Tony Blair Stepping Down From Downing Street.

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Posted to Politics on Thu May 10, 2007 at 02:38:45 PM EST (promoted by 1fastdog). RSS.

After a full decade as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Tony Blair, head of the UK's Labour Party, has announced that he will resign from office on June 27th.

Blair came into the Prime Ministership after almost two decades of rule by the Tory party, and his early years were full of promise. He was a champion of the notion of Third Way politics for Europe, splitting the difference between the reckless privatization of the Thatcher years and the economic stagnation that was holding back the two strongest social welfare states in Europe (France and Germany) at the time.

On the home front Blair's policies were largely successful - the UK's economy is doing quite well, and statistics suggest that many of his governmental reforms have been largely effective, if not spectacularly so. Nonetheless, Blair leaves office in a bit of a disgrace. This malaise can be laid almost entirely at the feet of Blair's almost unquestioning support of the War in Iraq. In addition to the debacle that the war itself has become, Blair was doubly wounded by his rough treatment of the BBC and his own advisors in light of the "dodgy dossier" and the embarrassment of the Downing Street memo. Blair has become so disliked in some quarters that he is even being blamed for the UK's recent spate of terrorist attacks (despite his government's success in dealing with the UK's previous terrorist threat, the IRA and the Troubles in Northern Ireland).

The question of who will be Blair's successor is still up in the air, but the odds favor the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. Brown has received much of the credit for the UK's good economic prospects, and his apparent rivalry with Blair means that he will at least initially be able to distance himself from some of the taint of the Blair legacy.

Blair's exit from office heralds a complete turnover in the leadership of the "Big Three" of Europe. For the last decade, France, Germany, and the UK were led by Chirac, Schröder, and Blair. Now they will be helmed by Sarkozy, Merkel, and (perhaps) Brown. Will this new generation largely stay the course of cautious Third War reforms inaugurated by their predecessors, or will the infusion of new blood lead to a dramatic change in the face of Europe over the next few years?