For me, Tony Blair’s departure from office is a bittersweet day. Just as it would have been wrong for him to leave office any sooner, so it is right that he is leaving office now, making way for Gordon Brown. Blair has a remarkable instinct for the mood of the public, and he knows that a decade is enough time for a prime minister to lead the nation. That instinct has never wavered: his grounding in his own constituency, and his empathy with hard-working, decent families, has enabled him to be one of Britain’s most successful PMs, and Labour’s most successful leader.
I think of the way he spoke for the nation, hours after Diana’s death, or the priority he placed on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, or his dogged determination to drive up standards in schools and the NHS in the poorest neighbourhoods. In meetings, his energy was always apparent. He would usually be the best informed and most insightful person in the room, regardless of which experts were present, or which subject was under discussion.
His place in Labour’s history is assured as the leader that proved that not only could Labour win elections, but that Labour could govern. He made real our conviction that economic efficiency and social justice could sustain a governing project. There were times in the 1980s, when Labour’s future as a long-term governing party seemed remote. Now, no-one can doubt it.
Christopher Wren famously asked visitors to St Paul’s who sought his memorial to look around them. Those in search of Blair’s legacy should similarly look around them. Visit the Sure Start centres, or the new hospitals, or the new school buildings. Talk to the families with jobs and affordable mortgages. Visit the great cities of Britain – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Cardiff or Glasgow – and see the rebirth of our city centres as vibrant centres of arts, culture and entertainment.
This is Blair’s legacy: a modern, confident Britain, with more people getting on and doing well than ever before. A country facing the challenges ahead, free from fear or trepidation. Looking forward to the Olympics. Ready for the future.
As for Tony himself – the days when a retiring Prime Minister simply shuffled off the stage to flog his memoirs are long gone. Tony Blair is a relatively young man, at the height of his powers. I have no doubt that he will make a huge contribution to public life, both home and abroad.
But there’s one last act for which we should be eternally grateful. That is Tony and Gordon’s achievement of a stable and orderly transition from one to the other. As a party, we’ve never really achieved renewal in office. Until now. Today, with the polls closing on the Tories, their policies in tatters, their leader under pressure, and their backbenchers defecting, Labour is ready for the next phase of government. Gordon Brown’s time has come. Labour faces some tough challenges. We’ve two by-elections within weeks, then London elections next year. I am sure every single one us will get behind Gordon and fight tooth and nail for a fourth Labour term.
For anyone to write a political appreciation of Tony Blair and ignore Iraq is frankly stunning. Keeping your head firmly in the sand, Hazel, won’t make the responsibility of Mr Blair and all those Labour MPs who voted to invade Iraq go away. You all have the blood of over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians and military conscripts on your hands. An apology to the families of the survivors, and the surviving maimed-for -life Iraqis is the least anyone might expect.
Politically speaking, like typical heroes in classical Greek tragedies, Tony fell to democracy. The double whammy for him was that they were the very democratic rights he himself promoted or supported! The Greek tragedies admired their heroes, but ultimately, being in a “democracy”, could not allow anyone to rise above the rest : so the heroes had to fall. Tony started off with promoting devolution, intra-party democracy and modern informality, freedom of information, human rights, parliamentary select committee appearance, vote in parliament before going to war, and even UN resolution before military intervention — but almost all of them regrettably kept boomeranging for him! Possibly he’s a “good vision, bad mission” case in history.
I think that’s a very fitting tribute from Hazel – Blair is indeed a man at the height of his powers, and although in recent years he was troubled by greater discord and ungratefulness on the backbenches, he can take pride that he has been the master of his own departure – not bundled out the backdoor or ridiculed by the press as he leaves, and above all else undefeated in any General Election since becoming Prime Minister – no other Labour leader can say that.
He’s transformed the direction of previously moribund public services, but has also shifted the trajectory of public debate and discourse in a progressive direction. Although much remains to be done he’s delivered the first Labour government that can confidently lay claim to being the primary contender for the mantle of the natural party of government.
This party and thecountry owe him a great debt for making Britain a fairer, safer and more prosperous and relaxed country to live in, and he deserves equal credit for his efforts to promote social justice on the international stage and stimulate global attention and action in relation to humanitarian crises and genocide. A great leader for the past decade, who is no doubt looking forward to future challenges with the confidence of having consistently delivered for Britain for over a decade in office.
In your glowing tribute you conveniently skirt round the Iraq issue Hazel. This has to be faced and you could say that hopefully history will prove him right and that country will emerge as a democratic and safe place for its citizens to live and thrive in.
A worthy testimony to our great former prime minister, How that adjective sticks to the end of my fingertips.
As an outsider – but one sufficiently impressed by Tony Blair that I built a blog in his support after the ‘failed’ coup of last summer – there was little ‘sweet’ about his going. Well, no, that’s inaccurate, HE played his part brilliantly, as he invariably does. And I suppose in that way it was bittersweet.
But I, and others like me, still feel bitter towards Labour for what they have done to him. A man of courage and conviction who found his friends and allies conveniently absent last summer just when he needed them most.
It hasn’t been lost on me that many in the party are in a self-congratulatory daze today as they walk around savouring their new government posts. But imho, NONE of them holds a candle to Blair. Not even a wickless, waxless candle. They haven’t got it.
Andy Ray’s Greek tragedy association was very fitting:
“The Greek tragedies admired their heroes, but ultimately, being in a “democracy”, could not allow anyone to rise above the rest : so the heroes had to fall.”
And I agree entirely with Daniel Cremin on Britain after Blair.
If it weren’t for the ‘blood on your (his) hands’ types, whose eyes are closed to today’s worldwide problem, and whose language is coloured by the *LIPpies influence, I might even consider joining Labour, since Blair’s ten years have secured so much of what I wanted in politics for this country.
[*LIPpies – Liberal Intelligentsia Press.]
Except for one other little problem. Leadership – you had it, and you threw it away.
You can comment at my blog if you’re not rude about Blair. It’s still there:
http://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com
It’ll probably stay online for a bit while we see where the former PM goes next. Mid-East envoy post is unpaid, part-time work, I understand, so another big job might soon beckon. Climate Control Co-ordinator?
A well written tribute. Before any body cast any stone towards Hazel direction, a focus must be placed on loyality. Rightly or wrongly, one cannot say that Hazel has not been passionately loyal to her party and to her Prime Minister.
I believe she will now show her loyality to Gordon Brown.
Andy how can you relate Socrates to Tony Blair, unless you believe there is tyranny in the Labour Party?
How sad to see more anti ‘liberal intelligentsia’ rantings on Progress again. It is beginning to sound like the Tory blogosphere; let alone the fact that it seems to be populated in the mainstay by people who define themselves against the left rather than the right.
I want to pick up on something said by Dan Cremin above:
“discord and ungratefulness on the backbenches”
More like disagreement, don’t you think? I’m stating the obvious, but nobody appreciates policies they opposed in the first place…
I think Paddy Ashdown summed up Tony Blairs Premiership on the rise and fall TV program “The best prime minister we have had in the last hundred years.”
Politics seems to be the continuation of (Iraq) war by other means, at least amongst many Labour supporters. Hence the (apparently) “democracy-creating” monster that turned out to be the most Frankensteiny for Tony was Iraq — perhaps like a drop of ink in his bowl of milk! And unlike the fictitious characters in classical Greek plays, Tony is real-life : so even more tragic!