Labour spins new record
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration has become the longest serving Labour government ever.
But few seem interested in celebrating the fact that Mr Blair has surpassed Clement Attlee’s 1945-51 record for the longest uninterrupted term as a Labour premier, six years and 92 days.
For the controversy over Iraq’s conspicuous absence of weapons of mass destruction and the suicide of Iraqi weapons expert Dr David Kelly has plunged the Blair administration close to self-implosion.
To make matters worse, Lord Hutton’s judicial inquiry said Friday it would call on Mr Blair to testify on Downing Street’s involvement in the Kelly affair.
Earlier this week at his monthly Downing Street press conference, and in an apparent bid to move the spotlight away from the Kelly suicide scandal, Mr Blair noted New Labour’s achievements since it took office in 1997.
The New Labour ascendancy ended 18 years of Conservative Party rule. Labour’s landslide re-election gave it 409 seats out of the 659 in Parliament.
Speaking before journalists more interested in the Kelly affair, Mr Blair took the chance to highlight Labour’s record on economic management, unemployment and investment in public services.
Third-way thinking Labour won two general elections and now aimed for a historical third term in government.
“The overall record is one that bears comparison with any government, Labour or Conservative, in the past,” he said at the press conference.
“It is the combination of economic efficiency and social justice that marks this Government out from its predecessors and is the platform on which we must build.”
Labour will go down in the history books for making fundamental changes to Britain’s constitution.
Devolution in Wales and Scotland and with the adoption of the EU law, important changes to how the British legal system understands and interpretation human rights. Add to this hereditary members are on their way out of the House of Lords and one can credit New Labour with shaking up the establishment.
Mr Blair, who has led the party since 1994 following the untimely death of John Smith, said his appetite for the job was “undiminished.” But will the voters think so come election time?
