Should Blair Go: Yes

By Ray Fleming l THE most indicative of yesterday's media reactions to Tony Blair's speech to the Labour party conference came from The Sun newspaper whose influential political editor Trevor Kavanagh compared Mr Blair to David Brent, the anti-hero of the TV series The Office who refuses to believe that he has lost his job. Kavanagh accused Mr Blair of repeating promises already made about getting more police on the beat and cleaning up hospitals while failing to say a word about pensions. Some other commentators thought that what Mr Blair omitted or gave short change in his speech was just as significant as what he dwelt on. Rightly, he was criticised for the one-phrase, off-hand reference to the late Robin Cook which added indifference to the earlier insult of failing to attend his funeral. Other topics averted or glossed-over were the justification for identity cards, the reconsideration of the role of nuclear power in electricity generation and, of course, Iraq. And although Britain currently holds the EU presidency Europe was conspicuous by its absence except for cheap shots at France's “malaise” and Germany's “angst”. Essentially, the interest of Mr Blair's speech lay in what it told us about how much longer Gordon Brown will have to wait before he moves next door. Naturally there was nothing specific but the clear implication of the speech was that Mr Blair thinks his job is far from done and will therefore hold on to office for as long as he can; however some people will think that if the prime minister has not delivered in the past seven years he is unlikely to achieve all that much in the next three or four. His characterisation of Labour's role as the “changemakers”, the party which will keep Britain in the forefront of the global developments that are leaving France and Germany trailing, was ambitious and appealing but as with some of Mr Blair's past rhetorical flourishes it may prove to be less easy to bring off than to talk about. Trevor Kavanagh's judgement in The Sun that the speech was “a journey of despair” reflects the view that Mr Blair knows he has achieved less than he should have done and is desperate to make one last push to burnish his legacy.