A Story of Tony Blair, the Outsider Turned Prime Minister and World
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A story of Tony Blair, 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 Edinburgh, 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 Margaret Thatcher 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 New Labour 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 Glasgow: 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.