Blair sets his departure date
(From The Japan Times May 15 issue)

ブレア英首相が退任へ

    Mr. Blair is one of the world's diplomatic senior statesmen, even though he is just 54 years old. He has been prime minister for over a decade and has outlasted virtually all other heads of state. Well trained by the rough and tumble of the British political system, he is a thoughtful and eloquent spokesperson, although critics — on the right and the left — charge that eloquence as mere glibness that masks a readiness to put political expedience above conviction. Such criticism is inevitable when a politician tries to modernize his or her party, an effort that invariably alienates the old guard within the party as well as rivals across the aisle.

    And Mr. Blair was nothing if not successful. While it is common today to speak of fatigue or a Labour Party in decline, it would be irresponsible to forget that Labour was viewed as irrelevant 15 years ago; some dared to suggest that it would be eclipsed as the major opposition party in Britain by the Liberal Democrats. In the early 1990s, the Conservatives dominated British politics, enjoying the legacy of "the Iron Lady," Ms. Margaret Thatcher, a divisive and domineering prime minister who was the longest-serving British office holder of the 20th century.

    Labour had been marginalized and the British left watched with envy as U.S. President Bill Clinton overhauled his Democratic Party and triangulated his way to office.

    Comparisons with Mr. Clinton were inevitable and the two men became fast friends. Together they restored an energy and enthusiasm among liberals around the world, rehabilitating a concept that once seemed spent in Britain and the United States. They demanded that their parties discard old dogma and put results ahead of tired rhetoric — even though both men, Mr. Blair in particular, were spellbinding speakers.

    The results speak for themselves. Mr. Blair has helped turn Britain into one of the most dynamic economies in Europe. London is again regarded as one of the great cities of the world, a center of international finance and a cultural mecca. His policies helped cut unemployment and crime, and he attacked old institutions, such as the pension system, the creaky health-care system and even the House of Lords. He pushed for the devolution of power within Great Britain, and was a tireless campaigner for peace in Northern Ireland. The British people awarded those efforts with three landslide election victories, the third of which confounded the experts.

    Yet in local elections last month, Labour was overtaken by the Conservative Party, which won about 40 percent of the vote, generally considered to be the threshold to claim a national mandate. Mr. Blair and others argued that the results were the typical midterm slump and that Labour was even heartened that the outcome was not worse. More telling, in local elections in 2004, the party fell to a record low 26 percent before rebounding to win the parliamentary election a year later.

    Today, the millstone around the prime minister's neck is Iraq. Mr. Blair has been bitterly attacked for backing the U.S. campaign to overthrow former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the invasion of that country. A man once admired for cultivating strong personal connections — and influence — with U.S. presidents from both political parties is now derided as Mr. Bush's lap dog.

    Yet, in his announcement speech, Mr. Blair maintained that "it was right to stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally. . . . Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. . . . I may have been wrong. That's your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else: I did what I thought was right for our country."

    Mr. Blair now thinks it is right to step down now. He could serve until 2010, but he has the interests of his party at heart. Following his announcement, he formally backed Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown as his successor, a longtime friend and sometimes rival for leadership within the Labour Party. Mr. Brown has his work cut out for him. He is widely considered to be a smart, if not brilliant, politician, but he lacks Mr. Blair's charisma. Most important, Mr. Brown inherits his legacy — both positive and negative — which he will need to embellish with his own particular details if Labour is to win a fourth parliamentary ballot.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 19, 2007
(C) All rights reserved

    ブレア氏はまだ54歳だが、優れた外交手段を発揮してきた。反ブレア派は、氏は雄弁家だが、信念よりも政治的ご都合主義を優先させたと批判している。しかし、政党改革をしようとすれば、党内の保守派、野党から批判は避けられない。

    1990年代初期には、サッチャー首相の遺産を継承した保守党政権が英国政治を支配、野党労働党は傍流に押しやられたが、ブレア氏はクリントン米大統領と親交を結び、両者は古い政党政治からの脱却を訴えた。

    ブレア氏は首相として、英経済の回復をもたらし、失業、犯罪を減らし、年金、医療制度を改革し、北アイルランド和平に貢献した。

    労働党は、総選挙で3回連続圧勝したが、先月の地方選では、保守党に敗退した。しかし、ブレア陣営は、敗退は中間選挙時の中だるみで心配無用と論じた。

    ブレア氏の遺産で、イラク政策が問題になる。氏は、フセイン政権転覆を狙った米政策と米軍のイラク進攻を支持したことで批判されており、一部で「ブッシュ大統領の犬」と蔑まれている。

    ブレア氏は、退任表明演説で「自分が国のために正しいと信じることをした」と胸を張った。

    任期切れ予定は2010年だったが、党の利益を考え、退任を決意、後任として長年の盟友で、最近はライバルに転じたブラウン財務相を指名した。ブレア氏のようなカリスマ性がないブラウン氏は、労働党を次回の総選挙で勝利に導くため、現政権の遺産の上にさらに成果を積み上げある必要がある。