Ten years ago, when the youthful, loquacious, personable Tony Blair led the Labour Party to a sweeping victory in Britain, there was an air of excitement and hope. The interminable right-wing assault on working people carried out by Margaret Thatcher and her unremarkable successor, John Major, was over at last.
Under Blair, schools and hospitals and dilapidated infrastructure would surely be mended. The rapidly widening income and wealth gaps between the rich and the rest of the population would be narrowed, it was hoped. And Britain could take its place alongside Germany and France in the construction of a socially progressive European Union it was reasonable to anticipate.
Now as Blair prepares to leave 10 Downing Street, his record is one of disappointment on all of these files. But the most important legacy of the Blair years has been Britain’s involvement in failing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair came to office during Bill Clinton’s second term in the White House and it seemed that the two leaders would join forces in developing an amalgam of liberalism and social democracy as a mildly progressive antidote to the impact of globalization on wage and salary earners, the much ballyhooed Third Way.
It is not as Clinton’s partner that Blair will be remembered, however. Rather he will go down in history as the collaborator of George W. Bush, and the chief foreign enabler of his wars. It was of inestimable value to Bush that he had the supposedly progressive leader of the British Labour Party at his side when he unveiled his doctrine of pre-emptive war and launched his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Bush cloaked his wars in the garb of human rights, democracy and freedom. He managed to win the endorsement of liberal intellectuals, among them Christopher Hitchens and Michael Ignatieff, for these crusades. But the political warrior who did the most to legitimate his disastrous adventures was Tony Blair.
On the other files, depressingly little was achieved by Blair. The Third Way turned out to be No Way. The schools, hospitals and infrastructure of the UK look much as they did at the end of John Major’s watch. Today the UK has replaced the US as the advanced country with the highest level of child poverty. In addition, Britain is now home to a sizeable cohort of young males who are regarded as uneducable and unemployable. These youths have become the scourge of British cities.
As far as Europe is concerned, the UK remains where it was---on the perimeter---outside the Euro zone, a low wage, low tax barrier to progressive advance.
Blair did contribute to the peace process in Northern Ireland, but the bitter legacy of the Iraq War is one reason Scottish secessionism is once more on the rise.
More that most leaders, Tony Blair plotted the negative course his country took in defiance of plenty of advice from others who pointed the way toward an alternative route. The reverberation of Britain’s imperial past, and the vainglorious desire to play on the global stage proved too alluring a brew for Blair. Now his country is left with the hangover.
Under Blair, schools and hospitals and dilapidated infrastructure would surely be mended. The rapidly widening income and wealth gaps between the rich and the rest of the population would be narrowed, it was hoped. And Britain could take its place alongside Germany and France in the construction of a socially progressive European Union it was reasonable to anticipate.
Now as Blair prepares to leave 10 Downing Street, his record is one of disappointment on all of these files. But the most important legacy of the Blair years has been Britain’s involvement in failing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair came to office during Bill Clinton’s second term in the White House and it seemed that the two leaders would join forces in developing an amalgam of liberalism and social democracy as a mildly progressive antidote to the impact of globalization on wage and salary earners, the much ballyhooed Third Way.
It is not as Clinton’s partner that Blair will be remembered, however. Rather he will go down in history as the collaborator of George W. Bush, and the chief foreign enabler of his wars. It was of inestimable value to Bush that he had the supposedly progressive leader of the British Labour Party at his side when he unveiled his doctrine of pre-emptive war and launched his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Bush cloaked his wars in the garb of human rights, democracy and freedom. He managed to win the endorsement of liberal intellectuals, among them Christopher Hitchens and Michael Ignatieff, for these crusades. But the political warrior who did the most to legitimate his disastrous adventures was Tony Blair.
On the other files, depressingly little was achieved by Blair. The Third Way turned out to be No Way. The schools, hospitals and infrastructure of the UK look much as they did at the end of John Major’s watch. Today the UK has replaced the US as the advanced country with the highest level of child poverty. In addition, Britain is now home to a sizeable cohort of young males who are regarded as uneducable and unemployable. These youths have become the scourge of British cities.
As far as Europe is concerned, the UK remains where it was---on the perimeter---outside the Euro zone, a low wage, low tax barrier to progressive advance.
Blair did contribute to the peace process in Northern Ireland, but the bitter legacy of the Iraq War is one reason Scottish secessionism is once more on the rise.
More that most leaders, Tony Blair plotted the negative course his country took in defiance of plenty of advice from others who pointed the way toward an alternative route. The reverberation of Britain’s imperial past, and the vainglorious desire to play on the global stage proved too alluring a brew for Blair. Now his country is left with the hangover.
1 comment:
I still have my NDP 1999 Convention button - say NO to the third way.
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