Series #9. 'What Do We Reckon About.... Tony Blair?' Why Did He Really Retire as Prime Minister?

I don't agree with his politics, but I've always liked the guy. I shared in the excitement of the morning after New Labour were elected in 1997, when he spoke about his visions for a brave new world.

The really interesting question about Tony Blair is why did he really give up being Prime Minister, and hand the reins over to Gordon Brown?

The official version was that he had a heart murmur, so the time was right for him to step down, and spend more time with his family. And he has always been a great family man.

But what did he do after stepping down? He tried to become EU President, and then became Middle East Peace Envoy. I can't imagine any two things that are more stressful, hardly the ideal roles for someone with a heart problem.

There's no doubt that the early signs of the current recession were there, when he stepped down in June 2007 (for more on that, please see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/what-do-we-reckon-about-recession-final.html). And Barings Bank had gone down just two years earlier, when Nick Leeson gambled it away on the international futures market.

Gordon Brown is a great money man, if nothing else. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown must have known that a recession was coming, and must have known that many banks were already in difficulty because of recklessness on the futures market.

I reckon that Tony Blair worked out what was coming, and decided to give Gordon Brown his dream of becoming Prime Minister. I reckon Tony Blair did it, because after a pretty successful tenure as Prime Minister, he didn't want to go down in history, as the man who presided over the economic collapse, and New Labour's inevitable election demise in 2010.

I think that Tony was great at the Levenson Enquiry, recently, and remains a great charismatic statesman. I can't say fairer than that.

Are The British Labour Party Credible Anymore?

Ed Miliband - he seems like a nice guy, and knowledgeable too - but I thought his brother David had more depth and charisma. Ed's currently speaking at the British Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. It's taken him a year to start saying what he might do if he were in Government. They're going to be frugal, apparently, and manage money better, in a brand new economy.

But here's the problem. Twice in my lifetime, Labour has been in power.

In the 1970's, Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan presided over borrowing from the IMF to bail Britain out, sterling being devalued, the miners' strike, the power cuts and the three day week. Then Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government sorted it all out, in what proved to be the greatest boom in prosperity for both the middle and working classes.

And then, starting in 1997, Labour had another go. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown eventually left us crippled with debt, using the same tax and spend policies that Wilson and Callaghan used. And now, David Cameron's Conservative Government is left to try and pick up the pieces.

Although I do appreciate that the global economy played its part, you have to ask yourself a question. If you employed someone twice, and they messed everything up, would you employ them again?

Of course you wouldn't. And that's why the British Labour Party just isn't credible anymore. I don't believe a single word they say. Which is a shame.


And for a shocking update on Ed Miliband, check out http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/09/ed-miliband-slates-big-brother-what-is.html