Well, Blair has finally announced his departure date (we've only had to wait for 952 days!), back at his home constituency amongst the faithful.
It's 27 June.

The assembled audience at times reminded me of 12 year old girls at a pop concert. I kept waiting for them to be so overcome by the emotion they'd faint.
I don't think he'd have managed to get the desired response anywhere else in the country, no matter how carefully stage-managed, complete with audience cue cards: 'Cheer wildly!', 'Burst into sobs! [but remember to hold your head up so the cameras see your pride in the PM]'.

Sedgefield did well though: just the right emotional reactions at just the right times to his farewell speech - a bit like Pavlov's dogs. 
An pervading atmosphere of  which was starting to make me queasy, so I had to turn off the TV.

Expectations were too high, he opined, and then delivered the 'Blair moment'...
Tony: [serious, sincere face, with a little hint of supplication]  "Hand on heart; I did what I thought was right." [eyes glisten with a little tear]
....
Weasel: "O well, that's OK then. I'll just forget all about that illegal war; the erosion of civil liberties here at home; the cash for honours; the selling out of the working class; the target obsession disorder of your government which has significantly damaged education and the health service; the 10 years of insincerity, spin, and lies; because your heart was in the right place. Aye, right.
I'm off get the calendar and circle the date in red. Wednesday 27 June. It can't come soon enough!

Sorry for the double post, but I'm pishin myself laughing here thanks to the BBC.

They've just shown a montage of 'significant Blair moments' from the past 10 years, and the background music was
Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger.

I am rather glad he's going, but then terrified that we're going to have to put up with Gordon Brown as a replacement.  Although to be honest they're all as bad as each other - or is it just that they all merge into the same person for me after a while?!

Let's be honest, next election time everyone will vote in the Conservatives, thinking they're better than Labour.  But again, they are much the same animal.  We're screwed, people!  Move to Finland!!!!!!!! 

Oh, and I had been there when he gave the big glistening-eyed "I did what I thought was right" speech, I would have had to go up and punch him in the throat. Pfffft.

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

QUOTE:Didn't Blair help with the Northern Ireland situation? ( he said in a whisper  )

Help is the operative word. Much as Blair and his faithful might want to take credit for it all, there are too many others far more significant than dear Tony in the peace process.

Here's the full resignation speech courtesy of the BBC, for anyone who's interested.
I'd advise that you don't read it on a full stomach.

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

Contrarian Alert! I love Tony Blair. Many's the time I've wished he could have been our president. Barring that, just the ability to communicate as well would have been endearing.

Having said as much, it seems odd to attach so much significance to any given Prime Minister of England or President of the United States. You cycle through one and then another. It's self correcting. The job can never be done to the satisfaction of all the people. Seriously, over the long term of this leader or that leader can you really break down your life into Prime Ministerships (or Presidencies) and rank your life according to who was in office?

I've lived through Eisenhower, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and most of the term of George W Bush. I've had good times and bad throughout each of their terms in office but can I honestly attribute ANY of it to who was in the White House at the time??? Ich don't think so. I don't expect that from the President of the United States.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I have to admit I'm not great on politics; I tend to hide in the corner and let it all wash over me when it comes to the politics section on this board. So it's hard to say whether it's just me and my inexperience when it comes to our politics and Prime Ministers, but (as with everyone else in the world, I'm sure) I have no say in who becomes PM of our country. I mean, I vote for my local parliamentary representative; but whoever is leader of the party garnering the most votes at time of election becomes my PM. I don't get to choose that person as the party themselves has already done so.

I didn't vote for Labour and even if I had, I wouldn't have picked Tony Blair as our Prime Minister. I appreciate all politicians are as bad as each other, and quite honestly I wouldn't wish the job of trying to sort this country out on anyone. I wouldn't want to do it myself. But I suppose my problem is Blair's complete inconsistency and insincerity every time he opened his mouth. I didn't like him as a person to start with, so I was never going to support him as PM. He was doomed to start with, which I will admit is probably a little unfair.

The major problem in England* is the counties are so stuck in their voting patterns that most people don't care who their local MP is, never mind who the leader of that party is. Round here, the area votes consistently Conservative. Every time. This, apparently, is Conservative area. So like the good little sheep they all are, they vote for the Cons because that's traditionally "what people in this area do". Never mind who is the best for the job. Frankly, I can't name my local MP. We had a local election last week and I still don't know who it is. I would bet money on the majority of the population in this town not knowing the name either; only that they are Conservative.

It will always be a toss-up between Labour and Conservative in this country. At this point in time, what they offer to us, their major policies, are much the same. The only thing that changes is the colour of their tie and the insincere grin on the face of the public persona. Ultimately, that's the thing. I guess whoever is PM is the public face of the party and thus by default is held responsible for everything that party does. What I do object to is having Gordon Brown thrust upon me as PM once Blair leaves office. I don't want him in charge. I know nothing will change under his leadership - no, nothing will improve under his leadership. I am also fairly certain that when our next general election comes round, the Conservatives will get back into office.

I will admit the politicians can't win. All I remember of Margaret Thatcher is she stole my milk. John Major was grey and boring and didn't seem capable of making a decision (and then turned out to be slipping it to Edwina Currie on the side). As with every other country in the world, we can have a tendency to look back on the past "people in power" with rose-coloured glasses; I could even imagine if one was to poll the public on who the last decent PM in this country was, they'd say Winston Churchill. Now that's depressing.

But when we English remember politicians, it does tend to be for the affairs and the scandals. Paddy Ashdown is fondly known by the moniker "Paddy Pants-down". Boris Johnson is a bumbling buffoon in the eyes of most (although a very intelligent and witty man). Tony Blair is already thought of as Bush's lapdog, and now most people believe him to be involved in the "Cash for Peerages" scandal that's been hanging around here for a while. All the good work they may have done falls by the wayside.

Politics. What a shit job...

*I say England and the English not to be exclusive, but because I don't want to make sweeping statements about the rest of our country. 

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

Must be the further away you are...the nicer he seems.

I've always liked the guy.  He comes across as sincere - someone who would put the national interest before anything else.  Not sure how successful he's been, but apparently the economy in the UK isn't too shabby...

 Ooo, this is interesting. What seems 'odd' to me, is NOT attaching much significance to who's 'in charge'.

Is my oddness merely a symptom of being in the UK, I wonder? I've lived through Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson again, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair. To be fair, I can't say I remember much about Wilson first time round, and even second time round, I was probably a bit young for politics. However, Thatcher came to power as I became a teenager. And believe me, that was very significant!

All my adult life, I'd experienced nothing except Conservative rule. And it wasn't the old-style Heath conservatism, it was Thatcherism. Maybe If I'd been from a different class, this wouldn't have impacted quite so much on my life, but being working class Scottish, it had a pretty significant one.

From age 19 I was politically active in the Labour movement and a trade union official. Like many working class people in my country, I lived and worked for the day that would see the cycle change and the end of Thatcherism. I was 31 when Labour came to power, but it wasn't my Labour anymore, it was Blair's New Labour. A horse of a very different colour.

Cleverer political pundits than this Weasel have suggested that Labour would've won the next election without Blair as leader. Had it not been for his untimely death, John Smith would most likely have been the next Labour prime minister. But sadly we got Blair instead, and with him, a totally unrecognisable party with few of its fundamental principles left intact. And bugger me, that's significant, as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe I'm just unlucky to have lived at a time where I had 11.5 years of Thatcher as PM, and then after a wee break with the grey man, had 10 years of Blair. Both Thatcher and Blair were PMs who exerted more power and control as individuals than previous party leaders. Undue power and control, in my opinion.

I might be a freak, but I genuinely think that for the ordinary working people in this country, life would've been substantially better had Maggie and Tony never gone into politics.

Here's my tuppence - and ultimately it comes down in support of the current administration (Blair, Brown and the rest). My mind does constantly change on the subject of Blair, but my view finally comes down to this:

Would the country be in a better state if the Tories had been in power in charge for the past 10 years? If it wasn't for Iraq (and I am certainly not dismissing this as an issue), would we even be having this discussion?

(I know that's a bit negative and a bit "well, at least he wasn't as bad as ...." - but bear me out)

In terms of my personal experiences of health and education pre-Blair and now, the answer is an emphatic no. People forget how disgracefully bad things were especially with the NHS 10 years ago. I am so annoyed at the loss of or selective memory that some commentators and the 'man on the street' are demonstrating.

My father waited over a year for a triple heart bypass operation in the mid-90's and almost didn't live to make it to the operating table. At the same time, a tory Government minister stated on Question Time that "of course, I don't like and wouldn't like to see anyone wait eighteen months for an operation on the NHS (my emphasis)". That comment so stuck in my memory given the situation with my father. Now waiting times are down, more procedures are being performed, staff are being better paid. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, together with other complications, two years ago, his treatment began almost immediately - my brother, himself a doctor now working in England, confirmed that such a response would not have been possible a decade earlier.

As someone who worked within the NHS set-up in Scotland for a couple of years in the mid-/late-90's, I see that the problem with the NHS being that it is a huge unwieldy elephant of an organisation. Nothing will ever work perfectly in it, so the best we can hope for are manageable and continual improvements, and accountability. But people seems to want perfection, and that's never going to be achieved - not in the NHS, not anywhere. That or people just like having a moan at the government for any old reason. Go to Finland and Scandanavia (where it's perceived that everyone's happy with their situation) and I bet the people still find reasons to moan about their governments there too!

People feel very strongly about Iraq, of course they do - and rightly so. But there does appear to be a general groundswell (not saying that it has been vocalised here) that I didn't like what TB did for Iraq so I don't like him or anything he's done. I don't think that way, that's all.

If it is a choice between Labour and Tory (and while we may all harbour dreams about "true" socialists taking over, or the nationalists or the Greens and the LibDems, it just ain't going to happen for a long time), then I know where I feel safest. Tony Blair or no Tony Blair.

DMG

I hope they cannot see / The limitless potential / Building inside of me / To murder everything / I hope they cannot see / I am the great destroyer

Ach, I’m scunnered. But.... there is hope. Tony Benn thought that there was a chance that Brown might be a bit better. Less superficial, more inclined to do the hard graft necessary to back up the 'vision'. He reckoned that Blair could come up with an idea and the soundbite to go with it, but was not much use at the solid hard work required in government.
And I've never been one to disagree with Tony Benn.  So with nothing better on offer, I'm prepared to give Gordon a chance.

On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he stood smiling above me
With a rock in his fist

They call me the wild rose
But my name was Eliza Day
Why they call me it I do not know
For my name was Eliza Day

Do the math, Si! Let's just say that on my next birthday I'll be turning. 30. 30. (the duplication is not for emphasis but for your calculator) I could have mentioned Truman as well, but have no personal memory of the US presidency during that time. (1945-1953)

For those who will be so overjoyed on June 27 -- or after the next PM election to come -- I look forward to reading you chronicle each day after Blair and how freshly invigorated your life has become now that whoever-is-next is living at 10 Downing Street. Details are good!

Yes, of course, in the greater sense there is a difference between one western leader or another. But repercussions of political actions can take decades to develop. Meanwhile new problems develop. The new guard blames the old guard for the problems they inherit. The old guard says it was just starting to coalesce before the new guard screwed it up.

Meanwhile, each of our personal lives goes on and on. (hopefully) Family relationships, paying the bills, making appointments, planting a garden, walking the dog, reading a book, taking a trip, going to weddings and baby showers, going to funerals and paying taxes. So, sometimes the top bracket for a Californian is right about 48+% while other times it's more like 44%. And I still say, it would be the rare moment when most people's lives -- either in the UK or the USA -- are dramatically altered as a result of which party or which president or which prime minister has been in office.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so absolute. It suddenly occurs to me that after Nixon resigned, I was $20 richer. Had a bet with my parents that Nixon would not serve out his second term. In that way, the presidency did directly affect my life.

Susan

PS I just reread some of your writing about the medical situation in the UK, Cat. Like education, there are horrible bureaucratic problems that you rightly say have no perfect solution. Sigh. I too could go on and on about each of them. But what happens to me, is usually more of a retreat where I think I guess government is not going to solve this problem so what is it that I can do to make sure those in my personal circle can circumvent the bureaucracies. It's always about trying to leap over or go around the hurdles. Were they not governmental hurdles, they'd be anarchic hurdles.

PPS.  Sincerity.  The sincere show of sincerity is one that is necessarily gradually zapped from the repertoire of any effective politician. When every word and every phrase has to explosive potential to be isolated for the opposition's end, speech becomes stultified.  Careful.  And how does careful ever translate to appearing sincere?  That doesn't mean that Tony Blair, George W Bush or Bill Clinton doesn't sincerely believe what they most often restate about their ideals or values.  It only means they are politicians and that is how politicians communicate.  Using nebulous words with lots of wiggle room for those inevitable moments when they are called on the carpet for what they said. 

I'm not cynical about that.  I believe Tony Blair's sincerity when he expresses his view of the Middle East, the terrorism he is addressing and the importance of the US-UK struggle against that growing or diminishing tide.  (depending on how you perceive the trends)  I believe Bush is in the same camp.  Frankly I don't even understand the end game to "faking" your beliefs on such heady issues for the sake of cosying up to an internationally reviled American leader.   

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin