Reasons to give Blair a bloody nose tomorrow

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 09 June 2004

[MegaSilver]

The British like nothing better than to cut their leaders down to size, so it will be no surprise if many of us seize the chance presented by tomorrow's local and European elections to teach the Prime Minister a lesson.

Iraq, which has dominated domestic as well as international politics for the past two years, continues to arouse indignation every time Tony Blair appears. Once an irresistible electoral force, he is now treated as an embarrassment by his own party strategists.

They must be hoping that, during his current foreign excursion, first to the G8 summit in Georgia and then to Ronald Reagan's state funeral in Washington, he will not only be out of the voters' sight but out of their minds, too, when they go to the polls.

Yet it would be folly to underestimate Mr Blair. Tomorrow's elections may prove to be the high-water mark of the Iraq factor in British politics. Yesterday's unanimity at the UN Security Council symbolises a new desire in Europe for reconciliation with America, especially since Madrid.

Between now and next year's general election, as events in Iraq gradually recede from the front pages and passions subside, attention will shift back to the home front. Mr Blair is confident that he can still win the debate on public services with the scare tactics that have served him well in the past. Labour is likely to hang on to power for as long as the Conservatives are reluctant to challenge its tax-and-spend policies head-on.

We do not believe Mr Blair's mistakes over Iraq are sufficient reason to evict him from Downing Street. Not for half a century has a prime minister (Eden) lost office on account of his foreign policy. Though Mr Blair will be to blame if his party gets a bloody nose tomorrow, for Middle England he remains a less disquieting figure than his heir apparent, Gordon Brown.

Most Labour MPs understand this. Angry though they may be about Iraq, few will help the Tories to destroy a Labour prime minister. As for the electorate: unlike the more demagogic opponents of the war, voters are not motivated by anti-Americanism. They keep a sense of proportion.

Though Iraq is certainly a bad reason to sack Mr Blair, there is no shortage of good ones. He has presided over the greatest centralisation of the state, the greatest expansion of the bureaucracy and the greatest redistribution of wealth since Attlee.

To feed this insatiable leviathan, taxes are raised, debts are incurred, economy and society are over-regulated, the constitution is overridden, crime and immigration are out of control. Above all, Mr Blair would abandon our currency and our constitution in favour of the European Union's substitutes.

On the Opinion page, Michael Howard turns his guns on his real opponent, Labour, with the defence of the nation state as his battle-cry. He has plenty of targets to aim at, but precious little time left. Tomorrow the stakes are high for the politicians; next year, they will be high for the British people.

[Cicero]

As a matter of fact, Iraq is almost the only good thing Tony Blair has done.

But the Conservatives have nothing to boast about either.

[yooper]

I agree; Blair was awful before 911. That said, I believe his actions after 911 will rightfully earn him a spot as one of Britain's greatest PM's. He got it. He, almost alone on a continent of gutless appeasers, realized what the attacks meant, and he stuck with Bush through thick and thin, knowing that his own party would excoriate him.

I remain flabbergasted that he was spawned by the Labour Party, and it's a lucky thing that he was. Had a conservative been PM and tried to do what Blair has done he would have been gone long ago. Had Blair not gotten on board, there's no telling how things would have played out. His actions exposed the French as the yellow cowards that they are (to those who were not already aware of that fact), and I believe convinced our smaller allies to support the efforts of Bush with regard to Iraq.

Tony Blair is a true profile in courage, no matter what he did prior to 911.

[MadIvan]

I'm voting UKIP tomorrow.

Regards, Ivan

[Kackikat]

Be sure to vote against being in EU too...lol

[MadIvan]

I'm in the EU against my will as it is. :)

Regards, Ivan

[Kackikat]

OH, you are in Britain...my apologies, I thought you were here in America...I was being a smart-alek...OOPS