William Rees-Mogg was Editor of The Times from 1967-81 and was made a life peer in 1988. He writes weekly for The Times en-uk Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:37:29 GMT Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd. custserv@timesonline.co.uk http://www.timesonline.co.uk Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:22:50 GMT Newspapers 144 21 http://www.timesonline.co.uk http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,116979,00.gif William Rees-Mogg Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-02-07T09:32:08Z I can remember when “modern” people in the 1930s were still saying things like “We’re living in the 20th century now, you know,” as a justification for some folly such as pulling down their Victorian town hall. I learnt at an early age that people who use such arguments have no sense of history. When in the year 2000 people started telling me that we were in a new millennium now, I realised how old-fashioned modernism is. William Rees-Mogg Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-31T07:44:01Z We have been told by Sir John Chilcot himself that the Chilcot inquiry is not a trial, and that nobody will be either acquitted or found guilty; we all know that is not true. A public judgment is being made as each section of evidence is given. In particular a quiet judgment has been made of Tony Blair’s conduct. It may never lead to his being tried in any court, but there is nevertheless a public verdict of his responsibility for the British action in Iraq. Notebook: William Rees-Mogg Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-02-01T12:08:14Z I was one of the first English journalists to report the strength of Ronald Reagan in the presidential primaries of 1980; I was also one of the first to forecast that Barack Obama would defeat Hillary Clinton in the primaries and go on to win the presidency. In both cases, I based my judgment on the strength of the relationship between the candidate and the party rank and file; the close leadership relationship is the road to power. William Rees-Mogg Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-02-01T12:08:20Z The Blair-Brown administrations have had 13 years of personal in-fighting. I recall a conversation with a senior civil servant in 1997, shortly after Labour came to power. He said that he did not know how Labour would work out “because they hate each other so much”. We then had ten years of Tony Blair’s sofa Government, in which the Prime Minister governed with the advice and support of his cronies, of whom Alastair Campbell was the most powerful.