Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born
6 May 1953) is the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
First Lord of the Treasury,
Privy Counsellor,
Minister for the UK Civil Service and
Member of the UK Parliament for the constituency of
Sedgefield in
North-East England.
Blair became leader of the British
Labour Party in July 1994 following the sudden death of his predecessor,
John Smith. Under his leadership, the party won a
landslide victory in the
1997 general election on
1 May, ending 18 years of government by the UK's centre-right
Conservative Party. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving
Prime Minister, and the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories. He was the youngest person to attain the office of Prime Minister since
Lord Liverpool in 1812.
[Biography: The Prime Minister Tony Charles Lynton Blair, 10 Downing Street. Retrieved 15 May 2006.]Together with
Gordon Brown and
Peter Mandelson, Blair is credited with moving the Labour Party towards the
centre of British politics, using the term "
New Labour" to distinguish his pro-
market policies from the more
collectivist policies which the party had espoused in the past. This change is comparable to the centrist reforms in the
American Democratic Party associated with
Bill Clinton and the
New Democrats, though with less of a socially
conservative element, in tandem with the cultural differences between British and American society. Blair has described his political philosophy as "modern
social democracy" and "
the third way".
Blair has strongly supported a number of aspects of US foreign policy, notably by participating in the invasions of
Afghanistan in 2001 and
Iraq in 2003. He has encountered fierce criticism from many on the political left as a result, and the circumstances in which he took Britain to war in Iraq have caused many to perceive him, rightly or wrongly, as dishonest.
In October 2004, Blair stated that he would not serve a fourth term as Prime Minister. This has led to speculation as to how long his leadership would continue; the next general election has to be held by
3 June 2010. On
14 May 2006, the
Independent on Sunday reported that Blair had privately assured ministers that he would step down in the summer of 2007
[Francis Elliott (14 May 2006). I'll step down next summer, Blair tells cabinet ministers. The Independent. Accessed on 19 May 2006.]. It is widely predicted that he will be succeeded by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
Blair was born in
Edinburgh,
Scotland, the second son of
Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden). He has one elder brother,
William Blair, who is a
barrister and a
QC. Blair spent his early childhood in
Adelaide,
Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law at the
University of Adelaide.
["Tony's big adventure", The Observer, 27 April 2003.] The Blairs lived close to the university, in the suburb of
Dulwich.
Blair spent the remainder of his childhood in
Durham, England, his father being by then a lecturer at
Durham University. After attending Durham's
Chorister School, Blair boarded at
Fettes College, a prestigious private school in Edinburgh, where he met
Charlie Falconer, whom he later appointed
Lord Chancellor. Blair reportedly modelled himself on
Mick Jagger, and is said to have enjoyed a reputation as a conspicuously "
cool" young man among his fellow pupils. His teachers, however, were less impressed by his behaviour: his biographer John Rentoul reported that "All the teachers I spoke to ... said he was a complete pain in the backside, and they were very glad to see the back of him."
After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find success as a rock music promoter, before going up to
Oxford University to
read law at
St John's College. As a student, he played
guitar and sang for a
rock band called
Ugly Rumours. During this time, he dated future
American Psycho director
Mary Harron.
[Mary Harron biography] After graduating from Oxford with a
second class degree, Blair enrolled as a pupil barrister and met his future wife,
Cherie Booth, at the
Chambers founded by
Derry Irvine, who was to be his first Lord Chancellor. His biographer Rentoul records that, according to his lawyer friends, Blair voiced much less concern regarding party affiliation than to his aim of becoming Prime Minister.
Blair married Booth, a practising
Roman Catholic and future
Queen's Counsel, on
29 March 1980. They have three sons (
Euan,
Nicky, and
Leo) and one daughter (
Kathryn). Leo (born
20 May 2000) was the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years, since Francis Russell was born to
Lord John Russell on
11 July 1849.
Although the Blairs stated that they wished to shield their children from the media, Euan and Nicky's education was a cause of political controversy. They both attended the Catholic
London Oratory School, which had been criticised by left-wingers for the perceived elitism of its selection procedures. The Blairs chose this school in preference to a Catholic school in Labour-controlled
Islington, where they then lived. There was further criticism when it was revealed that Euan received private coaching from staff of the fee-paying
Westminster School.
|
Front of Tony Blair's election address for Sedgefield in the 1983 general election |
Blair joined the
Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. During the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in
Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "
soft left" who appeared to be taking control of the party. He unsuccessfully attempted to secure selection as a candidate for
Hackney Borough Council. Through his father-in-law, the actor
Tony Booth, he contacted Labour MP
Tom Pendry to ask for help in pursuing a Parliamentary career. Pendry gave him a tour of the House of Commons and advised him to stand for selection as a candidate in the forthcoming
by-election in the safe
Conservative seat of
Beaconsfield, where Pendry knew a senior member of the local party. Blair was chosen as the candidate; he won only 10% of the vote and lost his deposit, and the seat was retained comfortably by the Tories, but he impressed the then Labour Party leader
Michael Foot and acquired a profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair described himself in this period as a
Socialist. A letter that he wrote to Foot in July 1982, eventually published in June 2006,
["The full text of Tony Blair's letter to Michael Foot written in July 1982", The Daily Telegraph, June 16, 2006]) gives an indication of his outlook at this time.
In 1983, Blair found that the newly created constituency of
Sedgefield, near where he had grown up in
Durham, had no Labour candidate. Several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in securing selection to fight the seat. He found a branch that had not made a nomination and arranged to visit them. With the crucial support of John Burton, he won their endorsement; at the last minute he was added to the shortlist and won the selection over displaced sitting MP
Les Huckfield. Burton later became his agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies.
Blair's election literature in the
1983 UK general election endorsed the distinctly left-wing policies that the Labour Party advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the
EEC, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also, more enthusiastically, supported unilateral nuclear disarmament, being a member of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at the time. Sedgefield was a safe Labour seat, and Blair was returned as its MP despite the party's very poor showing nationally. Blair was helped on the campaign trail by
soap actress
Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend.
Blair stated in his maiden speech in the House of Commons on
6 July 1983: "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality".
[ROLE PROFILE OF TONY BLAIR Is this reference of any merit?] [America's Friend: Reflections on Tony Blair LOGOS 3.4, Mark Seddon, Fall 2004]. The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a
democratic socialist party
[About the Labour Party, The Labour Party, 02/06 2006], rather than a
social democratic party - Blair himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a socialist party when he dealt with the change to the party's
Clause IV in their constitution.
Once elected, Blair's ascent was rapid, and he received his first shadow position in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. He demanded an inquiry into the
Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsed
Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985, and embarrassed the government by finding a
European Economic Community report critical of British economic policy that had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government. Blair was firmly aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party, headed by leader
Neil Kinnock, and was promoted after the
1987 election to the Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the
City of London. In 1987, he stood for election to the
Shadow Cabinet, obtaining 77 votes - a good showing for a newcomer.
|
As Shadow Employment Secretary, Blair announces that the Labour Party no longer supports the 'closed shop' (18 December 1989) |
After the stock market crash of October 1987, Blair raised his profile further when he castigated City traders as incompetent and "morally dubious". He showed his modernising tendencies by protesting against the third-class service for small investors at the
London Stock Exchange. In 1988, Blair entered the
Shadow Cabinet as
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy, and the following year he became Shadow Employment Secretary. In this post, he realised that the Labour Party's support for the emerging European "Social Charter" policies on employment law meant dropping the party's traditional support for
closed shop arrangements, whereby employers required all their employees to be members of a trade union. He announced this change in December 1989, outraging the left wing of the Labour Party but making it more difficult for the Conservatives to attack. As a young and telegenic Shadow Cabinet member, Blair was given prominence by the party's Director of Communications,
Peter Mandelson. His first major platform speech, at the 1990 Labour Party conference, was a major embarrassment, however: he spoke too fast and lost his place in his notes.
In the run-up to the
1992 general election, Blair worked to make Labour more moderate and electable. He had responsibility for developing the
minimum wage policy that was expected to be strongly attacked by the Conservatives, and during the election campaign he had a notable confrontation with the owner of a children's nursery who insisted that the policy would cost jobs.
When Neil Kinnock resigned as party leader after losing the election, Blair became
Shadow Home Secretary under new leader
John Smith. The Labour Party was widely perceived as weak on law and order, and Blair attempted to change this perception. He accepted that the prison population might have to rise, and bemoaned the loss of a sense of community, which he was prepared to blame (at least partly) on "1960s liberalism". On the other hand, he spoke in support of equalising the
age of consent for
gay sex at 16, and opposed
capital punishment. He defined his policy, in a phrase coined by
Gordon Brown, as "
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".
John Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a
heart attack. Blair was elected party leader in his place on
21 July 1994, the other candidates being
John Prescott and
Margaret Beckett. After becoming
Leader of the Opposition, Blair was, as is customary for the holder of that office, appointed a
Privy Counsellor, which permitted him to be
addressed with the style "
The Right Honourable".
Leader of the Labour Party
Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference that he intended to replace
Clause IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's commitment (which had not been taken seriously for many years) to 'the common ownership of the means of production and exchange', which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale
nationalisation. A special conference approved this practically insignificant but highly symbolic change in March 1995.
Blair also revised party policy in a manner that enhanced the image of Labour as competent and modern. He used the term "New Labour" to distinguish the party under his leadership from what had gone before. Although the transformation aroused much criticism (its alleged superficiality drawing fire both from political opponents and traditionalists within the "rank and file" of his own party), it was nevertheless successful in changing public perception. At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education and education".
Aided by profound dissatisfaction with the Conservative government, which had come to be regarded as economically incompetent, corrupt and deeply divided over the
European Union, "New Labour" achieved a landslide victory in the
1997 general election.
Independence for the Bank of England
Immediately after taking office,
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown gave the
Bank of England the power to set the UK base rate of interest autonomously. This decision was popular with the British financial establishment in
the City, which the Labour Party had been courting since the early 1990s. Together with the Government's decision to remain within projected Conservative spending limits for its first two years in office, it helped to reassure sceptics of the Labour Party's fiscal "prudence".
Domestic politics
In the early years of his first term, Blair relied for his political advice on a close circle of his staff, among whom his press secretary and official spokesman
Alastair Campbell was seen as particularly influential. Campbell was permitted to give orders to
civil servants, who had previously taken instructions only from
ministers. Unlike some of his predecessors, Campbell was a political appointee and had not come up through the
Civil Service. Despite his overtly political role, he was paid from public funds as a civil servant. His appointment was one of a number of New Labour appointments which gave rise to fears that the traditional political neutrality of the civil service was being eroded.
A significant achievement of Blair's first term was the signing, on
10 April 1998, of the
Belfast Agreement, generally known as the Good Friday Agreement. Negotiations aimed at bringing peace to Northern Ireland had begun under the previous Prime Minister,
John Major, but had collapsed after the end of the first
IRA ceasefire in the mid-1990s. In the Good Friday Agreement, most Northern Irish political parties, together with the British and Irish Governments, agreed upon an "exclusively peaceful and democratic" framework for the governance of Northern Ireland and a new set of political institutions for the province.
Blair's first term saw an extensive programme of constitutional change. A
Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998; a
Scottish Parliament and a
Welsh Assembly were set up; most hereditary
peers were removed from the
House of Lords in 1999; the
Greater London Authority and the post of
Mayor of London were established in 2000; and the
Freedom of Information Act was passed later in the same year, with its provisions coming into effect over the following decade. This last Act disappointed campaigners, whose hopes had been raised by a 1998
White Paper which had promised more robust legislation. No significant progress has been made in reforming the House of Lords since 1999: whether the reformed chamber should be fully elected, fully appointed, or part-elected and part-appointed remains a disputed question. An attempt to resolve the question in 2003 foundered after a series of inconclusive votes in the House of Commons, with Blair being blamed by some for bringing about the deadlock.
Blair has supported
gay rights more then any previous British Prime Minister. During his first term, the age of consent was equalized at 16 and the ban on gays in the armed forces was lifted. Subsequently, in 2005, a Civil Partnership Act came into effect, allowing gay couples to form legally recognised partnerships.
Foreign policy
In 1999, Blair planned and presided over the declaration of the
Kosovo War. While in opposition, the Labour Party had criticised the Conservatives for their perceived weakness during the
Bosnian war, and Blair was among those urging a strong line by
NATO against
Slobodan Milošević. Blair was criticised both by those on the Left who opposed the war in principle and by some others who believed that the Serbs were fighting a legitimate war of self-defence. One month into the war, on
22 April 1999, Blair made a speech in Chicago setting out his "Doctrine of the International Community".
[The Blair Doctrine PBS Online News Hour, April 22, 1999].
Also in 1999, Blair was awarded the
Charlemagne Award by the German city of
Aachen for his contributions to the European ideal and to peace in Europe.
In the
2001 general election campaign, Blair emphasised the theme of improving public services, notably the
National Health Service and the State education system. The Conservatives concentrated on opposing British membership of
the Euro, which did little to win over
floating voters. The Labour Party largely preserved its majority, and Blair became the first Labour Prime Minister to win a full second term. However, the election was notable for a large fall in voter turnout.
Following the
11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, Blair was very quick to align the UK with the US, engaging in a round of
shuttle diplomacy to help form and maintain an international coalition prior to the
2001 war against Afghanistan. He maintains his diplomatic activity to this day, showing a willingness to visit countries that other world leaders might consider too dangerous to visit. In 2003, he became the first Briton since
Winston Churchill to be awarded a
Congressional Gold Medal by the
United States Congress for being "a staunch and steadfast ally of the United States of America",
[Congressional Record Award of a Congressional Gold Medal to Tony Blair 14 May 2003] although media attention has been drawn to the fact that Blair has yet to attend the ceremony to receive his medal; some commentators point to the unpopularity in Britain of his support for the US as the explanation for the delay. In 2003, Blair was also awarded an
Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his support of the United States after 9/11 - the first non-American to receive the honour.
[US to award Blair for leadership BBC, 16 April, 2003]Iraq war
Blair gave strong support to
US President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003. He soon became the face of international support for the war, often clashing with
French President Jacques Chirac, who became the face of international opposition. Regarded by many as a more persuasive speaker than Bush, Blair gave many speeches arguing for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the days leading up to the invasion.
Blair's case for war was based on Iraq's alleged possession of
weapons of mass destruction and consequent violation of UN resolutions. He was wary of making direct appeals for
regime change, since international law does not recognize this as a ground for war. A
memorandum from a July 2002 meeting that was leaked in April 2005 showed that Blair believed that the British public would support regime change in the right political context; the document, however, stated that legal grounds for such action were weak. On
24 September 2002, the Government published a
dossier based on the intelligence agencies' assessments of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Among the items in the dossier was a recently received intelligence report that "the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so". A further briefing paper on Iraq's alleged WMDs was issued to journalists in February 2003. This document was discovered to have taken a large part of its text without attribution from a PhD thesis available on the internet. Where the thesis hypothesized about possible WMDs, the Downing Street version presented the ideas as fact. The document subsequently became known as the "
Dodgy Dossier".
Forty-six thousand British troops, one-third of the total strength of the
British Army (land forces), were deployed to assist with the invasion of Iraq. When, after the war, it was established that Iraq had not possessed any WMDs, the two dossiers, together with Blair's other pre-war statements, became an issue of considerable controversy. Many Labour Party members, including a number who had supported the war, were among the critics. Successive independent inquiries (including those by the Foreign Affairs
Select Committee of the
House of Commons, the senior judge
Lord Hutton, and the former senior civil servant
Lord Butler of Brockwell) have found that Blair honestly stated what he believed to be true at the time, though Lord Butler's report did imply that the Government's presentation of the intelligence evidence had been subject to some degree of exaggeration. These findings have not prevented frequent accusations that Blair was deliberately deceitful, and, during the 2005 election campaign, Conservative leader Michael Howard made political capital out of the issue.
Several anti-war pressure groups want to try Blair for war crimes in Iraq at the
International Criminal Court. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, stated in September 2004 that the invasion was "illegal", but did not state the legal basis for this assertion. Prior to the war, the UK Attorney General
Lord Goldsmith, who acts as the Government's legal adviser, had advised Blair that the war was legal.
British armed forces were active in southern Iraq to stabilise the country in the run-up to the Iraqi elections of January 2005. In October 2004, the UK government agreed to a request from US forces to send a battalion of the
Black Watch regiment to the American sector in order to free up US troops for an assault on
Fallujah. The subsequent deployment of the Black Watch was criticised by some in Britain on the grounds that its alleged ultimate purpose was to assist George Bush's re-election in the 2005 US presidential election. At present, British forces remain in Iraq. After the presidential election, Blair tried to use his relationship with President Bush to persuade the US to devote efforts to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Domestic politics
After fighting the 2001 election on the theme of improving public services, Blair's government continued to raise taxes in 2002 (described by the Conservatives as "
stealth taxes") in order to increase spending on education and health. Blair insisted that the increased funding must be matched by internal reforms. The government introduced the
Foundation Hospitals scheme to allow NHS hospitals financial autonomy, although the eventual shape of the proposals, after an internal struggle with
Gordon Brown, allowed for somewhat less freedom than Blair had wished. Many healthcare trusts established under the foundation hospitals scheme are now in severe financial difficulties, having spent large proportions of their funding increases on pay rises for staff and on expensive drugs. As a result, with supply increasing less quickly than demand, benefits from the NHS have not increased to the same degree, and the NHS is in deficit for 2005-6 to the tune of around £800 million.
The peace process in Northern Ireland hit a series of problems. In October 2002, the Northern Ireland Assembly established under the Good Friday Agreement was suspended. Attempts to persuade the
IRA to decommission its weapons were unsuccessful, and, in the second set of elections to the Assembly in November 2003, the staunchly unionist
Democratic Unionist Party replaced the more moderate
Ulster Unionist Party as Northern Ireland's largest unionist party, making a return to devolved government more difficult. At the same time,
Sinn Féin replaced the more moderate
SDLP as the province's largest nationalist party.
In its first term, the government had introduced an annual fixed tuition fee of around £1,000 for higher education students (rejecting requests from
universities to be allowed to vary the fee), with reductions and exemptions for poor students. At the same time, the remaining student maintenance grant had been replaced with a low-interest loan, which was to be repaid once the student was earning over a certain threshold. In 2003, Blair controversially introduced legislation permitting universities to charge variable fees of up to £3,000 per year. At the same time, the repayment of student loans was delayed until the graduate's income was much higher, and grants were reintroduced for some students from poorer backgrounds. It was claimed that the increase in university fees violated a promise in Labour's 2001 election manifesto, though this claim is arguably unsustainable if the relevant promise is interpreted strictly and literally. At its
second reading in the House of Commons in January 2004, the
Higher Education Bill which contained the changes was passed with a majority of only five, due to a large-scale backbench Labour rebellion. A defeat had been averted only by a last-minute change of heart by a small number of Gordon Brown's backbench allies.
On
1 August 2003, Blair became the longest continuously serving Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, surpassing
Harold Wilson's 1964–1970 term. By this time, however, the Government had been overtaken by the crisis over the suicide of Dr
David Kelly, and there were no celebrations. Dr Kelly was a Government scientist who had spoken to a BBC journalist about a published
intelligence dossier which had been used to justify the Iraq War, leading to a major public conflict between the BBC and the Government. After the news of Dr Kelly's suicide broke, Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, set up an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death, conducted by the senior
Law Lord,
Lord Hutton. The
Hutton Inquiry reported on
2 August, and, despite widespread expectations that Lord Hutton's report would criticise Blair and his government, Hutton cleared the Government of deliberately inserting false intelligence into the
September Dossier, while criticising the
BBC editorial process which had allowed unfounded allegations to be broadcast. Evidence to the inquiry, however, had raised questions over the use of intelligence in the run up to the war, and the report did not satisfy opponents of Blair and of the war. Lord Hutton was
criticised for strictly interpreting his remit, and, after a similar decision by President Bush, Blair set up another inquiry - the
Butler Review - into the accuracy and presentation of the intelligence relating to Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Opponents of the war, especially the
Liberal Democrats, refused to participate in this inquiry, since it did not meet their demands for a full public inquiry into whether the war was justified.
Even after the Butler Review, the political fallout from the Iraq War continued to dog Blair's premiership. On
25 August 2004,
Plaid Cymru MP
Adam Price announced that he would attempt to
impeach Blair,
[BBC Blair impeachment campaign starts 27 August 2004] invoking a Parliamentary procedure that had lain dormant for 150 years. The move was supported by Plaid Cymru and the
SNP, as well as by
RESPECT's
George Galloway and Independent MP
Richard Taylor. Ten Conservative MPs signed the relevant motion, as did two
Liberal Democrats, making a total of 23 MPs. The campaign attracted the support of writers
Iain Banks and
Frederick Forsyth, and actor
Corin Redgrave.
In April 2004, Blair announced that a
referendum would be held on the ratification of the
EU Constitution. This represented a significant development in British politics: only one nationwide referendum had previously been held (in 1975, on
whether the UK should remain in the EEC), though a referendum had been promised if the Government decided to join the Euro, and referenda had been held on devolved structures of government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was a dramatic change of policy for Blair, who had previously dismissed calls for a referendum unless the constitution fundamentally altered the UK's relationship with the EU.
Michael Howard seized upon this "EU-turn", reminding Blair of his declaration to the 2003 Labour Party conference that "I can only go one way. I haven't got a reverse gear". The referendum was expected to be held in early 2006; however, after the French and Dutch rejections of the constitution, the Blair government announced that it was suspending plans for a referendum for the foreseeable future.
During his second term, Blair was increasingly the target for protests. His speech to the 2004 Labour Party conference, for example, was interrupted both by a protester against the Iraq War and by a group that opposed the government's decision to allow the House of Commons to ban
fox hunting.
On
15 September 2004, Blair delivered a speech on the environment and the 'urgent issue' of
climate change. In unusually direct language he concluded that
If what the science tells us about climate change is correct, then unabated it will result in catastrophic consequences for our world... The science, almost certainly, is correct. The action he proposed to take appeared to be based on business and investment rather than legislative or tax-based attempts to reduce
CO2 emissions:
...it is possible to combine reducing emissions with economic growth... investment in science and technology and in the businesses associated with it.... [Guardian Full text: Blair's climate change speech 15 September 2004].
Attempted impeachment
On
25 August 2004,
Plaid Cymru MP
Adam Price announced that he would attempt to
impeach Blair
[BBC Blair impeachment campaign starts 27 August 2004]. The measure was supported by Plaid Cymru and the
SNP, as well as by
RESPECT's
George Galloway and Independent MP
Richard Taylor. Ten
Tory MPs signed it, as did four
SNP MPs and two
Liberals for a total of 23 MPs. The campaign has attracted the support of writers
Iain Banks and
Frederick Forsyth, and actor
Corin Redgrave.
In January 2006, General Sir
Michael Rose (the former
UN commander in
Bosnia) joined calls to make Blair accountable: "To go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from"
[BBC Impeach Blair over Iraq - general 9 January 2006].
No impeachment has been attempted for 150 years, and no impeachment resolution has been passed since 1806; the last two impeachment trials resulted in acquittals. Many legal authorities consider impeachment to be obsolete (see,
e.g.,
Halsbury). However, no
Act of Parliament has withdrawn the right of
Parliament to impeach.
The case for Blair's impeachment was outlined by
Adam Price MP in a report entitled "A case to answer"
[ImpeachBlair.org Impeach Prime Minister Tony Blair for misleading Parliament and the British people].
Health problems
On
19 October 2003, it emerged that Blair had received treatment for an irregular heartbeat. Having felt ill the previous day, he went to hospital and was diagnosed with
supraventricular tachycardia. Blair recovered well though. This was treated by
cardioversion and he returned home that night. He took the following day (
20 October) a little more gently than usual and returned to a full schedule on
21 October. Downing Street aides later suggested that the palpitations had been brought on by Blair drinking lots of strong
coffee at an
EU summit and then working out vigorously in the gym. However, former
Armed Forces minister
Lewis Moonie, a doctor, said that the treatment was more serious than
Number 10 had admitted: "Anaesthetising somebody and giving their heart electric shocks is not something you just do in the routine run of medical practice", he claimed.
Family problems in the spring of 2004 fuelled speculation that Blair was on the brink of stepping down. In September 2004, in off-the-cuff remarks during an interview with ITV news,
Lord Bragg said that Blair was "under colossal strain" over "considerations of his family" and that Blair had thought "things over very carefully." This led to a surge in speculation that Blair would resign. Although details of the family problem were known by the press, no paper would report them because to do so "breaches the bounds of privacy and media responsibility" as they did not relate to Mr Blair himself
[Peter Fray Keeping Tony Blair's secret all in the family 18 September 2004].
Blair underwent a
catheter ablation to correct his irregular heartbeat on
1 October 2004, having announced the procedure the day before in a series of interviews in which he also declared that he would seek a third term but not a fourth.
[BBC Blair heart treatment 'successful' 1 October, 2004] The planned procedure was carried out at
London's
Hammersmith hospital. At the same time it was disclosed that the Blairs had purchased a house at 29
Connaught Square,
London, for a reported £3.5 million.
[BBC The house that Tony bought 1 October, 2004] Some have speculated that part of No. 29 is to be converted into offices for a future
Blair Foundation. The purchase also fuelled speculation that Blair was preparing for life after government.
The Labour Party won the 2005 general election and a third consecutive term in office. The next day, Blair was invited to form a Government by
Queen Elizabeth II. The reduction in the Labour majority (from 167 to 66) and the low share of the popular vote (35%) led to some Labour MPs calling for Blair to leave office sooner rather than later; among them
Frank Dobson who had served in Blair's Cabinet during his first term. However, dissenting voices quickly vanished as Blair in June 2005 took on European leaders over the future direction of the
European Union.
G8 and EU presidencies
The rejection by
France and the
Netherlands of the
treaty to establish a
constitution for the European Union presented Blair with an opportunity to postpone the doubtful UK
referendum on the constitution without taking the blame for failing from the EU.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that the Parliamentary Bill to enact a referendum was suspended indefinitely. It had previously been agreed that ratification would continue unless the treaty had been rejected by at least five of the 25
European Union member states who must all ratify it. In an address to the
European Parliament, Blair stated: "I believe in Europe as a political project. I believe in Europe with a strong and caring social dimension."
[David Rennie and Brendan Carlin Blair does a Thatcher to the EU, only ruder Telegraph 24 June 2005]Chirac held several meetings with Schröder and the pair pressed for the UK to give up its
rebate, famously won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. After verbal conflict over several weeks, Blair, along with the leaders of all 25 member states, descended on Brussels for the EU Summit of the
18 June 2005 to attempt to finalise the EU budget for 2007-2013. Blair refused to renegotiate the rebate unless the proposals included a compensating overhaul of EU spending, particularly on the
Common Agricultural Policy which composes 44% of the EU budget. After intense arguments inside closed doors, talks broke down late at night and the leaders emerged, all blaming each other. It is widely accepted that Blair came out on top, making allies in the
Netherlands and
Sweden and potentially (and crucially) several of the Eastern European accession countries.
It fell to Blair to broker a deal on the EU budget during the UK's
Presidency of the European Union during the latter half of 2005. Early international opinion, particularly in the French press, suggested that Blair held a very strong opening position partly on account of the concurrence of British presidencies of the EU and
G8. However, early in the UK's six-month term the
7 July London bombings distracted political attention from the EU despite some ambitious early statements about Blair's agenda.
[BBC Blair urges debate on EU's future 1 July, 2005] Domestically, Blair faced further distractions from European affairs including a resurgent
Conservative Party under its newly-elected leader
David Cameron, and assessments of the British presidency's achievements under Blair have been
[BBC (Paul Reynolds) UK's EU reign marked by compromise 19 December 2005]lukewarm in spite of some diplomatic success including a last-minute budget deal. The most controversial result was an agreement to increase British contributions to the EU development budget for new member countries, which effectively reduced the UK rebate by 20%.
2012 Summer Olympics
On
6 July 2005, during the 117th International Olympic Committee (
IOC) session in
Singapore, the IOC announced that the
2012 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XXX Olympiad, were awarded to
London over
Paris by a small (four votes) margin. The competition between Paris and London to host the Games had become increasingly heated particularly after French President
Jacques Chirac commented three days before the vote that "one cannot trust people [ie: the British] whose cuisine are so bad."
[BBC Chirac jokes about British food 4 July 2005] The surprise win by
London over the perceived frontrunner
Paris was said to have been decided by the presence of Blair at the IOC session. Irish IOC member Patrick Hickey said, "This is down to Tony Blair. If he hadn't come here I'd say that six to eight votes would have been lost and London would not be sitting here today winners".
[Mihir Bose London takes gold 07 July 2005]2005 London bombings
On Thursday
7 July 2005,
a series of four bomb explosions struck London's public transport system during the morning rush-hour. All four incidents are believed to have been
suicide bombings. Fifty-six people were killed and 700 injured. The incident was the deadliest single act of terrorism in the
United Kingdom since 270 died in the 1988 bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, and it was the deadliest bombing in London since
World War II.
Blair made
a statement about the day's
London bombings, saying that he believed it was "reasonably clear" that it was an act of terror, and that he hoped the people of Britain could demonstrate that their will to overcome the events is greater than the terrorists' wish to cause destruction. He also said that his determination to "defend" the British way of life outweighed "extremist determination" to destroy it.
On
21 July 2005,
a second series of explosions were reported in
London, two weeks and some hours after the
7 July 2005 London bombings. Four controlled explosions, of devices considerably less advanced than those of the previous attacks, were carried out at
Shepherd's Bush,
Warren Street and
Oval underground stations, and on a bus in
Shoreditch. Even though the attacks on the 21st were less severe than those on the 7th, Blair was reported to have said that the bombings in London today were intended "to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried". He went on to say how the "police have done their very best, and the security services too, in the situation, and I think we have just got to react calmly and continue with our business as much as possible normal".
Concerns about terror attacks led to 10 Downing Street requesting media organizations not to identify the location of Blair's 2005 summer holiday. After Blair attended a public function it was acknowledged that the holiday was in
Barbados, as a guest of the singer
Cliff Richard with whom Blair has stayed before.
A
Guardian/ICM poll conducted after the first wave of attacks found that 64% of the British population believed that Blair's decision to wage war in Iraq had led indirectly to the terrorist attacks on London.
[The Guardian The Iraq connection 20 July 2005] The public did however indicate approval of Blair's handling of the attacks, with his approval rating moving into positive territory for the first time in five years.
[Anthony King Britons will never give in to terrorists Telegraph 09 July 2005]. In December 2005, the Prime Minister was presented with the "Statesman of the Decade" award by the EastWest Institute, a trans-Atlantic think tank that organizes an annual Security Conference in Brussels
[EastWest Institute home page].
Proposed laws to cope with the threat of terrorism proved extremely controversial; an amendment to require that glorifying terrorism be deliberate in order to be an offence was rejected in the House of Commons by just three votes (a result initially announced as a one-vote margin, due to a miscount). The proposal to allow terrorist suspects to be held for questioning for up to 90 days was defeated on
9 November by a margin of 31
[BBC Blair defeated over terror laws 9 November 2005] with 49 Labour MPs voting against the government. Instead, MPs supported an amendment to allow questioning for 28 days proposed by veteran backbencher
David Winnick. This was Blair's first defeat on the floor of the House of Commons since he became Prime Minister in 1997, and most commentators saw this as seriously undermining his authority
[BBC Q&A: Blair's terror bill defeat 9 November 2005].
Education reforms 2006
The introduction of further reforms to the education system, which restricted the involvement of local education authorities in opening new schools, proved controversial. Labour backbenchers opposed to the proposals produced a rival manifesto, and the Bill to introduce the changes was delayed while the government negotiated with them. The Conservative Party declared its support for the reforms, making it certain that they would be passed but increasing the likelihood that Labour MPs would vote against. On
15 March 2006, the Education and Inspections Bill passed its second reading with 52 Labour MPs voting against; had the Conservative Party voted against instead of in favour, it would have been defeated.
Local elections on 4 May 2006 and cabinet reshuffle
The local elections in England on
4 May 2006 dealt a blow to Blair, with the loss of 317 seats and 18 councils. This result was thought to be connected to the previous scandal about the Home Office's mishandling of foreign criminals' deportation that had damaged the political standing of the Home Secretary
Charles Clarke. At the same time, an affair of the Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott with his diary secretary had been made public. Further, some Primary Care and Hospital Trust sustained significant deficits and had to release staff, which called into question the position of Health Secretary
Patricia Hewitt. On
5 May, Blair reshuffled his Cabinet. Most significantly, Charles Clarke and Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw were relieved of their duties and many other positions were reassigned. Many commentators saw this as a panic reaction designed to ward off calls for Blair to step down.
Departure
After Labour's 2004 conference, Blair announced in a BBC interview
[BBC Interview (RAM file)] that he would serve a "full third term" but would not fight a fourth general election. No term limits exist in British politics, and such an announcement was historically unprecedented.
In the months following the 2005 election, there was frequent speculation over the date of Blair's departure. He was widely expected at Westminster to retire after the proposed UK referendum on the
European Union Constitution, but the constitution's demise eliminated this possibility. The July 2005 terror attacks also lessened the likelihood of an early departure. Speculation as to the likely time of Blair's departure increased in May 2006 following Labour's poor results in English local elections. Such speculation is recurrent in the press and in political circles when any mishap befalls the government. Blair has said he will give "ample time" for his successor to establish himself before the next general election, which is likely to be held in 2009 or 2010. His successor is widely expected to be Gordon Brown, the current
Chancellor of the Exchequer.
If he remains in office until
26 November 2008, Blair will break
Margaret Thatcher's record for longest continuous service as Prime Minister since
Lord Liverpool, 1812-27.
Blair has said that after stepping down as Prime Minister, he plans to leave front-line politics and does not intend to take a seat in the House of Lords, commenting that it is, "...not my scene".
[Oonagh Blackman The Blair interview: I won't be Lord Blair Mirror 14 December 2005] There have been rumours in the British press that Blair will stand for the position of
United Nations Secretary-General when
Kofi Annan steps down on
31 December 2006.
[BBC BBC: Clinton backs Blair as UN chief] Former US President
Bill Clinton, in an interview, said that he believes Blair would be a good secretary-general.
[BBC Clinton backs Blair as UN chief 14 January 2006]It was reported on
July 302006 that Blair has shaken hands on a £4m deal for his diaries with a publishing firm owned by Rupert Murdoch.
[Francis Elliott Tony & Cherie's American Dream July 302006]Blair has encouraged reforms to Parliamentary procedures. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the two weekly 15-minute sessions of
Prime Minister's Questions, held on a Tuesday and Thursday, with a single 30-minute session on a Wednesday. This reform was said to have led to greater efficiency, but critics have noted that it is easier to prepare for one long set of questions than for two shorter sessions. In addition to PMQs, Blair has held monthly press conferences, at which he fields questions in a less formal or confrontational manner than in the Commons.
[10 Downing Street Saddam and his regime will be removed] [Matthew Tempest Tony Blair's press conference Guardian]Other procedural reforms supported by Blair include changes to the rules concerning the times when Parliament sits. These latter changes are said to allow Parliament to operate in a more businesslike manner, but they have also arguably reduced MPs' ability to scrutinise legislation effectively.
While evaluations of Blair's skills as a parliamentarian differ, he is acknowledged to be a highly skilful media performer in other contexts, appearing modern, charismatic, informal and articulate. His best known television appearance was perhaps his tribute to
Diana, Princess of Wales on the morning of her death in August 1997, in which he famously described the late princess as "the people's princess".
After taking office in 1997, Blair gave particular prominence to his press secretary, who became known as the
Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (the two roles have since been separated). Blair's first PMOS was
Alastair Campbell, who served in that role from May 1997 to
8 June 2001, after which he served as the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy until his resignation on
29 August 2003, in the aftermath of the
Hutton Inquiry. Campbell acquired a reputation as a sinister and machiavellian figure, and both Blair and Campbell have frequently been criticised for their allegedly excessive use of "spin" and news management techniques: see below under
Criticism.
After the death of John Smith in 1994, both Blair and his fellow modernizer Gordon Brown were viewed as possible candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party. They had always agreed that they would not stand against each other, and Brown had previously been considered to be the more senior of the two men; he understood this to mean that Blair would give way to him. It soon became apparent, however, that Blair had greater public support.
[A MORI opinion poll published in the Sunday Times on 15 May found that among the general public, Blair had the support of 32%, John Prescott, 19%, Margaret Beckett 14%, Gordon Brown 9%, and Robin Cook 5%.] At the
Granita restaurant in
Islington on
31 May, Brown agreed with Blair that he would not contest the leadership election. He understood Blair to have undertaken in return to step down as party leader after a specified period (after 8 years, according to some reports), but Blair has always denied striking any such deal with him. It may be that both men placed honestly differing interpretations on the same conversation.
It has also been alleged that Blair, while in office as Prime Minister, gave Brown further indications and even promises that he would step down in Brown's favour at specified times. Whatever the truth of these reports (which may perhaps again be based on misinterpretations of ambiguous words), Blair's consistent refusal to leave office (so far) has led to relations between the two men becoming irretrievably embittered. At certain times, Deputy Prime Minister
John Prescott has reportedly acted as their "marriage guidance counsellor".
Another aspect of the political relationship between Blair and Brown is the exceptional freedom given by Blair from the start of his time in office to his Chancellor in the area of economic policy. Downing Street insiders have subsequently reported that Blair grew to regret granting Brown this freedom, since he has been excluded from important fiscal decisions as a result.
Blair has rarely discussed his religious faith in public, but he is often identified as a
high church Anglo-Catholic - that is, a member of the
Church of England who is sympathetic to
Roman Catholic beliefs and practices. His wife,
Cherie Booth, is a practising Roman Catholic, and he has attended Catholic Masses at Westminster Cathedral, while on holiday in Italy, and with his family at his home in Number 10 Downing Street. At one point, he was reprimanded by Cardinal
Basil Hume for receiving
Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Roman Catholic, a contravention of Catholic doctrine.
In an interview with
Michael Parkinson broadcast on
ITV1 on
4 March 2006, Blair referred to the role of his Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq, stating that he had
prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision
[BBC Blair 'prayed to God' over Iraq 3 March 2006]:
"I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people … and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well." His comments were later interpreted by some of his critics as indicating that he believed that God had endorsed his decision to participate in the invasion.
Which part of the political spectrum Tony Blair occupies is disputed. Many Britons would place him in the centre ground. Many others, including many of his left-wing critics, would place him on the right of centre. Some others again, including some old-style Conservatives, regard him as a left-winger. Blair rarely applies such labels to himself, though he promised, in advance of the 1997 election, that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and he is on record as describing himself as a "
social democrat".
An overview of Blair's policies gives an idea of the difficulty of defining him politically. He has raised taxes; implemented redistributive policies (to a modest extent); introduced a minimum wage and some new employment rights (while leaving Margaret Thatcher's trade union legislation wholly unchanged); introduced important constitutional reforms (which remain incomplete and controversial); promoted new rights for gay people in the Civil Partnerships Act; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with the EU (opposed by the Conservatives). On the other hand, he has firmly supported George W. Bush's foreign policy (while reportedly attempting to act as a restraining influence on him); introduced substantial market-based reforms in the education and health sectors (though not to the extent advocated by the Conservatives); introduced student tuition fees (with safeguards for poor students); sought to reduce (certain categories of) welfare payments; and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation (with claimed public support).
Spin and alleged dishonesty
To engage in "
spin" means to present news selectively so as to emphasise its positive aspects and minimize the risk of political damage from its negative aspects. While the terms "spin" and "
spin doctor" came into widespread use in British politics as early as the late 1980s, they have been especially prominent in criticisms of the Blair government. A widely-levelled criticism of Blair and his subordinates is that they make use of spin to such an extent that government statements are now widely disbelieved even if they are entirely true. It is also claimed that the Government has on occasions crossed the line between selective presentation of information and deliberate misleading.
The most widely publicised example of this latter alleged failing concerned the two dossiers of intelligence information on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction that were published in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War - the
September Dossier and the later so-called "
Dodgy Dossier". Controversy surrounded both the contents of these documents and the way in which their contents were presented. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq, and Blair was later forced to concede that they had not existed.
[Maria Tomchick Weapons of Mass Destruction: Where's the Proof?] Blair's reputation for honesty and integrity, already damaged by allegations of excessive "spin", was dealt a major blow by the episode. His defenders argue that he sincerely believed before the war that the intelligence on Iraq's alleged WMDs was accurate; that such a belief was also held by the intelligence agencies of countries which opposed the war, such as France and Germany; and that the dossiers were not dishonest in their presentation of the intelligence evidence. The independent
Butler Review subsequently cleared Blair of the charge of deliberate deception, but implied that the dossiers had contained some degree of exaggeration.
Authoritarianism
Blair has consistently supported the police and sought to increase police powers. While this policy initially attracted widespread support, the government's legislative response to the threat of militant Islamism has been regarded by some as
authoritarian.
Even before the September 11 attacks, the
Terrorism Act 2000 had tightened up the existing law on terrorist activities.
[BBC Editorial Guidelines - War, Terror - The Terrorism Act 2000] The Act also gave the police powers to act against a wide range of activities, and the legislation was reportedly used even against peaceful protestors (including an 11-year-old girl at a
Peace camp outside an RAF base
[Casualty of War - 8 weeks of counter-terrorism in rural England]). After September 11, the
Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was passed, allowing foreign nationals to be detained without charge for an indefinite period, subject to appeal to a special tribunal, if they were suspected international terrorists and refused to be deported to their home countries (where, in many cases, they would have been tortured or executed). This provision was later declared by the
House of Lords, acting as the UK's highest court, to be incompatible with the
Human Rights Act, and the Government replaced it, in the
Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, with provisions for "control orders" allowing terrorist suspects to be placed under house arrest, subject to some judicial oversight. These control orders have subsequently been declared by the courts to be incompatible with the Human Rights Act; the Government is seeking to appeal again to the House of Lords.
In 2005, Blair gave personal strong backing to proposals to allow suspected terrorists to be held for questioning for up to 90 days, and dissuaded other Ministers from offering a compromise. This insistence resulted in his first defeat on the floor of the House of Commons in November 2005.
The flagship anti-crime policy introduced in Blair's first term,
Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), have been criticised as excessively punitive and as involving the criminalisation of non-criminal conduct: an ASBO may be imposed, using civil rather than criminal court procedures, to prevent conduct which is entirely legal, but breach of the ASBO itself is a criminal offence. Some apparently Draconian examples of ASBO restrictions have been cited: particular ASBOs have preventing their subjects from being
sarcastic, from using the word "grass", and from attending a drug clinic which was treating them for their addiction. Opinion polls, however, show that ASBOs remain popular with the public, leading some to suggest that criticism of them comes mainly from middle-class people who do not regularly experience anti-social behaviour in their own communities.
The
Identity Cards Act 2006 enabled the Government to introduce national identity cards, and authorised the creation of a
National Identity Register on Britain's citizens. Critics of ID cards argue that the Register has disturbing implications for privacy and civil liberties, and that they could be used to deny access to public services. The Government has maintained that ID cards will provide a crucial weapon in the fight against crime and terrorism but has not yet offered evidence to back up these claims.
Relationship with President George W. Bush
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George W. Bush and Tony Blair shake hands after their press conference in the East Room of the White House on November 12 2004. |
Despite enjoying a close relationship with
Bill Clinton during the latter's time in office, Blair has formed a strong political alliance with President
George W. Bush of the
United States of America, particularly in the area of foreign policy: at one point,
Nelson Mandela described Blair as "the US foreign minister".
[BBC Mandela condemns US stance on Iraq 30 January 2003] For his part, President
Bush has lauded Blair and the UK many times: in his post-September 11 speech, for example, he stated that "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".
[President Declares "Freedom at War with Fear"]The alliance between Bush and Blair has seriously damaged Blair's standing in the eyes of many Britons, particularly those on the traditional Left. Objections to the relationship are based largely on opposition in principle to American foreign policy, though phrases such as "
Bush's
poodle" perhaps hint at more nationalistic motivations and a feeling of wounded dignity.
Blair's prompt appearance in Washington after the
September 11 2001 attacks seems to have played a part in establishing mutual respect between the two leaders. Prior to the Iraq War, Blair wished to obtain a second US resolution (following Security Council Resolution 1441) authorizing an invasion of Iraq, but ultimately decided to accompany America to war after the resolution proved impossible to obtain. Critics argue that this support provided the fig-leaf of an international
coalition as well as military support which US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed barely to need. Writing in 2005, the former UK ambassador to the USA, Sir
Christopher Meyer, accused Blair of being a
hawk and of having been insufficiently cautious about the war
[Julian Glover and Ewen MacAskill Blair's litany of failures on Iraq - ambassador's damning verdict The Guardian 9 November 2005]. Meyer claimed Blair could have prevented the war if he had acted at an opportune time in the summer of 2002, though prominent journalist Simon Jenkins has criticised Meyer's claims as 'naive'.
[Simon Jenkins Sorry, Sir Christopher, he wasn't even in with a shout The Guardian 9 November 2005]An article in the May 2004 issue of
Vanity Fair (which
Paul Wolfowitz claims includes partial and incorrect quotes) reported that Meyer was present when, a few days after the September 11 attacks, Bush asked Blair to support an attack on Iraq. Blair reportedly replied that he would rather concentrate on ousting the Taliban and restoring peace in Afghanistan. According to Meyer, Bush replied: "I agree with you Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq." Meyer reports that Blair "said nothing to demur".
In July 2003, Blair became the first Briton since Winston Churchill to be awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal, a honour awarded by the US Congress and considered to be the United States' highest expression of appreciation.
[Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)] This honour aroused some controversy in the UK, and, probably because of this, as of August 2005, Blair had yet to collect the actual medal,
[Daniel Finkelstein The magnitude of the honour leaves no possible doubt: Tony Blair must go] though he had already formally accepted the award.
[Tony Blair: Address to Congress Accepting Congressional Gold Medal]Blair's emphasis on Britain's "
special relationship" with the USA is not unique to him: a desire to maintain close ties with the United States has characterised British foreign policy since the time of Churchill and
Roosevelt. As to Blair's influence over US policy, it has been claimed, with uncertain accuracy, that it was Blair who persuaded Bush to devote interest to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to endorse a two-state solution to that conflict, and to attempt to obtain a second UN resolution prior to the Iraq War.
Blair does not reveal his thoughts about the Bush administration: he has described
Guantanamo only as "an anomaly" which should be resolved "sooner rather than later". When pressed in a
4 March 2006 interview with
Michael Parkinson [Parkinson], he would say only that George Bush is someone whom he can work with because "he does what he says".
A private conversation between Blair and Bush at the
2006 G8 summit in
St Petersburg was accidentally picked up by an open microphone. Transcripts of the conversation appeared to show, among other things, that Blair's offer to visit the Middle East as a mediator in the latest conflict was snubbed by Bush, who preferred to send US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice instead.
[ 'Yo, Blair!': Overheard at the G8 (registration or subscription required)][Philip Webster Bush's open mike gaffe reveals truth of the special relationship 18 July 2006] There was also considerable comment made in the UK press over the tone of Bush's greeting of "
Yo, Blair".
[Adrian Croft Yo Bush! Blair mocked as U.S. poodle Reuters UK 18 July 2006]Alleged presidentialism
Blair is perceived by many as an excessively autocratic leader, paying insufficient attention to both the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to the
House of Commons as a whole. His style resembles less a prime minister who is the head of government in a Parliamentary system and more a
president and
head of state -- which he is not.
He has never taken a vote on any issue among his Cabinet colleagues (though his predecessors reportedly did not take formal votes either), and the satirical magazine
Private Eye reported in July 2006 that when newly appointed Defence Secretary
Des Browne disagreed with Blair at his first Cabinet meeting, colleagues reacted with shock and passed him notes asking, "what do you think you're doing?". As to his attitude towards Parliament, Blair has been criticized for his poor voting and attendance record in the House of Commons, and for his alleged general lack of respect for the House.
However, it is not clear that the electorate would prefer a "less presidential" Prime Minister such as
John Major. And Blair's personal Parliamentary voting and attendance record may be explained, at least in part, by the heavy demands upon the time of any Prime Minister and by the unusually large Labour majorities from 1997 to 2005 that meant in practice that his vote was rarely needed.
Criticisms by the left
While the Blair government has introduced some social policies seen by the left of the Labour Party as progressive, such as the
minimum wage and measures to reduce child poverty, on economic and management issues he is seen as being to the right of the bulk of the party. Some critics describe Blair as a reconstructed
Conservative or
Thatcherite. He is sometimes described as "Son of Thatcher", though Lady Thatcher herself rejected this identification in an interview with ITV on the night of the 2005 election. Shortly before the
2001 election,
The Economist gave a front cover the headline, "Vote conservative" (with a lower-case "c") - with a picture of Blair.
A series of Blair's policies have been criticized by MPs on the left and/or the centre of the Labour Party. One example is the use of private finance to fund public projects (under the
Private Finance Initiative, for example). This, it is claimed, is both a bad deal economically and involves the privatisation of public service
[BBC Q&A: What is PFI? 30 September 2002]. Another policy which has attracted criticism is the introduction of independent Trust Schools
[BBC (Mike Baker) Forward to the past for schools? 27 October 2005], which have been likened to the Major government's Grant Maintained Schools which Labour criticised while in opposition.
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Private Eye cover speculating on a Gordon Brown leadership challenge |
Satire
Blair has avoided the traditional pigeonholes of British political leaders. He has often (particularly after the invasion of Iraq) been labelled as insincere ("King of Spin", "Phoney Tony"), and has been accused of
cronyism due to his perceived penchant for promoting his friends to top jobs. In his early years, Blair was often criticised as an unscrupulous opportunist who was solely interested in doing anything that would get him elected, that he was a
focus group politician. More recently, his unpopular support of the United States over Iraq has demonstrated a politician with more commitment to his own beliefs, despite public opposition. His name has been deliberately mis-spelt 'Tony Bliar' (sometimes 'B. Liar') or 'Tory Blur' by critics of his actions and his policies (particularly his stance on Iraq).
The Economist on
5 June 2003 devoted its front cover to a photograph of Blair and the headline, "Bliar?".
Since Blair became Prime Minister,
Private Eye has run a regular feature called the
St Albion Parish News based on the Blair government. In this series, the parish incumbent ('Rev. A.R.P. Blair MA (Oxon)') combines a relentless trendiness with a tendency to moralise and to exclude all those who criticise him. The series highlights Blair's perceived penchant for
spin and his zealous enthusiasms in relation to recent political events.
In his first term of office, Blair was the subject of a satirical comic strip
Dan Blair in
The Times. This strip spoofed the comic book hero
Dan Dare and his nemesis, the Mekon, who represented William Hague in the strip, portrayed with a very large forehead. He has also been parodied in the comic
2000 AD in the series B.L.A.I.R. 1 (a spoof of the old-fashioned strip
M.A.C.H.1 written by
David Bishop) where he acts as a futuristic crime fighter controlled by an
artificial intelligence known as "Doctor Spin".
In opposition under John Smith, the
ITV satirical puppet show
Spitting Image depicted Blair within the Shadow Cabinet as a schoolboy with a high-pitched voice and bottle-green uniform, complete with cap. The first show after Smith's death featured Blair singing
"I'm going to be the leader! I'm going to be the leader!" over and over. Once settled in as leader, the programme, which was in its last years, changed its caricature of Blair to have a small face with an outsized toothy grin. The show ended before Labour gained power.
Mexican musical group
Plastilina Mosh referenced Tony Blair on their 2006 single "Millionaire" with the lyrics "Baby I'm a millionaire, I got power like Tony Blair."
* Blair, Tony (2003).
Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government Diane Publishing, ISBN 075673102X
* Blair, Tony (2002).
The Courage of Our Convictions Fabian Society, ISBN 0716306034
* Blair, Tony (2000).
Superpower: Not Superstate? (Federal Trust European Essays) Federal Trust for Education & Research, ISBN 1903403251
* Blair, Tony (1998).
The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305887
* Blair, Tony (1998).
Leading the Way: New Vision for Local Government Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1860300758
* Blair, Tony (1997).
New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country Basic Books, ISBN 0813333385
* Blair, Tony (1995).
Let Us Face the Future Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305712
* Blair, Tony (1994).
What Price Safe Society? Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305623
* Blair, Tony (1994).
Socialism Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305658
* Blair, T. (2004). "Blair, The Right Hon. A. C. L." from
Who's Who, 156th ed., London: A & C Black.
*
Halsbury's Laws of England (2004), reference to impeachment in volume on Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph 416
*
* Beckett, F. & Hencke, D. (2004).
The Blairs and Their Court, Aurum Press, ISBN 1845130243
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Tony Blair's Cabinets*
Blair Brown Deal*
Impeach Blair campaign*
List of national leaders*
UK general election, 2005*
UK general election, 2001*
UK general election, 1997*
Politics of the United Kingdom*
10 Downing Street official site
*
A Day in the Life an on-line documentary by Tony Blair on life as Prime Minister
*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Tony Blair MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - Tony Blair MP*
The Public Whip - Tony Blair MP voting record
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Impeach Blair Campaign*
"The September Dossier"*
"The Dodgy Dossier"*
Tuition Fee Time Table*
'Cross-dressing' on political policy is here to stay, says PM,
Guardian Unlimited, Patrick Wintour, July 31, 2006.
*
"Whatever happened to Cool Britannia ? The UK after eight years of Blair" Thirty British, US, French and Canadian scholars assess Blair's policies and style after two terms, in May 2005. Links to papers and video.
*
"Think Again: Tony Blair" - by James G. Forsyth (requires registration) from
Foreign Policy Magazine*
Her Majesty's Government (2004). "The Prime Minister: A Biography".
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