Abstract

Blair: Mistrust Grows

The article discusses the lack of public confidence in British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The vote which first brought Blair to power in 1997, is shrinking from both sides. Voters fret about immigrants in the blunt language favored by the tabloids and the Tories. For other voters the issue is the Iraq war, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and respect for Muslim communities. More than the war itself, voters resent the fact that they have been misled and condescended to: Even for those who did not follow the details, the trail of scandals and evasions--the flawed intelligence, the death of weapons expert David Kelly, the refusal to publish the attorney general's advice on the war's legality--has led to the conclusion that Blair cannot be trusted. In the campaign's last full week, both Liberal Democrat candidate Charles Kennedy and Tory leader Michael Howard have pushed Blair's handling of the war back up into the headlines, helped by the defection to Kennedy's party of veteran Labor minister Brian Sedgemore in protest at Blair's "lies." Though it is now clear that Blair has become his party's biggest liability, he will still win his coveted third term.