In Defence of Tony Blair
It is not often that I disagree with Barbara Castle. She is a great champion of the Left. She is right on pensions, and in her time she was right about the trade unions. Nor am I dewey-eyed about Tony Blair, either. But her deeply personal attack on the Prime Minister, on Radio 4 Westminster Hour this week, reported in
The Guardian
was misjudged and insubstantial.
“Too busy looking at the world panorama”, she said, “and doesn’t give a damn
about transport in Britain”. Wrong. It is true, of course, transportation
problems are serious, in the UK; and it is true that the Government has not
yet grasped the nettle of cutting back the rail system. The policy
decisions now needed are of
awesome significance.
But foreign policy perceptions also need stretching, to include both the European
dimension and the wider world order, and there are few politicians willing to generate
new ideas of this order of magnitude. Blair’s courage, even if fuelled by personal ambition, is welcome. The Americans have a global vision, and a destructive one: the US search for “all-spectrum dominance” is a disruptive concept, and must be countered. Blair should stick to his guns.
“Under this Government, the deliberate destruction of Cabinet government is taking place”,
she argued. Wrong. There is a lot wrong with the systemic over-centralisation of
power in Whitehall, and that has its own management implications.
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But modern government is about the effective coordination of executive action, and
its public presentation. The old clubby Cabinet policy discussions are long gone,
if they ever existed, post WW2. Harold Wilson was decidedly presidential, and it
is difficult to imagine Harold Macmillan enjoying critical debate, even in private.
The processes of Government have long changed, probably for the better. What matters
is not so much the process, but whether Ministers are right or wrong, in the moves
they make. Lady Castle has, injudiciously, chosen the wrong target.
Tony Blair is also accused of narcissism, self-love. Everyone will recognise the signs.
“He has vision – but it is a very self-centred vision”. She accused him of wanting
“the biggest stage possible. He will take advantage of any opportunity in Europe, or
even in the United States”. That's a cheap gibe. Without the strongest possible
self-confidence, even egoism, even arrogance, no Prime Minister would survive the
continuous personal exposure of modern government. Each must build his own defences,
develop a way of surviving the aggression, the constant probing, the corrosive assault
on motive, Blair has found a way. True, the self-confidence of leaders may spill over
into megalomania, into the destructive expansion of the ego. But Tony Blair still
has his feet on the ground, even if wrong on several important issues. He should be
given the benefit of the doubt. Barbara has got it wrong.
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Diary Note 251201-01