Abstract

Blair, Triumphant

The author comments on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and his apparent dismissal of the concerns of the left wing of his party. As the Labour Party assembled for its annual conference here on Britain's Yiddish Riviera, the news looked grim. The final days of the Hutton Inquiry revealed that Blair had not only taken the country to war on the basis of "sexed-up" intelligence about the Iraqi threat, he had done so despite intelligence warnings that a war with Iraq might actually increase the danger of terrorist attacks. Leaks from the Iraq Survey Group made it clear that none of the weapons Blair cited in his speech to Parliament last year had been found.Yet the Tony Blair who spoke here barely even paid lip service to the damage done to his own--and his party's--credibility by the war. Given the Prime Minister's perfunctory nods at climate change and his commitment to "staying with" American policy on the Middle East, Blair doesn't seem to expect his policy of constructive engagement with the Bush Administration to bear fruit anytime soon. What Blair does expect is "a full third term" in power. As he reminded the delegates, Blair is the first Labour Prime Minister ever to reach six and a half continuous years in office. The terms of Blair's bargain couldn't be plainer: Stick with me, and you will remain in power through the end of the decade, or take your chances without me. Blair's great success has been to turn the Labour Party from a mass movement into a niche market. And at this rate, dissenters in Britain, whether on the war on Iraq or the dismantling of the welfare state, will have nowhere to go but into the streets.