This is a bit of an adjunct to a thread that Tom started before the war, but it seems pretty much par the course these days for Labour-supporting Blair-bashers to go on about Blair's obsession with his "place in history." Claire Short's done it. Robin Cook's done it several times. Denis Healey recently wrote in the Independent that "Blair is too worried about his place in history, while I don't think Brown is at all" (which I think is probably bollocks).
It looks like the Euro is off the agenda for the forseeable future, probably the thing Blair wants to do more than anything else. How do you think history will judge Blair?* Is it too early to ask this question?
*Obviously there's a fair way to go yet, but this assuming he doesn't get shot/rid the world of AIDS/get found covered in black latex and KY Jelly with an orange in his mouth, or anything like that.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 June 2003 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)
The last servant of the British Empire. A man who reanimated the corpse, found it a place in world, and inadvertantly convinced everyone that it wasn't worth it.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 9 June 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)
As, assuming it holds, will peace in Northern Ireland.
The other thing that prompted this question is that I can only think of two former Prime Ministers who really seem to inspire admiration and/or hatred in this country and they are Maggie and Winston, obviously. I'm unsure as to whether Blair will join them.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 June 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)
I think this stuff about Blair wanting to carve a place in history for himself is spot on. But my hope is that he'll be remembered as only a skidmark underlining the political apathy of the times. (Really: let's forget percentages. Even on his first election win, Blair got fewer total votes than John Major did in 1992. How TRAGIC is that.)
― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Monday, 9 June 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)
One major change that has occurred during Blair's leadership is the amount of "spin" in politics. I think that this change will be what this period of our history will be remembered for. I somehow doubt that Blair will be remembered in person and history will prolly be written to say there was a sea change in the way politics was conducted and this happened
under Blair's premiership rather than saying
Blair caused this to happen.
I can't see Blair being regarded as a significant figure historically, certainly not in the long term, as he *followed* rather than *led*. He saw the factors that attracted ppl to the Tories in the eighties and adopted those policies which would be least distasteful to his followers, whilst jettisoning those which meant that ppl wouldn't touch Kinnock with a bargepole. He followed US foreign policy in spite of the opposition of many of our European neighbours. Very much a follower rather than a leader - not the type of person who gets remembered.
― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 9 June 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)
He has squandered two massive majorities in Parliament; over-caution and a fear that the pack of cards could at any stage collapse, have marked his tenure. Unlike Wilson or Callaghan he can't use the excuse of having a wafer-thin majority, and having to compromise due to that.
*Some* very worthy achievements, but mostly all in the first term (minimum wage, accepting of European human rights charter, N. Ireland, devolution, Lords reform et al). He and Home Secretaries have at times pursued an appalling counter-attack to the liberal social policies of the Wilson-Jenkins era.
Foreign policy was relatively good in the first term, but once Bush became a factor, Blair was in trouble. Always trying to out-manoeuvere Tories to their right; always thinking of perceived past Labour mistakes, from the likes of Foot and Kinnock. i.e. that they were seen as anti-US or, as in Kinnock's case in 1987, a figure brushed aside by Reagan when he made an ill-advised visit to the States.
Blair could learn (have learned) more from the style of cabinet Govt. ran by Wilson and Callaghan (though admittedly both used presidential tactics to their advantage also). He jettisons all too much of Labour's past legacy as a left-of-centre Party and as at times a very credible Government. It is widely unacknowledged that Labour's 1945-51 and 1964-70 and 1974-79 Govts. were far from fully socialist, and built through compromise between factions. Generally, policy was very much centreground for the day; certainly always quite 'hawkish' on defense and foreign policy, though it is to Wilson's great credit that he refused to join the Vietnam disaster.
Whereas... Blair & Iraq; increasingly this looks like a major misjudgement at the very least. Of course, it hasn't been a worst case scenario... *but* one must remember that the fighting is still going on in Iraq, and a peace is nowhere near established. Iraqi-ran Govt. has been postponed. Many problems are being thrown up in the country...
Domestically, the credibility is going due to Foreign policy blunders such as the WMD misinformation. Blair has generally sacrificed being at the centre of Europe just to be as close to he can to GWB. He does this for political gain (he can hardly have imagined it would have played so badly as it has) and perhaps through some sense of personal self-delusion. A paper tiger is dressed up as an imminent threat with its WMDs... it was all propaganda to 'justify' Blair's personal moral reasons (effecting regime change to topple a bad regime) for war. His political gambling and 'morality' have to be seen as thoroughly questionable in the context of international law.
The Iraq situation may not finish him, but it has destabilised him. His obsession with his 'place in history' is part of the problem at the moment. He would do better to stick to international law in his foreign policy ventures, and generally do a lot more effective *managing of the UK's domestic affairs*. Direction is seriously needed, as the New Labour Govt. is drifting.
― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 9 June 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)
six years pass...