Tony Blair

Tony Blair at a Labour Party meeting in 2005.

Tony Blair (born 6th May 1953), as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, perhaps earned a reputation as one of the most controversial holders of Britain's highest political office. Domestically, his policies gave rise to the term "Blairism", implying a concern for social issues combined with market-based economics, and including an emphasis on the economic aspirations of the individual. Internationally, he was best known for supporting a much-opposed US-led war in Iraq, the repercussions of which are ongoing in the Middle East and the wider world. Domestically, his legacy included the abolition of the commitment to state ownership of major industries as a fundamental tenet of his ('New') Labour Party, devolved government in Wales and Scotland, and a continuation of the work of his predecessors and other governments and parties to bring about an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland. He currently serves as a Middle East envoy, working to bring about a 'two-state' solution to the conflict over Israel and Palestine.

The Blair Family

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born on 6 May 1953 at the Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden) who were then living in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of the city; Leo was working as a junior tax inspector, Leo was also studying law at Edinburgh University. Leo was the adopted son of James Blair, a Glasgow shipyard worker, and his wife Mary; Hazel was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher who came from a family of Protestant farmers in County Donegal, Ireland. George Corscadden had moved to Glasgow in 1916 but had returned to Ballyshannon in 1923, where Hazel was born. Tony Blair has an elder brother, William, who is a barrister and a Queen's Counsel (QC), and a younger sister, Sarah. Between 1955 and 1959, the Blair family lived in Australia, where Leo was a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide. They returned to Britain in 1959, living for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather William McClay and her mother in Stepps, near Glasgow. Leo found a job as a lecturer at Durham University, and Tony spent the rest of his childhood in Durham, England, where he first attended Durham's Chorister School. In 1963, Leo suffered a stroke while campaigning as a Conservative candidate for Parliament. After this, Blair was sent to Fettes College, an elite private boarding school in Edinburgh. 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." Dr Eric Anderson, his housemaster at Fettes said "He was intensely argumentative and every school rule was questioned: he could uphold his side of the debate about the rights and wrongs of everything better than any boy in the school." [2]

After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, before going to Oxford University to read jurisprudence at St John's College. As a student, he played guitar and sang for a rock band called 'Ugly Rumours'. Whilst at Oxford, Blair's mother Hazel died of cancer. After graduating with a second class degree, Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn, enrolled as a pupil barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth (daughter of actor Tony Booth) at the Chambers. Blair married Booth, a practising Roman Catholic and future Queen's Counsel, on 29 March 1980. They have four children (Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo). Leo (born 20 May 2000) was the first legitimate child of a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John Russell on 11 July 1849.

Soon after graduating from Oxford in 1975, Tony Blair joined the Labour Party, and ran unsuccessfully for parliament in 1982 in the safe Tory constituency of Beaconsfield. However, at the 1983 UK general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield, a constituency that he represented until his retirement as Prime Minister and withdrawal from Parliament in 2007. After the two general election victories by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party in 1983 and 1987, Blair aligned himself with the reforming tendencies in the party, headed by leader Neil Kinnock, who gave Blair his first shadow cabinet post. When Kinnock resigned after Labour again lost in the 1992 general election, Blair became Shadow Home Secretary under the new leader, John Smith.

Current career

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair's experience as a prime minister might have made him an uncontroversial choice for a Middle East envoy, were he not also one of the main architects of the Iraq War. His appointment by the 'Quartet' of the USA, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union was welcomed by Israel and broadly by the Palestinian Authority, but opposed by the Hamas terrorist organisation currently controlling the Gaza Strip. His official role is to work with the Palestinian people to develop the infrastructure and the economy, with the goal of creating a Palestinian state.

Leader of the Labour Party, 1994-2007

“I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.”

Clause IV and 'New Labour'

Clause IV of the constitution of the Labour Party declared that one of the aims of the party was To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service. The new version reads The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few. Where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe. And where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.

Tony Blair was elected as the Leader of the Labour Party in July 1994 after the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. He believed that for the Labour party to regain power, it had to abandon some of its traditional policies. In 1995, he persuaded the party at its annual Conference to amend its constitution. In particular, the Conference voted to replace the contoversial Clause IV (see box), which had been drafted by Sidney Webb and had been party policy since 1918. The redrafting marked a radical break with traditional policies, and marked the emergence of what Tony Blair called “New Labour.” The commitment to nationalisation, even though it was widely regarded as rhetoric without practical intent, was widely seen as a major factor in the electoral unpopularity of the Labour party. The Conservative party had won four successive general elections (in 1997, 1983 and 1987 under Margaret Thatcher and in 1992 under John Major), and Labour was by some seen as unelectable while it retained close links with the Trade Union movement and while it espoused the rhetoric of pre-war socialism. Tony Blair thus set out to reassure a country in which, after the years of Thatcher’s government, there had been a wide increase in property ownership, a widening of share ownership, and a marked weakening of Union membership. The Conservative government’s drive to maintain low taxes had led to rising dissatisfaction with the level of investment in public services, particularly in education and health, and Tony Blair exploited this dissatisfaction and the increasing unease about sleaze and complacency within the Conservative government.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1997-2007

“Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government and I will lead it as party of government.” Tony Blair, on becoming Prime Minister, 1997

First term in office, 1997-2005

Tony Blair’s party won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. Labour gained 418 seats, the Conservatives just 165; Labour had a majority of 179 over all other parties. Blair became, at 43, the youngest Prime Minister since 1812. For this first term in Government, Blair had promised that there would be no increase in the level of income tax and no increase in the overall level of public spending . Blair’s popularity in the country was at a high level, and although the commitment not to increase public spending led to frustration amongst those Labour Party supporters who had wanted a rapid increase in investment in health and education, his popularity and that of the Labour Party remained high.

Blair's first term in Government therefore mainly addressed issues which required no increase in public spending, such as devolved Government in Scotland and Wales, and the Freedom of Information Act [3]. The government also attempted to reform the House of Lords: The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK parliament, and is involved mainly in scrutinizing, revising and ammending lgislation though it can also initiate legislation. Until 1997, members of the House of Lords were mainly heriditary peers of the realm. The House of Lords Act of 1998 removed the right of most peers to sit in the House of Lords, although an ammednment tabled in the Lords allows 92 hereditary peers to remain pending further reform. [4] This reform did not produce the fully elected chamber that some have sought; the House now mainly comprises members appointed (for life) by Prime Ministers to acknowledge their contribution to public service in many spheres, and they include religious leaders, scientists, and representatives from the Arts and business communities. Whether it is desirable that the second chamber of Parliament should be elected remains a controversial issue in British politics; some feel that its role should be above party politics, and others feel that an elected second chamber would inevitably weaken the authority of the first.

Second term in office, 2005-2007

Blair called a fresh general election in May 2001, one year earlier than he was required to, and won a second landslide victory, with an overall majority of 168, though with a much reduced electoral turnout .

Health

The second term in office gave Blair a clear mandate to increase investment in the National Health Service, paving the way for annual increases worth more than 7% in the health budget sustained for the five years to 2007-08. How that money has been spent is politically controversial [5], with some believing that much has not been spent efficiently. Others, on the political left, have been unhappy in particular with the involvement of the private sector in the funding of many of the new hospitals – under these arrangements some hospitals were built and are owned and managed (partly) privately while being leased for use by the NHS. Nevertheless, one of legacies of Blair’s government is that all political parties have now accepted that the great majority of the British public want a high quality publicly managed health service with the principle of free universal delivery of health care. This issue, that once appeared to divide the Labour party from the Conservatives, appears to have become a common goal.

Education

"Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education, education." (Tony Blair, speech to Labour party conference, October 1996

The increase in funding for education was no less dramatic: "Education, education, education" was Tony Blair’s slogan for the 1997 general election, and he consistently increased funding for education above the level of inflation throughout his time in Government – an increase from £29 billion in 1997 to £60 billion in 2007 [6]; with further rises to £74 billion projected by 2010. Spending per school pupil was £2,500 in 1997, and is projected to be £6,600 in 2010. There has also been a large increase in funding for Universities financing a large increase in access to University education. This too has been controversial, and critics on the left in particular have objected to the introduction for the first time of student fees to pay part of the cost of higher education, while critics on the right believe that the increase in student numbers implies a lowering of educational standards.

Social Policies

The Blair government pursued a range of socially liberal policies, including the introduction of civil partnerships for gays and lesbians, the end of the ban on gays in Britain's armed forces and a relaxation of the law on marijuana. However, under the slogan "Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime" the government increased the numbers of police, and introduced a range of new measures that critics say are infringements of civil liberties. The measures include satellite tracking of prolific offenders, immediate "fixed penalty" fines for a wide range of minor offences, and individual restrictions aimed at limiting antisocial behaviour, especially of youths. These changes, in Blair's words, marked the end of the 1960's "liberal consensus" on law and order [7]

Devolution

Politically, one of the legacies of the Blair government has been devolution in both Scotland and Wales. One of the first acts of the first Blair Government was to hold referendums about devolution in Scotland and Wales, in November 1997. These showed clear support for devolution in Scotland, and, following this result, the 1998 Scotland Act established a separate parliament for Scotland with devolved responsibilities in most domestic areas ; The first Scottish Parliament was elected in May 1999. The referendum in Wales also supported devolution, but by a narrow majority and with a small electoral turnout [8] ; accordingly a Welsh National Assembly was established, but with much more limited powers than the Scottish Parliament.

Northern Ireland

"Don't believe anyone who says the British people don't care about the peace process. People in my country care deeply about it, are willing it to work. And in our two countries, it is not just the politicians who have a role to play. No one should ignore the injustices of the past, or the lessons of history. But too often between us, one person's history has been another person's myth. We need not be prisoners of our history." (Tony Blair, speaking to the Irish Parliament, November 1998)

From the 1970's to 1997, more than 3,000 people were killed in Northern Ireland as a result of conflict between nationalist paramilitary groups (mainly the Irish Republican Army - the IRA) and the police and security forces of Northern Ireland, and the British troops that were sent to support those forces, and as a result of terrorist actions by the IRA against civilians. The Thatcher Government had made serious attempts to reach a political settlement of this conflict but by May 1997, this "Peace process" seemed to have been derailed; talks had broken down, and the IRA had abandoned its cease-fire. Tony Blair made resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland a priority of his Government, and just two weeks after being elected he made a high profile visit to Northern Ireland to give the go-ahead for new talks. In July 1997, the IRA resumed its ceasefire to allow representatives of Sinn Fein (the main nationalist political party and the political arm of the IRA) to take part in negotiations with the Ulster Unionist parties, and with the British and Irish governments. These negotiations, with the involvement also of the Irish government and at times facilitated by the involvement of American politicians (and particularly Bill Clinton, with whom Tony Blair maintained a very close personal friendship), led to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. That agreement called for a power sharing government of Northern Ireland, conditional on a permanent end to the armed conflict, and disarmament of the paramilitary groups. However, it was opposed on the one hand by the Democratic Unionist party headed by the Reverend Ian Paisley as a sell-out of the majority Protestant unionist population to the terror tactics of the IRA, and on the other side led to a breakaway extremist faction of the IRA - the so-called "real IRA" that briefly resumed terrorist actions. Thus mutual distrust between the two communities of Northern Ireland was slow to recede; nevertheless, the process led to the historic renunciation of armed conflict by the IRA, and to their disarmament[9]. On May 9th, 2007, Ian Paisley was sworn in as the First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein was sworn in as his deputy. At the ceremony, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern praised Blair as a "true friend of peace and a true friend of Ireland," and for "the true determination that he had, for just sticking with it, for 10 tough years." [10]

Europe

"I believe in Europe as a political project. I believe in Europe with a strong and caring social dimension. I would never accept a Europe that was simply an economic market. .. Political Europe and economic Europe do not live in separate rooms. "Tony Blair, speech to the EU parliament, 2005 [11]

Tony Blair was, in his speeches, a passionate pro-European, a strong supporter of the European Union and a supporter of its enlargement to include the newly democratic countries of Eastern Europe. He was also a strong proponent of the euro, favouring Britain joining the new common European currency at the earliest feasible opportunity after a referendum of the British people. However, to realise this intent meant overcoming the increasing skepticism of the British public - a skepticism that increased as the British economy flourished while those of its European neighbours faltered. Crucially, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequor and Blair's key partner in Government, refused to countenance joining the euro until the economic conditions were "right", setting six conditions that had first to be met. In essence, Brown declared that monetory union would disrupt Britain's economy unless, by then, the economies of Britain and the EU had converged, with similar interest rates and inflation rates. However, as Britain's economy continued to outpace that of the EU, the prospects of Britain joining the euro seem to have receded since 1997. Tony Blair's aquiescience to Gordon Brown in this frustrated some of the most ardent pro-Europeans, particularly those in the Liberal Democrat party, who felt that the long-term political (and long-term economic)benefits of greater European Union outweighed any short-term economic consequences; these felt that after 1997 Tony Blair's personal standing was so high that he would have won any referendum despite the hostility of the media and despite the deep reservations of large parts of the British electorate.

The USA - the special relationships

"And our job, my nation that watched you grow, that you fought alongside and now fights alongside you, that takes enormous pride in our alliance and great affection in our common bond, our job is to be there with you. You are not going to be alone." (Tony Blair, speech to the U.S. Congress accepting the Congressional Gold Medal, July 2003)[12] "I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle.... He's bigger than that. This is just background noise, a distraction from big things...Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair 'jump' and Blair saying 'how high?' but that's just not the way it works. It's a relationship where we say were both going to jump together." (George Bush, interview with the Sun newspaper June 2007 quoted by CBS News [13]

In the wake of World War II, Winston Churchill spoke of fostering a "special relationship" between Britain and the USA, as a bulwark against the threat of communist expansion into an unsettled Europe.[14] For all British Prime Ministers since, maintaining a strong alliance with the USA has seemed to be a major priority of foreign policy, one which has sometimes caused discontent among Britain's European neighbours, who have at times and for various reasons felt threatened by the "Anglo-Saxon" alliance. The obvious political affinities between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair made it natural perhaps that they would become friends as well as political allies[15]. Together, they tried to create a new political center ground under the banner of “the third way.” In alliance, they launched the Operation Desert Fox bombing raids in Iraq in 1998, and took NATO to war against Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo in 1999. When the Monica Lewinsky story broke in the press, Blair stood by Clinton; when asked if this was not “politically risky” he said of Clinton, “I have found him throughout someone I could trust, someone I could rely upon, someone I am proud to call not just a colleague, but a friend … And my belief is that the right thing to say is what you feel.”[16]

This closeness to Clinton posed a clear problem when George Bush was elected as president of the USA. Whereas the Democrats had forged links with the Labour Party, the Republicans had forged links with the Conservatives, this, and Bush's clear antipathy towards Clinton did not bode well for the special relationship.

However, regardless of any personal friendship for Clinton, Blair rapidly set about forming an equally strong relationship with Bush - and was remarkably successful in doing so. After the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, Blair committed Britain to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the USA against terrorism, and backed that up by sending large numbers of British troops to Afghanistan. The next month, in a powerful address to the Labour Party conference, Blair said of the American people: "We were with you at the first. We will stay with you till the last."

Economy

"The longest period of economic growth since records began, an economy now bigger than that of Italy and France. The lowest unemployment and highest employment rate of any of our competitors for the first time since the 1950s. Living standards up, for everyone, and for the poorest up most. The biggest reductions in child poverty and biggest increases in investment for decades." (Tony Blair's claimed achievements, speech to the Labour Part conference, 2004 [17]

Underpinning the Blair government's increase in public spending on education and health without raising the level of income tax was a sustained period of economic growth, sometimes credited to the Chancellor Gordon Brown. A key element of this is believed to be the early decision of the Blair government to devolve the power to set interest rates to an independent body - the Bank of England, subject only to politically determined objectives for the rate of inflation and the overall level of public spending. This decision meant in practice that interest rates could no longer be manipulated by the government in power to produce a 'false' economic boom for mere electoral reasons, and led to a steady low level of inflation, and a steady, stable rate of economic growth.

Iraq

“This is not the time to falter. This is the time for this house, not just this government or indeed this prime minister, but for this house to give a lead, to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk, to show at the moment of decision that we have the courage to do the right thing." Tony Blair, speech to the House of Commons, March 2003, moving the motion to approve military involvement in Iraq. "We are supposed to admire the Prime Minister because he is a man without doubts and one shorn of scepticism—two of the greatest qualities that the British people have. He just knows that he is right and is therefore prepared to ignore the advice of virtually all the leaders of the great religions in the world, including the Pope and our own archbishop. I find that approach rather frightening." Brian Sedgemoor MP, opposing the motion[18]

Tony Blair’s single biggest political problem by far was his support for military action to displace Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He justified this policy by his repeated declarations that he believed the evidence of British and American intelligence sources that Saddam Hussein possessed and was further accumulating Weapons of Mass Destruction that posed a serious and imminent threat to the security of the world. He tried vigorously to persuade the United Nations to act collectively against Saddam Hussain, but when they failed to endorse collective action, he supported the US decision to invade Iraq regardless, believing, that the consequences of a unilateral military action by the US would be inevitably graver than those of a multilateral action, however limited the involvement of other countries.

The decision to support Iraq was supported by the opposition Conservative opponent and opposed mainly by a minority of rebels within the Labour party. However, the outcome of the invasion of Iraq, and the failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction, profoundly affected Tony Blair’s credibility and his popularity, as a general perception grew that Blair had misled the UK parliament and public. In September 2004, during the Labour Party annual conference, the London Evening Standard reported details of a leaked Pentagon briefing paper, "Operation Iraqi Freedom: Strategic Lessons Learned"[19]. The document shows that the Pentagon had finalized its Operational Battle Plan for the Iraq war in October 2002, at a time when Blair was declaring that no decisions had been made about whether to go to war.

Nevertheless, in May 2005 Tony Blair won a third general election for Labour, but with a much reduced overall majority of 64 seats. In his own Sedgefield constituency though, Blair won with a majority of 18,457 votes. [20]

Resignation and departure as Prime Minister

Resignation announcement

10th May 2007 marked the official announcement of the end of Blair's premiership, with a departure date set for the following 27th June. In a speech made in his Sedgefield constituency, Blair announced a timetable for leaving office, paving the way for his successor Gordon Brown after over ten years of power. In words that emphasised his domestic record more than his international influence, Blair credited his government with lowering crime, stabilising the economy and improving public services; he also emphasised that it had placed the UK at the forefront of fighting terrorism, tackling climate change and providing aid to troubled regions such as Africa. Often accused of having a fervently religious approach to wider issues, he also remained committed to the view that time would see his decision-making vindicated:

I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong, that's your call, but I did what I thought was right for our country.

An apology for his most-criticised activities was unforthcoming. In concluding, however, Blair admitted that he had made unspecified mistakes:

My apologies to you for the times I've fallen short. But good luck.

Final acts as Prime Minister

Tony Blair's final appearances as an international politician were at the 2007 Group of Eight (G8) summit held between some of the world's most economically powerful states, and a meeting of the European Council of European Union countries. These actions would be expected from a premiership often strongly focused on issues outside the UK's borders, though Blair's intention to bring the country closer to its European partners was not entirely fulfilled. Back in Britain, Blair's final days as Prime Minister saw his name rarely out of the national press: he called the media a "feral beast" while admitting his government's early desire to 'spin' stories may have aggravated this issue; and he strongly criticised the proposed academic boycott on Israeli universities in one of his final performances in the UK's lower house of parliament. As for the upper house, he reaffirmed his view that the House of Lords should remain appointed rather than elected.

Departure

27th June 2007 saw Tony Blair resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; his final act in office was to appear for the usual weekly questions to the premier in the House of Commons, where political friends and foe alike paid tribute to some of his record, such as continuing the work towards long-term peace in Northern Ireland. Blair conceded that he had "never pretended to be a great House of Commons man", acknowledging the view that his tenure had seen moves to sideline Parliament; and he apologised for the dangers British troops faced in Iraq. His words of farewell underlined the finality of the event:

I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end.

Immediately after leaving office, Blair severed his final link with UK domestic politics by stepping down as Member of Parliament for Sedgefield, a constituency he represented in the British parliament from 1983 until his appointment as a Middle East envoy in 2007.

External links

• tonyblairoffice.org - Official site with details of Tony Blair's post-Downing Street career.
• Tony Blair archive - official record of Tony Blair's speeches, films and podcasts from the UK Prime Minister's website.
• The Blair Years 1997-2007 - BBC articles covering major events of Tony Blair's premiership, with analysis.
• The New York Times - Includes short biography and links to NY Times articles relating to Tony Blair.
• BBC News - recording of Tony Blair's final appearance for Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament

See also

• List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
• Gordon Brown
• George W. Bush