Phony Tony and Cronies

IT all began so well. Just three years ago, Tony Blair won a landslide election. Here was a prime minister with a matey grin and a majority so large that he could do with Britain whatever he liked. Socialism, Blair promised, had evolved into New Labour, quite a different thing, a Third Way, neither socialist nor capitalist, but a “project” in its own right. “Trust me,” Blair likes to repeat. Politics in this view is national group therapy. The key word is “inclusive” and the purpose of it all is modernization. The next century would belong to the Left. If Blair had his way, the Conservatives would never again be in office. And this seemed possible. The outgoing prime minister, John Major, had spun in tiny circles on the great issue of Britain’s future relationship with Europe, and wrung his hands about everything else. The Conservatives were in pitiful shape. Their new leader, William Hague, had to find his feet, and impose an authority of his own on his shattered party. Blair had no opposition to fear.

Blair is often accused of being a control freak. Not so. What he has done is to set in motion processes which are bound to escape control in unpredictable directions. He is what the French call a touche a tout, someone under compulsion to meddle with everything for the sake of meddling. Previous experience, or tried and tested tradition, do not count. As in a garage sale, everything must go.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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IT all began so well. Just three years ago, Tony Blair won a landslide election. Here was a prime minister with a matey grin and a majority so large that he could do with Britain whatever he liked. Socialism, Blair promised, had evolved into New Labour, quite a different thing, a Third Way, neither socialist nor capitalist, but a “project” in its own right. “Trust me,” Blair likes to repeat. Politics in this view is national group therapy. The key word is “inclusive” and the purpose of it all is modernization. The next century would belong to the Left. If Blair had his way, the Conservatives would never again be in office. And this seemed possible. The outgoing prime minister, John Major, had spun in tiny circles on the great issue of Britain’s future relationship with Europe, and wrung his hands about everything else. The Conservatives were in pitiful shape. Their new leader, William Hague, had to find his feet, and impose an authority of his own on his shattered party. Blair had no opposition to fear.

Blair is often accused of being a control freak. Not so. What he has done is to set in motion processes which are bound to escape control in unpredictable directions. He is what the French call a touche a tout, someone under compulsion to meddle with everything for the sake of meddling. Previous experience, or tried and tested tradition, do not count. As in a garage sale, everything must go.