sits by him in the House of Commons and travels back to his constituency in Sheffield. This book is an account of beating the system by a man and his dog.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49641801187601,"sku":"GOR001913209","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49645630947601,"sku":"GOR003811777","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53064992555281,"sku":"GOR004120633","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1854796844.jpg?v=1751217902"},{"product_id":"democracy-in-crisis-the-town-halls-respond-book-david-blunkett-9780701207779","title":"Democracy in Crisis: The Town Halls Respond","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49646602649873,"sku":"GOR003666682","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50299268759825,"sku":"GOR008632852","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53439074631953,"sku":"GOR004597747","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0701207779.jpg?v=1751360550"},{"product_id":"on-a-clear-day-book-david-blunkett-9781854797414","title":"On a Clear Day","description":"David Blunkett was born in 1947 in the slums near Sheffield Wednesday football ground. 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