Why was Tony Blair so successful?

[ComingUpTrumps]

Random AIBU - I know. And one that might not be to everyone's taste. Sorry about this.

My AIBU is that I'm really curious to find out what it was that made Tony Blair such a successful Prime Minister (by 'successful', I mean the fact that he won three consecutive elections). I'd like to find out what you all think.

When he first became PM, I was five, so had no idea about what politics or government was or anything like that. I started getting interested around 2003, when the Iraq War started - I still remember watching the news when they showed Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled.

I fully understand that TB is a controversial figure, and I'm still making my mind about him, to be honest. I borrowed his autobiography from the library a couple of week ago. The one thing I can say is that I think he's a very good writer, but apart from that, I'm still trying to find out about him.

In a sense, I feel that TB's a bit like Donald Trump, in that he tends to divide opinion and is quite controversial as people seem to love him or hate him.

Also, a bit like with Trump (although I think that TB is smarter than Trump), I still can't quite work out what TB's agenda was and is (Power-hungry? Genuinely believed/believes that he could make a difference to Britain and the world? Wanted to see how far he could get in politics after becoming an MP? A mixture of all three?)

Tbh I was too busy getting pissed and going on holiday to follow politics that closely.

Sums it up perfectly. Bread and circuses.

I think it was his charisma and his obvious intelligence. I was 18 at the time (I note there's quite a few of us from then commenting) and there was such joy and optimism that the Torres were out at last. The day after the election lots of my college lecturers wore red.
Iraq aside, which I appreciate is a big one, I still don't think he was that bad. Except I've just remembered he turned the role of Lord Chancellor from a judiciary position into a political one. Hmm.

judicial dammit.

I was a twenty-something working in the NHS when Labour/Blair got in. The relief & jubilation of my older colleagues was very evident. I have very fond memories of our night out at the pub the evening after election day - it really did feel like anything was possible. And things did get better for a while... but the tide started to turn with Iraq. There was a huge anti-war march in London & the government feigned deafness. When the WMD dirty dossier was exposed & David Kelly died in such questionable circumstances, I think they lost the country & the any semblance of the moral high ground. I had the feeling they'd stopped listening & that bred cynicism.

Unlike Trump or Corbyn he was a consensus builder and not a conviction politician. Blair did a fantastic job in convincing people labour were safe with the economy. The early years of the blair-brown partnership were fantastic, we don't have a politician in his league now and look where we are again.

Interest rates plummeted so you could buy more house for your monthly payment; people chasing houses pushed the price up to the current ridiculous levels.

It was the introduction of buy-to-let mortgages that sent house prices bananas in the late 90s/early 00s, believe me. We had bought a very affordable modest 3 bed house in a cheapish area in 1998 on 2 very modest salaries. It doubled in value in ~5 years and was worth 60% more than the purchase price by the time we sold 2 years later. In the intervening years BTL landlords had started buying up houses all around us. It massively changed the area (for the worse), from a very mixed one with young families, couples, retired folk, renters etc to loads of student house shares/HMOs and what had previously been a reliable FTB area out of the reach of many people. We did well out of it but I am sad for people who came after us, including my kids, who will not have the same opportunities.

Tony Blair led a party that created a blueprint for a social,democracy.
This included -
A national minimum wage
The Good Friday agreement
A massive reduction in pensioner poverty
A rebuilding programme for schools and hospitals that were unfit for purpose.
The fight against child poverty was enshrined in legislation.
FOI and Human Rights Act
Independent Bank of England
Civil partnerships (although he wimped on full 'marriage' this was progress)
Progress in reducing Child Poverty
Huge investment in education
Huge investment in NHS (+25% increase in real terms) - taking it to record high customer satisfaction, shortest ever waiting lists - very different to previous orsubsequent governments whowant to privatise NHS
Longest period of uninterrupted growth in UK history
Lowest unemployment for 50 years
Lowest inflation in decades
Lowest debt in decades (in 2007 debt was 2nd lowest in G8). Funny how people forget that.
Some people would say 'banning fox hunting'.
Positive & constructive relations with EU
Positive intervention in Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

He was re-elected because he was the best Prime Minister this country had seen in a very long time, because he was sincere and an intrinsically good man who believed in social justice.

It was the introduction of buy-to-let mortgages that sent house prices bananas in the late 90s/early 00s

It's all connected. Low interest rates meant that bank deposits didn't earn a decent rate of income any more so people moved into other income-earning assets, namely property.

True, purits.

we don't have a politician in his league now

I agree - and with the lunacy that is Brexit, we really need some.

He heavily targeted the young voters. He sent out short promotional videos to that target group not just flyers.
He was sleazy and smarmy and a very good liar as someone else already said (tuition fees for starters and he got away with it because the other parties openly stated they would be introducing them - my peer group didn't seem to care that he lied)

we don't have a politician in his league now

Tone, is that you?

Only kidding, as I agree we need better politicians - especially with the collective idiocy of Brexit looming.

Brexit would not have happened if Tony Blair had been leader of the Labour party at the time.

It wasn't just TB though - it was New Labour. They amended Labour's adherence to Clause 4 and nationalisation, which made the party electable. history

I was 31 when New Labour were elected. I did not and have never voted Labour, I thought Blair was a charlatan oozing insincerity, and he didn't 'unite the country', as some of the electorate weren't buying what he was peddling. He and Campbell thought the electorate were easily manipulated and as someone said earlier used the bread and circuses doctrine to good effect.

I think he was right on Iraq, (but he didn't have a plan for afterwards), and Saddam did have chemical weapons, he'd used them on Halabja and in Kuwait, but I think they sat on a siding in Syria when the weapons inspectors were in country. I can't forgive TB for Afghanistan though, and not learning lessons from Iraq about what was needed for HM Forces to do their jobs properly.

I think it's telling that HM hasn't made him a Knight of the Garter, neither has she made Brown one, and TB hasn't picked up a knighthood or a title. I think he is toxic. He was then and is now.

Then again i also have respect for Nick Clegg. Me too, Zen. Fully paid-up Lib Dem voter, for several reasons.

I always thought the reason TB did so well was basically Alistair Campbell! Thursday, I agree - you've made a really good point.

I've been thinking about this after reading an interview with Katie Perrior, Theresa May's ex-Director of Communications, and have realised that Alastair Campbell is the only government communications employee to be properly 'famous' (if you can call it that)

I also think that AC's work (and the chief strategist Philip Gould's work) really was a huge factor in helping TB win three elections. Think he invented the New Labour slogan actually. I also think he had a very strong friendship with TB, more so than perhaps any PM since (as AC basically invented the Director of Communications role), and that TB implicitly trusted him to deliver a strong campaign that would win him the election (several times). I think AC was very effective at his job.

And he's done very well out of his work with TB too. I really respect AC in some ways, but also feel (just my personal opinion) like he didn't always stand up for his beliefs or perhaps for what was right (for example, with Iraq).

Lowest debt in decades

Because of Gordon Brown's smoke and mirrors. He took debt off balance sheet - that was the whole point of PFI.

I just hope that my children manage to have a period in their life where their country is so buoyant. It was a great time to live through.

I hope I get to see a time like this too, Muddlingalong. The only time that I've lived through that I could maybe compare it to is early July 2005, starting with Live8 until just after London won the 2012 Olympic bid - just before 7/7.

Or maybe the 2010 election, when the Lib Dems got into power. (I realise this is a controversial view that many posters may not agree with). I'd voted for the Lib Dems as I didn't want to vote Labour in because of what I had learned and how I felt about Iraq, and I really didn't want to vote Conservative. So voting for the Lib Dems and seeing them be successful felt absolutely brilliant. Very exciting. Although, looking back, the Cameron-Clegg rose garden speech in Downing Street feels like a massive Blairesque PR stunt now.

Although I do still respect Nick Clegg and other Lib Dem politicians (Vince Cable, for example). And I think policies such as Pupil Premium and their work on increasing mental health awareness have been particularly effective.

I agree about pupil premium, the problem is lots of people are utterly unaware of it. The lib dems are not good at promoting their achievements. Although finding concrete data on the effectiveness of pp is challenging.
Blair's main skill was winning elections, fairly important I would have thought.

The lib dems are not good at promoting their achievements. I agree birds.

Among my family and friends, everyone is Labour-voting, with a few rogue Tories here and there, and a couple of Green voters. Apart from my Mum voting Lib Dem (in 2005, I think?) in protest at the Iraq War, I don't think my family would ever vote Lib Dem. Some of my family think I'm a Tory-in-denial for voting Lib Dem 🙄

Although finding concrete data on the effectiveness of pp is challenging. I looked into this the other day, and found
a really interesting report.

It acknowledges that simply giving schools a set amount of money to help pupils who need extra support is ineffective. It says that the difference between making Pupil Premium effective or ineffective lies in how PP funds are spent.

It also mentions that providing effective feedback for pupils and implementing meta-cognition strategies (helping pupils to set their own academic goals and monitor their own academic development) can be a really effective application of Pupil Premium funds.

scaryteacher I remember that TB and GB were the only living former prime ministers to not be at Prince William's wedding. At the time I wondered why - were they not invited, were they invited and declined?

He's a liar and VERY smarmy. Can't stand him.

Ohtoblazes I wondered that too about them not being invited to the wedding.

In a weird conspiracy theorist kind of way, I've often wondered whether it's because they were Labour politicians and not Tories. AFAIK, all of the other politicians invited were Tories (apart from Nick Clegg, who was deputy PM at the time of the wedding).

I agree cominguptrumps, I am sure schools would hate me for this but I don't think schools controlling how pp is spent is a good idea. From my understanding the things that work in terms of spending pp wisely are quite unusual - it needs proper research then implementation. And if what works is unpalatable ( free school meals for all) to some so be it. Pupil Premium was a much more socialist idea than many of the ideas coming out of the current Labour party.