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The legacy of Tony Blair

By Gary Gibbon

Updated on 10 May 2007

How will history will judge ten years of Tony Blair? The high points, the low points and the soundbites that maketh the man

Tony Blair transformed Labour from serial losers, into electoral winners. The question that has nagged at him since is did he use those victories to change Britain dramatically for the better will his reputation rest on what he did in elections not the period in between?

On occasions his political charm seemed most effective on people outside his own party. The man running the civil service when Mr Blair's fresh-faced team arrived was not charmed by his style of government.

"The discussions in the cabinet were not discussions of policy or decisions, they were the discussions much of they must have been in opposition. What's the message? Speed of reaction? How do we conduct the political game? " - Lord Butler

Campbell: 'Politics isn't about euphoria'

Tony Blair's former communications director told Jon Snow tonight that expectations were raised too high when Blair came to power 10 years ago.
I can remember on the night - 1 May 1997 - when seats were falling from Conservative to Labour that we hadn't even campaigned in. And I can remember Tony turning and saying: "What on earth is going on here?" and it was a bigger landslide than any of us predicted.

There was this sense of almost euphoria around the country - as if the world was going to be transformed to Jerusalem overnight.

Politics isn't about elation and euphoria. It's about hard graft and hard grind - and a lot of that hard graft and grind has led to better lives to for millions of people in this country.

With a little help from his friends, he had a memorable phrase for every kind of occasion. Nothing bolder than his foreign policy - this was not how he thought things would be. In his first six years in office Tony Blair took Britain to war 5 times.

Kosovan refugees chant "Tony, Tony" - the first wars were humanitarian - but the war on Iraq got a different reception. The selling of the war spawned the dossier crisis and a govt scientist's suicide.


"The discussions in the cabinet were not discussions of policy or decisions, they were the discussions much of they must have been in opposition. What's the message? Speed of reaction? How do we conduct the political game? "
- Lord Butler

On Iraq and Afghanistan - he was side by side with President Bush and paid a heavy political price for that. Tony Blair told one American right winger he was proud to call himself a neo conservative

Throughout the premiership - waiting in the wings was Gordon Brown. As the political friendship deteriorated the joint appearances became more stage managed and strained.

They clashed on Tony Blair's favourite causes - links with the Liberal Democrats, the Euro, public sector reform and - everyone thought - on Iraq.

Some unpopular things - like the Dome - Mr Blair said he'd wished he'd never done. Some - like the Iraq war - he said he'd do all over again but re-establishing Labour as a party of government - no-one could dispute.

Now his premiership is nearly done history will judge if he's left behind him unfulfilled hopes or a powerful legacy

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