
Geldof's threat to quit Blair's Africa Commission
But official papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, show he was outraged when – after just one meeting – the commissioners were sent a document setting its 'emerging conclusions'.
In an angry letter to the commission's director of policy, the economist Sir Nick Stern, dated August 9 2004, he said it was impossible to have come to any conclusions it such a short period of time.
The former rock star warned that he was not prepared to serve on a body which was simply there to push 'pre-determined government policy'.
'To be clear, policy must be determined by the commission independently sitting and independently deliberating and concluding of its own volition. This distinction is vital. If I have got this wrong please inform me so I may tender my resignation,' he wrote.
'More broadly, the whole notion of emerging solutions is laughable. If the solution to the misery of Africa can be 'concluded' within a mere six week time span, it is a truly remarkable feat.
'How blind we must all have been these past years. The fact is that there are not and cannot as yet be any emerging conclusions.
'The commission will lose all credibility if it is not clearly seen to be an independent entity. If it seems to advance pre-determined government policy it will be correctly viewed as a laughable grotesque.'
Bob Geldof with Bono and Tony Blair in Downing Street (PA)
Geldof went on to complain that the involvement of some of the commissioners – including some of those from Africa – appeared to have been 'minimal'.
'Is it not the secretariat's function, on behalf of the chair, to ensure that this is not the case? Or is this all some farcical political game played out at the expense of the wretchedly poor? If so, I ain't playing.'
Sir Nicholas wrote back hurriedly to assure him the that the document was not an attempt pre-empt the commission's findings, and that the input from British politicians had been 'comparatively minor'.
'Far from being an attempt to rush conclusions the paper is intended to to be a tool to help promote discussion and ensure a real interchange between commissioners at the second meeting in October,' he wrote.
'I would be very keen to sit down and discuss these questions with you; perhaps we could meet for a drink as soon as we are both around?'
Geldof's reply is not recorded in the files, but he was sufficiently placated to carry on.
After the Gleneagles summit the following year agreed to double aid to Africa and extend debt relief, he hailed it as 'mission accomplished'.

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Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Glenrothes is living proof why UK needs a second Clement Attlee in charge
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... On the back of its landslide victory at the 1945 general election, Clement Attlee's Labour government decided that a better Britain should be built. A high-point of this vision was the 35 new towns built across the UK, with five in Scotland: Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Irvine and Livingston. Their role was to give working-class families decent homes, fresh air away from polluted industrial cities, modern schools and easy access to leisure and culture in places that separated industry and busy roads from where people lived. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The British state financed, planned, built and ran the towns. Everything was developed from scratch on what had been green fields. Until the mid-90s, when their management transferred to local authorities, all this was done by unelected development corporations. This was moderate, gradualist, altruistic social democracy writ large. Children play in Glenrothes, one of five new towns created in Scotland by an Act of Parliament in 1946 (Picture: Keystone Features) | Getty Images A modern mining town I was once the London representative of the Scottish new towns. Since then, I've had a lingering affection for them. I opted for a visit to Glenrothes, a town born in 1947. Glenrothes' genesis was the Rothes Colliery 'super pit'. Opened in 1948, it was forecast to produce coal for many decades. Glenrothes was to be a modern mining town. Geological problems closed the pit in 1962. 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Baker was scathing in his response. 'Reform's proposals are reckless in the extreme. Their idiot plan would be devastating for Scotland, for consumers, for industry and for energy security. It would lead to lost jobs, higher prices and businesses collapsing.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Paternalistic social engineering? Glenrothes has its poverty and deprivation and its fair share of often struggling immigrants and disaffected young people. However, it felt livelier and a bit more self-confident than other towns of similar size I've visited on my tour. Critics of the post-war new towns accused them of social engineering, a paternalistic state telling the working classes how to live, while giving their early inhabitants no democratic say in the priorities of the towns. Some British new towns are far from socially or economically successful. Glenrothes, I think, is not among them. 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New Statesman
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Tory modernisation has failed
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New Statesman
2 hours ago
- New Statesman
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In the eurozone, France is in obvious trouble. But there is a particular focus on Britain, and not just because of Liz Truss and not just for technical reasons. After the U-turn on welfare cuts, the markets are asking whether this Labour government is really in control. Will it be forced to come back for substantial new borrowing? These are the big questions ahead of the Autumn Budget. They go a long way towards explaining the removal of the whip from rebels. If Starmer and Reeves are really committed, as the Prime Minister says, to lifting the two-child cap, there would have to be major spending cuts elsewhere, or tax rises, to compensate. In all this, Wes Streeting's fight with the resident doctors has become the political front line. It's lucky that he is the best political explainer, by far, the government has. Reeves has possible tweaks to make which could bring her up to £15bn extra and is doubtless looking at other moves: a banking levy and a gambling tax. 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He intends to build on the spending review to chart a more optimistic year ahead, with waiting lists down, houses going up, and trade deals bringing better jobs, with a distinct community-first tone. The danger is that it sounds insufficiently confrontational, just when the markets are watching most closely. Downing Street is not complacent: one source talks of the difficulty of governing with an enfeebled state, one that is 'fat, not fit', a machine that seems 'too weak to lift a bin in Birmingham; to pick up the phone in a GP's office; to stop sewage flowing into rivers'. This inheritance will take time to turn around. In the short term, there needs to be an urgent challenge to the party about its priorities, as well as self-congratulation about the things that have gone well. The Labour Growth Group's call for a 'National Renewal Compact', recently published online by the New Statesman, is a sign of the serious thinking about Britain's challenges being done on the back benches. Mark McVitie, Lola McEvoy and Chris Curtis argue that Britain is facing a 'revolutionary moment'. The language is stark. Inside government, there is no longer an assumption that both Starmer and Reeves will survive. Angela Rayner, while the most obvious successor, is said not to want the top job for personal reasons. She is regarded as loyal to Starmer. Others doubt this. 'She always gives the impression of someone who does want the top job; she is very important, very political,' says another minister. If, to use Boris Johnson's phrase, the ball came loose from the scrum, we would probably see some kind of alliance between Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson and perhaps Shabana Mahmood – Mahmood representing the most right-of-centre, state-sceptical part of the party. The only other name being mentioned is John Healey, the Defence Secretary, seen as the safest hands in the administration, and a man who could Callaghan-style calm markets and backbenches alike. So, finally, we return to this oddest of prime ministers. His disdain for ordinary politics, his lack of real conversation with colleagues, and his arm's-length relationship with a commentariat are also a kind of strength which we have not perhaps taken seriously enough. He has the hide of a rhinoceros. Starmer doesn't, to switch jungle metaphors, give a monkey's about most of the criticism. He can listen – and he is refreshing Downing Street, importing badly needed experience of governing. Pat McFadden is likely to be given, I'm told, an enhanced political role at the centre. The former Blair-era spinner Tim Allan has been approached as communications supremo. The fundamental question, however, is about the real state of the country. Plenty of ministers believe we are on the edge of something pretty grim. As the summer stretches on, there is a general sense that the state is losing control of the streets – and Nigel Farage is watching, with one nicotine-tinted finger on the national pulse. The Prime Minister does not think the country is broken, and from the City to the universities, from science to new technology, there is plenty to celebrate. Calm and resilience are great political strengths. But we are living through a social and economic Dunkirk. Business as usual won't cut it. [See also: Kemi Badenoch isn't working] Related