News

.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

17 May 2007

 

The setting by a Prime Minister of the date when he is to tender his resignation is an event of great significance. So I was not one of those who lamented the time given over by the media last Thursday to the coverage of Mr Blair’s announcement. Indeed I could hardly have done so since I appeared in quite a few of those programmes myself.

Of course, contrary to what was said by commentators, the announcement was not one made voluntarily. It was a direct result of the coup, last September, by supporters of Gordon Brown. That is often described as a failure but in fact it was largely successful. It is true that it did not achieve the immediate departure of Mr Blair which was its primary objective. But it did force him, against his will as he himself freely acknowledged, to say that he would go within the year.

That was the background to last week’s announcement and the attention paid to an assessment of Mr Blair’s achievements and failures during his long period in office.

It would be particularly churlish of me, given the fact that I was defeated by him in the 2005 Election, to deny his achievements. He changed his party for the better, won three General Elections and, in office, completed the process of bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

But overall I do believe that his record is very disappointing. He inherited the best legacy of any modern Prime Minister – a huge parliamentary majority, and sound and growing economy and the great goodwill of the British people. Expectations were indeed high – largely because Mr Blair himself had done so much to raise them.

They have largely been disappointed. Of course, in some respects, things are better than they were in 1997. But things usually do improve. They were better in 1997 than in 1987 and very much better in 1987 than in 1977. The real questions, particularly where our public services are concerned, is whether the huge amount of taxpayers’ money that has been spent over the last few years has given us the scale of improvement we were entitled to expect. Very few people would answer that question in the affirmative.

Of course Mr Blair’s domestic record will be overshadowed by Iraq. I have set out my views on that subject in these columns before and do not intend to repeat them again.

But there are other foreign policy failures, too. For example, Mrs Blair’s agreement to renew the Common Agricultural Policy for a further 10 years in 2003 has proved one of the greatest obstacles to the completion of the Doha round of trade talks and so condemned millions in the developing world to continuing poverty.

So it is a mixed and, overall, disappointing record. It remains to be seen whether Mr Brown will do any better.