Politics, Tony Blair's of ruling
Chriss 26/04/07 Politics, Toney Blairs style ruling A presidential system of government is characterised by a constitutional and political separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government. The assembly thus vests executive power in an independently elected president who is not directly accountable to or removable. The principle features of a presidential system are the following: the executive and the legislature are separately elected, and each is invested with a range of independent constitutional powers. The roles of head of state and head of government (the chief executive) are combined in the office of the presidency. Executive Authority is concentrated in the hands of the president, the cabinet and ministers being merely advisers responsible to the president. There is formal separation of the personnel of the legislative and the executive branches (except in semi-presidential systems). And, electoral terms are fixed. The president can neither 'dissolve' the legislature nor be dismissed by it (except through impeachment).Tony Blair, shining new leader, and, in the wake of his victory, with the political world at his feet. His approval ratings soared in the summer and autumn of 1997 to 93 per cent, exceeding those of any post-war Prime Minister. Then things began slowly to cool and a more measured public view began to emerge in 1998. Prominent among the criticisms of Blair have been accusations of: betraying Labour values (wags have been pointed out a part anagram of Tony Blair MP reads 'I'm a Tory'): arrogance; love of power; and ideas above his station as a democratic premier. Some of these will be explored below.'He has no ideas of his own but has merely hijacked Conservative ones': Far from donating his own vision, Blair merely annexed existing Conservative or Thatcherite thinking and called it 'New' Labour policy. Blairism is therefore Thatcherism in disguise. With law and order, Blair s shadow Home Secretary, sought to end the perception of Labour as 'Soft on Crime'. He it was who introduced right-wing steel into the party's message, summed up by his slogan 'Tough on Crime - tough on the causes of crime'. With employment Blair when shadowing this portfolio, he succeeded in ending his party's commitment to 'full employment' in 1990, when the document Looking to the Future talked
instead of the 'highest possible levels of skilled and rewarding employment'. In education Blair sent his son Euan to the Oratory School, a grant maintained school of the type Labour policy opposed. In defence, Blair has consistently identified core ideas ever since he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Rentoul (John Rentoul wrote a biography on Blair) even suggests his sense of mission, to 'make a difference', preceded this and is closely connected with his youthful religious learnings when he even considered, quite seriously, becoming a priest before swinging to 'politics as the vehicle for his moral commitment'. He was already ...
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instead of the 'highest possible levels of skilled and rewarding employment'. In education Blair sent his son Euan to the Oratory School, a grant maintained school of the type Labour policy opposed. In defence, Blair has consistently identified core ideas ever since he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Rentoul (John Rentoul wrote a biography on Blair) even suggests his sense of mission, to 'make a difference', preceded this and is closely connected with his youthful religious learnings when he even considered, quite seriously, becoming a priest before swinging to 'politics as the vehicle for his moral commitment'. He was already a natural anti-establishment undergraduate, attracted to leftish politics but cautious and certainly no extremist.Blair did adapt the dominant political and economic philosophy of the day - but it has to be appreciated that: four successive elections had been lost by Labour and as leader he had to redirect his party into a position from where it could realistically challenge for office; there is little point otherwise in being a political party. A wealth of evidence showed that Labour's weakness was related to: its perceived closeness to trade union sectional interests; its high 'tax and spend' policies; its predilection for government interference in the economy, especially the discredited policy of nationalisation; and its identification with 'losers' and regulation rather than 'winners' and opportunity.The shrinkage of the working class meant labour's natural voter base was disappearing following its heyday in the post-war years. In order to get into power Blair just had to appeal to middle-class voters too; Middle England values on law and order, low taxation and so forth therefore had to be addressed and incorporated into Labour thinking. Blair's son did actually go to a state school - albeit with overtones of selection in its admissions policy - and not a private one like the children of so many Conservative politicians.'He is bent on exercising supreme power': Blair and Gordon Brown, in an act of arbitrary power, soon after the May election gave independence to the Bank of England even though it wasn't a manifesto pledge. Moreover, it took fifteen days for it to be announced to the House, earning a rebuke from the speaker. Soon after, its supervisory powers over the City of London were removed. Blair has imposed a tough disciplinary regime on his 419 MP's; on 7 May 1997 he lectured them on the need for strength, unity and discipline, and said he would not tolerate 'juvenile oppositionists'.Blair announced without any consultation that Prime Minister's question time would be reduced from two fifteen-minute sessions per week to one of thirty minutes on Wednesdays, suggesting he wished to insulate himself from parliamentary criticism. He has ruthlessly centralised power, bringing in Mandelson, his trusted lackey, and later Cunningham to coordinate policy as well as Derry Irvine in a less defined way. While eschewing the lure of a Prime Minister's department, he has greatly strengthened the Cabinet Office to institutionalise the dominance of Number 10 in the machinery of government.Finally, the opinion of Margaret Thatcher can be invoked. She has been known to admire Blair's drive and patriotism, but according to Peter Hennessy, at a conference in October 1998, she was overheard saying at a reception earlier in that year: 'That young man is getting terribly bossy'.In defence: the decision regarding the Bank of England's independence was taken quickly but in the interests of the economy, which has often been subject to financial speculation after Labour victories: Brown and Blair's decision was widely supported in the City and the financial press. Changes to Prime Ministers question time have been urged for years as the whole exercise had become like a kindergarten. Blair's confident style enables more questions in thirty minutes than used to be allowed in two fifteen-minute sessions. Blair has been keener on answering questions than engaging in party rhetoric and abuse.Centralising power in a diffuse system like Britain's is no bad thing and placing tried and trusted people in charge are similarly sound political sense. A Prime Minister's department has been there in embryo for many years and it makes sense to make arrangements more explicit and formal in the form of a reformed Cabinet Office.'He has diminished the importance of Cabinet': Blair has exploited his massive election victory either to push through his own demands to the exclusion of proper cabinet discussion, or to bypass such discussion via smaller decision-making groups. For example, the decision to exclude Formula One motor racing from the ban on tobacco advertising was taken after a small meeting with Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's chief organiser, plus a few officials. Making it worse was the fact that the junior minister, Tessa Jowell, and her boss Frank Dobson, also opposed this exclusion. Former permanent secretary Alan Bailey wrote that the episode 'shows the need to involve the relevant ministers in decision making and to get back to proper Cabinet government which has been in decline for the last two decades'.Professor Peter Hennessy, someone much concerned by the drift of the Blair style, reports that an informant from Blair's staff told him even before the 1997 election to expect a change from a 'feudal to a Napoleonic system'. This change was clearly borne out, according to Hennessy, by the updatings of the ministerial 'bible' of dos and don'ts produced by the cabinet office, Questions of Procedure for Minister'.In defence: Centralisation of government power has been in train for many decades and Blair is merely advancing its evolution.And finally, 'Blair is too Presidential': Blair has allegedly reduced the power and role of the cabinet and already won the dubious accolade of 'presidential' in the minds of some commentators. Blair has often expressed his admiration for Thatcher, the most presidential Prime Minister this century. As time goes by, say critics, buttressed by his huge majority, he will get worse as the corruption of power progresses. He has assumed the trappings of power by flying Concorde to Denver, flying-in a hairdresser to the USA for his wife, Cherie, staying in a millionaire's villa in Italy and making champagne his regular tipple.During the election campaign, Labour used 'imperial purple' as a background for Blair's press conferences. By the autumn of his election year. Blair was so lauded in the media especially after his 'speaking for the nation' after Diana's death, that The Economist wryly suggested, 'no publications are banned: yet self censorship achieves a near unanimity which would be the envy of many a totalitarian regime. It is not permitted to criticise the prime minister' (13 September 1997).On 16 March 1998, The Times reported: 'Party managers are now so concerned about Mr Blair's 'presidential' style that they are reviewing the whole structure of relations between the Prime Minister and his MPs.' The story detailed the alleged remoteness of the Prime Minister from key areas like the House of Commons tea-room. It seems the regular meetings with groups of MPs had been abandoned through lack of time and MPs were complaining of an aloof and inaccessible leader. Particular anger was directed at the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, hugely unpopular because of his £650,000 renovation of his apartment; it was felt he enjoyed protected status as Blair's former boss as head of chambers. Kenneth Clarke (channel 4, 19 April 1998) admittedly biased but still a shrewd observer, reckoned Blair loves the 'glitter' and presidential glamour of the job.In defence: In the Radio 4 programme quoted above, Jack Straw argued that British government has a 'weak' centre and is essentially parliamentary, not presidential: 'Ministers may propose but Parliament disposes and the people who actually go to Parliament to make the propositions are not the Prime Minister but the secretaries of state and their ministers and that does inevitably mean that the Prime Minister, however dominant, is still primus inter pares. So it's the minister who faces Parliament and this gives him some authority, some leverage. For all the guff about presidential government, the Prime Minister is running cabinet government. Yes, he appoints the people around the table, he can dismiss them, but he can't keep on dismissing them.'Blair is a strong leader with a clear vision and will naturally advance his views forcibly; his cabinet colleagues would expect nothing else but are no shrinking violets themselves. Admiration of Thatcher does not imply imitation; he is not as vulnerable as she was to hubris and enjoying power for power's sake; he is unlikely, for instance, to use the royal 'we' as she famously did.Labour experiments with a number of colours, like other parties, but still uses the traditional red as its official one. Blair is a wealthy man with a wealthy wife; he should not be criticised for enjoying the benefits of a comfortable life, especially when he works so murderously hard - sixteen to eighteen hours a day. Blair is a genuinely modest man who dislikes the attention he attracts and has a genuine desire to 'make a difference for the better'. It is true the media loved Blair in the aftermath of the election but this was not manipulated - merely the dividend of his success and newness. Besides, as The Economist noted, 'good government is not possible when government can no longer get a fair hearing, when every move is greeted with ridicule and contempt. Government had to recover some authority, which today comes only from a base of popular support. To that extent Mr Blair's success is not to be feared'.Blair meets the parliamentary committee of the party every Wednesday afternoon in a meeting chaired by Clive Soley and grievances are discussed and if possible rectified. Besides, every Prime Minister in modern times has been awfully pressed for time and this is no evidence necessarily of presidential remoteness.Some have said that Gordon Brown is the strongest member of the cabinet and that the party would crumble without him. This does not seem very presidential as Blair is not seen as the sole leader. But nether the less, there are two sides to each story. And it is one's own opinion o whether or not Blair is a presidential Prime Minister. Rebecca Jones