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of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland]], First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. He is also MP for the constituency of Sedgefield. He has led the Labour Party since July 1994, following the death of John Smith in May of that year. Blair brought Labour into power with a landslide victory in the 1997 general election replacing John Major as Prime Minister and ending eighteen years of Conservative government. He is now the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, and the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories. The youngest person to be appointed Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812 , he has deployed British armed forces into four conflicts: in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair is a member of the Fabian Society.

Blair is credited, along with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, with moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his policies of support for the market economy from the party's older policy of nationalisation. He has referred to his policy as "modern social democracy" and "the third way". Supporters on the left feel that Blair places insufficient emphasis on traditional Labour priorities such as the redistribution of wealth and investment in public services. Although Blair has tended not to make any issue of his faith, some have commented on Blair's religious position as high church Anglo-Catholic; in a 2006 interview Blair said that he had sought divine guidance for difficult decisions and considered himself ultimately accountable to God for them, particularly his decisions to commit UK troops to military action .

Since the advent of the "War on Terror", a significant part of Blair's political agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs. He supported many aspects of United States President George W. Bush's foreign policy including sending British troops to participate in the 2003 Iraq War. At the outset of the Iraq War, it was reported a majority of the British public asked in a survey (53%) supported the war. In 2005, another survey found 35% of people asked in it supported the war. . Blair's domestic anti-terror legislation has also been controversial in some quarters. In October 2004, Blair declared his intention to seek a third term but not a fourth. The Labour party won a third term in government at the 2005 general election for the first time in its history, although its majority in the House of Commons was reduced to 66. The fall in Labour's share of the vote renewed speculation as to how long his leadership will continue. It is widely predicted that he will be succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at some point before the next General Election (which will occur at the latest on June 3, 2010).

Family background

Blair was born in university in the inner-eastern Adelaide suburb of Dulwich.

Blair spent the remainder of his childhood years in Durham, England (his father was by then a law lecturer at Durham University). After attending Durham's Chorister School, Blair was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh (sometimes called the "Eton of Scotland"), where he met Charlie Falconer, whom he would later appoint as Lord Chancellor. Blair's 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." After Fettes, he read law at St John's College, Oxford. During his college years he also played guitar and sang for a rock band called Ugly Rumours. After graduating from Oxford with a second class degree (Oxford did not divide the second class into 2:1 and 2:2 until later), Blair enrolled as a pupil barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth, at the Chambers of Derry Irvine, who was to be the first Lord Chancellor appointed by Blair.

Blair married Cherie Booth, a practising Roman Catholic (and future Queen's Counsel), on March 29, 1980. They have three sons (Euan, Nicky, and Leo) and one daughter (Kathryn). Leo (born 20 May, 2000) was the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John Russell on July 11, 1849. Leo was the centre of a debate over the MMR vaccine when Tony Blair, citing his family's right to privacy, refused to say whether or not his son had received the triple MMR vaccine or single inoculations. As is usual in what Roman Catholics would term a 'mixed marriage', the Blair children are being brought up in the Catholic faith. Blair himself has attended Mass with his family every Sunday, and has been seen attending Mass at Westminster Cathedral alone. He once even expressed a desire to take Catholic communion, but was advised by Basil Cardinal Hume that the Eucharist is reserved for baptised Catholics. Blair has the closest ties of a British Prime Minister to the Roman Catholic Church since the Reformation.

Euan and Nicky attended the London Oratory School in Fulham where they could be educated in accordance with the Catholic faith of their mother. When this decision was announced, Tony Blair was criticised for rejecting schools in Islington, where he then lived. These schools included a Catholic boys' school. Euan Blair received widespread publicity after police found him "drunk and incapable" in Leicester Square, London, while out celebrating the end of his GCSE exams in July 2000, shortly after his father had proposed on-the-spot fines for drunken and yobbish behaviour. While the Blairs have stated that they wish to shield their children from the media, they have not always been able, or willing, to do so. Blair has twice lodged complaints about press stories concerning his children. However, the fact that the family have occasionally held photo calls together has led some (including former leader of the Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith) to accuse him of exploitation , and such photographs have been used on Private Eye covers. After leaving the University of Bristol, Euan obtained a position as an intern for the U.S. House Committee on Rules under David Dreier, a Republican congressman.

Early political career

Shortly after graduation in 1975, Blair joined the Labour Party. During the early 1980s, he was involved in the Labour Party in Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" who appeared to be taking control of the party. However, his attempt to secure selection as a candidate for Hackney Borough Council was unsuccessful. Through his father-in-law he contacted Tom Pendry, a Labour MP, to ask for help in how to start his Parliamentary career; Pendry gave him a tour of the House of Commons and advised him to run for selection in a by-election due to be held in the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield, following the death of the sitting MP Ronald Bell in 1982, and where Pendry knew a senior member of the local party. Blair was chosen as the candidate; he won only 10% of the vote and lost his deposit, and the seat was retained comfortably by Tim Smith for the Tories, but he impressed the then Labour Party leader Michael Foot and got his name noticed within the party. At the time Blair was closely associated with the soft left current in the party centred on the Labour Co-ordinating Committee and espoused (for the time) conventional leftist positions.

the Labour Party's policies which included opposition to British membership of the EEC, despite having told the selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also, more enthusiastically, supported unilateral nuclear disarmament, being a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at the time. The seat was safely Labour despite the party's collapse in the 1983 UK general election; Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap actress Pat Phoenix, the girlfriend of his father-in-law Anthony Booth.

Blair stated in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983: "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality". . The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a Democratic Socialist party , not a social democratic party - Blair himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a socialist party when he dealt with the change to the partys Clause IV in their constitution.

In opposition

Once elected to Office, Blair's ascent was rapid, receiving his first shadow position in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. He demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsed Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985 and embarrassed the government by finding an EEC report critical of British economic policy which had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government. Blair was firmly aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party, headed by leader Neil Kinnock and was promoted after the 1987 election to the Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of London. He laid down a marker for the future by running for the Shadow Cabinet in 1987, obtaining 77 votes. This was considered a good showing for a newcomer.

transformation aroused much criticism (its alleged superficiality drawing fire both from political opponents and traditionalists within the "rank and file" of his own party), it was nevertheless successful in changing public perception. At the 1996 Labour party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education and education". interest rates around the time of General Elections for political gain is thought to have been deleterious to the UK economy and helped reinforce a cyclical pattern of boom and bust, for which Blair frequently criticises previous governments. Brown's decision was popular with the City, which the Labour Party had been courting since the early 1990s. Together with the government's avowed determination to remain within projected Conservative spending limits for the first two years of its period of office, it helped to reassure sceptics of the Labour Party's new-found fiscal "prudence". Brown, who had his own following within the Labour Party, was a powerful and independent Chancellor who was given exceptional freedom to act by Blair, although later reports by Downing Street insiders have said that Blair grew to regret this as he was cut out of important fiscal decisions.

Control over House of Commons

Blair has encouraged reforms to Parliamentary procedures. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the two weekly 15 minute sessions of Prime Minister's Questions, held on a Tuesday and Thursday, with a single 30 minute session on a Wednesday. This reform was said to be more efficient, but critics point out that it is easier to prepare for one long set of questions than two shorter interrogations. There has been a perception that Blair has avoided attending debates and voting in Parliament, although his vote has seldom been needed given Labour's large majorities in the House of Commons. (Labour Party objections to aspects of recent anti-terror and education legislation mean that every vote now matters ). In another reform, the Blair government has introduced rules governing the sitting time of parliament, ostensibly to make it more businesslike though arguably reducing MPs' ability to effectively scrutinise legislation. Another innovation has been the monthly press conference at which Blair, less formally or confrontationally than in the Commons, addresses questions . He is seen to be an effective Parliamentary performer, often besting some of the more short-lived recent leaders of other parties. The Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties have each elected new leaders in 2006 ; an ability to match Blair or his likely successor has been a key factor in these selections , though much of the public perception of Blair has been as a perfomer on TV, where he has appeared modern, informal and articulate and, notably, seemed to capture the mood of the country when Princess Diana died. He feels more embattled since the Iraq war. For a 2006 TV audience, he recalled Labour's 1997 election victory: "People used to like me then," he remarked wistfully.

Domestic policies

Template:Infobox polstyles A significant achievement of Blair's first term was the completion of negotiations of the Belfast Agreement, commonly called the Good Friday Agreement, in which the British and Irish Governments and most Northern Irish political parties established an "exclusively peaceful and democratic" framework for power-sharing in Northern Ireland. Negotiations had begun under the previous Prime Minister, John Major but collapsed after the end of the IRA ceasefire. The agreement was finally signed on 10 April 1998, and on 26 November 1998 Blair became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament.

Blair's first term saw an extensive programme of constitutional alteration. A Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998; a Welsh Assembly and a Scottish Parliament were both set up; most hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords in 1999; the Greater London Authority was established in 2000; and the Freedom of Information Act was passed later that year, with its provisions coming into effect over the next decade. This latter proposal disappointed campaigners whose was lifted.

Second term 2001 to 2005

Following the 11 September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Blair was very quick to align the UK with the US, engaging in a round of shuttle diplomacy to help form and maintain a coalition prior to their attack on in 2003. Blair soon became the face of international support for the war, often clashing with French President Jacques Chirac, who became the face of international opposition. Regarded by many as a more persuasive orator than Bush, Blair gave many speeches arguing for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the days leading up to war. thin." In the following weeks Blair was compelled to repeatedly reiterate his rationale for taking the UK to war, the basic tenets of which he has steadfastly maintained to this day.

In an interview with Michael Parkinson broadcasted on ITV1 on 4 March 2006 (the first serving Prime Minister to appear on the chatshow programme), Blair discussed that the influence of his Christian faith was involved in his decision to go to war in Iraq - "If you have faith about these things then you realise that judgement is made by the people..if you believe in God it's made by God as well.".

Domestic politics

NHS is in deficit in 2005-6 to the tune of about £800 million. The peace process in Northern Ireland hit a series of problems and eventually on October 15, 2002 the Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended and direct rule returned; attempts to get the Provisional Irish Republican Army to decommisson its weapons were unsuccessful and in the second set of elections to the Assembly in November 2003 the Ulster Unionists lost the battle for largest Unionist party to the Democratic Unionists of Ian Paisley, making restarting devolution more difficult. At the same time Sinn Féin became clearly the largest nationalist party, as voters recognised that since Blair always capitulates to force, the most forceful party was the only one worth supporting.

In the first term, the government had introduced an annual fixed tuition fee of around £1,000 for higher education students (rejecting requests from universities to be allowed to vary the fee), and replaced the remaining student grant with a loan to be repaid once the student was in earning over a certain threshold. Despite a manifesto pledge in 2001 not to introduce variable (or "top-up") tuition fees in universities, Blair announced that exactly such a scheme would indeed eventually be brought in with the maximum fee limited to £3,000 per year, while simultaneously delaying the repayment of student loans until a graduate income was much higher and reintroducing some grants for students from poorer backgrounds.

On August 1, 2003, Blair became the longest continuously serving Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, surpassing Harold Wilson's 1964–1970 term. However, because of the crisis over the suicide of Dr David Kelly, a government scientist who had spoken to a BBC journalist precipitating a major fight between the BBC and the government, there were no celebrations. Lord Falconer set up an inquiry under the senior Law Lord Lord Hutton.

The second reading vote on the Higher Education Bill bringing in top-up fees was held on January 27, 2004, and saw the government scrape a majority of 5 due to a Labour rebellion. A first House of Commons defeat had been possible but averted when a small number of Gordon Brown's backbench allies switched sides at the last minute. The next day the Hutton Inquiry reported on the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly. The Inquiry was widely expected to criticise Blair and his government. In the event, Hutton absolved Blair and his government of deliberately inserting false intelligence into its dossier, but criticised the BBC editorial process which had allowed unfounded allegations to be broadcast. The report did not satisfy opponents of Blair and of the Iraq war.

Although the Hutton Inquiry had vindicated Blair, evidence to the inquiry raised questions over the use of intelligence in the run up to the war in Iraq. Hutton was the subject of criticism for strictly interpreting his remit; after a similar decision by President Bush, Blair initiated another inquiry (the Butler Review) into the accuracy and presentation of pre-war intelligence. Opponents of the war, especially the Liberal Democrats, refused to participate as it did not meet their demands for a public inquiry into whether the war was justified.

In April 2004, Blair announced that a referendum would be held on the ratification of the EU Constitution. This represents a significant change in British politics, where only one nationwide referendum has been held (this was the 1975 referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EEC). It was another dramatic U-turn for Blair, who had previously dismissed calls for a referendum unless the constitution fundamentally altered Britain's relationship with the EU; Michael Howard eagerly seized on the "EU-turn", reminding Blair of his 2003 conference oration that "I can only go one way. I haven't got a reverse gear". The referendum was expected to be held in early 2006; however since the French and Dutch rejections of the treaty, the Blair government have announced that they are putting plans for a referendum on hold for the foreseeable future.

During his second term Blair was increasingly the target for protests. On May 19, 2004, he was hit by two condoms filled with purple flour in the House of Commons, thrown by Fathers 4 Justice. His speech to the 2004 Labour Party conference was interrupted both by a protester against the Iraq war and then by a group who opposed the government's decision to allow the House of Commons to ban fox hunting.

On September 15, 2004, Tony Blair delivered a speech on the environment and the 'urgent issue' of climate change. In unusually direct language he concluded that If what the science tells us about climate change is correct, then unabated it will result in catastrophic consequences for our world... The science, almost certainly, is correct. The action he proposed to take appeared to be based on business and investment rather than any tax or legislative attempts to reduce CO2 emissions: ...it is possible to combine reducing emissions with economic growth... investment in science and technology and in the businesses associated with it... The G8 next year, and the EU presidency provide a great opportunity to push this debate to a new and better level that, after the discord over Kyoto, offers the prospect of agreement and action. .

Attempted impeachment

On August 25, 2004, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price announced that he would attempt to impeach Blair . The measure was supported by Plaid Cymru and the SNP, as well as by RESPECT's George Galloway and Independent MP Richard Taylor. Ten Tory MPs signed it, as did 4 SNP MPs and two Liberals for a total of 23 MPs. The campaign has attracted the support of writers Iain Banks and Frederick Forsyth, and actor Corin Redgrave.

In January 2006, General Sir Michael Rose (the former UN commander in Bosnia) joined calls to make Blair accountable: "To go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from," .

No impeachment has been attempted for 150 years, and no impeachment resolution has been passed since 1806; the last two impeachment trials resulted in acquittals. Many legal authorities consider impeachment to be obsolete (see, e.g., Halsbury).

The case for Tony Blair's impeachment has been outlined by Adam Price MP in a report entitled "A case to answer" .

Health problems

On October 19, 2003, it emerged that Blair had received treatment for an irregular heartbeat. Having felt ill the previous day, he went to hospital and was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia. Blair has been recovering well though. This was treated by cardioversion and he returned home that night. He took the following day (October 20) a little more gently than usual and returned to a full schedule on October 21. Downing Street aides later suggested that the palpitations had been brought on by Blair drinking lots of strong coffee at an EU summit and then working out vigorously in the gym. However, former Armed Forces minister Lewis Moonie, a doctor, said that the treatment was more serious than Number 10 had admitted: "Anaesthetising somebody and giving their heart electric shocks is not something you just do in the routine run of medical practice", he claimed.

Family problems in the spring of 2004 fuelled speculation that Blair was on the brink of stepping down. In September 2004 off-the-cuff remarks made by Lord Bragg in an interview with ITV news, said that Blair was "under colossal strain" over "considerations of his family" and that Blair had thought "things over very carefully." This led to a surge in speculation that Blair would resign. Although details of the family problem were known by the press, no paper would report them because to do so "breaches the bounds of privacy and media responsibility" as they did not relate to Mr Blair himself.

Blair underwent a catheter ablation to correct his irregular heartbeat on 1 October, 2004, having announced the procedure the day before in a series of interviews in which he also declared that he would seek a third term but not a fourth. The planned procedure was carried out at London's Hammersmith hospital. At the same time it was disclosed that the Blairs had purchased a house at No.29 Connaught Square, London, for a reported £3.5 million. Some have speculated that part of No.29 is to be converted into offices for a future Blair Foundation. The purchase also fuelled speculation that Blair was preparing for life after government.

On May 19, 2005 (a fortnight after polling day in the 2005 general election), Blair was treated with an anti-inflammatory drug to control a slipped disc which had caused him back pain.

Third term 2005 to present

The Labour Party won the 2005 General Election and a third consecutive term in office. The next day, Blair was invited to form a Government by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The reduction in the Labour majority and the low share of the popular vote (35%) led to some Labour MPs calling for Blair to leave office sooner rather than later; among them Frank Dobson who had served in Blair's Cabinet during his first term. However, dissenting voices quickly vanished as Blair entered into June 2005 and took on European leaders over the future direction of the European Union.

G8 and EU presidencies

The rejection of the treaty to establish a constitution for the European Union by France and the Netherlands presented Blair with an opportunity to postpone the doubtful UK referendum on the constitution without taking the blame for failing from the EU. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that the Parliamentary Bill to enact a referendum was suspended indefinitely. It had previously been agreed that ratification would continue unless the treaty had been rejected by at least five of the 25 European Union member states who must all ratify it. In an address to the European Parliament, Blair stated: "I believe in Europe as a political project. I believe in Europe with a strong and caring social dimension."

Chirac held several meetings with Schröder and the pair pressed for Britain to give up its rebate, famously won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. After verbal conflict over several weeks, Blair, along with the leaders of all 25 member states, descended on Brussels for the EU Summit of the 18th June 2005 to attempt to finalise the EU budget for 2007-2013. Blair refused to renegotiate the rebate unless the proposals included a compensating overhaul of EU spending, particularly on the Common Agricultural Policy which takes 40% of the EU budget. After intense arguments inside closed doors, talks broke down late at night and the leaders emerged, all blaming each other. It is widely accepted that Blair came out on top, making allies in the Netherlands and Sweden and potentially (and crucially) several of the Eastern European accession countries.

It fell to Blair to broker a deal on the EU budget during the UK's Presidency of the European Union during the latter half of 2005. Early international opinion, particularly in the French press, suggested that Blair held a very strong opening position partly on account of the concurrence of British presidencies of the EU and G8. However, early in the UK's six-month term the 7 July London bombings distracted political attention from the EU despite some ambitious early statements about Blair's agenda. Domestically Blair faced further distractions from European affairs including a resurgent Conservative Party under its newly-elected leader David Cameron, and assessments of the British presidency's achievements under Blair have been lukewarm in spite of some diplomatic success including a last-minute budget deal. The most controversial result was an agreement to increase British contributions to the EU development budget for new member countries, which effectively reduced the UK rebate by 20%.

2012 Summer Olympics

On July 6, 2005, during the 117th International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Singapore, the IOC announced that the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XXX Olympiad, were awarded to London. The surprise win by London over the perceived frontrunner Paris was said to have been decided by the presence of Tony Blair at the IOC session. Irish IOC member Patrick Hickey said, "This is down to Tony Blair. If he hadn't come here I'd say that six to eight votes would have been lost and London would not be sitting here today winners".

2005 London bombings

On Thursday July 7, 2005, a series of four bomb explosions struck London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. At 08:50, three bombs xml=/news/2005/07/09/npoll09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/09/ixnewstop.html]. In December 2005, the Prime Minister was presented with the "Statesman of the Decade" award by the EastWest Institute , a Transatlantic think tank that organizes an annual Security Conference in Brussels .

Proposed laws to cope with the threat of terrorism proved extremely controversial. An amendment to require that glorifying terrorism be deliberate in order to be an offence was rejected in the House of Commons by just three votes (a result initially announced as a one vote margin due to a miscount). The proposal to allow terrorist suspects to be held for questioning for up to 90 days was defeated on November 9 by a margin of 31 with 49 Labour MPs voting against the government. Instead, MPs supported an amendment to allow questioning for 28 days proposed by veteran backbencher David Winnick. This was Blair's first defeat on the floor of the House of Commons since he became Prime Minister in 1997, and most commentators saw this as seriously undermining his authority .

Departure

After Labour's 2004 conference, Blair announced via a BBC interview that he would not fight a fourth general election, an unusual announcement in Britain, as there is no limit on the time someone may serve as Prime Minister. He also announced he would like to serve a "full third term".

In the months following the election, there was frequent speculation over the anticipated date of his departure. The Westminster consensus expected him to go after the proposed UK referendum on the European Union Constitution, but its collapse eliminated this juncture. The July 2005 terror attacks also appear to have strengthened his position. But while bookmakers take bets on his staying, Blair's election agent John Burton said that he will quit the House of Commons at the next election. The official line from the Downing Street press office on this was that it was the "last thing on mind," but there has been no firm denial.

If he remains in office until November 26, 2008 Blair will beat Margaret Thatcher's record for longest continuous service as Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool, 1812-27.

Blair has said that after stepping down as Prime Minister, he plans to leave front-line politics and does not intend to take a seat in the House of Lords, commenting that it is, "...not my scene."

Education Reforms 2006

The introduction of further reforms to the education system, which restricted the involvement of local education authorities in opening new schools, proved controversial. Labour backbenchers opposed to the proposals produced a rival manifesto, and the Bill to introduce the changes was delayed while the government negotiated with them. The Conservative Party declared its support for the reforms, making it certain that they would be passed but increasing the likelihood that Labour MPs would vote against. On 15 March 2006, the Education and Inspections Bill passed its second reading with 52 Labour MPs voting against; had the Conservative Party voted against instead of in favour, it would have been defeated.

Common criticisms of Blair

Spin

The word 'spin' has risen to prominence in UK politics since Blair was elected as prime minister in 1997. The word means to selectively present news in a way which minimizes the political damage, and emphasises any positive aspects. A widely-levelled criticism of Blair and his government is that they make excessive use of spin to such an extent that government statements, even if entirely true, are now disbelieved; it is also said that the government has on occasions crossed the line between selective presentation of information and deliberate misleading.

The most widely-publicised example concerned Blair's appeal for trust over the danger from Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, which led to British participation in the invasion of Iraq. One 'intelligence dossier' later distributed on behalf of Blair was substantially plagiarised from an academic thesis available on the internet , with some phrases altered to make them sound more threatening. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, and Blair was later forced to concede that they had not existed . A consequence of the lead-up to the 2nd Gulf War is the belief that Blair compromised his credibility; however,

Special Relationship with USA

Due to Blair's [http:// The Blairs paid a reported £3.6m in late 2004 for a house in Connaught Square, near Marble Arch. Finding a tenant for this also took a long time and they had to reduce the rent sought .

Criticisms by the left

While the Blair government has introduced some social policies seen by the left of the Labour Party as progressive, especially the minimum wage, on economic and management issues he is seen as being to the right of the party. The 2005 announcement of more independent Trust Schools , was likened to the Major government's Grant Maintained Schools policy which Labour criticised while in opposition, and was criticised by teachers' unions (traditionally left wing), as well as by the left within the party.

The use of private finance to fund public projects has also been criticised by Labour left-wingers as both an economic bad deal and as privatising public service [http://news.("King of Spin", "Phoney Tony"), and has been accused of cronyism due to his perceived penchant for promoting his friends to top jobs. In his early years, Blair was often criticised as an unscrupulous opportunist who was solely interested in doing anything that would get him elected, that was a focus group politician. More recently, his unpopular policy supporting the US over Iraq has demonstrated a politician with more commitment to his own policies despite public opposition. His name has been deliberately mis-spelled 'Tony Bliar' (sometimes 'B. Liar') or 'Tory Blur' by critics of his actions and his policies (particularly his stance on Iraq). The Economist on 5th June 2003 devoted its front cover to a photograph of Blair and the headline, "Bliar?".

Since Blair became Prime Minister, Private Eye has run a regular feature called the St Albion Parish News based on the Blair government. In this series, the parish incumbent ('Rev. A.R.P. Blair MA (Oxon)') combines a relentless trendiness with a tendency to moralise and to exclude all those who criticise him. The series highlights Blair's perceived penchant for spin and his zealous enthusiasms in relation to recent political events.

In his first term of office, Blair was the subject of a satirical comic strip Dan Blair in The Times. This strip spoofed the comic book hero Dan Dare and his nemesis, the Mekon, who represented William Hague in the strip, portrayed with a very large forehead. He has also been parodied in the comic 2000 AD in the series B.L.A.I.R. 1 (a spoof of the old-fashioned strip M.A.C.H.1 written by David Bishop) where he acts as a futuristic crime fighter controlled by an artificial intelligence known as "Doctor Spin".

In opposition under John Smith, the ITV satirical puppet show Spitting Image depicted Blair within the Shadow Cabinet as a schoolboy with a high-pitched voice and bottle-green uniform, complete with cap. The first show after Smith's death featured Blair singing "I'm going to be the leader! I'm going to be the leader!" over and over. Once settled in as leader, the programme, which was in its last years, changed its caricature of Blair to have a small face with an outsized toothy grin. The show ended before Labour gained power.

Jamie Foxx portrayed as a black Tony Blair in a skit from Chappelle's Show. Foxx uses a fake English accent and performed actions considered stereotypically English in America, such as drinking tea, although not especially associated with Blair.

Trivia

• Is the only head of government to ever appear in The Simpsons, after voicing himself in the episode, The Regina Monologues. This caused controversy because he recorded his part during the Iraq War.

==Works==2005. Links to papers and video.

• "Think Again: Tony Blair" - by James G. Forsyth (requires registration) from Foreign Policy Magazine
• Beckett, F. & Hencke, D. (2004). The Blairs and Their Court, Aurum Press, ISBN 1845130243
• Blair, T. (2004). "Blair, The Right Hon. A. C. L." from Who's Who, 156th ed., London: A & C Black.
• Her Majesty's Government (2004). "The Prime Minister: A Biography".
• Halsbury's Laws of England (2004), reference to impeachment in volume on Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph 416
• "The September Dossier"
• "The Dodgy Dossier"
• Tuition Fee Time Table

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Further reading

• Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair Free Press, ISBN 0743232119
• Short, Clare (2004). An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power Free Press, ISBN 0743263928
• Naughtie, James (2004). The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency Macmillan, ISBN 1405050012
• Dale]] (1998). The Blair Necessities: Tony Blair Book of Quotations Robson Books, ISBN 1861051395

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