Friday 15th January 2010

Happy Friday everyone, apologies for my week long absence from the blogosphere, it has been a busy week with exams, but I hope to be able to continue this blog in between dissertation work and everything else.

The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war has gathered momentum this week, with Tony Blair's former Director of Communications and Strategy Alastair Campbell facing a grilling earlier this week. The investigation was also brought up in Parliament this past week when during Prime Minister's Questions Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urged Gordon Brown to appear in front of the Iraq Inquiry Committee before this year's general election.
Both Alastair Campbell and Gordon Brown played a significant part in the 2003 invasion, but more than anything, everyone is waiting for Tony Blair to return to the public spotlight in the next few weeks to tackle some tricky questions over his role.
Thinking about how unpopular Tony Blair is in Britain today was got me wondering how it all went so wrong for the former Prime Minister? Historian Dominic Sandbrook writes a regular piece in the New Statesman titled "What If..." where he speculates what would have happened if things in British politics had taken a different path. I can't help but think would have happened if Tony Blair had distanced himself from American foreign policy in those critical days after 9/11 and managed to avoid sending our troops to Iraq. Would Blair still be Prime Minister today?
Let us not forget that at one time Mr Blair was the most popular Prime Minister in the history of British politics. In September 1997, just four months after being elected by a landslide, he captured the mood of the nation when Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crach with his "People's Princess" speech. After this, Blair had an approval rating with the British public of over 90%, but from here on it was only going to go downhill.
We saw a glimpse of what was to come a few months later when "the Bernie Ecclestone affair" hit the headlines in November 1997. Despite private fears this scandal would signal the end of his career, Blair came through relatively unscathed by claiming he was a "pretty straight kind of guy". In hindsight we can see the irony.
The Ecclestone affair was the first scandal to rock the Blair governments, preceeding the cash for honours scandal, but it is the Iraq war which most of all has put a permanent stain on his reputation.
In January 2003, just months before Britain went to war, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland wrote an article titled "A leader who has left behind his people". He concluded:
"How will historians look back at this solo stance by Tony Blair? that depends on the outcome of the coming war. But they will either say this was his defining act of great statesmanship - or the decision that ultimately led to his downfall."
Unless he can pull off a miracle in front of the Chilcot Committee, his actions will almost certainly be judged as the latter.