A story of , ante

Anglais the outsider turned Prime

Langue viv Minister and world leader

Serge Basset Head of languages, School of Law and Political Science, Lumière-Lyon 2 University.

■ go down in history books as the first Then we shall see in Part Two how Introduction Labour PM ever to have served two Tony Blair managed to turn the La- full consecutive terms in office. bour Party around, how he succeeded nthony Charles Lynton in reconstructing the party and turn- Obviously, there is a whiff of the Blair was born on May 6th, ing it into an election-winning ma- whiz kid surrounding Mr Blair and 1953, in , Scot- chine. This is where Maurice A this is bound to raise resentment land, to Leo Blair, a barrister and Saatchi’s essay, The Science of Poli- from many quarters. Personal suc- university lecturer whose wildest tics, which was published in the days cess always fuels envy, the more so dream was to become prime minis- of the run-up to the 2001 General when you are a high-profile person- ter some day and a stay-at-home Election (and therefore Mr Blair’s ality. Tony Blair, just like Margaret mother of Irish descent. second landslide victory) will come Thatcher before him, has been idol- in handy. Part Three risks being the In many ways, Mr Blair is a man of ised and vilified in equal measure, most delicate part to write: in it, I many records. He won the seat of among the general public as well shall try to assess whether the leader Sedgefield in the 1983 General as the party faithful, both inside and of Her Majesty’s government and Election at the youthful age of outside Great Britain. But who, the moral principles underpinning thirty, while Prime Minister exactly, is Tony Blair? This will be and buttressing his political action posted a land- the subject of the present paper. slide victory for the Conservative have stood the test of nearly nine To help me see through Prime Min- Party and was still basking in the years in office (which is another ister Blair, I shall rely mostly on a afterglow of the 1982 Falklands record set by the longest-serving biography, Tony Blair: the Making War. He garnered his own first land- Labour leader in the Realm). of a World Leader, written in 2004 slide victory fourteen years later, by Philip Stephens, a Financial when the Party won Times columnist. I shall also refer the 1997 General Election, leaving The making of to The Rise of Political Lying, an the Iron Lady’s party in tatters, and essay cum pamphlet penned by Pe- ■ became, at the age of 43, the young- the man ter Oborne, a regular contributor to est prime minister since Lord Liv- the right-leaning weekly, The Spec- erpool in 1812. Tony Blair’s young- t all started with Leo, Tony tator, and released a few weeks be- est and fourth child, named after the Blair’s father. Leo’s road was fore Tony Blair’s third consecutive prime minister’s own father, was bumpy from day one. His natu- victory in May 2005. I the first child born to a serving ral parents, both music hall per- prime minister in over 150 years. Part One will focus on the prime min- formers, had little time to spare for The leader of New Labour will also ister’s childhood and formative years. the upbringing of a child. Leo was rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a therefore raised by a foster family All those civilized values were re- Blair to “channel his rebellious en- in : the Blairs. Philip inforced by his parents, not least ergy into school drama”. Blair soon Stephens notes: Hazel, his mother, and they stood excelled at that. the test of time, Stephens seems to He did keep one link, though, to his argue, when he writes: Another of Blair’s traits which is a natural parents: his son Tony’s middle legacy of his days at Fettes College names, Lynton and Charles, were bor- The young politician made his way is “the meticulous care [he] takes rowed from Leo’s natural father – one in the Labour Party as a “modern- with his personal appearance”. One was the music hall performer’s given izer”, a leader eager to discard the close adviser remarked: “He’s a name, the other his stage name. (p. 2) past. But his personal manners, al- politician who can’t pass a mirror Leo’s environment was grim and most Victorian in their studied polite- without looking into it.”(Stephens, grimy, the tenement blocks of Scot- ness, harked back to gentler times. p. 7) Stephens himself adds: “Van- land’s first industrial city. Forced Whatever his faults, Blair is an un- ity no doubt plays its part, and the to leave school at the age of four- failingly courteous politician. (p. 4) performer still has a starring role in Blair’s political persona.” teen, he got a job as a clerk. Then A few weeks after the English na- World War Two came and Leo tional football team had reached its His thespian brilliance resurfaced joined the Army, where he quickly climax at Wembley Stadium, beat- in an awesome fashion when he became an officer. After the war, he ing West Germany 4-2 in a breath- delivered the “People’s Princess” returned to full-time education, taking final to snatch the Jules speech to a televised audience of read Law and became a barrister and Rimet Trophy, Tony Blair, as for millions of Britons on the last Sun- an academic. In the latter capacity, him, reached his nadir. His father day of August 1997, just a few he was offered a lecturer’s position sent him to Fettes College, Scot- hours after Princess Diana died in at the University of Adelaide, in land’s most prominent public that ghastly car-crash on the Seine Australia, where he moved with his school, on the outskirts of Edin- embankment in Paris, France: wife and three children. In 1958, burgh, the administrative and po- they moved back to Durham, North- litical capital. Stephens states: The words were perfectly delivered, East England, where Leo Blair went the voice breaking at precisely the on lecturing and where his career as Fettes was established in 1870 as right moment, the grief etched on the a lawyer blossomed. a boarding school for Scotland’s prime minister’s face. (…) To the na- rich merchant classes. The school’s tion it seemed that this lament for Like many who have learnt life the founding ambition was to produce “the People’s Princess” was as real hard way, Leo Blair was determined the educated young men who would as her sudden death had been incred- his children should have a smoother go out into the world in pursuit of ible. The initial reaction of the Queen ride. As a result, he sent his two sons, the nation’s commercial fortunes and Prince Charles ... had been cold William, the elder, and Tony, the and in service of the British Em- and distant, and it was left to the younger, to Durham Chorister pire. It was organized from the start prime minister to speak for the na- School, which Tony attended from on the English public school prin- tion at a time of tragedy. At Diana’s the age of eight. Philip Stephens says: ciple that said rigorous discipline funeral at Westminster Abbey ..., Blair [The school] had been founded sev- and austerity would build what the delivered the famous passage from eral centuries earlier to educate the English call “character” in the Corinthians — “When I was a child, I boys who sang in the city’s ancient children of the wealthy. (p. 4) spoke like a child” – with the same emotional intensity. Within weeks his cathedral choir. In the 1950s, the For five years, the young Blair had personal rating had soared off the traditions of the church still lived to bear “Fettes’s petty regulations opinion pollsters’ scales. (p. 7-8) on, but it had a broader intake, and archaic ordinances.” serving as one of the quintessen- He left at the age of eighteen with In 1972, Blair enrolled at Saint tially English preparatory or John’s College at Oxford. The uni- “prep” schools, to which the mid- ... a reputation among the school’s masters as a rebel ... Yet Fettes had versity, Stephens highlights, “was dle classes sent their children to scarcely a hotbed of student revo- begin a formal education. (p. 3) left its mark. Later, friends and ac- quaintances would comment that lution [and] cannabis was cheap “Education, Blair showed in later life the very and ubiquitous. Most of Blair’s education, education” respect for authority against which crowd smoked it.” (p. 9) Tony he had rebelled at school. (p. 5) Blair, however, ever since he was There, in the prime minister’s own chosen to lead Labour in 1994, has words “the premium was on good Acting was the one thing Tony Blair been adamant he had never ever manners”. What mattered was “re- liked at Fettes. One of his teachers, tried smoking a joint, let alone spect for others, courtesy, giving up Eric Anderson – who was to be- “Bogart it”. Stephens notes an in- your seat for the elderly, saying please come headmaster of Eton, Eng- teresting point about that hard- and then thank you.” (Stephens, p. 4) land’s top public school – had urged headed denial stance: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a More interesting, perhaps, than to sense the timeless quality of the mother played in forming Tony’s whether Blair had actually experi- cathedral and its immediate sur- view of life. (Stephens, p. 14) mented with cannabis was the con- roundings. Time stands still there As for the family he established in cern that not even the smallest and my guess is that this is bound 1980 when he married Cherie transgression should be allowed to to leave its mark on any sensitive, Booth, Tony Blair has always been sully his record. (p. 9) decent person, including future known to spare time for them, rush- prime ministers. Though Blair was a dedicated stu- ing back to their Islington home af- dent, like his father and brother be- However much Leo Blair may have ter Parliamentary assignments rather fore him, he nonetheless managed, wanted to bring up his children in than hanging around the Westmin- in line with his love of the stage, to a protective and morally rigorous ster bars and restaurants to plot and become the lead singer and guitarist environment, he could not control plan as many MPs are wont to do. in a rock band, Ugly Rumours, that, Fate, his own fate to start with. At Tony Blair’s faith, philosophy as you may be aware, has never made the age of forty, he found himself and political ideas it to the Rock’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. courting death and bedridden for This said, “the band became part of months after a sudden stroke. Tony Tony Blair, whose father was an the official narrative of the Labour Blair later said that that was “the agnostic turned atheist after his first leader’s early life. A rock-star youth day [his] childhood ended” and he wife’s demise, found God at Oxford. fitted the image of a rising young poli- was only eleven then. At university, he had been part of a tician.” (Stephens, p. 10) In a speech to the party’s annual con- group in which everyone, to some The roots of Tony Blair’s ference, he once declared that his extent, was interested in religion as father’s illness had “taught [him] the well as politics. “It was really an political outlook value of the family, because [his] awakening of ideas”, he stated later. mother worked for three years to Prime Minister Blair is a believer. According to Stephens, “the loss of help him walk and talk again”. This He believes in the family, in God his mother gave Blair the determi- fateful event also taught Tony Blair and in a certain number of intellec- nation to succeed; Christianity was a lesson about friendship: “the real tual notions and political principles. becoming a motive force in his friends … stuck with us for no other life.” (p. 15) Some people close to Family values reason than that it was the right thing him have pinpointed “the fusion of to do.” And, he added as a coda to One of Mr Blair’s most cherished moral conviction and burning am- the same speech: values is no doubt the family, in a bition that put the young man on double sense: the family he grew I don’t pretend to you that I had a the path to the premiership.” To up in and the family he started. deprived childhood. I didn’t. But I Stephens, it seems obvious that learned a sense of values in my Blair’s subsequent political career The reader has already understood childhood. (Stephens, p. 13) that the education Leo Blair insisted was built on the foundations of his his children should have was likely His father recovered, went back to religious faith and family. (p. 15) to give them the moral backbone work, but had to give up the ambi- Among the Oxford group, Peter and a value system that would help tions he had nursed of having a na- Thomson was a particular source them move up the social ladder. tional career in the Conservative of inspiration and guidance to all. Party, of which he had been a mem- He was older than the rest (in his Today, Durham is still a quaint lit- ber since his days in the military. tle town lying in awe of its formi- mid-thirties), Australian and a dable cathedral – one of the most Another eleven years elapsed, leav- priest. He also had a social con- wonderful monuments of its kind ing the young Tony time to com- science: “His brand of Christianity in Great Britain, as American writer plete his education at Oxford, when was at odds with the incense-burn- Bill Bryson rightly remarked in Fate delivered him a second dev- ing High Anglicanism of Saint Notes from a Small Island – astating blow: his mother was di- John’s”. (Stephens, p. 17) perched on one of the town’s hills. agnosed with cancer of the thyroid Stephens expands: Walking up that hill to the cathe- and was soon to die. After Tony Thomson’s view of Christianity was dral on the cobblestone paving is a Blair became PM, his elder brother, not drawn from the arcane abstrac- throwback to Victorian England. William, told a newspaper: tion of learned theologians. Rather, Chances are that the Durham Tony The effect of our father’s stroke on he saw a faith demanding action to Blair grew up in in the late Fifties Tony has often been analysed. improve the human condition as and the Sixties was only slightly Many people say the ambition of well as a spiritual relationship with different from what it had been a the father was transferred to the God. (p. 17) century earlier and from what it is son. But it was more complicated today (at least as regards the older than that ... I think people have This smacked of the “Liberation central part): Any visitor is likely tended to underestimate the role my Theology” of the Latin American rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a Jesuit missionaries of the day. tial while extending opportunity to spect. Mr and Mrs Average Briton Thomson, however, was not versed the weak and the disadvantaged. The had seen Margaret Thatcher’s Con- in Marx, but rather in John Mac- answer had been found by David servatives as the party of family murray, a twentieth century Scottish Lloyd George, the founder of the values and at the same time Labour philosopher and university lecturer. welfare state in the first decade of as “a torchbearer for those who It is in Macmurray’s books that he the twentieth century. If the chose …an alternative lifestyle, found “the connections between Gladstonian impulse was ever [like] gays, single mothers” for in- politics, philosophy and theology.” present in his foreign policy, Blair’s stance. By beaming messages like Macmurray had taught in and domestic agenda owed a debt to “It is largely from family discipline Edinburgh in the 1930s and 1940s Lloyd George.” (Stephens, p. 18) that social discipline and a sense of and written a few books. His key con- Asked to contribute to a book initi- responsibility is learned”, Blair cept was that of “community”, “the ated by John Smith, the then Labour made Labour palatable to many belief that individual self-realization leader who died suddenly of a stroke citizens of Middle Britain, “who on depends on partnership with and trust in 1994, Tony Blair wrote an essay issues like the family, social disor- of others.” (Stephens, p. 18) Accord- on the synthesis of faith and politics der, and crime were conservative ing to him, “societies are not defined in 1993.Though he started by say- with a small ‘c’.” (Stephens, p. 21) by the individuals within them”; just ing that, to him, Christianity, Islam the opposite is true: individuals are and Judaism all deserved “parity of The remaking of the “shaped by their relationships with esteem”, he nonetheless argued that others in the communities in which “at its best, Christianity had inspired party: from Old Labour they grow up.” The family is the cor- people for almost two thousand nerstone of this model, “laying the years to work for a more just and to New Labour ■ foundation for the wider networks on humane world.” In line with which strong societies depend.” Such Macmurray, he stated that the Chris- art One will have shown, or a view became central to Tony Blair’s tian faith was about “the union be- so I hope, that Tony Blair political message. tween individual and community”. was not, out of education It contained the belief that “we are P Talking to an interviewer in 1994, and inclination, your run-of-the- the year when he was chosen to lead not stranded in helpless isolation, mill Labour activist: the party, he said: but we owe a duty both to others and to ourselves.” The message of Christ Blair would never be a member of If you really want to understand what was that individuals prospered the Labour “tribe”. He was sepa- I’m all about, you have to take a look through communion with others: rated from his peers by more than at a guy called John Macmurray. It’s “The act of Holy Communion is a privileged childhood. (Stephens, all there. (Stephens, p. 18) symbolic of this message. It ac- p. 44) Getting back to the same subject in knowledges that we do not grow up When at Oxford, and contrary to the summer of 2003, after the War in total independence, but interde- what many students used to do, he in Iraq had officially come to a pendently.” His conclusion was that joined neither the Labour club nor close, he added: Labour values were “closely inter- the Conservative one. But more twined with those of Christianity.” Macmurray’s work was a powerful than this, “there was a wider cul- influence on me because it seemed His article obviously struck a new tural chasm, which ... he had to make sense of the need to involve chord in a predominantly secular marked out in his maiden speech the individual in society without the movement like Labour: in the House of Commons in July individual being subsumed in soci- By championing the idea of moral 1983.” (Stephens, p. 44) ety. This is really, I think, the strug- absolutes, he also challenged the His was the position of the outsider: gle the political left has been engaged prevailing orthodoxy of the left. I am a socialist not through read- in – how you retain the sense of soli- Thirty years earlier the social revo- ing a textbook that caught my in- darity without that becoming the col- lution of the 1960s had elbowed tellectual fancy, nor through un- lectivisation of society. And so that aside universal ethical judgments in thinking tradition. concept struck me at the time as the favour of individual choice, a liber- right concept politically, as well as tarianism that had carried through Joining the party had been a matter theologically. (Stephens, p.18) the 1970s and 1980s. Blair judged of sharing the fundamental values This is the dilemma with which his the tide of moral relativism had of Labour – “cooperation not con- political models, William Gladstone flowed too fast and too far, and that frontation, fellowship in place of (1809-1898) and David Lloyd society now needed to rediscover its fear.” (Stephens, p. 44) George (1863-1945), both Liberal bearings. (Stephens, p. 19-20) However, “Blair was badly read in PMs, “had wrestled – how to set the To his credit, Mr Blair managed to Labour history; his political icons individual free to realize his poten- turn the situation around in this re- were William Gladstone, Lloyd rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a George, William Beveridge, and young Turks had perfectly under- No wonder Mr Blair ‘grabbed the other heroes of the once-powerful stood this, as we shall now see. idea with both hands’. As Mr Gould Liberal Party.” (Stephens, p. 44) Fur- says, ‘the fact that Labour had be- thermore, as we have seen previously, The Blair recipe for winning come New Labour gave people the his evenings as an MP were spent in Winning an election, Maurice confidence to make the change.’ the company of friends and family Saatchi claims, is mainly a matter And it worked. By the time of the and many of those friends, even of perception: last election of the twentieth cen- though they were connected with tury [1997], polls showed that sev- politics, “also had a life beyond it.” Outside Newton’s universe, where physical laws govern reality, the enty-two per cent of the British pub- All this was to be credited to Blair’s world is conditioned by perception. lic agreed that ‘New Labour de- account when the time came, in And perception is conditioned by serves to be called new’, and that 1994, to choose a new leader. Many the distorting factors of society, ‘A man should not be condemned of the Labour MPs that voted for genetics, class, upbringing, and the for a sincere conversion’. Labour’s him claimed they had done so be- conscious or unconscious interests rationalist triumph was complete. cause “one of his great strengths of the perceiver. (Saatchi, p. 2) How did they do it? (Saatchi, p. 9-10) was that he was a politician with a hinterland, someone with a life be- The trouble with perception, To Saatchi, the answer is straight- yond the corridors of Westminster.” Saatchi goes on, is that it cannot be forward. If Labour came back to And Stephens concludes: relied upon: power, it is because the party passed The image of the young man in Once we describe what we perceive four tests: the economic test, the denim jeans and casual shirt sitting in terms of what we feel or ‘centrist’ test, the modernity test with his family at the kitchen table believe ... then error, doubt and un- and the European integration test. at home in the fashionable London certainty come to the fore. (p. 3) The economic test district of Islington was just what The problem of perception Blair had It was the fourth Labour election they wanted. Blair’s electoral ap- to face was the following: in Brit- defeat in a row, in 1992, after a Tory peal was to a nation that, after the ain, the Left was traditionally seen campaign totally focused on eco- fall of the Berlin Wall, had lost in- as ‘caring but incompetent’, while nomics and tax, that made Labour terest in the old ideology. It no the Right was regarded as ‘efficient finally give up socialism, reform longer wanted leaders obsessed and cruel’. Labour would win again, themselves into new Labour, and with politics. (p. 45) Blair and associates reasoned, when copy the cut of Conservative eco- The merit is not only Blair’s but this perception was radically altered, nomic cloth. (Saatchi, p. 10) ’s. This Welshman when the tables were turned, i.e. headed the Labour party from 1983 when the Left could be regarded as With the Conservatives’ four con- to 1992, that is he steered it through ‘caring and competent’ and the secutive election victories a con- almost a decade of political wilder- Right ‘cruel and incompetent’. cept had become established in vot- ers’ minds. The Conservatives were ness. For Labour was very unpopu- Saatchi clearly and convincingly lar then. The reason for this was a ‘efficient and cruel’. This means sums up the situation in the follow- that although Conservatives wore faction — which the tabloid press ing way: had nicknamed “the Loony Left”— bankers’ top-hats and tails, they that had extreme views, like unilat- Messrs Blair, Brown, Mendelson, knew how to look after your money. eral nuclear disarmament, seceding Campbell and their researcher Labour was ‘caring but incompe- from Europe, renationalization of Philip Gould made a mathematical tent’. This meant that although La- newly-privatized utilities and in- calculation: to eliminate the nega- bour were full of anguish, they did dustries, etc. Kinnock was intelli- tives associated with their party, not know how to look after your gent enough to realize that the time neutralize the positives associated money. But by May 1997 the dou- had come for reform, if the party with their opponent, and thus end a ble drama of Exchange Rate were not to be sidelined for aeons. run of four election defeats in a row. Mechanism (ERM) exit and Blair’s To help him in this effort, Kinnock With a cold clear eye, they analysed entrance had turned this happy needed up-and-coming young MPs the weaknesses in their position, ‘the mechanism into a devastating vice like Tony Blair and . damning reasons given for not vot- for the Conservative Party. The media were predominantly ing Labour’. They removed them Voters displayed textbook reasoning: anti-Labour: Blair’s telegenic looks one by one. And declared themselves ‘The Conservatives have run the and plastic grin came to the rescue. a ‘new party’. ‘New’, for them, was economy badly (ERM exit, tax rises). The future prime minister never a one-word strategy. ‘New’ meant And even if they could convince me missed a chance of ingratiating ‘not old’. ‘Old’ was bad, dangerous. they have run the economy well (low himself with journalists. Perception So ‘new’ must be good, safe. unemployment, low inflation, etc.), was the key and Kinnock and his That was it. Labour will not ruin it (new, re- rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a formed).’ So, by 1997, the Conserva- ten and emptied of its radical con- ference between measures for a tives were seen as ‘inefficient and tents. The new version reads: strong economy and measures for cruel’. And Labour were ‘caring and social justice: a lowering of the The Labour Party is a democratic competent’. (Saatchi, p. 11) temperature; a compromise. socialist party. It believes that by the Concerning the 1979-1992 period, strength of our common endeavour In fact, one of Baroness Thatcher’s when Labour posted defeat after we achieve more than we achieve greatest attributes was her ability defeat, Saatchi highlights an inter- alone, so as to create for each of us to spot an intellectual with an idea esting point. When asked to choose the means to realise our true poten- and at once see its political poten- ‘the most important issues facing the tial and for all of us a community in tial. That is what Labour was do- country’, the voters invariably chose which power, wealth and opportu- ing with Professor Gidden’s idea of the ‘caring’ issues, like health, edu- nity are in the hands of the many, the . (Saatchi, p. 15) cation and unemployment. On each not the few. Where the rights we en- At a conference at the New York of those issues, Labour had system- joy reflect the duties we owe. And University Law School in 1999, atically a comfortable rating advan- where we live together, freely, in a President Clinton and Prime Min- tage over the Tories, and yet they spirit of solidarity, tolerance and ister Blair got together to express lost. To Saatchi, it only goes to show respect. (to be found at http:// their views about the Centre-Left the electorate was ‘rational and acted www.labour.org.uk/aboutlabour) movement of which they are part. in its own self-interest’: The least we can say is that the new They claimed they were in favour In all exit polls prior to 1997 the wording is quite innocuous, not of ‘activist Government but highly number-one ‘reason for not voting likely to offend anyone, except of disciplined’. Saatchi goes on: Labour’ was ‘My taxes would go course the staunch supporters of So they spoke of prudent finance, up and I would not have very much Old Labour! fiscal responsibility. They spoke of to show for it.’ Therefore, it was competition, choice and flexibility logical not to vote Labour. (p. 13) As Stephens shows, New Labour learnt a lot from Bill Clinton’s New in public services so that investment So what had changed in 1997? To Democrats (cf. Chapter Four: New in them will pay off, of competition Saatchi, the answer to one Democrats, New Labour). Indeed, in the education system ... They pollsters’question had radically the Blair crowd travelled exten- said that the market economy was changed and made a world of a dif- sively to Washington, D.C., from fundamental, but rejected Right- ference. The question was: ‘With 1994 to 1997, to develop their own wing neo-liberals who said govern- Britain in economic difficulties version of the ‘American Way’, the ment should shrink, get out of the which party has the best policies for famous “Third Way”: way and then all would be well. managing the economy?’ From That assumed, they said, that mar- 1992 to 1997, “there was a forty The Third Way was ‘Beyond left and kets are always more intelligent point turn-around against the Con- Right’. We all knew that old-style than governments ... They spoke of servatives, from +20 to –20, in an- socialism was dead because it led this as the driving platform for the swer to that question. Considering to economic chaos. So, we were twenty-first century ... (p. 16) that on all other dimensions the ‘rat- told, would old-style capitalism. And Saatchi concludes on that ings of the parties stayed the same’, Because it leads to cruel global point by saying that all that Clinton Saatchi logically concludes that markets whose brute force is be- yond the control of governments or and Blair had said during that con- The only thing that changed be- countries. At a stroke, Conserva- ference had been dismissed by tween victory and defeat was the tives were to be consigned to the some Tories ‘as the usual hopes and perception of the parties’ relative same intellectual dustbin of history dreams’. But, he argues, dreams are economic competence. (p. 14) as communism and Marxism. important: “People give credit to The ‘centrist’ test someone who has his heart in the Some Tory critics said the Third right place (...). Labour was deter- The political perception also mat- Way was an empty phrase. But they mined to modernize its appeal to the tered. One of the first symbolic ges- were the same Tories who dismissed heart, away from the old idea of tures of the newly-elected Labour New Labour as an empty phrase. equality at any price and the class leader in 1994 was to scrap Clause Others said the Third Way was just struggle, to a more realistic and Four of the original Constitution of an intellectual edifice to justify one acceptable version.” (p. 16). the Labour Party. Clause Four pro- more theft of Conservative clothes vided that, when Labour was in – this time of the fine old Tory vir- The modernist test power, it should nationalise the tue of pragmatism. But they were Labour could win if it also managed means of production, that is bring the Tories who actually helped New to change the political lexicon. Per- industry under State control. ‘Scrap’ Labour by telling everyone it was ception was also a matter of project- is not the accurate term, however, a copy of Conservatism. Others ing the right image of the party and since Clause Four has been rewrit- said it was just a splitting of the dif- its leader by using the right vocabu- rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a lary and steering the general public therefore favourable to Britain sign- In truth, the scale of New Labour’s towards a New Labour vote. This ing up to the , the other keepers victory was as much a verdict on the could be done by hammering the of the trappings of Tory ideology, dismal condition of the Conservatives same message again and again and who saw in Euroland a menace to as it was an endorsement of Blair’s persuading voters that, indeed, La- national identity and sovereignty. New Labour project. ’s bour was no longer the dusty party government had been broken by the Labour avoided so internecine a with stuffy ideas. This should re- civil war that raged within it over the strife, put up a united front and took mind you of Hayek’s views on word question of Europe. A series of finan- a middle-of-the-road stance — the manipulation and propaganda, as cial scandals that would see one cabi- wait-and-see policy — which reas- summarised by this author in the net member sent to prison [Jeffrey sured the voters. In office, this previous issue (Référence n°39, Archer, jailed for four years in 2001 policy was to be confirmed by dated December 2005, on page 52) for having lied in a libel case] had Chancellor Brown’s announcement of your favourite magazine. Moder- buried it in sleaze. While the British that final decision on joining the nity became a key concept in this economy had actually prospered in would depend on the respect, if not a battle cry. Saatchi the two or three years preceding the country meeting five economic notes that in the last Queen’s Speech election, the Conservatives were not tests, which was a subtle way of of the twentieth century, “the words given credit for the achievement. avoiding the issue and postponing ‘modernization’, ‘new’, ‘reform’ The government had never recov- it to some elusive future. This could and ‘change’ were used seventeen ered its credibility after its defeat at seem shocking and irresponsible if, times – almost one a minute.” (p. 17) the hands of the currency specula- as Saatchi says, it did not reflect the tors on Black Wednesday in Septem- opinion of a majority of Britons: All the reforms initiated by the ber 1992. (Stephens, p. 81) Blair governments since 1997 are They [] understood Standing at the front door of 10 Down- attempts at materializing that will very well that there are certain things ing Street on May 2nd, the newly to modernize British society. But in life you don’t want, but to which elected prime minister declared: Blair’s effort at “putting a new spin you have to bow your head. They on things” and positioning himself knew you have to bow your head to We ran for office as New Labour. as a “modernizer” had started a dec- death, to illness, to failure, or, per- We will govern as New Labour. New ade earlier, when Kinnock gave him haps, to the march of history. And they Labour is the party of One Nation. the position of minister for indus- may have been reasoning that this “One Nation” is a political slogan try in his shadow government. Euro was something they didn’t want originally coined by the Victorian but which they knew they would just In those days, Prime Minister Conservative Prime Minister have to accept. (Saatchi, p. 20) Thatcher was privatising utilities Benjamin Disraeli, Gladstone’s (i.e. the companies in charge of pro- All this adds up, Saatchi argues, to archrival. Disraeli meant by this viding people with useful services, demonstrate that Labour was bound that the Conservatives would hold like electricity, water and public to win in 1997. on to power only if they “built a transport to name the most promi- society which offered hope to the nent such services). Unlike Labour poor as well as advantage to the politicians before him, who tradi- Tony Blair in wealthy.” By using the slogan, Blair tionally took sides with the unions, meant to play up the “prevailing i.e. the producers, on such issues, Government ■ mood of national unity”. Further- Blair took a new tack by expressing more, Saatchi would say, talking concern over the likely price in- The Dawn of a New Age? about One-Nation Britain was just creases that such privatisations another example of Blair “copying might entail. In other words, he Fate had it that Voting Day was also the cut of the Conservative cloth”. spoke in Parliament on this issue as Labour Day (May 1st) in 1997. Brit- New Labour’s policy would be an an advocate of the consumers, which ish voters gave New Labour a clear inclusive one: “My vision for New was a novel stance for a Labour MP. mandate to do up the country in ex- Labour is to become, as the Liberal pectation of the approaching 21st cen- The European integration test Party was in the nineteenth century, tury. The Conservatives suffered their a broad coalition of those who be- Both Stephens and Saatchi agree that, worst defeat in over 150 years, with lieve in progress and justice”, Blair if the Conservatives bit the dust in a mere 165 seats, while New Labour said during the summer of 1998. 1997, this was partly due to their in- grabbed the lion’s share of the 659- ability to reach a consensus on Eu- seat House of Commons (419): “this Many saw Blair’s victory as the tri- rope and the prospect of a European was more than a change of govern- umph of modernity: Labour was the currency. Under John Major, two fac- ment. The country felt like a differ- future and the Tories the past. “Cool tions fought with each other within ent place. Britain had a government Britannia”, an expression originally the party: the one pro-business and it could trust.” (Stephens, p. 80) used by Newsweek, the American rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a magazine, became trendy and re- secretary and media adviser (or fa- However different from one an- flected Blair’s intention to vourite “spin doctor”, critics of other those three aides may have “marginalize those on the right of Blair would contend), who been, they had one point in com- politics just as surely as Margaret mon: total devotion to their leader: was, on the face of it, the very an- Thatcher had made outcasts of the tithesis of the man he served. Eve- When the government sailed into the left”. (Stephens, p. 85) rything about him seemed an affront murkier waters of politics… their Inside 10 Downing Street, there to Tony Blair’s Victorian social mo- first reaction was always to protect were visible signs of a “regime res. A recovered alcoholic who had the prime minister. Whatever had change”. Parties were organized, once written for a soft-core porno- passed in the government’s name attended by a new breed of guests graphic magazine, Campbell came could not be allowed to tarnish Tony that had never been invited there from ... the tabloid press. He was Blair personally. (Stephens, p. 93) before, like football stars, singers, also godless. As for honouring the The trio worked mostly backstage, actors and writers alongside the family, he had never seen a reason even though Campbell found him- usual official guests gracing the to marry his long-term partner, self, unwittingly and unwillingly, prime minister’s residence with their Fiona Millar, even after the couple quite a few times in the limelight. If presence. Some talked of a new had children. His choice of words we had more space, it would be in- court of Camelot, thereby putting was colourfully Anglo-Saxon ... Yet teresting to focus on two other essen- Blair on a par with King Arthur and Campbell was closer to Blair than tial players in the Blair team, Gordon his Knights of the Round Table. anyone. (Stephens, p. 91-92) Brown and Peter Mendelson, the Even the way business was carried This said, two other people wielded one a master of economic policy- out changed: considerable influence in Blair’s “in- making, the other a superb (critics John Major had chosen ... to work ner sanctum”. They were Anji Hunter would say crafty) campaign tactician in the cabinet room, a grand book- and Jonathan Powell. Together with and strategist. Suffice it to say that lined chamber overlooking the gar- Campbell, they formed the “magic the five-some formed the Dream den, [with a] large boat-shaped circle” a.k.a. the “troika of intimates”. Team that Tony Blair coached. table around which senior minis- Anji Hunter had first met Blair Blair’s achievements since 1997 ters will gather for the weekly meet- when he was at Fettes College. Before considering Peter Oborne’s ing of the cabinet. (Stephens, p. 86) Born in Malaysia to a Scottish rub- harshly critical views about New ber plantation manager, she was, Blair, instead, chose a more humble Labour, a sense of balance leads me like Blair, an outsider in the Labour adjoining room, marking that the style to pause for a while and briefly sur- party, on account of her upper-mid- of government would be more relaxed. vey what has been achieved by dle-class background. In Downing Tony Blair and his governments But the modest room – the prime Street, she was an adviser and prob- since May 1997. minister’s “den”, it was called – lem-fixer, “a finger on the pulse of also conveyed a more substantive Middle Britain, a role in which she The list of achievements for the message. Decisions in the new ad- served as a political counterweight first term in office (1997-2001) is ministration would not be taken by to Blair’s wife” (Stephens, p. 92), impressive: the broad collective of senior min- bringing Blair back to centre stage • Granting the Bank of England its isters represented in the cabinet. when Cherie was “pulling him to independence, Instead, policy would be made by the left”. the small number of colleagues and • Reform of the House of Lords close advisers who could squeeze Jonathan Powell was the intellec- (still in progress today!) into the prime minister’s room. Sen- tual of the trio: • Devolution of power to Scotland and rebirth of the Scottish Parlia- ior ministers soon discovered that A former diplomat, Powell was pub- ment the politics of inclusiveness did not licly self-effacing, preferring the • Establishment of the Welsh As- extend to Downing Street’s inner shadows to the limelight. He shared sembly, vested with devolved pow- sanctum. (Stephens, p. 87) Blair’s public school and Oxford ers as well background and had joined the La- Stephens adds: • Making peace in Northern Ireland bour Party only ... in 1993. Powell’s (Good Friday Agreement, April Though New Labour’s promise to task was to plug the Blair premier- 10th, 1998) the public had been to build a Brit- ship into the wider government • A £42-billion investment pro- ain in which power and opportu- machine ... His strong Atlanticism gramme in the key areas of health nity belonged to “the many, not the and his equally powerful conviction and education. few”, in Blair’s government they that Britain must come to terms with were reserved for the few. (p. 88) its European partners had a pro- If domestic issues dominated the Prominent among the few stood found influence on Blair’s foreign agenda for the first term, foreign , Blair’s press policy. (Stephens, p. 93) policy issues came to the fore during rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a the second term (2001-2005). Promi- morality would be the govern- Hardened and embittered by the ex- nent in this respect is Britain’s par- ment’s constant obsession, a stance perience of the Kinnock years, these ticipation, as closest ally, in the Wash- that was mirrored by the declara- critics of John Smith saw the media ington-led War on Terror since 9/11. tions made by candidate Blair on as the roadblock which the Labour the campaign trail in 1997, like: Party must clear if it was ever to British troops have been involved in escape from opposition. This group The Conservatives’ broken prom- four armed conflicts since 1997: was New Labour… (p. 35) Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2000), ises taint all politics. That is why Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). we have made our guiding rule not The members of that faction – Blair, Despite the controversy generated by to promise what we cannot deliver, Brown, Mendelson, Campbell, British participation, especially in and to deliver what we promise. Charles Clark, Patricia Hewitt and Iraq, the general public took pride in (quoted by William Rees-Moog in Philip Gould – had all emerged as their troops who displayed their , April 30th, 2005) Party hopefuls under Kinnock. They usual skill and professionalism. The return of Labour to power would felt that “political power could never signal the advent of Mr Clean. be secured in Britain until the press The prime minister’s official website had been appeased”. (p. 35) (htpp://www.number-10.gov.uk/out- Peter Oborne’s charge put/page4.asp) sums up the agenda Mendelson declared: In The Rise of Political Lying, Peter for the third term in one word: “re- Of course we want to use the me- Oborne alleges that the central lie spect”, and quotes Mr Blair’s deter- dia, but the media will be our tools, of the Blair administration is that the mination to bring back “a proper sense our servants; we are no longer con- New Labour government is averse of respect in our schools, in our com- tent to let them be our persecutors. to lying and exceptionally truthful, munities, in our towns and villages.” (Oborne, p. 35) when indeed it uses deception as Lastly, under the steady guidance standard business method. Oborne The aim was to woo the Press and the of Gordon Brown, Chancellor of traces this back to Neil Kinnock’s target was reached with a vengeance. the Exchequer since Day One, Brit- days, not because Mr Kinnock him- However, after winning over the Press, ain has posted economic results – self was a liar – he was honest, like New Labour retained every last not least among them an unemploy- Michael Foot (1979-1983) before ounce of its original contempt for ment rate stabilised under five per him and John Smith (1992-1994) the right-wing press… Following in cent – which should make us, after him – but because of the way the footsteps of the philosopher French people, green with envy the Press and media treated him. rather than hot under the collar. Grotius [1583-1645], New Labour Actually, the predominantly Con- concluded that it was permissible This said, the prime minister’s ma- servative Press systematically to make misleading statements to jor liability may have become, as demonised Kinnock. After some those who could not be trusted to of today, the question of trust, or time as leader of Labour, Kinnock tell the truth. (Oborne, p. 36) more precisely the lack of it. contended that the tabloid Press, his New Labour campaigned in 1997 remarks ripped out of context and For about five years between 1992 – claiming it would not make prom- used against him, constantly mis- when John Smith took over from Neil ises it could not keep. That was hot represented his views. The situation Kinnock after the latter’s defeat to air, Oborne alleges, quoting two had festered so much that he came John Major – and 1997, Labour and well-known examples: university to refuse to talk to most journalists. New Labour kept arguing that Ma- tuition fees and tax hikes. jor’s Tories were rotten, that sleaze, As a result, when John Smith took Concerning the former, Oborne i.e. corruption, and mendacity, i.e. ly- over from Kinnock in 1992, Labour notes: “Just before the election La- ing, stalked the land. Said differently, found itself divided over the attitude bour was emphatic in ruling out Major’s days in office corresponded to adopt towards the Press. Smith university tuition fees. Tony Blair to the last daze of Thatcherism and “despised the media”, but believed declared that ‘Labour has no plans “things could only get better” were that Labour should soldier on, hop- to introduce tuition fees for higher Labour to be voted in. ing that one day the general public education.’ ” (Oborne, p. 37) A year would see through the media bias and To crown it all, Tony Blair came to later the Teaching and Higher Edu- would give Labour a fair hearing. be perceived – remember, it is all a cation Act brought in tuition fees matter of perception – as a morally “A second group shared all of John of £ 1,000. The same deceptive tac- superior, if not self-righteous, be- Smith’s contempt for the media, but tic was used during Blair’s second ing, one that would cleanse the rejected his conclusion”, Oborne term (2001-2005) when the highly- country of the Conservatives’ base states on page 34. They thought controversial “top-up” fees were mores. If the U.K. chose him to lead Smith’s refusal to come to grips introduced in 2004, whereas the the realm, there would be a return with the Press was tantamount to a Labour manifesto of 2001 had to Gladstonian ethics. Political “dereliction of duty”: claimed:‘We will not introduce rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a “top-up” fees and have legislated ditions, rules, institutions and mo- Iraq was almost immaterial since to prevent them.’ (Oborne, p. 38) rality, which are the only means Saddam Hussein had been toppled. available to “prevent humanity from Oborne observes: As for the tax increases, Blair of- doing acts of great harm.” (p. 131) fered repeated assurances in the two The fact that the British government years preceding Labour’s return to The Left takes a wider and more had cited the existence of WMD as power, Oborne argues, with quite a generous view. It believes in the no- casus belli was neither here nor few quotes to prove his point, but: ble possibilities of human nature and there: the greater good had been has always looked with a friendly achieved. This carelessness about These claims, designed to establish eye on tremendous schemes for the detail is characteristic of a strand Labour as the party of low taxation, rearrangement of society…It feels of the liberal Left, to which Tony were hollow. By 2004, voters had impatient with institutions, conven- Blair is a broad adherent. (p. 135) been clobbered by scores of tax in- tions and moral codes that stand in creases, ranging from stamp duty He adds: the way of virtuous change. Both to fuel, with taxation up by ap- Left and Right believe in achieving It is not unreasonable to speculate proaching $5,000 for every house- what they see as the general good: that the prime minister has a strong hold in the UK. (p. 39) they simply have contradictory ways tendency to fall victim to a common conceptual muddle: the failure to This is proof, Oborne contends, of “the of going about it. (p. 132) understand the distinction between deep, inbuilt terror of candour and To the Left, falsehood can be ex- truth vs falsehood and truth and systemic preference for deceit that is cused provided the motive is pure: error. Tony Blair, and many of his New Labour’s most singular and colleagues, consistently seem to most defining characteristic.” (p. 46) What does the small sin of telling a feel that they are lucky enough to lie in an election campaign matter However, “in a properly function- have been granted a privileged ac- when set beside the benefits in terms ing liberal democracy there should cess to the moral truth. This state of better hospitals, better schools be no call for the mendacity advo- of grace produces two marvellous and the more generous society that cated by Plato [in The Republic with consequences. It means that what- will naturally follow if New Labour the “noble lie” theory] or ever New Labour ministers say or wins the election? Lies are easily Machiavelli [in The Prince],” write, however misleading or inac- forgiven if they are told for the right (p. 119) the reason for that being that curate, is in a larger sense true. reasons and in good faith. (p. 132) Likewise whatever their opponents The right to vote implies a that A good case in point is Blair claim- say or write, whether or not strictly extends far beyond the entitlement to ing that the failure to find WMD speaking accurate, is in the most mark a piece of paper in a voting booth (weapons of mass destruction) in profound sense false. (p. 135) once every four or five years. Citizens have a right to form a fair and bal- anced judgement, and are therefore entitled to be informed about their Conclusion ■ this side of the Channel!): a strange political choices. This includes a right mix of conviction and ingenuity, not to be deceived. (Oborne, p. 120) mendacity and ingenuousness, ow does this all add up? I thespians performing morality This stated, the problem of mendac- had set about solving the plays for an audience that is, in- ity is also defined in terms of the HBlair riddle only to come creasingly, morally directionless. Left-Right divide: to the conclusion that I am hardly S. B. Like many movements from the Left, any wiser in the end. Instead of an- New Labour cherishes a special swering my initial question, I would Bibliography sense of its own virtue. Its politicians rather ask more questions. Has po- litical life become nothing more than • Oborne, Peter, The Rise of Political Ly- and activists genuinely believe that ing, The Free Press, Simon and Schuster they are working for the greater a shadow theatre, in which politi- UK, London, 2005 good. Lies, frauds and deceit are cians are well-trained puppeteers, • Saatchi, Maurice, The Science of Poli- purely altruistic. This means that the expert at the art of pulling the strings tics, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, Left’s attitude towards dissimulation to bend the dolls this way or that? Is 2001 Mr Blair just another pretender – • Stephens, Philip, Tony Blair: The Mak- is very different to the traditional ing of a World Leader, the Viking Press, Right. (Oborne, p. 131) like President Clinton before him? New York, 2004 The Right, according to Oborne, Whatever the answer to the last “takes a gloomy view of human na- question may be, my fear is that he ture and interprets it as hopelessly might be a harbinger of a new breed Comments, reactions at flawed and limited.”(p. 131) That is of politicians that pose as statesmen [email protected] why the Right firmly believes in tra- (or stateswomen, for that matter, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr A Numéro 40 • Mai 2006 a