Goodbye Tony Blair

So now we know when Tony Blair will go. It's 27 June. The Labour party has to choose a new leader who will then become the Prime Minister of the UK. Although there's supposed to be a kind of election amongst Labour MPs to choose a new person, if you put money on any other horse than Gordon Brown (the current Chancellor - like a really, really powerful Treasury Secretary) then you're backing a lame nag.

When I first arrived in the UK, John Major was in his waning days as PM. Everyone knew that the Conservatives would lose in an election that would almost certainly be held in May 97. People were just tired of them. They'd been in power for 18 years. They were more concerned with party infighting than in making a difference. I wasn't tired of them. I'd barely been in the country six months when they were turfed out.

Still, I was deeply suspicious of the New Labour. It seemed smarmy. Conservative election posters advertised "New Labour, New Danger" I scoffed. I thought a more effective campaign slogan would have been "New Labour, Old Danger" - the danger of entrenched union interests, over-regulation, too much welfare and monstrous bureaucracies.

Only the monstrous bureaucracies remained. And it turned out that the Conservative slogan was right. There was a new danger. It was the same old Socialist/Marxist state-building "we know better than you", but now it was mixed with a kind of quasi-national socialist*/statist friends-with-big-business holier-than-thou attitude which disrespected the English traditions of liberty, transparency and due process. And they completely disregarded the benefit of tradition and system - which I admit can be stifling - but in a country without a written constitution are essential. New Labour went on to hand over significant amounts of national, local and individual discretion to the European super state.

In many ways, as you can see with the Bush Administration, this is not a question of left and right. (New Labour - whatever anyone may say - are still on the Left). This is a question of respect for precedent and the rule of law and individual freedoms. The Bush Administration does not have this and neither does New Labour. They are in favor of concentrating the power of the many into the hands of the few. Tony Blair and his lot are that they are happy to buy off the many with crumbs from the government table - with jobs (I've got one of them) and derisory benefits. George Bush and his lot are willing to just trammel your rights with the illusory promise of riches and lower taxes and low commodity prices and wages (on the back of illegal immigrants).

Tony Blair and his state building have cost untold billions. Under his watch, necesary public sector reform has been a perpetual, expensive and ineffective revolution. A hold over from his Marxist past and their belief in the benefit constant churn. I have fought against this throughout my career (to almost no effect).

What I'll miss about T. Blair

Tony Blair is a fun politician. The guy's got charisma. I enjoy watching him. He's a great speaker. I bet he's a fabulous dinner guest.

The guy's got leadership style. On September 11 when I wanted to hear from my president but he hadn't yet crawled from his bunker - Tony Blair said the words I wanted to hear. He reassured me.

Tony Blair thinks he has integrity, I'll give him that. And he doesn't hate America. I'll give him that, too. And that's important because of a lot of people in the Labour party do hate America.

Bring on Gordon

Gordon Brown thinks he's smarter than Tony Blair. And he almost certainly is. But he's not a leader, he's got no personal charm. He's like Dick Cheney. A dark heart. But at least Dick Cheney knows he's not a leader, not in that way. It should be interesting times with Gordon Brown at the helm.

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*I do not mean in any way that they are racist murderers like the Nazis - but there are some interesting parallels - e.g. the use of national symbolism and state building at the same time.