Editorial
Tony Blair goes into twilight
Brown will emphasise his own brand of leadership
The old order has, somewhat, given place to the new in Britain. Tony Blair's departure from office after a decade of providing leadership to the country has in turn given Gordon Brown his chance, at long last, of stamping his own authority on British politics. While it can be said that Brown has succeeded Blair and now plans to effect change in the way the country is run, it is also true that a change of prime ministers in the present context is essentially a sign of continuity. That is because Blair and Brown have together been responsible for the changes that have come over Britain in the years since the Labour Party, in its new avatar as New Labour, stormed to power in 1997. It will, therefore, be quite logical to believe that Brown's stewardship of the country cannot be much different from the way Blair ran things in his time.For all the talk of whether or not a Brownite Britain will be any different from a Blairite one, there remains the matter of what legacy Tony Blair leaves behind. He started off in a blaze of glory in 1997, having earlier with Brown reformed the Labour Party enough to make it electable after eighteen years of Tory rule. In these ten years, the economy has not only remained stable but has demonstrated ever-increasing signs of strength. Blair's emphases on the National Health Service and education have redrawn governmental priorities in domestic policy-making. On the question of Northern Ireland, the agreement between the feuding sides almost at the end of the Blair prime ministership will in future be cited as one of the more positive of the former leader's achievements in office. It is, however, Iraq that will continue to cast a long, lingering cloud on the Blair reputation. His extreme closeness to the Bush administration almost to the point of loyalty to it has surely dented his appeal. For a man who has always been in need of a place in history, Blair's misadventure in Iraq is the blot that has probably prevented him from getting a perch on the level of greatness. Whether his new role as the Quartet envoy for the Middle East will make any difference remains to be seen. For Prime Minister Brown, therefore, the imperatives are obvious. His handling of the economy, having been strong, will remain that way. In foreign policy, though, he will be tempted to set a course that will mark him out from his predecessor. Like Blair, Brown is an Atlanticist. Unlike Blair, however, he will not be expected to toe the Americans unquestioningly. But Brown need not worry. He takes the top job at a time when America prepares to elect a new president in November 2008. An ambitious politician, he will have no second thoughts about making his own mark on his country and on the world at large. We wish him well.
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