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Blair moves into election mode

TheStar.com - Blair moves into election mode

PM clears deck for May election
Labour party fears backlash over Iraq

SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU

LONDON—British Prime Minister Tony Blair has set the stage for a general election by publicly regretting the "I know best" style of leadership he used to drag a reluctant country to war against Iraq.

LONDON—British Prime Minister Tony Blair has set the stage for a general election by publicly regretting the "I know best" style of leadership he used to drag a reluctant country to war against Iraq.

In a strikingly personal speech to Labour party members yesterday, Blair warned against complacency in the face of polls indicating a third consecutive election victory.

He made clear the opposition Conservative party, led by Michael Howard, could win by default if Labour supporters stay home or switch to Charles Kennedy's Liberal Democrats — the only major party that opposed the Iraq war.

Blair placed much of the blame for that possibility on himself, publicly regretting for the first time the leadership style he used to take Britain to war in March 2003.

"I understand why some people feel angry, not just over Iraq but many of the difficult decisions we've made. And as ever, a lot of it is about me," he told delegates at a conference in Gateshead, northern England.

Blair, 51, compared his relationship with voters to the strains that follow the initial wave of euphoria in a marriage.

"And then all of a sudden there you are, the British people, thinking, `You're not listening,' and I think, `You're not hearing me,'" Blair said.

"And before you know it, you raise your voice, I raise mine — some of you throw a bit of crockery — and now you, the British people, have to sit down and decide whether you want this relationship to continue," he added.

Blair, who often described his decision to go to war as doing what he believed was best, said his almost eight years as prime minister have taught him that "if you're not careful, doing the right thing becomes, `I know best.'"

Describing himself as "a little wiser," he said he has learned "the best policy comes not from courting popularity or from mere conviction" but from "a blend of listening and leading."

He reminded delegates that after the Iraq war, he launched a countrywide process to consult voters, adding that his journey in politics "has gone from `all things to all people,' to `I know best,' to `we can only do it together.'"

But Blair, whose government has a 165-seat majority, stopped short of suggesting he was wrong to go to war. "I learned that on some issues, sometimes, you just have to agree to disagree, like Iraq," he said.

Now that Iraqis have voted in their first post-war election, Blair said he hopes British voters agree that British soldiers should stay in the country as long as Iraqis want them to help build democracy.

Blair has already given a grudging apology for joining the U.S.-led war based on intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong.

The apology came after polls indicated his political credibility had fallen sharply, and Labour activists needed for the election campaign were turning away from the party.

Labour election officials fear too many of their supporters may simply stay home on voting day — widely expected to be May 5.

Their internal polls reportedly indicate they need at least a 60 per cent turnout to secure a third majority victory.

Traditional Labour party members also accuse Blair of turning the party away from its socialist roots and pushing it too far to the right.

Since Blair's "New Labour" came to power in 1997, party membership has fallen from 400,000 to half that number today.

"Where we've lost support, we go out and try to win it back," Blair told delegates.

"Where we've lost old friends, we try to persuade them to come back to the fold. Where we've made mistakes, we say so. Where we've done well, we shout it out."

Blair is counting on a revved-up economy to keep voters focused on his domestic agenda and sweep him back to power. He has also made policies on education, crime, immigration, child care and health central pillars of Labour's campaign.

Said Conservative party chairman Liam Fox: "Most people think Britain is heading in the wrong direction. They feel let down and forgotten by Tony Blair."

February 14, 2005 at 10:37 PM in UK | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home