Tony Blair’s resignation
May 10, 2007| By Nathaniel Ward
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today that he will step down as head of government on June 27. His replacement will almost certainly be Gordon Brown, his Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“Tony Blair will be remembered as a staunch ally of the United States who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the American people in the dark days following the 2001 attacks,” Heritage’s Nile Gardiner writes. Nevertheless, he will not be remembered as a transformative leader like Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher.
“Tony Blair’s main strength as Prime Minister has been his eloquent and passionate leadership in confronting global terrorism,” explains Gardiner, director of Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Yet at the same time, Blair failed to strengthen the military to meet his nation’s overseas challenges and did little to stem the rise of anti-American sentiment in Britain, policies which could threaten the Special Relationship.
In many ways, the Labour Prime Minister left Britain in a precarious position. The United Kingdom, Gardiner explains, is today “far weaker militarily, seriously overstretched by its overseas commitments, and highly vulnerable at home to Islamic terrorism.” He also noted that the Labour government’s policies raised taxes, expanded regulations of the economy and individuals and otherwise expanded government.
What’s more, Gardiner adds, Blair ceded much of Britain’s sovereignty to European Union bureaucrats, who now issue half of all British laws. “His key foreign policy failing as a British leader was his misguided belief that Britain can be both America’s closest ally and part of a politically and economically integrated Europe.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
