Where's Tony?

The Middle East Suffers, but where is Tony Blair?

Will Blair quit his hopeless Mideast task?

Two articles from The First Post answered a question that had been nagging me. He is lurking in hotels, under threat and mainly failing completely to bring peace to a region that he formerly inflamed. I have one word to say about Mr. Blair: hubris.

Stop this man before he governs again

Tony Blair's intention to run for the position of first president of Europe has called a "Stop Blair" movement into being. Where do I sign up?

Britain's verdict on the Blair years

The Observer has commissioned a poll on Tony Blair's 10 years in power, asking questions such as do you think the UK is a happier place now than it was before New Labour came into government? The results are very negative, a "damning verdict" on Blair's policies and style of governing. Blair is reportedly seen as too fond of spin (and of George Bush). He has not improved people's feelings of safety and is not judged to have improved any public services, noticeably the NHS which is seen to have declined.

Blair's Gotterdammerung

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian comment section has an article that brilliantly explains the weird sense of political doldrums that has had this country in its grip since Blair's announcement of an unspecified date for his departure from Number 10.

So this bizarre, unprecedented period is working fine for our current prime minister - but it is draining away the chances of the man, and the Labour government, who would succeed him. It would be nice to think that troubled Tony Blair. But I suspect he spoke the truth last Friday: he ain't bovvered.

Blair: Guantanamo Row Should Finish Soon

The Guardian reports the latest word on the Guantanamo "row". Blair mentioned the Camp Delta detainees yesterday in PMQ, and today at a news conference at No. 10, said that he expected a resolution "within the next few weeks".

History Judging Mr. Blair

History is already judging Tony Blair - in the form of a scathing critique by Roy Hattersley. "Blair has matched Attlee's record for duration, but not accomplishment."

Tony's legacy

Are you listening, Tony? Some representative quotes from historians predicting T. Blair's "place in history" in the Guardian's How Will He Be Judged?:

Constitutionally, his place in history will be as the prime minister who, when things seemed to be going well, ran a pseudo-presidential system which, as well as being alien to the British constitution, was monumentally inefficient. (Lord Gilmour)

History, I believe, will judge Blair harshly. I think what most historians will emphasise is the profound disappointment Blair engendered. . . (Richard Overy)

British politics doesn't appreciate Caesarism or the Bonapartist style. (Lord Morgan)

By stealing the Conservatives most radical Thatcherite policies - war and privatisation - while offering the left nowhere to go, Blair's period in office could be seen in retrospect to mark the death of British politics. (Mark Almond)

Blair, Short suggests, is really a Tory who has little interest in either constitutional matters such as reform of the House of Lords, or in quotidian, but vital, domestic issues such as genuine equality of opportunity in health or education. He wants in with the ... deliverers, the saviours, the victors crowned in battle. And that, she was saying, is not what the Labour party is, or should be, all about. (Stella Tillyard)

Since the days of Thatcher, Britain has never been so respected (which is not to be confused with liked) abroad than under a prime minister who bestrides the world stage with energy and purpose. (Michael Burleigh)

Boomer Zeitgeist Redux

I seem to be making a habit of this! Here's another article which deconstructs the state of the Zeitgeist through the eyes of the boomer generation, rock music and Tony Blair! This one focuses on the seminal King Crimson song 21st Century Schizoid Man. Hmmm.