Tony Blair

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The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office  May 2, 1997
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	John Major
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	May 6, 1953 (age 53)[1] Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Constituency	Sedgefield
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Cherie Booth
Profession	Barrister
Religion	Anglican (Anglo-Catholic)
Signature

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)^[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield in the North East of England. As a member of the British Cabinet he is also a Privy Counsellor. His official residence is 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA.^[2]

Blair became leader of the British Labour Party in July 1994 following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under Blair's leadership, the party won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, ending 18 years of government by the Conservative Party. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories, and the only Labour prime minister to serve more than one full consecutive term.

On 7 September 2006 Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the TUC conference in September 2007, but has not yet given a date for his departure.^[3]

Contents 1 Background and family life 2 Early political career 3 In opposition 3.1 Leader of the Labour Party 4 Blair as Prime Minister 4.1 Relationship with Parliament 5 Blair in the media 6 Blair and Gordon Brown 7 Blair's religious faith 8 Political overview 9 Criticism 9.1 Presidentialism 9.2 Relationship with the United States 9.3 Middle East policy and links with Israel 9.4 Relationship with Labour party 9.5 Approval rating 10 Portrayals 11 Works 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 Miscellany 16 External links 17 Political offices

Background and family life

Blair was born at the Queen Mary Maternity Home^[4] in Edinburgh, Scotland, the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden). Leo Blair was the son of two English actors, Charles Parsons and Mary Augusta Ridgway Bridson, whilst Hazel Corscadden's family were Protestants from County Donegal, Ireland. He has one elder brother, William Blair, who is a barrister and a Queen's Counsel (QC), and a younger sister, Sarah. Blair spent the first 19 months of his life at the family home in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst also studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.^[4] His family spent three and a half years in the 1950s living in Adelaide, Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide.^[5] The Blairs lived quite close to the university, in the leafy suburb of Dulwich.

The family returned to Britain in the late 1950s, living for a time with Hazel Blair's parents at their home in Stepps, near Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Durham, England, his father being by then a lecturer at Durham University. After attending Durham's Chorister School Blair boarded at Fettes College, a famous independent school in Edinburgh, where he met Charlie Falconer (a pupil at the rival Edinburgh Academy, whom he later appointed Lord Chancellor. He reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger, and is said to have enjoyed a reputation as a conspicuously "cool" young man among his fellow pupils. His teachers, however, were less impressed by his behaviour: his biographer John Rentoul reported that "All the teachers I spoke to... said he was a complete pain in the backside, and they were very glad to see the back of him." Blair was arrested at Fettes, having being mistaken for a burglar as he climbed into his dormitory using a ladder, after being out late.^[6]

After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find fame as a rock music promoter, before going up to Oxford University to read jurisprudence at St John's College. As a student, he played guitar and sang for a rock band called Ugly Rumours. During this time, he dated future American Psycho director Mary Harron.^[7] After graduating from Oxford with a second class degree, Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn, enrolled as a pupil barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth (daughter of the actor Tony Booth) at the Chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first Lord Chancellor), 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers. His biographer Rentoul records that, according to his lawyer friends, Blair was much less concerned about which party he was affiliated with than about his aim of becoming Prime Minister.

Blair married Booth, a practising Roman Catholic and future Queen's Counsel, on 29 March 1980. They have four children (Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo). Leo (born 20 May 2000) was the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John Russell on 11 July 1849.

Although the Blairs stated that they had wished to shield their children from the media, Euan and Nicky's education was a cause of political controversy. They both attended the Catholic London Oratory School, criticised by left-wingers for its selection procedures instead of a poorly-performing Catholic school in Labour-controlled Islington, where they then lived, in Richmond Avenue. There was further criticism when it was revealed that Euan received private coaching from staff from Westminster School.

Early political career

Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. During the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" of the party. He unsuccessfully attempted to secure selection as a candidate for Hackney Borough Council. Through his father-in-law, the actor Tony Booth, he contacted Labour MP Tom Pendry to ask for help in pursuing a Parliamentary career. Pendry gave him a tour of the House of Commons and advised him to stand for selection as a candidate in the forthcoming by-election in the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield, where Pendry knew a senior member of the local party. Blair was chosen as the candidate; at the Beaconsfield by-election he won only 10% of the vote and lost his deposit, but he impressed Labour Party leader Michael Foot and acquired a profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair described himself in this period as a Socialist. A letter that he wrote to Foot in July 1982, eventually published in June 2006, gives an indication of his outlook at this time.^[8]

In 1983 Blair found that the newly created constituency of Sedgefield, near where he had grown up in Durham, had no Labour candidate. Several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in securing selection to fight the seat. He found a branch that had not made a nomination and arranged to visit them. With the crucial support of John Burton, he won their endorsement; at the last minute he was added to the shortlist and won the selection over displaced sitting MP Les Huckfield. Burton later became his agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies.

Blair's election literature in the 1983 UK general election endorsed left-wing policies that the Labour Party advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the EEC, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also supported unilateral nuclear disarmament, being a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Sedgefield was a safe Labour seat and Blair was elected as its MP, despite the party's national landslide defeat. Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap actress Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend.

Blair stated in his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983: "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality".^[9][10] The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a democratic socialist party,^[11] rather than a social democratic party - Blair himself organized this declaration of Labour to be a socialist party when he dealt with the change to the party's Clause IV in their constitution.

In opposition

Once elected, Blair's ascent was rapid, and he received his first front bench appointment in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. He demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsed Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985, and embarrassed the government by finding a European Economic Community report critical of British economic policy that had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government. By this time Blair was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party, headed by leader Neil Kinnock, and was promoted after the 1987 election to the shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of London. In 1987, he stood for election to the Shadow Cabinet, with a good show of 77 votes.

After the stock market crash of October 1987, Blair raised his profile further when he castigated City traders as "incompetent" and "morally dubious," and criticised poor service for small investors at the London Stock Exchange. In 1988 Blair entered the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and the following year he became Shadow Employment Secretary. In this post he realised that the Labour Party's support for the emerging European "Social Charter" policies on employment law meant dropping the party's traditional support for closed shop arrangements, whereby employers required all their employees to be members of a trade union. He announced this change in December 1989, outraging the left wing of the Labour Party. As a young and telegenic Shadow Cabinet member, Blair was given prominence by the party's Director of Communications, Peter Mandelson. He gave his first major platform speech at the 1990 Labour Party conference.

In the run-up to the 1992 general election, Blair worked to modernise Labour's image. He had responsibility for developing the controversial minimum wage policy.

When Neil Kinnock resigned as party leader after his electoral defeat, Blair became Shadow Home Secretary under John Smith. The Labour Party at this time was widely perceived as weak on crime and Blair worked to change this: he accepted that the prison population might have to rise, and bemoaned the loss of a sense of community, which he was prepared to blame (at least partly) on "1960s liberalism". On the other hand, he spoke in support of equalising the age of consent for gay sex at 16, and opposed capital punishment. He defined his policy, in a phrase coined by Gordon Brown, as "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".

John Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a heart attack. Blair beat John Prescott and Margaret Beckett in the subsequent leadership election. After becoming Leader of the Opposition, Blair was, as is customary for the holder of that office, appointed a Privy Counsellor, which permitted him to be addressed with the style "The Right Honourable".

Leader of the Labour Party

Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference that he intended to replace Clause IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment to 'the common ownership of the means of production and exchange', which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale nationalisation. The clause was replaced by a statement that the party is one of democratic socialism. A special conference approved this highly symbolic change in April 1995.

Blair also revised party policy in a manner that enhanced the image of Labour as competent and modern — he used the term "New Labour" to distinguish the party from its past. Although the transformation aroused much criticism (its alleged superficiality drawing fire both from political opponents and traditionalists within the "rank and file" of his own party), it was nevertheless successful in changing public perception. At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education and education".

Aided by the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided over the European Union), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election with Blair the youngest person to attain the office of Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.^[12]

Blair as Prime Minister

Main article: Prime Ministry of Tony Blair

Blair first became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 2 May 1997. While serving as Prime Minister, Blair concurrently serves as the First Lord of the Treasury, the Minister for the Civil Service, the Leader of the Labour Party, and a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield in the North East of England. As a member of the British Cabinet he is also a Privy Counsellor. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories, and the only Labour prime minister to serve more than one full consecutive term.

Blair is both credited with and criticised for moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his pro-market policies from the more collectivist policies which the party had espoused in the past.

In domestic government policy, Blair has significantly increased public spending on health and education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas. Blair's tenure has also seen the introduction of a minimum wage, tuition fees for higher education, constitutional reform such as devolution in Scotland and Wales, and progress in the Northern Ireland peace process. The British economy has performed well, and Blair has kept to Conservative commitments not to increase income tax.

Since the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair has strongly supported US foreign policy, notably by participating in the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. He has encountered fierce criticism as a result, over the policy itself and the circumstances in which it was decided upon.

On 7 September 2006 Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the TUC conference in September 2007, but has not yet given a date for his departure.^[3]

Relationship with Parliament

Blair has changed Parliamentary procedures significantly. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the two weekly 15-minute sessions of Prime Minister's Questions, held on a Tuesday and Thursday, with a single 30-minute session on a Wednesday. This reform was said to have led to greater efficiency, but critics have noted that it is easier to prepare for one long set of questions than for two shorter sessions. In addition to PMQs, Blair has held monthly press conferences, at which he fields questions in a less confrontational manner than in the Commons.^[13][14]

Other procedural reforms include changing the official times for Parliamentary sessions in order to have Parliament operate in a more business-like manner.

Blair in the media

While evaluations of Blair's skills as a parliamentarian differ, he is acknowledged to be a highly skillful media performer in other contexts, appearing modern, charismatic, informal and articulate. Perhaps his best known television appearance was his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales on the morning of her death in August 1997, in which he famously described her as "the people's princess".

After taking office in 1997, Blair gave particular prominence to his press secretary, who became known as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (the two roles have since been separated). Blair's first PMOS was Alastair Campbell, who served in that role from May 1997 to 8 June 2001, after which he served as the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy until his resignation on 29 August 2003 in the aftermath of the Hutton Inquiry. Campbell acquired a reputation as a sinister and Machiavellian figure, and both Blair and Campbell have frequently been criticised or satirised for their allegedly excessive use of "spin" and news management techniques (see below under Criticism).

Blair and Gordon Brown

After the death of John Smith in 1994, both Blair and Gordon Brown were viewed as possible candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party. They had agreed that they would not stand against each other, and Brown had previously been considered to be the more senior of the two men — he understood this to mean that Blair would give way to him. It soon became apparent, however, that Blair had greater public support.^[15] At the Granita restaurant in Islington on 31 May, Brown agreed with Blair that he would not contest the leadership election. He understood Blair to have agreed in return to step down as party leader after a specified period (after 8 years, according to some reports), but Blair has always denied striking any such deal with him. It may be that both men placed honestly differing interpretations on the same conversation. In September 2003, British TV Channel Channel 4 broadcast a one-off drama about the alleged agreement, called The Deal, which culminated in the conversation in question. The final words of it, as spoken by the actors playing Blair and Brown, were as follows:

Brown: And the election after that? (i.e. the election following two terms of a Labour Government) Blair: Well... Obviously, I couldn't go on for ever.

It has also been alleged that while in office as Prime Minister, Blair gave Brown further indications (and even promises) that he would step down in Brown's favour at specified times. Whatever the truth of these reports, Blair's consistent refusal to leave office (so far) has led to relations between the two men becoming irretrievably embittered. At certain times, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has reportedly acted as their "marriage guidance counsellor".^[16]

Another aspect of the political relationship between Blair and Brown is the exceptional freedom given by Blair from the start of his time in office to his Chancellor in the area of economic policy. Downing Street insiders have subsequently reported that Blair grew to regret granting Brown this freedom, since he has been excluded from important fiscal decisions as a result.

Blair is still seen as refusing to endorse Gordon Brown as his successor. Commentators speculate that this reflects hopes in Downing Street that, given sufficient time, other candidates for Prime Minister will emerge so as to force a full leadership contest.^[17]

Blair's religious faith

Blair has rarely discussed his religious faith in public, but he is often identified as an Anglo-Catholic — that is, a member of the high church branch of the Church of England, sympathetic to the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. His wife Cherie Booth is a practising Roman Catholic, and Blair has attended Catholic Masses at Westminster Cathedral, while on holiday in Italy, and with his family at his current home in Number 10 Downing Street. At one point, he was reprimanded by Basil Cardinal Hume for receiving Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Roman Catholic, a contravention of Catholic doctrine.

In an interview with Michael Parkinson broadcast on ITV1 on 4 March 2006, Blair referred to the role of his Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq, stating that he had prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision:^[18] "I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people … and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."

A longer exploration of his faith can be found in an interview he did with Third Way Magazine. He says there that 'I was brought up as [a Christian], but I was not in any real sense a practising one until I went to Oxford. There was an Australian priest at the same college as me who got me interested again. In a sense, it was a rediscovery of religion as something living, that was about the world around me rather than some sort of special one-to-one relationship with a remote Being on high. Suddenly I began to see its social relevance. I began to make sense of the world.'^[19]

These comments prompted a number of questions on Blair's faith, questions that he was advised not to answer. At the time, the bar on the topic was so rigid that Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in an interview, preventing the Prime Minister from answering a question about his Christianity, explaining, "We don't do God".^[20]

Political overview

Which part of the political spectrum Tony Blair occupies is disputed. Many Britons would place him in the centre ground. His party (Labour) is a socialist political party, and conservatives consider him left of centre. Yet some of his Labour-party backbenchers and other Left-wing critics would place him to the right of centre. Blair rarely applies such labels to himself, though he promised, in advance of the 1997 election, that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and he is on record as describing himself as a "social democrat".

An overview of Blair's policies gives an idea of the difficulty of defining him politically. He has raised taxes; implemented redistributive policies; introduced a minimum wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's trade union legislation); introduced significant constitutional reforms (which remain incomplete and controversial); promoted new rights for homosexuals in the Civil Partnerships Act; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with the EU. He has also firmly supported George W. Bush's foreign policy (while reportedly attempting to act as a restraining influence on him), leading to Blair's rule being characterised as an interventionist foreign policy; introduced substantial market-based reforms in the education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce certain categories of welfare payments; and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation.

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Tony Blair

The criticism of Tony Blair includes criticism about his alliance with U.S. President George W. Bush, and his policies in the Middle East, including the Iraq War, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Presidentialism

Blair is sometimes perceived as paying insufficient attention both to the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to those of the House of Commons. His style is sometimes criticised as not that of a prime minister and head of government, which he is, but of a president and head of state, which he is not.^[21]

Relationship with the United States

Along with enjoying a close relationship with Bill Clinton during the latter's time in office, Blair has formed a strong political alliance with George W. Bush, particularly in the area of foreign policy. At one point, Nelson Mandela described Blair as "the US foreign minister".^[22] Blair has also often openly been referred to as "Bush's poodle."^[23] Such claims received added credence in statements made by Kendall Myers, a senior analyst at the State Department, who reportedly said that he felt "a little ashamed" of Bush's treatment of the Prime Minister and that his attempts to influence US government policy were typically ignored - "It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a one-sided relationship that was entered into with open eyes... There was nothing, no payback, no sense of reciprocity.".^[24]

For his part, Bush has lauded Blair and the UK. In his post-September 11 speech, for example, he stated that "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".^[25] The alliance between Bush and Blair has seriously damaged Blair's standing in the eyes of many Britons.^[26]

Middle East policy and links with Israel

One of Blair's first actions in joining the Labour Party was to join Labour Friends of Israel. In 1994, a friend and former colleague of Blair at 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers, Eldred Tabachnik, Q.C. (one time president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews) introduced Blair to Michael Levy, later Lord Levy, a pop music mogul and major fundraiser for Jewish and Israeli causes, at a dinner party hosted by the Israeli diplomat Gideon Meir.^[27] Blair and Levy soon became close friends and tennis partners. Levy ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 General Election and received substantial contributions from such figures as Alex Bernstein and Robert Gavron, both of whom were ennobled by Blair after he came to power. Levy was created a life peer by Blair in 1997, and in 2002, just prior to the Iraq War, Blair appointed Levy as his personal envoy to the Middle East. Levy has praised Blair for his "solid and committed support of the State of Israel"^[28] and has been described himself as "a leading international Zionist".^[29] In 2004, Blair was heavily criticised by 50 former diplomats, including ambassadors to Baghdad and Tel Aviv for his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq War. They stated they had "watched with deepening concern" at Britain following the U.S. into war in Iraq in 2003 also stating, "We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment," and asked Blair to exert "real influence as a loyal ally". The ambassadors also accused the allies of having "no effective plan" for the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the apparent disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians. The diplomats also criticised Blair for his support for the road map which included the retaining of settlements on the West Bank stating, "Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land".^[30]

In 2006, Blair was heavily criticised for his failure to call for a ceasefire in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, with members of his cabinet openly criticising Israel. Jack Straw, the Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary stated that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon. Kim Howell, a minister in the Foreign Office, stated that it was "very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel", "These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.". The Observer newspaper claimed that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for a summit with President George Bush on July 28, 2006, a significant number of ministers pressured Blair to publicly criticise Israel over the scale of deaths and destruction in Lebanon.^[31]

Relationship with Labour party

Blair's apparent refusal to set a date for his departure has been criticised by the British press and members of parliament. It has been reported that a number of cabinet ministers believed that Blair's timely departure from office would be required to be able to win a fourth election.^[32] Some ministers viewed Blair's announcement of policy initiatives in September 2006 as an attempt to draw attention away from these issues.^[32] Upon his return from his holiday in the West Indies he announced that all the speculation about his leaving must stop. This stirred not only his traditional critics but also traditional party loyalists.

While the Blair government has introduced social policies supported by the left of the Labour Party, such as the minimum wage and measures to reduce child poverty, Blair is seen on economic and management issues as being to the right of much of the party. A possible comparison may be made with American Democrats such as Joe Lieberman, who have been accused by their party's "base" of adopting their opponents' political stances. Some critics describe Blair as a reconstructed neoconservative or Thatcherite. He is occasionally described as "Son of Thatcher", though Lady Thatcher herself rejected this identification in an interview with ITV1 on the night of the 2005 election, saying that in her opinion the resemblances were superficial. Blair himself has often expressed admiration for Thatcher.^[33]

Approval rating

In May 2006, the Daily Telegraph reported that Blair's personal approval rating had dipped to 26 percent, lower than Harold Wilson's rating after devaluation of the pound and James Callaghan's during the Winter of Discontent, meaning that Blair had become the most unpopular post-war Labour Prime Minister. Of all British Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major have recorded lower approval (the former in the aftermath of the Poll Tax Riots). Previously Blair had achieved the highest approval ratings of any British Prime Minister of either party in the months following his election in 1997.

Portrayals

• Michael Sheen has portrayed Blair twice in the films The Deal (2003) and The Queen (2006).
• Tony Blair made a cameo appearance as himself in The Simpsons episode, "The Regina Monologues" (2003).^[34]
• Blair was portrayed by Robert Lindsay in A Very Social Secretary and Lindsay reprised his role in The Trial of Tony Blair.
• Blair is recognisable as the Bible-reading Prime Minister, receiving inspiration directly from God, in A. N. Wilson's satirical novel, My Name is Legion.
• The St. Albion Parish News is a regular feature in the magazine Private Eye, containing the messages of the incumbent 'Rev. A. R. P. Blair MA (Oxon)', and his diatribes against (amongst others) the parish treasurer, Mr. Brown.
• The climax of Alistair Beaton's satirical play on political spin, 'Feelgood' , is a Blair-like speech given by a Blair lookalike, using typical Blair gestures.
• On March 16, 2007, Blair made a cameo appearance as himself in a sketch with Catherine Tate who appeared in the guise of her character Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007.
• His appearance in fiction has been discussed in The Guardian.^[35]
• He is the subject of an on-line novel ^[36]
• A sketch from the BBC's Dead Ringers featured Blair being played by John Culshaw, who dies and regenerates into Scottish actor David Tennant, revealing Blair as a Time Lord. Blair/Tennant then goes on to say that 'he didn't save the Earth from Daleks to have some numbnuts in charge" and says, in a parody of the famous Four More Years chant, "600 MORE YEARS!", as TimeLords have incredibly longs lives due to genetics and regenerations.

Works

• Blair, Tony (2003). Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government Diane Publishing, ISBN 0-7567-3102-X
• Blair, Tony (2002). The Courage of Our Convictions Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0603-4
• Blair, Tony (2000). Superpower: Not Superstate? (Federal Trust European Essays) Federal Trust for Education & Research, ISBN 1-903403-25-1
• Blair, Tony (1998). The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0588-7
• Blair, Tony (1998). Leading the Way: New Vision for Local Government Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-86030-075-8
• Blair, Tony (1997). New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country Basic Books, ISBN 0-8133-3338-5
• Blair, Tony (1995). Let Us Face the Future Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0571-2
• Blair, Tony (1994). What Price Safe Society? Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0562-3
• Blair, Tony (1994). Socialism Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0565-8

See also

• Tony Blair's keynote speech at Policy Network conference 'Britain and Europe in the Global Age', 2007
• Tony Blair's Cabinets
• Blairite
• Blair Brown Deal
• 'Cash for Honours' scandal
• Impeach Blair campaign
• List of national leaders
• UK general election, 2005
• UK general election, 2001
• UK general election, 1997
• Labour Party leadership election, 1994
• Labour Party leadership election, 2007
• Politics of the United Kingdom
• The Queen (film)

References

Further reading

• Abse, Leo (2001). Tony Blair: The Man Behind the Smile. Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-364-9. 
• Beckett, F. & Hencke, D. (2004). The Blairs and Their Court, Aurum Press, ISBN 1-84513-024-3
• ――― (2003). Tony Blair: The Man Who Lost His Smile. Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-698-2. 
• Blair, Tony (1998). in (ed.) Iain Dale: The Blair Necessities: Tony Blair Book of Quotations. Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-139-5. 
• ――― (2004). in (ed.) Paul Richards: Tony Blair: In His Own Words. Politico's Publishing. ISBN 1-84275-089-5. 
• Gould, Philip (1999). The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11177-4. 
• Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage. Fourth Estate. ISBN 1-84115-473-3. 
• ――― (2004). The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency. Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-5001-2. 
• Rawnsley, Andrew (2000). Servants of the People: The Inside Story of New Labour. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-14029-3. 
• ――― (2001). Servants of the People: The Inside Story of New Labour, 2nd edition, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-027850-8. 
• Rentoul, John (2001). Tony Blair: Prime Minister. Little Brown. ISBN 0-316-85496-4. 
• Riddell, Peter (2004). The Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair and the End of Optimism. Politico's Publishing. ISBN 1-84275-113-1. 
• Seldon, Anthony (2004). Blair. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-3211-9. 
• Short, Clare (2004). An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-6392-8. 
• Stephens, Philip (2004). Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader. Viking Books. ISBN 0-670-03300-6. 

Miscellany

• Blair, T. (2004). "Blair, The Right Hon. A. C. L." from Who's Who, 156th ed., London: A & C Black.
• Halsbury's Laws of England (2004), reference to impeachment in volume on Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph 416
• The Queen (2006 film)

External links

Find more information on Tony Blair by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
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	Learning resources from Wikiversity

• 10 Downing Street official site
• A Day in the Life an on-line documentary by Tony Blair on life as Prime Minister
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Tony Blair MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Tony Blair MP
• The Public Whip - Tony Blair MP voting record
• Impeach Blair Campaign
• Tony Blair at the Internet Movie Database
• "The September Dossier"
• "The Dodgy Dossier"
• Tuition Fee Time Table
• 'Cross-dressing' on political policy is here to stay, says PM, Guardian Unlimited, Patrick Wintour, July 31, 2006.
• "Whatever happened to Cool Britannia? The UK after eight years of Blair" Thirty British, US, French and Canadian scholars assess Blair's policies and style after two terms, in May 2005. Links to papers and video.
• "Think Again: Tony Blair" - by James G. Forsyth (requires registration) from Foreign Policy Magazine
• Her Majesty's Government (2004). "The Prime Minister: A Biography".

Political offices

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (constituency re-created)	Member of Parliament for Sedgefield 1983 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Roy Hattersley	Shadow Home Secretary 1992 – 1994	Succeeded by Jack Straw
Preceded by Margaret Beckett	Leader of the Opposition 1994 – 1997	Succeeded by John Major
	Leader of the British Labour Party 1994 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by John Major	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1997 – present
Order of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Most Revd. and Rt. Hon. the Archbishop of York	The Prime Minister United Kingdom Order of Precedence Gentlemen	Succeeded by The Rt. Hon. Mr. Michael Martin, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons

Persondata
NAME	Blair, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Blair, Anthony Charles Lynton
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Politician; Prime minister of the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH	6 May 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH	Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH