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The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
(born 6 May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is the
current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He
has led the Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party since
July 1994, (following the death of John Smith (UK
politician)|John Smith in May of that year) and
brought Labour into power with a landslide victory
in the United Kingdom general election, 1997|1997
general election, replacing John Major as Prime
Minister and ending 18 years of Conservative Party
(UK)|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, just as
Margaret Thatcher was the only Conservative Prime
Minister to win three consecutive general
elections.

Blair moved the Labour Party towards the centre of
British politics, using the term
"Labour_Party_(UK)#New_Labour|New Labour" to
distinguish what he identifies as "modern social
democracy" and his party's refusal to reverse
privatisation and support for a free market|market
economy from its past belief in nationalisation
and Fabian Society|Fabian socialism. However,
critics on the left-wing politics|left feel that
he has compromised the principles of the founders
of the Labour party, and that the Blair government
has moved too far to the right-wing
politics|right, placing insufficient emphasis on
traditional Labour priorities such as the income
redistribution|redistribution of wealth.
 
TOCleft

Since the advent of the War on Terrorism|War on
Terror, much of the Prime Minister's political
agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs,
particularly those concerning Iraq, and he has
supported many aspects of the foreign policy of
United States president George W. Bush, sending
British forces to participate in the 2003 invasion
of Iraq and the subsequent occupation and
conflict. Blair's Labour party still managed to
win an unprecedented (for the Labour Party; the
Conservatives having won three consecutive terms
twice since World War II|the Second World War)
third term in the United Kingdom general election,
2005|2005 general election. Although Labour's
majority in the British House of Commons|House of
Commons was reduced considerably to 67 MPs, this
remains a substantial working majority and a
measure of the relative political weakness and
poor credibility of the main opposition party, the
Conservatives. Some journalists immediately
noticed that New Labour no longer has a majority
independently of Old Labour, although this may
discourage some MPs from mounting damaging
rebellions against the leadership. 

While Blair is in no danger of losing a potential
vote of Motion of no confidence|no confidence, the
fall in the Labour vote (from 41% to 35%) has
renewed speculation amongst commentators as to how
long his leadership can continue. It is widely
predicted that he will be succeeded by his
ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown
before the next General Election (which will occur
at the latest in 2010).

==Early and private life==

Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father
Leo Blair (senior)|Leo was a barrister and later a
law lecturer who, having been a communist in his
youth, was active in the Conservative Party
(UK)|Conservative Party. Leo Blair had had
ambitions to stand for Parliament in Durham, which
were thwarted when he had a stroke when his son
was 11, an event which affected Tony Blair deeply.
He spent most of his childhood years in Durham.
After attending the Durham Choristers School,
Blair was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh
(sometimes called the "Eton College|Eton of
Scotland"), where he met Charlie Falconer whom he
would later make Lord Chancellor. Biographer John
Rentoul said "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 University of Oxford|Oxford with a
second class degree, Blair enrolled as a pupil
barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth,
at the Chambers of Derry Irvine, also a future
Lord Chancellor.

Blair married Booth, a devout Roman Catholic, on
29 March 1980. They have three sons (Euan
Blair|Euan, Nicky Blair|Nicky, and Leo Blair|Leo)
and one daughter (Kathryn Blair|Kathryn). Leo
holds the distinction of being the first child
officially born to a sitting Prime Minister in 150
years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John
Russell on 11 July 1849. Leo was the centre of a
debate over the MMR vaccine when Tony Blair
refused to say whether or not his son had received
the controversial treatment. 

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
London Borough of Islington|Islington, where he
then lived. Euan Blair received widespread
publicity after police found him "drunk and
incapable" in Leicester Square, London, while out
celebrating the end of his General Certificate of
Secondary Education|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 to accuse him of exploitation, and such
photographs have been used on
http://www.ugandandiscussions.co.uk/1030/ Private
Eye covers.

Blair is an Anglican of the High Church or
Anglo-Catholic tendency, while his wife is Roman
Catholic and his children are (according to
Catholic doctrine) brought up in that faith. Blair
has not sought to make a political issue of his
faith, though biographers agree that his political
beliefs have been profoundly influenced by it. One
name often mentioned as a theological influence is
the Scottish Christian philosopher John Macmurray.
Some have suggested Tony Blair is the most
religiously devout Prime Minister since William
Ewart Gladstone. Blair attends Mass with his
family, but does not take communion, and has been
seen by himself in Westminster Cathedral.

==Begins political career==



Shortly after graduation in 1975, Blair joined the
Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party. During the early
1980s, he was involved in the Labour Party in
Hackney South and Shoreditch (UK Parliament
constituency)|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 Party
(UK)|Conservative seat of Beaconsfield (UK
Parliament constituency)|Beaconsfield in 1982,
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, but
impressed the then Labour Party leader Michael
Foot and got his name noticed within the party.

In 1983, Blair found that the newly created seat
of Sedgefield (UK Parliament
constituency)|Sedgefield, near where he had grown
up in Durham, had no Labour candidate. Several
sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were
interested, but Blair managed to win the
nomination. The seat was safely Labour despite the
party's collapse in the United Kingdom general
election, 1983|1983 UK general election; Blair was
helped on the campaign trail by soap opera|soap
actress Patricia Phoenix, the girlfriend of his
father-in-law Anthony Booth.

==In opposition==

Once elected to Parliament, 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 United Kingdom general
election, 1987|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 71
votes. This was considered a good showing for a
newcomer.



The stock market crash of October 1987 raised the
prominence of Blair who inveighed against the
'morally dubious' City whiz-kids as being
incompetent. He signalled his modernising by
protesting against the third-class service for
small investors at the London Stock Exchange.
Blair first entered the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow
Secretary of State for Energy in 1988, and the
next year became Shadow Employment Secretary. In
this post he realised that the Labour Party's
support for the emerging European 'Social Charter'
policies on employment law meant dropping the
party's traditional support for closed shop
arrangements whereby employers required all their
employees to be members of the same trade union.
He announced this change in December 1989,
outraging the left-wing of the Labour Party but
making it more difficult for the Conservatives to
attack.

As a young and telegenic Shadow Cabinet member,
Blair was given prominence by the party's Director
of Communications Peter Mandelson. However his
first major platform speech at the Labour Party
conference was a disastrous embarrassment in
October 1990 when he spoke too fast and lost his
place in his notes. He worked to produce a more
moderate and electable party in the run-up to the
United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992 general
election, in which he had responsibility for
developing the minimum wage policy which was
expected to be strongly attacked by the
Conservatives. During the election campaign Blair
had a notable confrontation with the owner of a
children's nursery who was adamant that the policy
would cost jobs.

When Kinnock resigned after defeat by John Major
in the United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992
UK general election, Blair became Shadow Home
Secretary under John Smith (UK politician)|John
Smith. Blair defined his policy (in a phrase that
had actually been coined by his current Chancellor
Gordon Brown) as "Tough on crime, tough on the
causes of crime". This had been an area in which
the Labour Party had been weak and Blair moved to
strengthen its image. He accepted that the prison
population might have to rise, and bemoaned the
loss of a sense of community which he was prepared
to blame (at least partly) on '1960s liberalism'.
However, Blair spoke in support of equalisation of
the age of consent for gay sex and opposed capital
punishment.



Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a myocardial
infarction|heart attack. Both Blair and Gordon
Brown had been considered as possible leadership
contenders and had always agreed that they would
not fight each other. Brown had previously been
thought the most senior and understood this to
mean that Blair would give way to him; however, it
soon became apparent that Blair now had greater
support. A MORI opinion poll published in the
Sunday Times on 15 May found that among the
general public, Blair had the support of 32%, John
Prescott, 19%, Margaret Beckett 14%, Gordon Brown
9%, and Robin Cook 5%. At the Granita
(restaurant)|Granita restaurant in Islington on 31
May, Brown agreed to give way. There is no
conclusive evidence of the terms of any wider
"Granita Pact" but supporters of Brown maintain
that Blair undertook to resign as Prime Minister
after a set period in favour of Brown. The Labour
Party Electoral College elected Tony Blair as
Party Leader on 21 July 1994. The other candidates
were John Prescott and Margaret Beckett.

===Leader of the Labour Party===

Shortly after his election as Leader, Blair
announced at the conclusion of his 1994 conference
speech that he intended to propose a new statement
of aims and values for the Labour Party to replace
the charter originally drawn up in 1918. This
involved the complete replacement of Clause IV
which had committed the party to 'the common
ownership of the means of production' (widely
interpreted as wholesale nationalisation). A
special conference of the party approved the
change in March 1995.

While in opposition, Blair also revised party
policy in a manner which enhanced the image of
Labour as competent and modern. He used the term
"New Labour" to distinguish the party under his
leadership from what had gone before. Although the
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".

Aided by disaffection with the Conservative
government (who were dogged by allegations of
corruption, and long running divisions over
European Union|Europe), "New Labour" achieved a
landslide victory over John Major in the United
Kingdom general election, 1997|1997 UK general
election. At age 43, Blair became Britain's
youngest prime minister since Robert Jenkinson,
2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool in 1812.

==First term 1997 to 2001==



===Establishment of the Third Way===

Immediately after taking office, Chancellor of the
Exchequer Gordon Brown gave the Bank of England
the power to set the base rate of interest
autonomously. The traditional tendency of
governments to manipulate 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 City of London|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 debate
and voting in Parliament, although his vote is
seldom needed given Labour's large majorities in
the House of Commons.

Further reforms include the prominence given to
the Prime Minister's Press Secretary, who became
known as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman
(though the current PMOS is not the press
secretary). This role was filled by Alastair
Campbell from May 1997 to 8 June 2001. Campbell
had been an important cog in the New Labour
election machine for the 1997 general election,
working with Peter Mandelson to co-ordinate
Labour's campaign. In the early years of his first
term, Blair relied for his political advice on a
close circle of his own staff, amongst whom
Campbell was seen as particularly influential: he
was given the authority to direct civil servants,
who previously had taken instructions only from
Political minister|ministers. Unlike some of his
predecessors, Campbell was a political appointment
and had not come through the Civil Service.
Campbell was replaced by Godric Smith and Tom
Kelly when he moved to become the Prime Minister's
Director of Communications and Strategy
immediately after Blair's election success on 7
June 2001. Campbell ultimately resigned on 29
August 2003.

===Domestic policies===

A significant achievement of Blair's first term
was the negotiation 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 TUAS|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. Though the
agreement has run into difficulties with Sinn
Féin claiming it is yet to be implemented in full
and the Democratic Unionist Party rejecting it
outright, the political structures it brought into
being have increased the chances of a sustained
peace.

Blair's first term saw an extensive programme of
constitutional reform. A Human Rights Act
1998|Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998; a
Welsh Assembly and a Scottish Parliament were both
set up; and most hereditary Peerage|peers were
removed from the House of Lords in 1999; the
Greater London Authority was established in 2000;
and the Freedom of Information Act 2000|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 hopes had been raised by a White
Paper of 1998 which promised a more robust Act. No
significant further progress has been made in
reforming the House of Lords since 1999: the
debate remains open whether the reformed chamber
should be fully elected, fully appointed, or part
elected and part appointed. 

In 1999, Blair presided over British involvement
in the Kosovo War. The Labour Party in opposition
had criticised the Conservative government for
weakness over Bosnia, and Blair was one of those
urging a strong line by NATO against Slobodan
Milošević. He persuaded the US Bill
Clinton|Clinton administration to support the use
of ground troops should aerial bombardment fail to
win the war, although in the event they were not
needed. His speech setting out the Blair Doctrine
of the International Community was made one month
into the war, in Chicago on April 22, 1999
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-
june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html transcript). The
same year he was awarded the Charlemagne Award by
the German city of Aachen, for his contributions
to the European idea and to European peace.

In the United Kingdom general election, 2001|2001
UK general election, Blair defined the election as
being about improvements to public service. This
specifically included the National Health Service.
The Conservatives largely ignored the issue of
public services in favour of opposing British
membership of European Monetary Union, which
proved to do little to win over floating voters:
the Labour Party preserved its majority, and Blair
became the first Labour Prime Minister to win a
full second term. However the election was notable
for a large fall in voter turnout. The leader of
the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party,
William Hague, resigned, becoming the first
Conservative Party leader never to have served as
Prime Minister ; his successors Iain Duncan Smith
and Michael Howard became the second and currently
third holders of this distinction (although Austen
Chamberlain never became Prime Minister, he only
led the Conservative MPs, and thus technically was
never the leader of the Conservative Party).

==Second term 2001 to 2005==


Following the September 11, 2001 attacks|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 2001
Attack on Afghanistan|attack on Afghanistan (in
which British troops participated). He maintains
this role to this day, showing a willingness to
visit countries on diplomatic missions that other
world leaders might consider too dangerous to
visit. In 2003 he was awarded a Congressional Gold
Medal on behalf of the United States Congress for
being "a staunch and steadfast ally of the United
States of America."
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:1:./tem
p/~c108vOFQ9V::

===Iraq war===

Blair was a strong supporter of President of the
United States|U.S. President George W. Bush's
controversial plan to invade Iraq and overthrow
dictator Saddam Hussein. Blair soon became the
face of international support for the war, often
clashing with President of France|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.

Blair made a case for war against Saddam based on
Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction
and breach of UN resolutions, but was wary of
making a direct appeal for regime change as
international law does not recognize that as a
legal ground for invasion. A Downing Street
memo|memorandum from a July 2002 meeting which was
leaked in April 2005 to The Sunday Times showed
that Blair believed that the British public would
support regime change in the right political
context; however the memo states that legal
grounds for such action were weak. On Tuesday 24
September 2002 Downing Street published a
September Dossier|dossier based on intelligence
agencies' assessments of Iraqi production and use
of weapons of mass destruction|Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction. Among the items in the dossier
was a recently received intelligence report that
"the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or
biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order
to do so". (A briefing paper in February 2003
entitled 'Iraq - its infrastructure of
concealment, deception and intimidation' was also
issued to journalists; this document was
discovered to have taken a large part of its text
without attribution from an academic thesis
available on the World Wide Web, and it was
subsequently referred to as the 'Dodgy Dossier').

Forty-six thousand British troops, one third of
the total strength of the UK army (land forces),
were deployed to assist with the 2003 invasion of
Iraq. When after the war it was established that
Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction,
Blair's pre-war statements became a major domestic
controversy. Many members of the Labour Party, not
only those who were opposed to the Iraq war, were
among those critical; among opponents of the war,
accusations that Blair had deliberately
exaggerated the threat were made. Successive
inquiries (including those by the Foreign Affairs
Select Committee of the British House of
Commons|House of Commons, Hutton Inquiry|Lord
Hutton and Butler Review|Lord Butler of Brockwell)
have found that Blair honestly stated what he
believed to be true at the time. Accusations that
he lied have continued to dog his career.


Several anti-war pressure groups want to try Blair
for war crimes in Iraq at the International
Criminal Court (Bush cannot be tried because the
USA is not a signatory to the treaty). The
Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi
Annan, stated in September 2004 that the invasion
was "illegal".

The United Kingdom armed forces were active in
southern Iraq to stabilise the country in the
run-up to the elections of January 2005. In
October 2004 the UK government agreed to a request
from US forces to send a battalion of the Black
Watch regiment to the American sector to free up
US troops for an assault on Fallujah. At present,
British forces remain in Iraq. After the US
election, Blair tried to use his relationship with
President Bush to bring pressure on the US
administration on Israel and Palestinian
territories|Palestine. He has supported the
Israeli government's plan to withdraw from the
Gaza Strip.

On May 1, 2005, The Sunday Times printed a leaked
'Downing Street memo' which appeared to be the
minutes of a discussion of Iraq held in July 2002.
The memo created a stir particularly among critics
of the war by stating "It seemed clear that Bush
had made up his mind to take military action ...
But the case was 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.

===Domestic politics===

After fighting the 2001 election on the theme of
improving public services, Blair's government
raised taxes to increase spending on education and
health in 2002. Blair insisted that the increased
funding must be matched by internal reforms. The
government introduced a scheme to allow local NHS
hospitals financial freedom, although the eventual
shape of the proposals allowed somewhat less
freedom than Blair would have liked after an
internal struggle. 

In the first term, the government had introduced
an annual fixed tuition fee of around £1,000 for
higher education students (rejecting requests from
University|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
work. Despite a manifesto pledge in 2001 not to
introduce variable (or "top-up") tuition fees in
University|universities, Blair announced that such
a scheme would 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. Blair set up an inquiry under the
senior Law Lord Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton|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 David
Kelly|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 Hutton
Inquiry#Media reaction to the report|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 (UK)|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 United
Kingdom referendum, 1975|1975 referendum on
whether Britain should remain in the EEC). It was
a 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 United
Kingdom referendum on the Treaty establishing a
constitution for Europe|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 19 May 2004, he was hit by
two condoms filled with purple flour in the House
of Commons, thrown by Fathers 4 Justice House of
Commons protest|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.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,
1305030,00.html. If he does press the issue at the
G8, this would be expected to lead to conflict
with the United States, which has opposed the
Kyoto Protocol.

On February 6, 2005, Blair became the
longest-serving Labour prime minister: his 2838th
day in office moved him past the combined length
of 7 years 9 months that comprised Harold Wilson's
four terms during 1964 to 1966, 1966 to 1970,
February to October 1974 and October 1974 to March
1976.

===Attempted impeachment===

On August 25, 2004, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price
announced that he would attempt to impeach Blair
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3600438.stm
. The measure was supported by all three
nationalist parties (Plaid Cymru, Scottish
National Party|SNP and Sinn Fein) and independent
MP's, but failed to get more than a few signatures
from the MP's of the major parties. 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).

===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
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3705684.stm
and was diagnosed with supraventricular
tachycardia. This was treated by cardioversion and
he returned home that night. He took the following
day (20 October) a little more gently than usual
and returned to a full schedule on 21 October.
Downing Street aides later suggested that the
palpitations had been brought on by Blair drinking
lots of strong coffee at an European Union|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 10 Downing Street|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. Melvyn Bragg|Lord Bragg, a close
friend of the Blair family, admitted that Blair
was "under colossal strain", that "considerations
of his family became very pressing" and that Blair
had thought "things over very carefully." This led
to a surge in speculation that Blair would resign.
Several Cabinet ministers urged Blair to continue.

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.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/370
7520.stm 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
European constitution|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 the EU.
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs|Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
(politician)|Jack Straw announced that the
Parliamentary Bill to enact a referendum was
suspended indefinitely. This infuriated the
Franco-German axis (the controlling force of the
EU since its inception in the 1950s) of Jacques
Chirac and Gerhard Schröder, as well as EU
presidency holders Luxembourg, all of whom
demanded that the ratification process continue.
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. French action is
widely seen as an attempt to deflect blame from
themselves for the failure of the constitution to
progress. 

Chirac held several meetings with Schröder and
the pair pressed for Britain to give up its UK
rebate|rebate, famously won by Lady Margaret
Thatcher|Thatcher in 1984. After verbal conflict
across 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 now falls onto
Blair himself to broker a deal, as he assumes the
6-month rotating EU presidency on the 1st July.
International opinion, particularly in the French
press, suggests that Blair holds a very strong
position at present, and with the assumption of
the EU presidency the UK will simultaneously
preside over the EU and the G8.



===2012 Summer Olympics===

On July 6, 2005, it was formally announced that
the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XXX
Olympiad, were awarded to London as host city, as
announced by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) during the 117th IOC session in
Singapore.The last minute surprise win by London
over frontruner Paris was said to have been
decided by the presence of Tony Blair at the IOC
session, even down to Irish IOC member Patrick
Hickey saying "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".http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArtic
le.aspx?type=sportsNews&storyID=2005-07-06T135259Z
_01_SPI544691_RTRUKOC_0_OLYMPICS.xml



===2005 London bombings===

On Thursday July 7, 2005, 7 July 2005 London
bombings|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. Fifty-six
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 the World War II.

Blair made Wikisource:2005 London transport
explosions Blair comments|a statement about that
day's 7 July 2005 London bombings|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, 21 July 2005 London bombings|a
second series of explosions were reported in
London, two weeks and some hours after the 7 July
2005 London bombings. Four separate explosions
occurred at Shepherd's Bush tube station
(Hammersmith and City Line)|Shepherd's Bush,
Warren Street tube station|Warren Street and Oval
tube station|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 explosions in
London today were "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 as normal".

Concerns about terror attacks led to 10 Downing
Street requesting media organizations not to
identify the location of Blair's 2005 summer
holiday.

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.http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/co
mment/story/0,,1531902,00.html But nonetheless,
his approval rating then flipped from negative to
positive for the first time in five years
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2
005/07/09/npoll09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/09/ixne
wstop.html

===Departure===
After Labour's 2004 conference, Blair announced
via a BBC interview
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3706630.stm
that he would not fight a fourth general election,
an unprecedented announcement in Britain, where
there is no limit on the time someone may serve as
Prime Minister. He also announced he would serve a
"full third term". 

Since then, speculation over the anticipated date
of his departure has been frequent. 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 are seen to
have made a departure of no earlier than Christmas
2008 likely. But while bookmakers take bets on his
staying,
http://www.ladbrokes.com/lbr_portal?action=do_lang
_splash&form_name=lang_splash&LANG=en&STYLE=en&VIE
W=uk&LAYOUT=default Blair's election agent has
saidhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4737927
.stm he will also quit the House of Commons at the
next election. However, Blair has dismissed this
as only a rumour, and has said that he has not
thought about the decision to stay or go.

==Caricature and satire of Blair==

In opposition under John Smith, the ITV
satire|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.

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 (politics)|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 (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".

Because of Blair's close co-operation with the
USA, he has, since 2001, been called "Bush's
poodle" and "Governor of the 51st state". On BBC
TV's Newsnight on February 6, 2003 a member of the
audience said he "agreed with something the Right
Honourable Member for Texas North said a few
minutes ago"
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/2
732979.stm transcript), a reference to the
protocol of the United Kingdom House of Commons of
referring to Members by the constituency they
represent and Blair's closeness to the former
Governor of Texas, President George W. Bush. The
alliance between the two men is somewhat upsetting
to many supporters of his party, which
traditionally allies itself with the United States
Democratic Party|Democrats. His name has been
deliberately mis-spelled 'Tony Bliar' (sometimes
'B. Liar') by critics of his actions and his
policies (particularly his stance on Iraq).

Taken overall, 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. More recently, his
unpopular policy supporting the US over Iraq has
demonstrated a politician with more sincere
commitment to his own policies despite public
opposition.

==See also==

* Tony Blair's Cabinets
* List of national leaders
* United Kingdom general election, 2005|UK general
election, 2005
* United Kingdom general election, 2001|UK general
election, 2001
* United Kingdom general election, 1997|UK general
election, 1997
* United Kingdom general election, 1992|UK general
election, 1992
* United Kingdom general election, 1987|UK general
election, 1987
* United Kingdom general election, 1983|UK general
election, 1983
* Blair Brown Deal

start box
succession incumbent | before=John Smith (UK
politician)|John Smith | title=Labour Party
(UK)|Leader of the British Labour Party |
years=1994– 
succession incumbent | before=John Major |
title=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
years=1997– 
end box

==References==

*
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/files/story2850
.php "Think Again: Tony Blair" - by James G.
Forsyth (requires registration) from
http://www.foreignpolicy.comForeign 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.
* http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page4.asp Her
Majesty's Government (2004). "The Prime Minister:
A Biography".
* Halsbury's Laws of England|Halsbury's Laws of
England (2004), reference to impeachment in volume
on Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph
416
*
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/20
02/conflict_with_iraq/2281452.stm "The September
Dossier"
*
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_1/06_dos
sier.html "The Dodgy Dossier"
*
http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/tuitionfe
es/story/0,12757,1118543,00.html Tuition Fee Time
Table


==Further reading==

* Anthony Seldon|Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair
Free Press, ISBN 0743232119
* Clare Short|Short, Clare (2004). An Honourable
Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of
Power Free Press, ISBN 0743263928
* James Naughtie|Naughtie, James (2004). The
Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency
Macmillan, ISBN 1405050012
* Peter Riddell|Riddell, Peter (2004). The
Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair and the End
of Optimism Politico's Publishing, ISBN 1842751131
* Blair, Tony edited by Paul Richards (2004). Tony
Blair: In His Own Words, Politico's Publishing,
ISBN 1842750895
* Leo Abse|Abse, Leo (2003). Tony Blair: The Man
Who Lost His Smile Robson Books, ISBN 1861056982
* Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate
Story of a Political Marriage Fourth Estate ISBN
1841154733 
* John Rentoul|Rentoul, John (2001). Tony Blair
Prime Minister Little Brown, ISBN 0316854964
* Abse, Leo (2001). Tony Blair: The Man Behind the
Smile Robson Books, ISBN 1861053649
* Andrew Rawnsley|Rawnsley, Andrew (2000). 
Servants of the People: The Inside Story of New
Labour Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0241140293
** Revised edition (2001), Penguin Books ISBN
0140278508
* Philip Gould|Gould, Philip (1999). The
Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved
the Labour Party Abacus, ISBN 0349111774 
* Blair, Tony, edited by Iain Dale (1998). The
Blair Necessities: Tony Blair Book of Quotations
Robson Books, ISBN 1861051395

==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

==External links==


wikisource3|Author:Tony Blair|Tony Blair

* http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp 10
Downing Street official site
*
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-463,
00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask
Aristotle: Tony Blair MP
*
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tony_blair/sedgef
ield TheyWorkForYou.com - Tony Blair MP
*
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Tony_Blair
&mpc=Sedgefield The Public Whip - Tony Blair MP
voting record
* http://www.impeachblair.org/ Impeach Blair
Campaign

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
(born 6 May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is the
current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He
has led the Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party since
July 1994, (following the death of John Smith (UK
politician)|John Smith in May of that year) and
brought Labour into power with a landslide victory
in the United Kingdom general election, 1997|1997
general election, replacing John Major as Prime
Minister and ending 18 years of Conservative Party
(UK)|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, just as
Margaret Thatcher was the only Conservative Prime
Minister to win three consecutive general
elections.

Blair moved the Labour Party towards the centre of
British politics, using the term
"Labour_Party_(UK)#New_Labour|New Labour" to
distinguish what he identifies as "modern social
democracy" and his party's refusal to reverse
privatisation and support for a free market|market
economy from its past belief in nationalisation
and Fabian Society|Fabian socialism. However,
critics on the left-wing politics|left feel that
he has compromised the principles of the founders
of the Labour party, and that the Blair government
has moved too far to the right-wing
politics|right, placing insufficient emphasis on
traditional Labour priorities such as the income
redistribution|redistribution of wealth.
 
TOCleft

Since the advent of the War on Terrorism|War on
Terror, much of the Prime Minister's political
agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs,
particularly those concerning Iraq, and he has
supported many aspects of the foreign policy of
United States president George W. Bush, sending
British forces to participate in the 2003 invasion
of Iraq and the subsequent occupation and
conflict. Blair's Labour party still managed to
win an unprecedented (for the Labour Party; the
Conservatives having won three consecutive terms
twice since World War II|the Second World War)
third term in the United Kingdom general election,
2005|2005 general election. Although Labour's
majority in the British House of Commons|House of
Commons was reduced considerably to 67 MPs, this
remains a substantial working majority and a
measure of the relative political weakness and
poor credibility of the main opposition party, the
Conservatives. Some journalists immediately
noticed that New Labour no longer has a majority
independently of Old Labour, although this may
discourage some MPs from mounting damaging
rebellions against the leadership. 

While Blair is in no danger of losing a potential
vote of Motion of no confidence|no confidence, the
fall in the Labour vote (from 41% to 35%) has
renewed speculation amongst commentators as to how
long his leadership can continue. It is widely
predicted that he will be succeeded by his
ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown
before the next General Election (which will occur
at the latest in 2010).

==Early and private life==

Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father
Leo Blair (senior)|Leo was a barrister and later a
law lecturer who, having been a communist in his
youth, was active in the Conservative Party
(UK)|Conservative Party. Leo Blair had had
ambitions to stand for Parliament in Durham, which
were thwarted when he had a stroke when his son
was 11, an event which affected Tony Blair deeply.
He spent most of his childhood years in Durham.
After attending the Durham Choristers School,
Blair was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh
(sometimes called the "Eton College|Eton of
Scotland"), where he met Charlie Falconer whom he
would later make Lord Chancellor. Biographer John
Rentoul said "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 University of Oxford|Oxford with a
second class degree, Blair enrolled as a pupil
barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth,
at the Chambers of Derry Irvine, also a future
Lord Chancellor.

Blair married Booth, a devout Roman Catholic, on
29 March 1980. They have three sons (Euan
Blair|Euan, Nicky Blair|Nicky, and Leo Blair|Leo)
and one daughter (Kathryn Blair|Kathryn). Leo
holds the distinction of being the first child
officially born to a sitting Prime Minister in 150
years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John
Russell on 11 July 1849. Leo was the centre of a
debate over the MMR vaccine when Tony Blair
refused to say whether or not his son had received
the controversial treatment. 

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
London Borough of Islington|Islington, where he
then lived. Euan Blair received widespread
publicity after police found him "drunk and
incapable" in Leicester Square, London, while out
celebrating the end of his General Certificate of
Secondary Education|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 to accuse him of exploitation, and such
photographs have been used on
http://www.ugandandiscussions.co.uk/1030/ Private
Eye covers.

Blair is an Anglican of the High Church or
Anglo-Catholic tendency, while his wife is Roman
Catholic and his children are (according to
Catholic doctrine) brought up in that faith. Blair
has not sought to make a political issue of his
faith, though biographers agree that his political
beliefs have been profoundly influenced by it. One
name often mentioned as a theological influence is
the Scottish Christian philosopher John Macmurray.
Some have suggested Tony Blair is the most
religiously devout Prime Minister since William
Ewart Gladstone. Blair attends Mass with his
family, but does not take communion, and has been
seen by himself in Westminster Cathedral.

==Begins political career==



Shortly after graduation in 1975, Blair joined the
Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party. During the early
1980s, he was involved in the Labour Party in
Hackney South and Shoreditch (UK Parliament
constituency)|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 Party
(UK)|Conservative seat of Beaconsfield (UK
Parliament constituency)|Beaconsfield in 1982,
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, but
impressed the then Labour Party leader Michael
Foot and got his name noticed within the party.

In 1983, Blair found that the newly created seat
of Sedgefield (UK Parliament
constituency)|Sedgefield, near where he had grown
up in Durham, had no Labour candidate. Several
sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were
interested, but Blair managed to win the
nomination. The seat was safely Labour despite the
party's collapse in the United Kingdom general
election, 1983|1983 UK general election; Blair was
helped on the campaign trail by soap opera|soap
actress Patricia Phoenix, the girlfriend of his
father-in-law Anthony Booth.

==In opposition==

Once elected to Parliament, 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 United Kingdom general
election, 1987|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 71
votes. This was considered a good showing for a
newcomer.



The stock market crash of October 1987 raised the
prominence of Blair who inveighed against the
'morally dubious' City whiz-kids as being
incompetent. He signalled his modernising by
protesting against the third-class service for
small investors at the London Stock Exchange.
Blair first entered the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow
Secretary of State for Energy in 1988, and the
next year became Shadow Employment Secretary. In
this post he realised that the Labour Party's
support for the emerging European 'Social Charter'
policies on employment law meant dropping the
party's traditional support for closed shop
arrangements whereby employers required all their
employees to be members of the same trade union.
He announced this change in December 1989,
outraging the left-wing of the Labour Party but
making it more difficult for the Conservatives to
attack.

As a young and telegenic Shadow Cabinet member,
Blair was given prominence by the party's Director
of Communications Peter Mandelson. However his
first major platform speech at the Labour Party
conference was a disastrous embarrassment in
October 1990 when he spoke too fast and lost his
place in his notes. He worked to produce a more
moderate and electable party in the run-up to the
United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992 general
election, in which he had responsibility for
developing the minimum wage policy which was
expected to be strongly attacked by the
Conservatives. During the election campaign Blair
had a notable confrontation with the owner of a
children's nursery who was adamant that the policy
would cost jobs.

When Kinnock resigned after defeat by John Major
in the United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992
UK general election, Blair became Shadow Home
Secretary under John Smith (UK politician)|John
Smith. Blair defined his policy (in a phrase that
had actually been coined by his current Chancellor
Gordon Brown) as "Tough on crime, tough on the
causes of crime". This had been an area in which
the Labour Party had been weak and Blair moved to
strengthen its image. He accepted that the prison
population might have to rise, and bemoaned the
loss of a sense of community which he was prepared
to blame (at least partly) on '1960s liberalism'.
However, Blair spoke in support of equalisation of
the age of consent for gay sex and opposed capital
punishment.



Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a myocardial
infarction|heart attack. Both Blair and Gordon
Brown had been considered as possible leadership
contenders and had always agreed that they would
not fight each other. Brown had previously been
thought the most senior and understood this to
mean that Blair would give way to him; however, it
soon became apparent that Blair now had greater
support. A MORI opinion poll published in the
Sunday Times on 15 May found that among the
general public, Blair had the support of 32%, John
Prescott, 19%, Margaret Beckett 14%, Gordon Brown
9%, and Robin Cook 5%. At the Granita
(restaurant)|Granita restaurant in Islington on 31
May, Brown agreed to give way. There is no
conclusive evidence of the terms of any wider
"Granita Pact" but supporters of Brown maintain
that Blair undertook to resign as Prime Minister
after a set period in favour of Brown. The Labour
Party Electoral College elected Tony Blair as
Party Leader on 21 July 1994. The other candidates
were John Prescott and Margaret Beckett.

===Leader of the Labour Party===

Shortly after his election as Leader, Blair
announced at the conclusion of his 1994 conference
speech that he intended to propose a new statement
of aims and values for the Labour Party to replace
the charter originally drawn up in 1918. This
involved the complete replacement of Clause IV
which had committed the party to 'the common
ownership of the means of production' (widely
interpreted as wholesale nationalisation). A
special conference of the party approved the
change in March 1995.

While in opposition, Blair also revised party
policy in a manner which enhanced the image of
Labour as competent and modern. He used the term
"New Labour" to distinguish the party under his
leadership from what had gone before. Although the
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".

Aided by disaffection with the Conservative
government (who were dogged by allegations of
corruption, and long running divisions over
European Union|Europe), "New Labour" achieved a
landslide victory over John Major in the United
Kingdom general election, 1997|1997 UK general
election. At age 43, Blair became Britain's
youngest prime minister since Robert Jenkinson,
2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool in 1812.

==First term 1997 to 2001==



===Establishment of the Third Way===

Immediately after taking office, Chancellor of the
Exchequer Gordon Brown gave the Bank of England
the power to set the base rate of interest
autonomously. The traditional tendency of
governments to manipulate 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 City of London|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 debate
and voting in Parliament, although his vote is
seldom needed given Labour's large majorities in
the House of Commons.

Further reforms include the prominence given to
the Prime Minister's Press Secretary, who became
known as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman
(though the current PMOS is not the press
secretary). This role was filled by Alastair
Campbell from May 1997 to 8 June 2001. Campbell
had been an important cog in the New Labour
election machine for the 1997 general election,
working with Peter Mandelson to co-ordinate
Labour's campaign. In the early years of his first
term, Blair relied for his political advice on a
close circle of his own staff, amongst whom
Campbell was seen as particularly influential: he
was given the authority to direct civil servants,
who previously had taken instructions only from
Political minister|ministers. Unlike some of his
predecessors, Campbell was a political appointment
and had not come through the Civil Service.
Campbell was replaced by Godric Smith and Tom
Kelly when he moved to become the Prime Minister's
Director of Communications and Strategy
immediately after Blair's election success on 7
June 2001. Campbell ultimately resigned on 29
August 2003.

===Domestic policies===

A significant achievement of Blair's first term
was the negotiation 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 TUAS|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. Though the
agreement has run into difficulties with Sinn
Féin claiming it is yet to be implemented in full
and the Democratic Unionist Party rejecting it
outright, the political structures it brought into
being have increased the chances of a sustained
peace.

Blair's first term saw an extensive programme of
constitutional reform. A Human Rights Act
1998|Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998; a
Welsh Assembly and a Scottish Parliament were both
set up; and most hereditary Peerage|peers were
removed from the House of Lords in 1999; the
Greater London Authority was established in 2000;
and the Freedom of Information Act 2000|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 hopes had been raised by a White
Paper of 1998 which promised a more robust Act. No
significant further progress has been made in
reforming the House of Lords since 1999: the
debate remains open whether the reformed chamber
should be fully elected, fully appointed, or part
elected and part appointed. 

In 1999, Blair presided over British involvement
in the Kosovo War. The Labour Party in opposition
had criticised the Conservative government for
weakness over Bosnia, and Blair was one of those
urging a strong line by NATO against Slobodan
Milošević. He persuaded the US Bill
Clinton|Clinton administration to support the use
of ground troops should aerial bombardment fail to
win the war, although in the event they were not
needed. His speech setting out the Blair Doctrine
of the International Community was made one month
into the war, in Chicago on April 22, 1999
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-
june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html transcript). The
same year he was awarded the Charlemagne Award by
the German city of Aachen, for his contributions
to the European idea and to European peace.

In the United Kingdom general election, 2001|2001
UK general election, Blair defined the election as
being about improvements to public service. This
specifically included the National Health Service.
The Conservatives largely ignored the issue of
public services in favour of opposing British
membership of European Monetary Union, which
proved to do little to win over floating voters:
the Labour Party preserved its majority, and Blair
became the first Labour Prime Minister to win a
full second term. However the election was notable
for a large fall in voter turnout. The leader of
the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party,
William Hague, resigned, becoming the first
Conservative Party leader never to have served as
Prime Minister ; his successors Iain Duncan Smith
and Michael Howard became the second and currently
third holders of this distinction (although Austen
Chamberlain never became Prime Minister, he only
led the Conservative MPs, and thus technically was
never the leader of the Conservative Party).

==Second term 2001 to 2005==


Following the September 11, 2001 attacks|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 2001
Attack on Afghanistan|attack on Afghanistan (in
which British troops participated). He maintains
this role to this day, showing a willingness to
visit countries on diplomatic missions that other
world leaders might consider too dangerous to
visit. In 2003 he was awarded a Congressional Gold
Medal on behalf of the United States Congress for
being "a staunch and steadfast ally of the United
States of America."
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:1:./tem
p/~c108vOFQ9V::

===Iraq war===

Blair was a strong supporter of President of the
United States|U.S. President George W. Bush's
controversial plan to invade Iraq and overthrow
dictator Saddam Hussein. Blair soon became the
face of international support for the war, often
clashing with President of France|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.

Blair made a case for war against Saddam based on
Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction
and breach of UN resolutions, but was wary of
making a direct appeal for regime change as
international law does not recognize that as a
legal ground for invasion. A Downing Street
memo|memorandum from a July 2002 meeting which was
leaked in April 2005 to The Sunday Times showed
that Blair believed that the British public would
support regime change in the right political
context; however the memo states that legal
grounds for such action were weak. On Tuesday 24
September 2002 Downing Street published a
September Dossier|dossier based on intelligence
agencies' assessments of Iraqi production and use
of weapons of mass destruction|Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction. Among the items in the dossier
was a recently received intelligence report that
"the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or
biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order
to do so". (A briefing paper in February 2003
entitled 'Iraq - its infrastructure of
concealment, deception and intimidation' was also
issued to journalists; this document was
discovered to have taken a large part of its text
without attribution from an academic thesis
available on the World Wide Web, and it was
subsequently referred to as the 'Dodgy Dossier').

Forty-six thousand British troops, one third of
the total strength of the UK army (land forces),
were deployed to assist with the 2003 invasion of
Iraq. When after the war it was established that
Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction,
Blair's pre-war statements became a major domestic
controversy. Many members of the Labour Party, not
only those who were opposed to the Iraq war, were
among those critical; among opponents of the war,
accusations that Blair had deliberately
exaggerated the threat were made. Successive
inquiries (including those by the Foreign Affairs
Select Committee of the British House of
Commons|House of Commons, Hutton Inquiry|Lord
Hutton and Butler Review|Lord Butler of Brockwell)
have found that Blair honestly stated what he
believed to be true at the time. Accusations that
he lied have continued to dog his career.


Several anti-war pressure groups want to try Blair
for war crimes in Iraq at the International
Criminal Court (Bush cannot be tried because the
USA is not a signatory to the treaty). The
Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi
Annan, stated in September 2004 that the invasion
was "illegal".

The United Kingdom armed forces were active in
southern Iraq to stabilise the country in the
run-up to the elections of January 2005. In
October 2004 the UK government agreed to a request
from US forces to send a battalion of the Black
Watch regiment to the American sector to free up
US troops for an assault on Fallujah. At present,
British forces remain in Iraq. After the US
election, Blair tried to use his relationship with
President Bush to bring pressure on the US
administration on Israel and Palestinian
territories|Palestine. He has supported the
Israeli government's plan to withdraw from the
Gaza Strip.

On May 1, 2005, The Sunday Times printed a leaked
'Downing Street memo' which appeared to be the
minutes of a discussion of Iraq held in July 2002.
The memo created a stir particularly among critics
of the war by stating "It seemed clear that Bush
had made up his mind to take military action ...
But the case was 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.

===Domestic politics===

After fighting the 2001 election on the theme of
improving public services, Blair's government
raised taxes to increase spending on education and
health in 2002. Blair insisted that the increased
funding must be matched by internal reforms. The
government introduced a scheme to allow local NHS
hospitals financial freedom, although the eventual
shape of the proposals allowed somewhat less
freedom than Blair would have liked after an
internal struggle. 

In the first term, the government had introduced
an annual fixed tuition fee of around £1,000 for
higher education students (rejecting requests from
University|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
work. Despite a manifesto pledge in 2001 not to
introduce variable (or "top-up") tuition fees in
University|universities, Blair announced that such
a scheme would 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. Blair set up an inquiry under the
senior Law Lord Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton|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 David
Kelly|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 Hutton
Inquiry#Media reaction to the report|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 (UK)|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 United
Kingdom referendum, 1975|1975 referendum on
whether Britain should remain in the EEC). It was
a 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 United
Kingdom referendum on the Treaty establishing a
constitution for Europe|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 19 May 2004, he was hit by
two condoms filled with purple flour in the House
of Commons, thrown by Fathers 4 Justice House of
Commons protest|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.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,
1305030,00.html. If he does press the issue at the
G8, this would be expected to lead to conflict
with the United States, which has opposed the
Kyoto Protocol.

On February 6, 2005, Blair became the
longest-serving Labour prime minister: his 2838th
day in office moved him past the combined length
of 7 years 9 months that comprised Harold Wilson's
four terms during 1964 to 1966, 1966 to 1970,
February to October 1974 and October 1974 to March
1976.

===Attempted impeachment===

On August 25, 2004, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price
announced that he would attempt to impeach Blair
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3600438.stm
. The measure was supported by all three
nationalist parties (Plaid Cymru, Scottish
National Party|SNP and Sinn Fein) and independent
MP's, but failed to get more than a few signatures
from the MP's of the major parties. 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).

===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
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3705684.stm
and was diagnosed with supraventricular
tachycardia. This was treated by cardioversion and
he returned home that night. He took the following
day (20 October) a little more gently than usual
and returned to a full schedule on 21 October.
Downing Street aides later suggested that the
palpitations had been brought on by Blair drinking
lots of strong coffee at an European Union|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 10 Downing Street|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. Melvyn Bragg|Lord Bragg, a close
friend of the Blair family, admitted that Blair
was "under colossal strain", that "considerations
of his family became very pressing" and that Blair
had thought "things over very carefully." This led
to a surge in speculation that Blair would resign.
Several Cabinet ministers urged Blair to continue.

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.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/370
7520.stm 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
European constitution|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 the EU.
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs|Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
(politician)|Jack Straw announced that the
Parliamentary Bill to enact a referendum was
suspended indefinitely. This infuriated the
Franco-German axis (the controlling force of the
EU since its inception in the 1950s) of Jacques
Chirac and Gerhard Schröder, as well as EU
presidency holders Luxembourg, all of whom
demanded that the ratification process continue.
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. French action is
widely seen as an attempt to deflect blame from
themselves for the failure of the constitution to
progress. 

Chirac held several meetings with Schröder and
the pair pressed for Britain to give up its UK
rebate|rebate, famously won by Lady Margaret
Thatcher|Thatcher in 1984. After verbal conflict
across 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 now falls onto
Blair himself to broker a deal, as he assumes the
6-month rotating EU presidency on the 1st July.
International opinion, particularly in the French
press, suggests that Blair holds a very strong
position at present, and with the assumption of
the EU presidency the UK will simultaneously
preside over the EU and the G8.



===2012 Summer Olympics===

On July 6, 2005, it was formally announced that
the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XXX
Olympiad, were awarded to London as host city, as
announced by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) during the 117th IOC session in
Singapore.The last minute surprise win by London
over frontruner Paris was said to have been
decided by the presence of Tony Blair at the IOC
session, even down to Irish IOC member Patrick
Hickey saying "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".http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArtic
le.aspx?type=sportsNews&storyID=2005-07-06T135259Z
_01_SPI544691_RTRUKOC_0_OLYMPICS.xml



===2005 London bombings===

On Thursday July 7, 2005, 7 July 2005 London
bombings|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. Fifty-six
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 the World War II.

Blair made Wikisource:2005 London transport
explosions Blair comments|a statement about that
day's 7 July 2005 London bombings|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, 21 July 2005 London bombings|a
second series of explosions were reported in
London, two weeks and some hours after the 7 July
2005 London bombings. Four separate explosions
occurred at Shepherd's Bush tube station
(Hammersmith and City Line)|Shepherd's Bush,
Warren Street tube station|Warren Street and Oval
tube station|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 explosions in
London today were "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 as normal".

Concerns about terror attacks led to 10 Downing
Street requesting media organizations not to
identify the location of Blair's 2005 summer
holiday.

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.http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/co
mment/story/0,,1531902,00.html But nonetheless,
his approval rating then flipped from negative to
positive for the first time in five years
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2
005/07/09/npoll09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/09/ixne
wstop.html

===Departure===
After Labour's 2004 conference, Blair announced
via a BBC interview
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3706630.stm
that he would not fight a fourth general election,
an unprecedented announcement in Britain, where
there is no limit on the time someone may serve as
Prime Minister. He also announced he would serve a
"full third term". 

Since then, speculation over the anticipated date
of his departure has been frequent. 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 are seen to
have made a departure of no earlier than Christmas
2008 likely. But while bookmakers take bets on his
staying,
http://www.ladbrokes.com/lbr_portal?action=do_lang
_splash&form_name=lang_splash&LANG=en&STYLE=en&VIE
W=uk&LAYOUT=default Blair's election agent has
saidhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4737927
.stm he will also quit the House of Commons at the
next election. However, Blair has dismissed this
as only a rumour, and has said that he has not
thought about the decision to stay or go.

==Caricature and satire of Blair==

In opposition under John Smith, the ITV
satire|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.

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 (politics)|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 (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".

Because of Blair's close co-operation with the
USA, he has, since 2001, been called "Bush's
poodle" and "Governor of the 51st state". On BBC
TV's Newsnight on February 6, 2003 a member of the
audience said he "agreed with something the Right
Honourable Member for Texas North said a few
minutes ago"
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/2
732979.stm transcript), a reference to the
protocol of the United Kingdom House of Commons of
referring to Members by the constituency they
represent and Blair's closeness to the former
Governor of Texas, President George W. Bush. The
alliance between the two men is somewhat upsetting
to many supporters of his party, which
traditionally allies itself with the United States
Democratic Party|Democrats. His name has been
deliberately mis-spelled 'Tony Bliar' (sometimes
'B. Liar') by critics of his actions and his
policies (particularly his stance on Iraq).

Taken overall, 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. More recently, his
unpopular policy supporting the US over Iraq has
demonstrated a politician with more sincere
commitment to his own policies despite public
opposition.

==See also==

* Tony Blair's Cabinets
* List of national leaders
* United Kingdom general election, 2005|UK general
election, 2005
* United Kingdom general election, 2001|UK general
election, 2001
* United Kingdom general election, 1997|UK general
election, 1997
* United Kingdom general election, 1992|UK general
election, 1992
* United Kingdom general election, 1987|UK general
election, 1987
* United Kingdom general election, 1983|UK general
election, 1983
* Blair Brown Deal

start box
succession incumbent | before=John Smith (UK
politician)|John Smith | title=Labour Party
(UK)|Leader of the British Labour Party |
years=1994– 
succession incumbent | before=John Major |
title=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
years=1997– 
end box

==References==

*
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/files/story2850
.php "Think Again: Tony Blair" - by James G.
Forsyth (requires registration) from
http://www.foreignpolicy.comForeign 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.
* http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page4.asp Her
Majesty's Government (2004). "The Prime Minister:
A Biography".
* Halsbury's Laws of England|Halsbury's Laws of
England (2004), reference to impeachment in volume
on Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph
416
*
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/20
02/conflict_with_iraq/2281452.stm "The September
Dossier"
*
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_1/06_dos
sier.html "The Dodgy Dossier"
*
http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/tuitionfe
es/story/0,12757,1118543,00.html Tuition Fee Time
Table


==Further reading==

* Anthony Seldon|Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair
Free Press, ISBN 0743232119
* Clare Short|Short, Clare (2004). An Honourable
Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of
Power Free Press, ISBN 0743263928
* James Naughtie|Naughtie, James (2004). The
Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency
Macmillan, ISBN 1405050012
* Peter Riddell|Riddell, Peter (2004). The
Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair and the End
of Optimism Politico's Publishing, ISBN 1842751131
* Blair, Tony edited by Paul Richards (2004). Tony
Blair: In His Own Words, Politico's Publishing,
ISBN 1842750895
* Leo Abse|Abse, Leo (2003). Tony Blair: The Man
Who Lost His Smile Robson Books, ISBN 1861056982
* Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate
Story of a Political Marriage Fourth Estate ISBN
1841154733 
* John Rentoul|Rentoul, John (2001). Tony Blair
Prime Minister Little Brown, ISBN 0316854964
* Abse, Leo (2001). Tony Blair: The Man Behind the
Smile Robson Books, ISBN 1861053649
* Andrew Rawnsley|Rawnsley, Andrew (2000). 
Servants of the People: The Inside Story of New
Labour Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0241140293
** Revised edition (2001), Penguin Books ISBN
0140278508
* Philip Gould|Gould, Philip (1999). The
Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved
the Labour Party Abacus, ISBN 0349111774 
* Blair, Tony, edited by Iain Dale (1998). The
Blair Necessities: Tony Blair Book of Quotations
Robson Books, ISBN 1861051395

==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

==External links==


wikisource3|Author:Tony Blair|Tony Blair

* http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp 10
Downing Street official site
*
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-463,
00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask
Aristotle: Tony Blair MP
*
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tony_blair/sedgef
ield TheyWorkForYou.com - Tony Blair MP
*
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Tony_Blair
&mpc=Sedgefield The Public Whip - Tony Blair MP
voting record
* http://www.impeachblair.org/ Impeach Blair
Campaign