WHEN British politicians lined up for the first parliamentary debate on the war in Iraq in January, some three years after it had begun and long after the campaign had turned to mud, Tony Blair was smart enough to figure he had a bright red target pinned to his forehead.
So he skipped out.
Blair outraged the House of Commons when rival MPs and anti-war Labour MPs discovered that shortly after Blair had sat through 30 minutes of Prime Minister's Question Time, when the debate on Iraq was just about to begin, the Prime Minister had slipped out a side door for another, comparitively trivial, engagement.
He had to make a speech to the Confederation of British Industries. What could be more important than that the Prime Minister should be here to debate the issue of Iraq at a time when British forces are at risk every day?'' railed Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell.
Isn't that the leadership we are entitled to?''
On deeper analysis Blair's no-show illustrated once again the political genius of the British PM.
Across town, in front of polite applause from the CBI, Blair took the podium with this: This is my second Question Time of the day; I think you are more polite than my first audience.
''
Wouldn't you know it: charmed them again. It seems the gags can no longer save Blair, though.
He is expected to announce on May 9 or 10 his timetable for stepping down amid claims Britain is in a far worse state now than when his Government took office 10 years ago and that the once brightest of political careers is now verging on embarrassment.
On Friday, ahead of Thursday's local elections where the Labour party is expected to take a bath, he took the extraordinary step of releasing a 22-page dossier to local Labour members outlining his legacy.
As expected, his political justifications had more holes than a schoolboy alibi.
There was no mention, for instance, of the missing Weapons of Mass Destruction that was the reason behind his sending British soldiers into Iraq.
As Blair hangs on to set a record term as a Labour PM, he has been rendered virtually impotent as his opinions are dismissed, his power is questioned and Chancellor Gordon Brown sets up his succession at No 10.
It marks a dramatci change from the days when Blair was swept to power as the quintessential politician.
Thoroughly charrming and with the perfect soundbite, the PM knew better than any politician before him the value of media image and how best to milk the plaudits, to best wave the political spin.
Blair was the best. Almost Clinton-esque. Even today, Blair still has the best political antennae in the game.
Just three hours after a host of Britons, led by Helen Mirren, were nominated for this year's Oscars, Blair was talking up the quality of the British film industry and lauding their nominations.
Yet critics noted it took him three days to publicly offer his condolences to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
When Frank Sinatra died the Prime Minister, aware of the iconic image of the late entertainer, took just seven hours to make his comment.
But it took four days to talk publicly about the deaths of nearly 200,000 tsunami victims across in December 2004.
Just 14 hours after David Beckham broke his left foot, threatening his 2002 World Cup campaign, Blair was offering his comment for the world to digest.
Yet when Saddam Hussein was hanged the Prime Minister was absent for 10 days and three hours before Britons could finally get a comment from the man who, along with US President George Bush, and with the support of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, sent his country to war.
Still, Blair is continuing the spin: As he thinks about life beyond politics, he was on radio BBC earlier this month saying that his legacy will stand the test of time''.
It came as he announced plans to push through major education and health reforms as a last ditch bid to secure that legacy.
Yet after 10 years people are now seeing through the spin.
They realise there is far more style than substance; opinion polls drop to new lows.
Unquestionably, instead of any health and education reforms Blair's legacy will be Iraq and its horrible failure.
Always considered something of a risk taker, his instinct to back America's invasion of Iraq backfired dramatically.
Solving nothing, it has created a country engaged in a de facto civil war with no real answers left as to how to solve it.
There are more less noble legacies, far removed from the idealist political spin he wooed voters with in 1997 and Britain looked forward to a bright, shiny future.
Yet he remains the only serving British Prime Minister to be interviewed by police in a criminal investigation, the result of the ongoing cash for honours'' scandal currently under investigation.
He claimed, One reason I changed Labour is that we can remain true to our principal''.
A principal, it seems, that drives the gap between rich and poor as companies are encouraged to give higher and higher wages to executives while workers on the floor struggle on basic wages.
A principal that has allowed Britain's crime rate to soar as knife attacks and teenage shootings spiral to unseen levels.
Prisons are so full they are overflowing, to the point judges have been asked to avoid sending criminals to jail if possible to avoid further impacting on the problem.
Other prisoners have been freed early just to create room for new prisoners.
To be fair, Blair has had his moments.
While the rest of the world has struggled economically Blair and his government have managed the British economy admirably, avoiding many of the problems other countries have suffered.
Most noticeably perhaps was striking the recent power-sharing peace deal, planned to be signed off within weeks, in Northern Ireland.
Blair had hoped, at one point, that peace in Northern Ireland might be his legacy.
He was also the only politician to emerge from the Kosovo tragedy in the late 1990s with his reputation not only intact, but enhanced.
Variously described as naive, ignorant or confused, Blair held fast to his moral compass and eventually emerged triumphant, standing up to former dictatorial President Slobodan Milosevic and saving the lives of tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees.
Such courage of his convictions was not rewarded in Iraq, as many now feel emboldened to now note given the seeming powerlessness of the shrinking PM.
Inside the boardroom where he was giving the CBI speech, Blair was asked what he would do if he could write his legacy on a blank sheet of paper.
His hope, he said, would be to ensure public support for taxpayer funded services.
Less than two kilometres away Britain's MPs were letting it known what they thought the soon to be departed Prime Minister's legacy would be.
It is unimaginable that an Attlee or a Callaghan or a Churchill or a Thatcher would not have been here to debate a situation in war,'' claimed Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Why was he so anxious to take us into this disastrous war,'' asked Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond, but so reluctant to explain how we are going to get out of it.''
Nice article Paul, particularly enjoyed the line and with the support of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, sent his country to war.
In your next piece would you be able to expand on that statement for the benefit of your readers?
Posted by: Daniel Kogoy of 9:31am April 29, 2007 Blair has been an embarrasement for years as has been his strange wife Cherie, a woman devoted to New Age therapies, ideas and friends whose closest included when the going gets tough, the "tough" get going. thus taking the Uk into a downward spiral and shambles.
Posted by: Phillip of 6:32am April 29, 2007 We welcome your comments on this story. Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Please provide your full name.
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