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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 exploded within one minute on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus at 09:47 in Tavistock Square. All four incidents are believed to have been suicide bombings. 56 people were confirmed dead, with 700 injured. The incident was the deadliest single act of terrorism in the United Kingdom since 270 died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and it was the deadliest bombing in London since World War II.

Blair made a statement about the day's London bombings, saying that he believed it was "reasonably clear" that it was an act of terror, and that he hoped that the people of Britain could demonstrate that their will to overcome the events is greater than the terrorists' wish to cause destruction. He also said that his determination to "defend" the British way of life outweighed "extremist determination" to destroy it.

On July 21, 2005, a second series of explosions were reported in London, two weeks and some hours after the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Four controlled explosions, of devices considerably less advanced than those of the previous attacks, were carried out at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval underground stations, and on a bus in Shoreditch. Even though the attacks on the 21st were less severe than those on the 7th, Blair was reported to have said that the bombings in London today were intended "to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried". He went on to say how the "police have done their very best, and the security services too, in the situation, and I think we have just got to react calmly and continue with our business as much as possible normal".

Concerns about terror attacks led to 10 Downing Street requesting media organizations not to identify the location of Blair's 2005 summer holiday. After Blair attended a public function it was acknowledged that the holiday was in Barbados, as a guest of the singer Cliff Richard (with whom Blair has stayed before).

A Guardian/ICM poll conducted after the first wave of attacks found that 64% of the British population believed that Blair's decision to wage war in Iraq had led indirectly to the terrorist attacks on London. The public did however indicate approval of Blair's handling of the attacks, with his approval rating moving into positive territory for the first time in five years. . 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, defenders of Blair point to the fact that he was publishing to the public what he had been told in private and honestly believed at the time - even if such a belief was wrong.

Other complaints involved the front page speculation of various newspapers that the '45 minutes' claim might refer to ballistic missiles which could reach Cyprus. It was later revealed that it referred to battlefield munitions which could only be a threat to an invading force, but the government did not correct the misapprehension; the lack of action was referred to as 'spin by omission'.

Authoritarianism

Blair had made himself a leading candidate for the Labour leadership by his actions as Shadow Home Secretary in turning around Labour's image as "soft on crime". Support for the police and increasing their powers has been characteristic of the Labour Party under his leadership. While initially these moves attracted a consensus, the government's legislative reaction to the September 11 attacks has been regarded by some as authoritarian. Even before the attacks, the Terrorism Act 2000 forced disclosure of information believed to be of assistance in preventing a terrorist act, or apprehending those involved in such acts .

The 2000 act gave the police powers against a wide range of activities, with reported instances of the Act being used against peaceful protestors (including an 11-year-old girl at a Peace camp outside an RAF base ). After September 11, the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was passed, allowing foreign nationals to be detained without charge for an indefinite period (subject to appeal to a special tribunal) if they were suspected international terrorists but had committed no offence under United Kingdom law. This provision was later struck down as incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. At the 2005 Labour Party conference, the 82-year-old veteran pacifist Walter Wolfgang was removed from the conference hall after heckling Jack Straw. When he attempted to return without his conference pass, Wolfgang was briefly detained for questioning under section 44 of the Terrorism Act.

Later in 2005, Blair gave personal strong backing to proposals to allow terrorism suspects to be held for questioning for up to 90 days, and dissuaded other Ministers from offering a compromise which might prove more acceptable; the insistence resulted in the first defeat of the Blair Government on the floor of the House of Commons in November 2005.

The flagship anti-crime policy introduced in Blair's first term, Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), have been criticised as excessively punitive and as a way of criminalising non-criminal conduct: an ASBO may be imposed preventing conduct which is entirely legal, but breach of the ASBO is a criminal offence. Examples are on record of ASBOs preventing their subjects from being sarcastic, using the word "grass", or attending a drug clinic which was treating them for their addiction, though opinion polling has shown that ASBOs remain popular with the public.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 has also been criticised for allowing too great a latitude for law enforcement agencies to intercept communications.

Special Relationship with USA

Due to Blair's close co-operation with the USA on the war in Iraq, where the UK was one of several countries to offer military support to the US-led invasion, he has been called "Bush's poodle". Tony Blair has also been called "Governor of the 51st state", "Tony in the London office" and, by Nelson Mandela, "the US foreign minister" . The alliance between the two men is somewhat upsetting to many supporters of his party, which traditionally allies itself with the Democrats. President Bush said "America has no truer friend than Great Britain" in his post-9/11 speech .

The emphasis on the so-called Special relationship with the USA is hardly unique to Blair. It has been a lynch-pin of British foreign policy since Churchill and Roosevelt collaborated closely during World War II. It has been axiomatic that, since then, British Prime Ministers have whatever limited impact they can have over US policy by arguing with their American counterparts only behind closed doors. Although Harold Wilson declined to send even token forces to Vietnam as President Johnson requested and the 1956 Anglo-French military intervention over the Suez Canal was aborted when Eisenhower indicated a lack of support for the policy underlying this adventure by European allies, British-American collaboration in foreign policy and the exchange of intelligence, bases and weapons has been argued to lend mutual respect to transatlantic relations. Blair does not reveal his thoughts about the Bush administration: he has described Guantanamo only as "an anomaly" and, pressed in a 4 March 2006 interview with Michael Parkinson , would say only that George Bush is someone whom he can work with because "he does what he says". In a February 2003 interview with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, Blair stated that he and Bush "don't pray together" but vigorously defended his aupport for attacking Saddam Hussein, who posed a "threat to the region". Both interviews revealed that faith plays a part in Blair's approach to decision-making. This is another shared feature of their special relationship. Whether it concerns or reassures voters seems to differ in the two countries. Blair's prompt appearance in Washington after the September 11 2001 attacks seems to have played a part in establishing a mutual respect between the two leaders. Whether this did more than encourage Bush to over-rule Vice-President Cheney and neo-conservatives in his administration and to seek to involve the United Nations before attacking Iraq over the claimed weapons of mass destruction remains for historians to reveal. Republican "dove" Secretary of State Colin Powell apparently found the Blair/Straw approach helpful in strengethening his hand against the "neo-cons" . But, ultimately, America went to war with Britain's government at its side. Critics argue that this provided the fig-leaf of an international coalition as well as the military logistics (which US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mistakenly claimed barely to need). In any case, much of the shared "intelligence", especially the so-called "dodgy dossier", has been shown to be deeply flawed .

A 2005 book by the former United Kingdom Ambassador to the USA, Sir Christopher Meyer, concurred with these criticisms implied by the epithets, accusing Blair of being a hawk and insufficiently cautious about the war . Meyer expressed his opinion that Blair could have stopped the war had he acted at an opportune time in the summer of 2002. This view has been criticised as naive: Simon Jenkins, for example, described it as a "folly of diplomatic grandeur" and asserted that Blair has no history of standing firm on anything. . Citing the investigation by Vanity Fair magazine, (May 2004 issue), he continued: "Blair was helpless in the face of neocons. When he set conditions, they ridiculed them. Had Britain backed out after the failure of the second UN resolution, the White House would have lost no sleep..."

The Vanity Fair article (which Paul Wolfowitz claims includes partial and mis-quotes) said that Sir Christopher Meyer was present when, a few days after 9/11, Bush asked Blair to support an attack on Hussein. Blair reportedly replied that he would rather concentrate on ousting the Taliban and restoring peace in Afghanistan. According to Sir Christopher, Bush replied: "I agree with you Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq." Mr Blair, Sir Christopher reports, "said nothing to demur".

Personal property dealings

The Blairs moved into Downing Street in 1997. Despite wanting to keep hold of their Islington home at Richmond Crescent, the cost and logistic difficulty of security measures forced its sale. Unfortunately the sale went through before a London property boom and the sale price of £615,000 was more than doubled seven years later when it was resold for £1.3M.

In 2002 Cherie Blair masterminded the purchase of two new flats in Bristol, where Euan Blair was at university; one of them was for his use, and the other was a rental investment. The flats proved difficult to rent out and attracted some unwelcome publicity and political damage when it was revealed that Cherie had engaged Peter Foster to negotiate the purchase price. Foster was a convicted fraudster.

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 . The Private Finance Initiative, under which public services are built by private companies and then leased back to the state, began under the Major government and was expanded significantly under Blair.

Some left-wing critics go so far as to call Blair a Conservative or Thatcherite, or even worse (from their perspective) than these. Others, however, have praised him for the same reason, given the widely perceived sorry state of the Conservative Party and the fact that Labour did not prove electable (e.g. under Michael Foot in 1983) until it publicly abandoned clause 4 of the party constitution (calling for public ownership) and sought, under Neil Kinnock and then John Smith and Blair, to steal the middle ground inhabited by a majority of voters. The whole New Labour project was designed to make the party (and its leader) appeal to (and not frighten) "middle England" and explicitly abandoned more left-leaning policies and images. Unsurprisingly, this offends the left who see no gain if Labour has power but only if it behaves conservatively and they blame Blair for epitomising this expedient approach. Shortly before the general election of 2001 The Economist gave a front cover the headline, "Vote conservative" (note lower-case "c") - with a picture of Blair.

Satire

Blair has avoided the traditional pigeonholes of British political leaders. He has often (particularly after the invasion of Iraq) been labelled as insincere ("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

• Blair, Tony (2003). Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government Diane Publishing, ISBN 075673102X
• Blair, Tony (2002). The Courage of Our Convictions Fabian Society, ISBN 0716306034
• Blair, Tony (2000). Superpower: Not Superstate? (Federal Trust European Essays) Federal Trust for Education & Research, ISBN 1903403251
• Blair, Tony (1998). The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305887
• Blair, Tony (1998). Leading the Way: New Vision for Local Government Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1860300758
• Blair, Tony (1997). New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country Basic Books, ISBN 0813333385
• Blair, Tony (1995). Let Us Face the Future Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305712
• Blair, Tony (1994). What Price Safe Society? Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305623
• Blair, Tony (1994). Socialism Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305658

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