Blair is critical of ‘vacuous’ Brown

By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 3: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has severely criticised his successor Gordon Brown’s performance as Prime Minister, according to a newspaper report.

A secret memo, which was written by Mr Blair in the aftermath of the Labour party conference in 2007, was obtained by the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

In the memo, Mr Blair said Mr Brown’s performance as Prime Minister was "lamentable" and "vacuous."

"There is every indication that the lessons will not be learnt," Mr Blair has written in the memo quoted by the newspaper. "There has been a lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy."

Tony Blair accused Mr Brown of making a "fatal" mistake by repudiating his record in the Labour party’s first decade in power.

Mr Blair, in his memo, claimed that Conservative party leader David Cameron was "in trouble" before he quit in June 2007, but Mr Brown’s "lamentable" strategy has allowed the Tories to surge ahead.

In the memo, Mr Blair has referred to himself in the third person as "TB."

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‘Scientist poisoned people’

Frederick, Maryland, Aug. 3: Bruce E. Ivins, the late microbiologist suspected in the 2001 anthrax attacks, had attempted to poison people and his therapist said she was "scared to death" of him, according to court testimony that has emerged.

Social worker Jean Duley testified at a court hearing in Frederick, Maryland, on July 24 in a bid for a protective order from Ivins who five days later committed suicide, that he "actually attempted to murder several other people". Ivins took a fatal dose of the active drug in Tylenol as authorities prepared to charge him.

—AP