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| Former Prime Minister Tony Blair |
Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953)[1] is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007.
Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrase "New Labour" to distance it from previous Labour policies. Blair declared opposition to the traditional conception of socialism, and declared support for a new conception of socialism that he referred to as "social-ism" that involved politics that recognized individuals as socially interdependent, and advocated social justice, cohesion, equal worth of each citizen, and equal opportunity.[2] Critics of Blair denounced him for having the Labour Party abandon genuine socialism and accepting capitalism.[3] Blair in 2009 publicly declared support for a "new capitalism".[4] Blair led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, introducing the minimum wage, Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act, and carrying out devolution, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Blair's role as Prime Minister was particularly visible in foreign and security policy, including in Northern Ireland, where he was involved in the 1998Good Friday Agreement. From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of US President George W. Bush, notably by participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories, and the only Labour Prime Minister to serve consecutive terms more than one of which was at least four years long.
He was succeeded as Leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 and as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 by Gordon Brown.[5] On the day he resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East. In May 2008, Blair launched his Tony Blair Faith Foundation.[6] This was followed in July 2009 by the launching of the Faith and Globalisation Initiative with Yale University in the US, Durham University in the UK and the National University of Singapore in Asia to deliver a postgraduate programme in partnership with the Foundation.[7][8]
Background and family life
Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland[9] on 6 May 1953,[1] the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden). Leo Blair, the illegitimate[10] son of two English actors, had been adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife, Mary. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who moved to Glasgow in 1916 but returned to (and later died in) Ballyshannon in 1923, where his wife, Sarah Margaret (née Lipsett), gave birth to Blair's mother, Hazel, above her family's grocery shop.[11][12]
Life as a child
Blair has one elder brother, Sir William Blair, a High Court judge, and a younger sister, Sarah. Blair spent the first 19 months of his life at the family home in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst also studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.[9] In the 1950s, his family spent three and a half years in Adelaide, Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide.[13] The Blairs lived close to the university, in the suburb of Dulwich. The family returned to the UK in the late 1950s, living for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather, William McClay, and her mother at their home in Stepps, near Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Durham, England, where his father lectured at D
Religious faith
In an interview with Michael Parkinson broadcast on ITV1 on 4 March 2006, Blair referred to the role of his Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq, stating that he had prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision: "I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people ... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."[29]
A longer exploration of his faith can be found in an interview with Third Way Magazine. There he says that "I was brought up as [a Christian], but I was not in any real sense a practising one until I went to Oxford. There was an Australian priest at the same college as me who got me interested again. In a sense, it was a rediscovery of religion as something living, that was about the world around me rather than some sort of special one-to-one relationship with a remote Being on high. Suddenly I began to see its social relevance. I began to make sense of the world".[30]
At one point Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in an interview, preventing the Prime Minister from answering a question about his Christianity, explaining, "We don't do God".[31]
Cherie Blair's friend and "spiritual guru" Carole Caplin is credited with introducing her and her husband to various New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields".[32] The most controversial of the Blairs' New Age practices occurred when on holiday in Mexico. The couple, wearing only bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure, which involved smearing mud and fruit over each other's bodies while sitting in a steam bath.[33]
Later on, Blair questioned the Pope's attitude towards homosexuality, arguing that religious leaders must start "rethinking" the issue.[34] He was later rebuked by Vincent Nichols, the new archbishop of Westminster, who said that Catholic thinking was 'rather different' from the kind promoted by the former prime minister.[35]
On 22 December 2007, it was disclosed that Blair, who in 1996, had been reprimanded by Cardinal Basil Hume for receiving Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Catholic, in contravention of canon law,[36] had converted to the Catholic faith, and that it was "a private matter".[37][38] He had informed Pope Benedict XVI on 23 June 2007 that he wanted to become a Catholic. The Pope and his advisors criticised some of Blair's political actions, but followed up with a reportedly unprecedented red-carpet welcome, which included Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who would be responsible for Blair's Catholic instruction.[39] In 2010, “The Tablet” named him as one of Britain’s most influential Roman Catholics.[40]
On 14 January 2009, in an entry made in the guest book during a visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., Blair described his home as being 'Jerusalem'.[41] This was followed shortly after, on the occasion of his addressing of the National Prayer Breakfast, by his discussion of the issue of religion in the world and the Middle East peace process in his address and how he spends so much of his time in the Holy Land and in the Holy City. He reported his Palestinian guide as bemoaning the fate of his nation looking to heaven and saying “Moses, Jesus, Mohammed: why did they all have to come here?" For Blair the Holy City is "a good place to reflect on religion: a source of so much inspiration; an excuse for so much evil."[42]
According to Alastair Campbell's diary, Blair often read the Bible before taking any important decisions. He states that Blair had a "wobble" and considered changing his mind on the eve of thebombing of Iraq in 1998.[43]
Early political career
Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. During the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" of the party. In 1982 Blair was selected as the Labour candidate in the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield, where there was a forthcoming by-election. Although Blair lost theBeaconsfield by-election (the only election he lost in his 25-year political career) and he lost 10% of the vote, he acquired a profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair made it clear in a letter he wrote to Labour leader Michael Foot in July 1982, that he had "come to Socialism through Marxism" and considered himself on the left. The letter was eventually published in June 2006.[44]
In 1983, Blair found the newly created constituency of Sedgefield, a notionally safe Labour seat near where he had grown up in Durham. The branch had not made a nomination, and Blair visited them. Several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in securing selection to fight the seat. With the crucial support of John Burton, Blair won their endorsement; at the last minute, he was added to the short list and won the selection over Les Huckfield. Burton later became Blair's agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies.
Blair's election literature in the 1983 UK general election endorsed left-wing policies that Labour advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the EEC, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also supported unilateral nuclear disarmament as a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap opera actress Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend. Blair was elected as MP for Sedgefield despite the party's landslide defeat in the general election.
In his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983, Blair stated, "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality."[45][46] The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a democratic socialist party[47] rather than a social democratic party; Blair himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a socialist party when he dealt with the change to the party's Clause IV in their constitution.
Once elected, Blair's political ascent was rapid. He received his first front-bench appointment in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. In May 1985, he appeared on BBC's Question Time, arguing that the Conservative Government's Public Order White Paper was a threat to civil liberties.[48] Blair demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsedJohnson Matthey Bank in October 1985 and embarrassed the government by finding an EEC report critical of British economic policy that had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government.[citation needed] By this time, Blair was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party (headed by leader Neil Kinnock) and was promoted after the 1987 election to the shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of London. In 1987, he stood for election to the Shadow Cabinet, receiving 71 votes.[49]
Blair became Shadow Home Secretary under John Smith. John Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a heart attack. Blair beat John Prescott and Margaret Beckett in the subsequent leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition. As is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a Privy Councillor.
Leader of the Labour Party
Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference that he intended to replace Clause IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment to "the common ownership of the means of production and exchange", which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale nationalisation.[50] At a special conference in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement that the party is 'democratic socialist'.[50]
He inherited the Labour leadership at a time when the party was ascendant over the Tories in the opinion polls since the Tory government's reputation for monetary excellence was left in tatters by the Black Wednesday economic disaster of September 1992. Blair's election as leader saw Labour support surge higher still[51] in spite of the continuing economic recovery and fall in unemployment that the Conservative government (led by John Major) had overseen since the end of the 1990–92 recession.[51]
At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education, and education".[52]
Aided by the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided over the European Union), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, ending 18 years of Conservative Party government, with the heaviest Conservative defeat since 1832.[53]
During Smith's leadership of the Labour Party, there were discussions with Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, about forming a coalition government if the next general election resulted in a hung parliament. After Blair became leader, these talks continued – despite virtually every opinion poll since late 1992 having shown Labour with enough support to form a majority. However, the scale of the Labour victory meant that there was ultimately never any need for a coalition.[54]urham University.[citation needed]
Military intervention and the War on Terror
In his first six years in office Blair ordered British troops into battle five times, more than any other prime minister in British history. This included Iraq in both 1998 and 2003; Kosovo (1999); Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2001).[59]
The Kosovo War, which Blair had advocated on moral grounds, was initially a failure when it relied solely on air strikes; the threat of a ground offensive would convince Serbia's Slobodan Milošević to withdraw. Blair had been a major advocate for a ground offensive, which Bill Clinton was reluctant to do, and would order that 50,000 soldiers – most of the available British Army – should be made ready for action.[60] The following year, the limited Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone would swiftly swing the tide against the rebel forces; before deployment, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone had been on the verge of collapse.[61] Palliser had been intended as an evacuation mission but Brigadier David Richards (now General Sir) was able to convince Blair to allow him to expand the role; at the time, Richards' action was not known and Blair was assumed to be behind it.[62] Blair also ordered Operation Barras, a highly successful SAS/Parachute Regiment strike to rescue hostages from a Sierra Leone rebel group.[63] Historian Andrew Marr has argued that the success of ground attacks, real and threatened, over air strikes alone would be influential on how Blair planned the Iraq War, and that the success of the first three wars Blair fought "played to his sense of himself as a moral war leader".[64] When asked in 2010 if the success of Palliser may have "embolden[ed] British politicians" to think of military action as a policy option, General Sir David Richards would admit there "might be something in that".[62]
From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of George W. Bush, participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public opposition and 139 of Blair's MPs opposed it.[65] As a result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances in which it was decided upon. Alastair Campbell described Blair's statement that the intelligence on WMDs was "beyond doubt" as his "assessment of the assessment that was given to him."[66]In 2009, Blair stated that he would have supported removing Saddam Hussein from power even in the face of proof that he had no such weapons.[67] Playwright Harold Pinter and former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad accused Blair of war crimes.[68][69] Testifying before the Iraq Inquiry on 29 January 2010, Blair said Saddam was a "monster and I believe he threatened not just the region but the world."[70] Blair said that British and American attitude towards Saddam Hussein had "changed dramatically" after 11 September attacks. Blair denied that he would have supported the invasion of Iraq even if he had thought Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. He said he believed the world was safer as a result of the invasion.[71] He also said that there was "no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations."[72]
Relationship with Parliament
One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the then twice-weekly 15-minute sessions of Prime Minister's Questions held on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a single 30-minute session on Wednesdays. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists[73][74] and – from 2002 – broke precedent by agreeing to give evidence twice yearly before the most senior Commons select committee, The Liaison Committee.[75] Blair was sometimes perceived as paying insufficient attention both to the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to those of the House of Commons.[76] His style was sometimes criticised as not that of a prime minister and head of government, which he was, but of a president and head of state—which he was not.[77] Blair was accused of excessive reliance on spin.[78] He is the first British Prime Minister to have been formally questioned by police, though not under caution, while still in office.[79]
Events prior to resignation
As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament,[80][81] and his popularity dropped dramatically.[82][83] The Labour party's overall majority in the 2005 general election was reduced to 66. As a combined result of the Blair-Brown pact, Iraq war and low approval ratings, pressure built up within the Labour party for Blair to resign.[84][85] On 7 September 2006, Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference held 10–13 September 2007,[86] having promised to serve a full term during the previous general election campaign. On 10 May 2007, during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club, Blair announced his intention to resign as both Labour Party leader and Prime Minister. At a special party conference in Manchester on 24 June 2007, he formally handed over the leadership of the Labour Party to Gordon Brown, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer.[5] Blair tendered his resignation on 27 June 2007 and Brown assumed office the same afternoon. Blair also resigned his seat in the House of Commons in the traditional form of accepting the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, to which he was appointed by Gordon Brown in one of the latter's last acts as Chancellor of the Exchequer.[87] The resulting Sedgefield by-election was won by Labour's candidate, Phil Wilson. Blair decided not to issue a list of Resignation Honours, making him the first Prime Minister of the modern era not to do so.[88]
Policies
In 2001, Blair said, "We are a left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not as opposites".[89] Blair has rarely applied such labels to himself, but he promised before the 1997 election that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and according to one lifelong Labour Party member, has always described himself as a social democrat.[90] However, Labour Party backbenchers and other left wing critics typically place Blair to the right of centre.[91] A YouGov opinion poll in 2005 also found that a small majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters, place Blair on the right of the political spectrum.[92][93] The Financial Times on the other hand has argued that Blair is not conservative, but instead a populist.[94] The new Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution defines the party as "Democratic Socialist".
Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values.[95] Some left wing critics have argued that Blair has overseen the final stage of a long term shift of the Labour Party to the right, and that very little now remains of a Labour Left.[96][97] There is also evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre has forced his Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left, in order to challenge his hegemony there.[98][99]
During his time as prime minister, Blair raised taxes (but did not increase income tax for high-earners[citation needed]); introduced a minimum wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's anti-trade union legislation[citation needed]); introduced significant constitutional reforms; promoted new rights for gay people in the Civil Partnership Act 2004; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with the EU. He introduced substantial market-based reforms in the education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce certain categories of welfare payments, and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation.[citation needed] Under Blair's government the amount of new legislation increased[100] which attracted criticism.[101] Blair increased police powers by adding to the number of arrestable offences, compulsory DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders.[102]
Under the Blair Administration, expenditure on social services was increased, while various anti-poverty measures were introduced. From 2001 to 2005, public spending increased by an average of 4.8% in real terms, while spending on transport went up by 8.5% per annum, health by 8.2% per annum, and education by 5.4% per annum. Between 1997 and 2005, child poverty was more than halved in absolute terms as a result of measures such as the extension of maternity pay, increases in child benefit, and by the growth in the numbers of people in employment. During that same period, the number of pensioners living in poverty fell by over 75% in absolute terms as a result of initiatives such as the introduction of Winter Fuel Payments, the reduction of VAT on fuel, and the introduction of a Minimum Income Guarantee. To reduce poverty traps for those making the transition from welfare to work, a minimum wage was established, together with a Working Tax Credit and a Child Tax Credit. Policies were also introduced to ensure improved childcare provision (as characterised by the Surestart programme) and widen the provision of flexible working hours to cater for mothers returning to employment,[103] while widows' benefit extends to widowers.[104] By 2004, it was estimated that over 1.7 million poorly paid workers had benefited from the introduction of the minimum wage. Together with various tax credit schemes to supplement low earnings, the Blair Government’s policies significantly increased the earnings of the lowest income decile.[105]
During its first year in office, the Blair Government made the controversial decision of cutting lone-parent benefit, which led to abstentions amongst many Labour MPs and brought tears to some MPs who had reluctantly voted for this measure. In March 1998, however, Brown responded in his Budget statement by increasing Child Benefit was increased by £2.50 a week above the rate of inflation, the largest ever increase in the benefit. Public expenditure on education, health, and social security rose more rapidly under the Blair government than it did under previous labour governments, the latter due to initiatives such as the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit and increases in pensions and child benefits. During the Blair Government’s time in office, incomes for the bottom 10% of earners increased as a result of transfers through the social security system. New rights for workers were introduced such as extended parental rights, a significant raising of the maximum compensation figure for unfair dismissal, a restoration of the qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal to 12 months, and the right to be accompanied by a trade union official during a disciplinary or grievance hearing, whether or not a trade union is recognised. In addition, an Employee Relation Act was passed which introduced for the first time the legal right of employees to trade union representation. In 2003, the Working Families Tax Credit was split into two benefits: a Working Tax Credit which was payable to all those in work, and a Child Tax Credit which was payable to all families with children, whether in work or not.[105]
Comparing the tax and benefit regimes in 1997 and 2004, whether adjusted for earnings or prices, the poorest were considerably better off and the richest worse off. According to one study, the clear winners of the Labour Government’s policies had been the working poor (especially those with dependent children) as a result of significant increases in Child Benefit, together with the introduction of tax credits and the national minimum wage, policies which resulted in faster growth in earnings at the bottom end of the income distribution scale. These policies also contributed to a decline in poverty, with 16% of the population living in low-income households in 2004-05, compared with 21% in the early Nineties. During Blair’s time in office, over 2 million people had been lifted out of poverty.[105] In 2002 the Blair government introduced Foundation trusts - new bodies - a halfway house between the public and private sectors for hospitals and primary care trusts.[106]
Environmental record
Blair has criticised other governments for not doing enough to solve global climate change. In a 1997 visit to the United States, he made a comment on "great industrialised nations" that fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Again in 2003, Blair went before the United States Congress and said that climate change "cannot be ignored", insisting "we need to go beyond evenKyoto."[107] His record at home tends to say something different. Blair and his party have promised a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide[108] but during his term the emissions rose. The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of the energy would come from renewable resources but in fact only 3% currently does.[109]
In 2000 Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and urged environmentalists and businesses to work together.[110]
Memoirs
Main article: A Journey
In March 2010, it was reported that Blair's memoirs, titled The Journey, would be published in September 2010.[186] In July 2010 it was announced the memoirs would be retitled A Journey.[187]The memoirs were seen by many as controversial and a further attempt to profit from his office and from acts related to overseas wars that were widely seen as wrongful,[188][189][190][191] leading to anger and suspicion prior to launch.[189]
On 16 August 2010 it was announced that Blair would give the £4.6 million advance and all royalties from his memoirs to a sports centre for badly injured soldiers[192] - the charity's largest ever single donation.[188][193] Media analysis of the sudden announcement was wide-ranging, describing it as an act of "desperation" [193] to obtain a better launch reception of a humiliating "publishing flop" [193] that had "languished" [193] in the ratings,[188] "blood money" for the lives lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,[188][191] an act with a "hidden motive" [188] or an expression of "guilt",[188][189] a "gamble" of short-term loss against long-term gain,[193] a brilliant [189][193] "genius move" [189] to address the problem that "Tony Blair ha[d] one of the most toxic brands around" from a PR perspective,[189] and a "cynical stunt" to "wipe the slate",[193] but also as an attempt to make amends,[193] a "bold act of generosity" [188] and a "good deed that shocked the nation".[193] Friends had said that the act was partly motivated by the wish to "repair his reputation".[188]
The book was published on 1 September and within hours of its launch had become the fastest-selling autobiography of all time.[194] On 3 September Blair gave his first live interview since publication on The Late Late Show in Ireland, with protesters lying in wait there for him.[195][196] On 4 September Blair was confronted by 200 anti-war and hardline Irish nationalist demonstrators before the first book signing of his memoirs at Eason's bookstore on O'Connell Street in Dublin, with angry activists chanting "war criminal" and that he had "blood on his hands", and clashing with Irish Police (Garda Síochána) as they tried to break through a security cordon outside the Eason's store. Blair was pelted with eggs and shoes, and encountered an attempted citizen's arrest forwar crimes.[197]
Accusations of war crimes
Since the Iraq War, Blair has been the subject of accusations of war crimes. Critics of his actions, including Desmond Tutu,[198] Harold Pinter[199] and Arundhati Roy[200] have called for his trial at the International Criminal Court.
In 2007, the scenario of a possible war crimes trial for the former British Prime Minister was satirized by the British broadcaster Channel 4, in a "mockumentary", The Trial of Tony Blair, with concluded with the fictional Blair being dispatched to the Hague.[201]
On November 2011, a mock war-crimes tribunal put together by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission reached a unanimous conclusion that Tony Blair and George W. Bush are guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the 2003 Iraq War. The mock trial, which lasted 4 days, consisting of 5 judges of judicial and academic backgrounds, a court-appointed defence team in lieu of the defendants or representatives, and a prosecution team including international law professor Francis Boyle.[202] The mock tribunal's finding received mixed responses, being labelled a "circus" by former UN Special Rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy.
In September 2012, Bishop Desmond Tutu suggested that Blair should follow the path of former African leaders who had been brought before the International Criminal Court in the Hague.[198] The human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, interviewed on BBC radio, concurred with Tutu's suggestion that there should be a war crimes trial.[203] In a statement made in response to Tutu's comments, Blair defended his actions.[198] He was supported by Lord Falconer, who stated that the war had been properly authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441.[203]
Portrayals and cameo appearances
Appearances
Blair made an animated cameo appearance as himself in The Simpsons episode, "The Regina Monologues" (2003)[204] He has also appeared as himself at the end of the first episode of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, a British television series about an unknown housewife becoming Prime Minister. On 14 March 2007, Blair appeared as a celebrity judge on Masterchef goes Large after contestants had to prepare a three course meal in the Downing Street kitchens for Blair and Bertie Ahern.[205] On 16 March 2007, Blair featured in a comedy sketch with Catherine Tate, who appeared in the guise of her character Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007. During the sketch, Blair used Lauren's catchphrase "Am I bovvered?".[206]
Portrayals
Michael Sheen has portrayed Blair three times, in the films The Deal (2003), The Queen (2006), and The Special Relationship (2009). Blair was portrayed by Robert Lindsay in the TV programmeA Very Social Secretary (2005), and reprised the role in The Trial of Tony Blair (2007). He was also portrayed by James Larkin in The Government Inspector (2005), and by Ioan Gruffudd in W.(2008). In the 2006 Channel 4 comedy drama documentary, Tony Blair: Rock Star, he was portrayed by Christian Brassington
Blair in fiction and satire
When Blair resigned as Prime Minister, Robert Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write The Ghost. The CIA-influenced British Prime Minister in the book is said to be a thinly disguised version of Blair.[207] In November 2007 it was announced that Roman Polanski was to direct the film version of the novel, and would be writing the script with Harris. The film The Ghost Writer was released in February 2010 in the US.[208] Polanski's film saw Pierce Brosnan portray former-Prime Minister Adam Lang, and dramatises Blair's relationship with the United States, as well as the possibility of war crime charges.[209] Stephen Mangan portrays Blair in The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011), a one-off The Comic Strip Presents... satire presented in the style of a 1950s film noir. In the film, he is wrongly implicated in the deaths of Robin Cook and John Smith and on the run from Inspector Hutton.[210]
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