The northlondonhippy

Archive for June 27th, 2007

I can’t believe that Tony Blair’s been Prime Min­is­ter for over ten years.

Of course, I do believe it; I’m not in denial or any­thing. If I am in denial about any­thing, it would be just how quickly time passes. Ten years, it seems, can dis­ap­pear in the blink of an eye. He’s step­ping down today, but if you get so much of any news today, it would be hard to miss. We don’t get a new Prime Min­is­ter that often, these days!
It does feel like it was only yes­ter­day that Blair won his first elec­tion. I was work­ing in a tv news­room, all night, that night, right through to the morning.

I remem­ber watch­ing a live feed from, I think it was the South Bank, where Tony was hav­ing his vic­tory cel­e­bra­tions. The crowd was as big, as it was jubi­lant. He got a wel­come nor­mally reserved for sport­ing heroes and rock stars.

I can remem­ber that song, too; his cam­paign theme song – D-REAM – Things can only get better…

They didn’t; at least, not from where I’m sitting.

Crime rates are up, taxes are up, the NHS is worse, most gov­ern­ment ser­vices are lack­ing, civil rights eroded, house prices sky­rock­et­ing, and we’re still knee-deep in a point­less war that seems to have no end in sight.

Job well done, Mr. B!

Good luck solv­ing all the prob­lems in the MidEast next. With your track record, I’m sure it will be sorted within weeks of your appoint­ment as the new “peace envoy” to the region.

It’s easy to be crit­i­cal with hindsight.

But back in 1997, we were all just so happy to put the Iron Lady and then the Grey Man behind us, that we would have cel­e­brated any­one else’s elec­tion. Tony was that anyone.

The day after the elec­tion, I remem­ber it seemed like the mood in the entire coun­try just lifted. Strangers smiled at you on the streets, chil­dren held doors open for old ladies and that hot chick a few houses down the road from me finally relented and gave me a world class BJ.

OK, I made that last bit up, but that’s how it felt; like all of your dreams were pos­si­ble and maybe that next knock on the front door might really be that hotty from 2 doors down, offer­ing to plea­sure me in return for a bor­rowed cup of sugar.

Now, that’s what I call neighbourly!

If I knew then, what I know now…

I wouldn’t have been so happy.

None of us would have even come close.

And what really bugs me about Tony Blair is that he’s not stu­pid. And I think his inten­tions to do “good” were genuine.

He just cocked it up. He got it wrong. Or worse, he allowed com­mer­cial and polit­i­cal com­pro­mises to dom­i­nate his policy.

Do you really think sit­ting at the big table with George W doesn’t come with a price?

Do you really think any alleged exchange of cash for peer­ages, didn’t include some strings that might lead back to some pos­si­ble, dodgier busi­ness deals?

I don’t think we’ve really scratched the sur­face on any of this just yet. There’s plenty of dig­ging yet to be done. It will be. Dirt always finds a way out.

Ten years is a long time. Let’s see what Tony’s up to in ten more years.

Will be seen as an elder states­man, con­tin­u­ing to per­form on the world’s polit­i­cal stage?

Will he still be on the lec­ture cir­cuit, com­mand­ing large speak­ing fees and pub­lish­ing bor­ing, yet wor­thy books?

Or will he be locked in Slo­bo­dan Milosevic’s old cell at the War Crimes Tri­bunal in The Hague, await­ing trial over his role in the Iraq war?

Or a cell in Bel­marsh, await­ing trial for some as of yet dis­cover cor­rup­tion allegation?

I wouldn’t want to spec­u­late, espe­cially as I got it so very wrong ten years ago. Let’s just say if I were Mr. Blair, I’d avoid any stopovers in Hol­land for a while and get a good lawyer!

Oh wait, he’s got his wife! She could be his mouth­piece, although from what I hear, she ain’t cheap either! He can afford it.

See ya, Tony! Your ten years sure went quick! Time really does fly when you’re watch­ing soci­ety crum­ble before your eyes!