Tony Blair

Tony Blair at a Labour Party meeting in 2005.

Tony Blair (born 6th May 1953) served as Labour Party Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007; he won general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005, the first two by landslide majorities. Internationally, he was best known for his action in making the United Kingdom an active partner in the American-led war in Iraq. He spearheaded NATO action in Kosovo, and promoted worldwide concern about the state of Africa, which he famously called "a scar on the conscience of the world". Domestically, his legacy included the formal abandonment of the Labour party's former commitment to state ownership of major industries, the introduction of devolved government in Scotland and Wales and a reintroduction of devolved government to Northern Ireland. As Prime minister, he entered office with an unusually high level of popular approbation, but ended his ten years in office with an unusually low standing among most of the British public. He resigned from both office and Parliament in June 2007, handing over to his colleague, Gordon Brown. He is now an envoy for the Quartet on the Middle East, working to bring about a 'two-state' solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, while also acting as adviser to various organisations. He founded a faith-based organisation in 2008 dedicated to promoting what it regards as the merits of religion as one solution to worldwide conflict.

Early life

"...he was an expert at testing the rules to the limit, and I wouldn't swear that he stuck rigidly to the rules on not drinking, smoking or breaking bounds. But he was a live wire and fun to have around." Eric Anderson, Tony Blair's housemaster at Fettes "He even wanted to rehearse." Mark Ellen, member of the band Ugly Rumours, on lead singer Tony Blair's ambitions to be a rock musician.

The second son of Leo Blair and Hazel Blair, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born on 6th May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has an elder brother, William, who is a barrister and a Queen's Counsel (QC), and a younger sister, Sarah. The family lived first in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of the city.

Leo Blair was the illegitimate son of two travelling variety performers, Celia Rideway (a singer and dancer) and Charles Parsons (a comedian and escapologist whose stage name 'Jimmy Lynton' is remembered in Tony Blair's middle names). Leo was first fostered and then adopted by friends Mary and James Blair, who raised Leo in the Govan area of Glasgow. James Blair was a shipyard worker, and Mary Blair was an active Communist, who was known for vandalising walls with left-wing graffiti; nevertheless, Blair would later draw upon his family history to speak of his adoptive grandmother's time as an era of "respect" and an inspiration for his community policy of the same name, which aimed to tackle 'anti-social behaviour' (such as graffiti). Blair's use of 1930's Govan as an example of a strong community was strongly criticised by some former residents, who recalled an impoverished area, blighted by crime, and Mary Blair as a strong supporter of peace movements and and socialism.

Hazel Blair 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.

Between 1955 and 1959, Leo and Hazel Blair and the infant Tony lived in Australia, where Leo lectured in law at the University of Adelaide. On returning to the UK, they lived for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather, William McClay, and her mother in Stepps, near Glasgow, until Leo found a job as a lecturer at Durham University. Tony spent the rest of his childhood in Durham, England, where he attended Durham's Chorister School. Leo had political ambitions - as a youth he had been secretary of the Scottish Young Communist League - but he became chairman of the local Conservative association, and began to campaign as a Conservative candidate for Parliament; during this campaign, in 1963, Leo had a stroke that left him partially paralysed.

With his father disabled, Blair was sent to Fettes College, an elite private boarding school in Edinburgh. 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." Nevertheless, he was once given "six of the best" for persistently flouting the school rules, and was was threatened with expulsion..

After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, supporting himself by stacking shelves at Barkers food hall, in Kensington, before entering Oxford University to study jurisprudence at St John's College. As a student, he played guitar and was lead singer for a rock band called 'Ugly Rumours', something he appeared to take quite seriously. Just after graduating from Oxford with a second class degree, his mother Hazel died of cancer, which appears to have affected Blair greatly. He began to develop a more thoughtful side, started talking about left wing politics, and became more serious about his Christian faith, taking confirmation classes.

Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn, the oldest of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong. While enrolled as a pupil barrister, specialising in employment and commercial law, Blair was introduced by his mentor Derry Irvine to Cherie Booth (daughter of actor Tony Booth). Tony Blair married Cherie, a practising Roman Catholic on 29th March 1980; Cherie was a high-flying barrister, with a first class degree in law, who was to become a Queen's Counsel.

Unusually among students in the early 1970s, Blair seems to have avoided drugs, and there are few reports of him being incapacitated by drink. However, he smoked cigarettes, a habit that Cherie made him give up; he smoked his last cigarette fifteen minutes before their wedding.

Tony and Cherie have four children (Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo). Leo (born 20th 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 11th July 1849.

Political outlook

Although he seldom spoke of his religious beliefs, Tony Blair has said that his political outlook is inseparable from them. His awareness of religion was stimulated while he was at Oxford by Peter Thomson (an Anglican priest and mature student at the time) of whom he has written "whatever good that I have done, he inspired it". Peter Thomson introduced him to the works of the little-known Scottish philosopher John Macmurray, including an analysis of the relation between the individual and the state that is in many ways similar to communitarianism. Tony Blair came to see the state as a means of helping the individual to "overcome limitations unfairly imposed by poverty, poor education, poor health, housing and welfare". That belief persisted throughout his political career, but his perception of how to achieve those objectives underwent considerable change. He saw the Labour party as a potential instrument for their achievement, but only if it discarded much of its existing ideology.

.. there were clear pointers to future policy: a tough line on antisocial behaviour; investment and reform in public services; pro-Europe and pro US; opportunity and responsibility together in welfare; encouragement for small- and medium-sized enterprises; and even-handedness between business and labour ... Tony Blair A Journey, page 94.

Even in 1983, when he had ideas on nationalisation that he would later have viewed with derision, he had seen his party as "out of its time" and he was soon to decide to leave it if it did not change. He knew little at that time about the practice of politics, but was to learn much from the following ten years of close association with the more experienced Gordon Brown, of whom he has written "he taught me the business of politics in roughly the same way as Derry taught me the business of the Bar". In the course of that ten-year association, they evolved an essentially pragmatic set of proposals for reform that were to guide their campaign to modernise their party's policy programme (see box).

Early party and parliamentary career

Soon after graduating from Oxford in 1975, Tony Blair joined the Labour Party, and ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1982 in the safe Conservative constituency of Beaconsfield. At the 1983 UK general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield, County Durham. He and Gordon Brown were recognised by the party leadership as the most able of the new entry of MPs and they were soon appointed to posts in support of its Shadow Cabinet, and in 1988 Tony Blair joined the shadow cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Employment. In that rôle, he gained the party's acceptance of the European Union's Social Charter and by doing so, ended its support for the closed shop. Throughout this time, he was developing a reputation as a moderniser, frequently appearing in the media. Although he supported Neil Kinnock's successful fight, as party leader, against the party's left-wing extremists, Tony Blair became impatient with the pace of change and he tried unsuccessfully to persuade John Smith to challenge Neil Kinnock's leadership (and subsequently to persuade Gordon Brown to challenge John Smith's leadership). By 1992, after the party had been defeated in a succession of four general elections, many of its members had come to accept that its policies had to change because they were making it unelectable. That was not enough for Tony Blair, however: he advocated change "not because we have to, but because we want to".

When John Smith died unexpectedly in 1994, Gordon Brown confidently expected to succeed him, but Tony Blair had come to believe that he had something that Gordon Brown lacked, and they became potential rivals for the leadership. But it became evident that Gordon Brown had no chance of victory over Tony Blair, and after a series of meetings that Tony Blair has described as difficult but not unfriendlly, Gordon Brown agreed to step aside and support Tony Blair's candidature.

Leader of the Labour Party, 1994-2007

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 leader in July 1994, and in 1995 he persuaded the party to amend its constitution. At its annual conference that year, it duly voted to amend clause IV of its constitution (see box), which had been in place since 1918. There was a recognition that, although it no longer played a significant part in the party's policies, that formal commitment to nationalisation had been a factor in its unpopularity. For Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the amendment which removed it symbolised a set of policies that they were determined that the party should adopt, and which they termed "New Labour". The new policies were to include the acceptance of Margaret Thatcher's trade union law; acceptance of the Conservative governments' privatisations of the public utilities; renewed investment in, and reform of, the public services; and even-handedness between business and labour. That package was eventually accepted - with some reluctance - by the party's National Executive Committee.

Election campaign

Having won over the Labour party, Tony Blair's next task was to win over the electorate. He had himself become well-known and popular, but the public were suspicious of his party's policies. To impress upon the electorate the fact that there had been a genuine change of policy, the party adopted five pledges: not to raise income tax, to cut class sizes, to reduce health service waiting lists, and to stick to their predecessors spending plans for two years. The marketing techniques that had been introduced by Saatchi and Saatchi to the Conservative party's 1979 campaign were extended by a team of enthusiastic amateurs, including the former journalist, Alastair Campbell. A factor in the party's 1992 defeat was thought to have been the influence of a hostile press and, in particular, the humiliating treatment suffered by Neil Kinnock at the hands of the high-circulation Sun newspaper. Campbell was convinced of the need to avoid a repetition, and he and Tony Blair devoted much effort to winning over those newspapers that had been hostile to Labour. They succeeded in persuading The Sun, but none of the others, to change sides. In fact the evidence suggests that, although intensely partisan, the British press does not have much influence upon election outcomes, and it does not seem likely that their success affected the outcome.

The outcome of the election broke a number of records. More Labour MPs (419) were elected than ever before, and the Conservatives were left with fewer seats (165) than at any time since 1906. In terms of votes, however, the result was unremarkable. At 44.4 per cent, Labour's share of the vote was lower than at any election between 1945 and 1966, and its lead over the Conservatives was less than that secured by the Conservatives over Labour in 1983 . The apparent success of the campaign team's efforts was to have a continuing influence, however. Throughout most of his premiership, Tony Blair was to rely more upon the team of Campbell, Powell, Hunter, Morgan, Mandelson and Gould, than upon his senior political colleagues. Campaigning techniques, such as the use of an instant rebuttal team to counter inaccurate reports and comments, were continued in support of Tony Blair's fear that the party's electoral lead could be lost and that a single term in office would not enable him to push through his wished-for reforms. A process was set in motion that came to be known as "continuous campaigning".

Prime Minister: a new style of government

The machinery of government

We do not suggest that there is or should be an ideal or unchangeable system of collective Government, still less that procedures are in aggregate any less effective now than in earlier times. However, we are concerned that the informality and circumscribed character of the Government’s procedures which we saw in the context of policy-making towards Iraq risks reducing the scope for informed collective political judgement." Report of the Hutton Inquiry[6] page 146.

The conduct of decision-making during Tony Blair's premiership was a major departure from that tradition. Margaret Thatcher - who he admired - was known to have preferred to use the Cabinet only to provide formal assent to decisions that she had taken in consultation with small groups of like-minded ministerial colleagues. Tony Blair went further, seldom consulting the Cabinet about decisions that he had taken in conjunction only with his personal team, or with Gordon Brown. The traditional function of the Cabinet Office was to maintain a record of government decisions, to serve as the Prime Minister's staff and to coordinate the work of the civil service in carrying out the government's instructions. Tony Blair seldom used them for any of those purposes. In the British constitutional tradition, a government's decisions are the product, first of deliberation by the Cabinet, and then of approval by Parliament.

Increasingly, Prime Ministers are like CEOs or chairmen of major companies. They have to set policy direction; they have to see it is followed; they have to get data on whether it is; they have to measure outcomes Tony Blair A Journey page 338.

Prime Ministers have traditionally played no part in the delivery of policy measures, but Tony Blair wanted access to the information needed to monitor that process. When his staff found it difficult to get access to departmental records or to the records of the Treasury-managed Public Service Agreements system, he set up his own Delivery Unit with direct access to government departments. He also set up a Policy Unit and a Strategy Unit to provide him with independent policy research and development reports. He was seldom satisfied with the outcome.

The Blair/Brown partnership

Ultimately, though the relentless personal pressure from Gordon was wearing, it actually troubled me far less than they (or perhaps he) ever realised. And it was in many ways a far less less toxic and deadly opposition than might have been the case. So was he difficult, at times maddening? Yes. But he was also strong, capable and brilliant, and those were qualities for which I never lost respect. Tony Blair A Journey pages 499-500.

Tony Blair's relationship with Gordon Brown had a major influence upon his decision-making. Their partnership as Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer was closer and longer-lasting than any that had gone before. Much of what passed between them is known only to them, but it is clear from such information that is available that their relationship was at times intensely productive, and at times intensely counterproductive. In the opinion of Tony Blair's biographer, Anthony Seldon, its productive aspects were by far the more important although, at the time, the public were made aware only of its negative aspects.

On some issues, each went his own way (the Good Friday agreement, Kosovo and education for Blair; economic growth and welfare for Brown) but both remained committed to the policy framework that they had worked out in opposition, and they always sought and obtained each other's agreement on other issues. Tony Blair's memoirs contain fewer than a dozen references to most of his other ministerial colleagues, but over fifty references to his dealings with Gordon Brown.

Public relations

Labour’s past experience of handling the media, and its belief that government communications staff were not up to the mark, saw a rise in the media handling role of politically appointed, unelected special advisers. Their more aggressive approach and their increased use of selective briefing of media outlets, in which government information was seen to be being used to political advantage, led to a reaction from the media that has produced a far more adversarial relationship with government. Report of the Phillis Review of Government Communications, 2004

A third distinguishing feature of Tony Blair's premiership was its counterproductive attempt to preserve its initial popularity. The independent Phillis review of government communications reported in 2004 that there had been a "three-way breakdown in trust between government and politicians, the media and the general public" that had been attributed by contributors to the communications strategy adopted by the Government in 1997 and the reaction of the media to it.

On taking office in 1997, Tony Blair had decided that the staff of the Government Information Service was not up to its task, and he conferred powers upon his press secretary, Alastair Campbell to give them instructions on media management and to recruit political advisers to help them. Under Campbell's leadership they adopted the methods developed by Tony Blair's team that were believed to have contributed to the Labour party's election victory. Campbell is reported to have told them that he wanted them to forecast what would be on the front page of next day's Sun, and help to write it. On his instructions, they took to rewarding favourable reporting with preferential access to information and punishing adverse reporting by witholding access. In his own twice-daily press briefings, Campbell himself adopted an agressive manner that some journalists resented. An atmosphere of suspicion developed and a there was a growing tendency to dismiss government statements as "spin" (an ill-defined term that had by then acquired an implied connotation of misinformation). Tony Blair is reported to have said in 1998 that he feared that he was "suffering more from spin doctoring than benefitting from it", and by 2001 Roy Jenkins was advocating Campbell's dismissal, but Campbell remained until 2003, and accusations of spin and deception intensified.

Prime Minister: the new policies

Domestic policy

Social Policies

In his election campaign, Tony Blair had been anxious to escape from the Labour party's reputation for "tax-and-spend" domestic policies and he wanted instead to establish, a reputation for fiscal prudence. He had undertaken in general terms to modernise the welfare state, but he had avoided undertaking to reduce poverty, achieve full employment, or reverse the increase in inequality that had occurred during the Thatcher administration. Once in office, however, his government launched a package of social policies designed to reduce unemployment and poverty. The commitment to modernise the welfare state was tackled by the introduction of "welfare to work" programmes to motivate the unemployed to return to work instead of drawing benefit. Poverty reduction programmes were targetted on specific groups, including children and the elderly, and took the form of what were termed "New Deals". There were also new tax credit allowances for low-income and single-parent families with children, and "Sure Start" progammes for under-fours in deprived areas. A "National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal" was launched in 2001 with the objective of ensuring that “within 10 to 20 years no-one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live"; a "Social Exclusion Unit" was set up, and annual progress reports concerning the reduction of poverty and social exclusion were commissioned.

Public service reform

Efficiency

The Civil Service had and has great strengths. It was and is impartial, It is, properly directed, a formidable machine. At times of crisis, superb. Its people are intelligent, hard working and dedicated to the public service. It was simply, like much else, out of date. Faced with big challenges it thought small thoughts. It reckoned in increments when the system required leads and bounds" Tony Blair A Journey, page 206

Throughout his premiership, Tony Blair was preoccupied with the reform of the public services, which he considered to have been suffering from underinvestment and inefficiency. He had little confidence in the ability of the civil service to introduce the necessary changes, and he repeatedly called upon private sector assistance. The government's commitment to deficit reduction precluded reinvestment during his first term, and he concentrated on improving efficiency by setting up a Performance and Innovation Unit which placed mixed teams of private sector management experts and civil servants in government departments. With the easing of fiscal restraint in his second and third terms, public sector annual investment was restored to late-'70s levels, but the increases were usually made conditional upon productivity gains using the Treasury's new Public Service Agreement system. The eminent industrialist, Sir Peter Gershon was asked to lead an independent review of public sector efficiency and efficiency targets were set. There are several references in his memoirs to Tony Blair's frustration with the results achieved. His discontent with progress made in his first term led to his creation of the Delivery Unit led by Sir Michael Barber and his first expression of satisfaction was with the results achieved by that unit during his second term.

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

Tony Blair introduced a fundamental change in the rôle of government in education. Before 1988, governments had confined themselves to introducing legislation and allocating funds. Then, in 1988, the Education Act introduced a national curriculum and national tests at 7, 11 and 14, but left implementation in the hands of local education authorities. Under Tony Blair's premiership, the government assumed responsibility for delivery by setting targets and monitoring outcomes. Among the reforms that were introduced were a reduction in class sizes, the creation of a professional standards body for teachers and a training college for head teachers, measures for dealing with failing schools and the introduction of tuition fees for university students. The reforms were financed by an increase in public expenditure on education from £29 billion in 1997 to £60 billion in 2007. The outcomes are summarised in the paragraph on outcomes below, and criticisms of the reforms are summarised in the paragraph on criticisms.

Health

"The Review has concluded that the UK must expect to devote a significantly larger share of its national income to health care over the next 20 years. It has projected the likely costs of reversing the significant cumulative underinvestment over past decades, to catch up with the standards of care seen in other countries ..." Wanless review of UK healthcare, 2002.

From the start of his premiership, Tony Blair took a personal interest in the reform of the National Health Service. He was concerned that it was achieving less than other rich countries in cancer treatment and the treatment of heart disease, and that within the United Kingdom there were large regional variations. Within the first year he announced a radical reorganisation aimed at raising quality standards, increasing efficiency, and driving performance, and in 1999 he set up the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to provide professional guidance, and set national quality standards. He was also concerned by what he considered to be his predecessors' underinvestment in health, and in 1999 he announced the intention of raising the government's health expenditure (then at about 5.7 per cent of GDP) to the European Union average (then about 8.4 per cent of GDP) within three years. The outcomes are again summarised in the paragraph on outcomes below, and criticisms of the reforms are summarised in the paragraph on criticisms.

=Crime prevention

The Labour party's traditional approach to the problem of crime was to tackle the social conditions to which it could be attributed, but Tony Blair wanted to go further. He wanted to augment existing crime prevention policies with measures to deal with the low-level anti-social behaviour and vandalism that he saw as a cause of fear and anger for poorer families. On Gordon Brown' suggestion, he adopted the slogan "Tough on Crime. Tough on the Causes of Crime" to signal the adoption of both approaches. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was largely the expression of that approach. It created the Youth Justice Board within the Home Office to provide expert advice on the treatment of young offenders, and introduced measures to strengthen parents' legal responsibility for the conduct of their offspring. More controversially it provided for the use of "Acceptable Behaviour Contracts" (agreements under taken from perpetrators to desist from specified practices) and "Antisocial Behaviour Orders" (orders to desist, a breach of which could lead to prosecution); and a range of other provisions followed.

Economic policy

New Labour came into power at a time when the post-war controversies concerning the management of the economy had been largely resolved. As shadow chancellor, Gordon Brown had discussed economic policy with US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and had adopted the tenets of the Greenspan era. Following Alan Greenspan's advice, it was decided to abandon money supply targets, to instruct the Bank of England to target monetary policy directly upon inflation targets to be determined by the government, and to grant it freedom in its month-to-month execution. It was also decided to adopt a policy of fiscal stability by prescribing a limit upon the budget deficit, averaged over the economic cycle, and to confine the use of deficits to the financing of investment. Economic growth remained an objective but it was assumed that it could be achieved by encouraging innovation and the rewarding of enterprise and by punishing anticompetitive behaviour.

The outcomes of those policy decisions are summarised below in the paragraph headed outcomes.

Northern Ireland

"It's not a day for sort of soundbites, really. We can leave those at home. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder." Tony Blair, during talks to secure the 'Good Friday' Belfast Agreement, 7th April 1998 "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, 26th November 1998 This weekend, Tony Blair has pulled off his last great act of seduction. After a decade of whispering sweet-nothings to seductees such as Bill Clinton, George Bush, Paddy Ashdown, Rupert Murdoch and, oh yes, the British electorate, he has sealed his career as a Westminster Cassanova with his most frigid bedding yet: the Reverend Ian Paisley. Johann Hari, writing in The Independent, 26th　March 2007

From the 1970's to 1997, more than 3,000 people were killed in Northern Ireland as a result of conflict between Republican paramilitary groups (mainly the Irish Republican Army - the IRA), Loyalist paramilitary groups (mainly the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force) and the police and security forces of Northern Ireland, and the British troops that were sent to support those forces. The Thatcher Government, and Thatcher's successor John Major, 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 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 one side 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 and which still poses a terrorist threat.

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. On May 9th, 2007, Ian Paisley was sworn in as the First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, once a prominent IRA commander, 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."

On 1st August 2007, the last British troops stationed in Northern Ireland to support the police there were withdrawn. At the height of the Troubles in 1972, 30,000 troops were stationed there, and 763 died there.

Foreign policy

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 [7] "You have been very rude, and I have never been spoken to like this before." Then French President Jacques Chirac, to Tony Blair, at the EU enlargement summit in Brussels, October 2002 "Africa is worth fighting for. Europe, in its present form, is not." Tony Blair, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, 6th June 2005

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. In 1998, he signed the UK's agreement to the European Charter of Fundamental Social Rights, which had been adopted as policy by EU Governments in 1989 but not signed by the UK, as the legislation on worker's rights that it entailed had been opposed by the previous Conservative government. He was also a strong proponent of the euro, favouring the UK 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, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Blair's key partner in Government, refused to countenance joining the euro until the economic conditions were "right", setting five conditions that had first to be met, In essence, Brown declared that monetory union would disrupt the UK'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. Blair's aquiescience to Gordon Brown in this frustrated some of the most ardent pro-Europeans, particularly those in the Liberal Democrat party,[8] 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 reservations of large parts of the British electorate.

Blair's negotiations with other EU leaders however were marked by frequent disagreements notably about the Common Agricultural Policy, and about the size of the UK's contributions to the EU budget. Blair's relationship with French President Jacques Chirac in particular was notably frosty.

The United States - the special relationship

"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[9] "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 W. Bush, interview with the Sun newspaper June 2007 quoted by CBS News [10]

In the wake of World War II, Winston Churchill spoke of fostering a "special relationship" between the UK and the USA, as a bulwark against the threat of communist expansion into an unsettled Europe. 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 the UK'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.Together, they tried to create a new political centre 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.”

Blair with American President George W. Bush, 2005. Blair had good relations with the United States during both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

This closeness to Clinton posed a clear problem when George W. 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 the UK 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 an 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."

In 2003, The U.S. Congress awarded Blair the Congressional Gold medal On July 18 2003 Tony Blair gave his acceptance speech to the joint Houses of Congress, a speech that included the gentle reminder to his audience, "As Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible, but, in fact, it is transient."

Military intervention

"All Members shall refrain...from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..." Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations, 1945. "Based on our reading of state practice, Security Council precedent, established norms, emerging guiding principles, and evolving customary international law, the Commission believes that the Charter’s strong bias against military intervention is not to be regarded as absolute when decisive action is required on human protection grounds." "Where a population is suffering serious harm as a result of internal war, repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the principle of non-intervention gives way to the international responsibility to protect" Report of an International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, December 2001

At an early stage in his premiership, Tony Blair had to work out his attitude to the contentious issue of military intervention in the affairs of other sovereign states. Such intervention had been explicitly forbidden by Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations (see box), but there had been 17 genocides in the course of the following forty years, and there had already been United Nations interventions on humanitarian grounds. Tony Blair's conclusion was a combination of humanitarianism and pragmatism. In a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago in 1999, he set out his five considerations:

- First, are we sure of our case?

- Second, have we exhausted all diplomatic options?

- Third, are there military operations that we can sensibly undertake?

- Fourth, are we prepared for the long term?

- Finally, are our national interests involved?

For Tony Blair, it was the humanitarian case that came first - a view that was later endorsed by an international commission (see box) - in contrast to the conventional foreign policy of avoiding intervention except in the national interest. But he acknowledged and respected the many who strongly disagreed: "The opposite view... is not the product of moral disability; it is born from a perfectly natural reservation about the unforseeable ramifications of ...intervention". He did not denigrate that view but argued that non-intervention also had unforeseeable ramifications. Non-intervention in Bosnia in the early 1990s may have seemed sensible at the time but it had led Milosevic to believe that he could get away with ethnic cleansing in Kosovo as he had in Srebrenica.

Prime minister: the record

First term in office, 1997-2001

Overview

Tony Blair's first term mainly addressed issues which required no increase in public spending, such as devolved government in Scotland and Wales (see below), and the Freedom of Information Act. A minimum wagewas introduced for the first time in the UK. The Government also attempted to reform the House of Lords - the second chamber of the UK parliament, which is involved mainly in scrutinising, revising and amending legislation, although it can also initiate legislation. Until 1997, members of the Lords were mainly hereditary '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 amendment tabled in the Lords allows 92 hereditary peers to remain pending further reform. 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 controversial 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.

The first term was not without controversy. Six months into his premiership, Labour was hit by sleaze allegations over a party donation of £1 million given by the boss of Formula One motor racing, Bernie Ecclestone. The government was planning to ban tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events, but exempted Formula One shortly after the money was received. Blair denied any wrongdoing, and Labour promptly returned the money, with the exemption remaining.

Devolution

Politically, one of the legacies of the Blair government has been devolution in Scotland and Wales and the reintroduction of devolution (under forced coalition) to Northern Ireland. 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; accordingly a Welsh National Assembly was established, but with much more limited responsibilities than the Scottish Parliament.

Second term in office, 2001-2005

Overview

Tony 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.

The Labour Party manifesto for the general election made five key pledges four of which made clear the intent to raise public spending. The pledges were: to keep inflation low; to employ 10,000 more teachers; to employ 20,000 more nurses and 10,000 more doctors; to recruit 6,000 more police; and to raise the minimum wage.

This second successive landslide victory gave Blair overwhelming personal authority not only in Parliament but also within the Labour Party, and he used this authority to press the Party to further embrace free market economic principles

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, opening address to the House of Commons, March 2003 [11]

In April 2002, Tony Blair learned that President George Bush was considering an invasion of Iraq. An invasion for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein had been authorised by the United States Congress in 1998, and previously, on conditions that had since been met, by the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 678 in 1991, and President Bush considered that his removal would serve the purpose of his announced "war on terrorism". In his memoirs, Tony Blair recalls that he had also become convinced of the desireability of removing Saddam Hussain, but that, in view of international opposition to the idea, he had persuaded President Bush of the prior need for a confirmatory United Nations Resolution. A draft resolution was duly submitted and after a joint French/Russian amendment ruling out an immediate invasion had been defeated, was unanimously approved as Security Council Resolution 1441 in November 2002. However, while confirming Resolution 678, the new resolution did not refer specifically to the use of force, and it remained possible to argue that an intermediate resolution (Resolution 687) had put military action on hold. In view of that uncertainty, Tony Blair sought legal advice and was told by the Attorney General, that it would be advisable for safety's sake to obtain a second confirmatory resolution, although in his opinion an invasion would still be legal without one. In the meantime, representatives of France and Russia had announced their intention to veto any further resolution.

Before finally committing the country to military action in Iraq, Tony Blair took the unprecedented steps of publishing the available military intelligence about Iraq, and seeking the approval of parliament. The report of the Joint Intelligence Committee stated that Saddam Hussein still possessed the "weapons of mass destruction" that had been referred to in the United Nations Resolutions. Also, in a passage that received little attention at the time, it stated that some of them could be made ready within 45 minutes.

The decision to invade Iraq was supported by the opposition Conservative Party and opposed by the Liberal Democrat Party and by opponents within the Labour party. The Government motion was passed on 18th March 2003 by 412 votes to 149, with 139 of Labour's 410 MPs voting against

The outcomes of that decision are summarised in the paragraph on outcomes below, and criticisms of the decision are summarised in the paragraph on criticisms.

Third term in office, 2005-2007

Overview

Despite widespread vehement criticism of Blair for his policies on Iraq, the opposition parties were unable to exploit this fully, having themselves supported the decision to go to war. In May 2005, Blair won a third general election for Labour, but with a much reduced overall majority of 66 seats. In his own Sedgefield constituency, Blair won with a reduced (but still overwhelming) majority of 18,457 votes; anti-war campaigner Reg Keys polled 10% against him.

Blair had won three general elections against three different Conservative Party leaders (John Major, William Hague and Michael Howard); a fourth (Iain Duncan Smith) had come and gone without fighting an election. Blair had been criticised from the left for not doing more to redistribute wealth, and from the right for increasing taxes and Government spending; both were neutered by the steady growth in the economy. Blair for long periods seemed to have a sure touch with public opinion, never more so that,in the wake of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, his tribute to her seemed spontaneous and sincere, and in marked contrast with the stilted and formulaic tributes from others. His description of her as "the people's princess" is one that stuck in the public's mind.

Over 2006-2007, Blair became embroiled in what the media termed a "cash for honours" scandal, when the House of Lords Appointments Commission blocked prime ministerial nominations for peerages. The individuals who stood to receive titles and seats in the House of Lords had donated significant sums to the Labour Party. During the Metropolitan Police investigation, Blair was interviewed three times as a witness, and at one point the Blair-appointed Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, obtained an injunction to prevent the BBC from reporting part of the story. Three arrests were made, including the party fundraiser Lord Levy, but no charges ever brought. Blair, nevertheless, had become the first British prime minister to be interviewed by the police in the course of a criminal investigation while still holding office.

One of the final controversies of Blair's tenure came with his intervention to halt a probe by the Serious Fraud Office into allegations of corruption between Saudi Arabian representatives and BAE Systems. Blair argued in the Commons that the investigation would have damaged the UK's relationship with the Saudis, and risked UK security in relation to the Middle East. The SFO had opened its investigation into a 1985 arms deal, worth around £43 billion, at a time when the Blair government was negotiating another key weapons contract with Saudi Arabia; the Middle Eastern state threatened to cease intelligence co-operation if the inquiry proceeded.

Attacks on Blair from the media never seemed to stick, leading him to be called 'Teflon Tony'; the Press gave him the nickname "Bambi", but this and the mocking of his smile seemed to exhaust their satirical powers to diminish him. His policies, whether they reflected his personal convictions or mere political expediency, often seemed populist rather than left-wing or right-wing. For this, he was criticised as lacking conviction; except on Iraq, where he led from personal conviction and was criticised for not listening. Whereas Margaret Thatcher had been a generally unpopular leader granted power through success in the Falklands War, aided by a disorganised and disunited opposition, Blair had been a generally popular leader ultimately denied power by the failures in Iraq, although sustained by a disorganised and disunited opposition. Margaret Thatcher had been forgiven the small dishonourabilities of war (the sinking of the Belgrano); what successes there had been in Iraq (removal of Saddam Hussein, generally regarded as a brutal dictator) were forgotten.

However, Blair had claimed the "middle ground" of British politics for Labour; lately, the Conservative Party under its new leader David Cameron moved left to challenge that hegemony. For the first time since he was elected leader, the Conservatives moved ahead of Labour in the opinion polls, and increasingly, members of The Labour Party began to suggest that it was time for Blair to go.

Resignation and departure as Prime Minister

Resignation announcement

"I was, and remain, as a person and as a prime minister, an optimist. Politics may be the art of the possible; but at least in life, give the impossible a go. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong, that's your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country." Tony Blair, quoted in The Guardian, 11th May 2007

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. An apology for his most-criticised activities was unforthcoming. In concluding, however, Blair admitted that he had made 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 the UK, 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 House of Commons (the elected chamber of the UK Parliament). He reaffirmed his view that the House of Lords should remain appointed rather than elected.

"Tony Blair gave a brilliant farewell demonstration of the gifts that have enabled him to dominate politics for such a preposterous length of time. His lethal blend of self-righteousness, good manners and amiability permitted him to control his last appearance as Prime Minister and turn it into a celebration of himself." Andrew Gimson, writing in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper, about Blair's last appearance for Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. See here for a video of Blair's performance.

Departure

27th June 2007 saw Tony Blair resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Immediately after leaving office, Blair severed his final link with UK domestic politics by stepping down as an MP. His last act in office was to appear for the usual weekly questions to the premier in the House of Commons, where political friends and foes alike paid tribute to some of his record, such as his achievements for long-term peace in Northern Ireland. Blair conceded that he had "never pretended to be a great House of Commons man", perhaps obliquely acknowledging criticism that at times his administration had sidelined Parliament; he also expressed regret about the dangers that 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."

Current career

Middle East envoy

On 27th July 2007, just a few hours after Blair stood down as Prime Minister, it was announced that he had accepted an appointment as a special Middle East envoy. 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 militant Islamic fundamentalist Hamas organisation which currently controls the Gaza Strip. Blair's official role is to work with the Palestinian people to develop the infrastructure and the economy, with the goal of creating a Palestinian state; his initial brief does not include the wider conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

Advisory role

In early 2008, Blair accepted a position at the U.S. investment bank JP Morgan as a part time senior advisor. He followed the example laid by former Conservative Party Prime Minister John Major, who joined private equity firm Carlyle Group in 1998.

In 2010, the UK media reported that Blair had also been paid for one-off advice by a South Korean energy company with extensive oil interests in Iraq. Blair was accused of spending two years keeping the payments, but the position had been cleared by a UK political panel that oversaw the financial activities of former government members. At the same time, a £1 million deal with the Kuwaiti government to act in an advisory role, dating back to 2008, also came to light. Again, this position had been cleared by a UK committee, though both attracted criticism from various figures in politics and the media. The two-year delay in announcing the role apparently occurred at the request of the Kuwaiti authorities. Media reports continued to circulate regarding Blair's investments and companies, including one licensed to trade in low-tax regimes, amidst claims that he had exploited a tax law loophole that allowed substantial earnings to remain undisclosed.

Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Currently Tony Blair also runs the 'Tony Blair Faith Foundation', which "aims to promote respect and understanding about the world's major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world.".

Footnotes

(References, with page numbers, to Tony Blair's memoirs (Tony Blair: A Journey, Hutchinson, 2010) are shown as "Journey (xxx)", and
references to Anthony Seldon's biography (Anthony Seldon: Blair, Free Press, 2004) are shown as "Blair (xxx)".)

Further reading

See the more detailed guide at the Tony Blair/Bibliography subpage.

• Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair. ISBN 0-7432-3211-9.
• Seldon, Anthony (ed.) (2008). Blair's Britain, 1997–2007. 708pp; 28 long essays by scholars; excerpt and text search.
• Temple, Michael (2006). Blair (British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century). Excerpt online.

See Also

• Gordon Brown
• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton