‘When the kissing had to stop’: British politics after Blair

Résumé En

Tony Blair’s attitude to the task of winning power owed much to the approach of his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher. By building on the policies of her government and through heavy reliance on his own personal style of campaigning he succeeded in persuading the British electorate that New Labour would make a decisive break with the past. In practice, despite a number of significant achievements, Labour in power did not take advantage of the opportunity provided by three full terms of government. Such achievements as were secured were largely those of Gordon Brown as Chancellor. His apparent success in delivering stable economic growth and his takeover of key areas of social policy meant that he was largely responsible for New Labour’s domestic record in power. Blair’s personal reputation did not fully recover from the Iraq episode and when Brown finally secured the Prime Ministership his own reputation for prudent financial management was seriously damaged by the banking crisis of 2008. His attempts to set a distinctive approach were handicapped by his poor image among the British electorate and the appearance of a convincing leader of the Conservative opposition, David Cameron, whose own approach was modelled in many responses on that of the earlier Blair. The paper concludes with brief discussion of the third party, the Liberal Democrats and some speculation about the likely outcome of the general election to be held in 2010.