Blair to Leave Office June 27

If anyone’s counting, it has been 953 days since Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would not go “on and on and on” in office, denying that he would seek a fourth election victory. Yesterday, he finally set a date to stop going “on and on and on,” June 27, 2007, 1,000 days exactly since he made his announcement. By way of comparison, John Kennedy was President of the USA only 1,036 days. Mr. Blair’s departure has been a long time coming, and frankly, long overdue.

A fair and unbiased review of his 10 years in office is impossible for the living. Historians will undoubtedly judge him on criteria far different than those used by his contemporaries, this journal included. Nevertheless, a quick review of the balance sheet of achievements against failures proves Mr. Blair passed his sell-by date some time ago.

On the plus side of the ledger, he replaced the socialist, red-flag Labour Party with the social democratic, red-rose New Labour Party. Without this change, Conservative rule in Britain would have continued to the detriment of the nation. When he came to office in 1997, there was a sense of “Thank God, that’s all over.” He also managed to strengthen the British economy (largely by letting Chancellor Gordon Brown do as he wanted). Further, his government transformed the British constitution by turfing out most of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords (a reform that is incomplete at best), giving Scotland and Wales assemblies of their own (where is England’s?), and letting the people of London elect their mayor. For good measure, toss in a minimum wage (Britain never had one before this government) and expanded child care as well as progress in Northern Ireland (continuing John Major’s work).

Against those must go the billions of pounds spend on the National Health Service and education, which wasn’t value for money at all. There simply aren’t any NHS dentists anymore, and literacy and numeracy among Britain’s young remains near the bottom of the European table. Thanks to the end of the grant system, university graduates enter the workforce tens of thousands of pounds in debt. Social mobility has declined to 1907 levels. Personal debt has more than tripled. He criminalized activities that hadn’t been crimes before (fox hunting), and he agitated for national ID cards, quite contrary to British tradition.

And in the end, he will be remembered for Iraq-Nam. No less than George “LBJ” Bush, he took his country to war based on a lie. The evidence of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein was “sexed up” as one insider said. Some 148 British military personnel have died in Iraq-Nam; 148 people who probably would still be alive had Mr. Blair not gone to war. The London bombings of 7/7 wouldn’t have happened. The radicalization of Muslim youth in Britain may well have been avoided. As Anthony Eden’s time at Number 10 Downing Street is remembered with the word “Suez,” Mr. Blair’s will likely be remembered with the word “Iraq.”

In leaving, he told Labour Party activists in the Sedgefield constituency he will continue to represent in Commons, “Accept one thing, hand on heart, I did what I thought was right.” That is most certainly true. It is hard to believe, however, that it is enough. And still, there are 47 more days to go in his lame duck government.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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