Blair's legacy

Many pro-Blair commentators claim that he is obsessed with his political legacy, the centre of which has been the strengthening of his relationship with the USA. This has led to a series of dangerous and illegal invasions.

Those commentators who accuse the left of being anti-American conduct a sleight of hand. Blair hasn't built a special relationship with the USA. He has developed a masochistic relationship with a bunch of Texan oil millionaires who bought the White House. He couldn't even persuade the US to release the "friendly fire" video for the coroner's inquest. His own civil servants in the Ministry of Defence even denied it existed. Blair excused their lies on the grounds they had acted in good faith.

But his obsequiousness goes further. Blair's failure to unequivocally condemn the judicial lynchings in Iraq is part of a wider mindset. His government has been dragging its feet over supporting a European Union led initiative to stop capital punishment across the globe. This initiative runs in parallel with growing concern in the US over capital punishment.

Blair does not line up with these progressive policies. Instead he sticks with Bush.

Mark Steel in the Independent gets close to Blair's mind set in a recent article when he quotes from a passage in Robin Cook's book The Point of Departure (Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7432-5255-1; Amazon)

Robin Cook recalled a conversation in which Tony Blair justified sending his son to a selective school, saying he didn't want his kids to end up like those of Harold Wilson. It was pointed out that Wilson's sons went to a comprehensive school, and one became a headmaster, the other a professor. To which Blair said: "Well, I certainly hope my children do better than that."

We are beginning to get closer to Blair's legacy. Education, education, education actually means developing people so they do not see serving the public as important or useful. In many ways he is restating Thatcher's famous statement "there is no such thing as society". The destruction of mutuality and society are the focus of his (and Brown's) privatisation schemes.

Blair's concern over his legacy along with his publicly expressed view that his policies should have been more vigorously pursued is behind his long-drawn-out departure. The facts in the "loans for peerage" affair are clear:

• Blair personally authorised huge secret loans which enabled him to win the last election.
• These loans were not authorised by the Labour Party.
• When they were discovered the Labour Party National Executive took no action against Blair.
• Not a single Cabinet member called for his resignation.
• The effect of the loans is to bankrupt the Labour Party. They have an estimated forty million pound deficit. They have no money to pay the loans back.

And the Tories have New Labour over a barrel. Millionaires see Cameron as the future and have been pouring money in, and with the sale of the old Tory HQ at a profit they are now well in the black.

Blair has publicly stated that he sees nothing wrong with rewarding with honours those people who have financially contributed to government policies. He was specifically talking about money for the Academy school scam. Sir Christopher Evans, who has been arrested, agrees with Blair when he says that Labour Party figures had "mentioned" peerages to him.

As I reported in the last Umbrella Blair seems to be trying to distance himself from Lord Levy, his chief fundraiser. This tactic is confirmed by how he kept quiet about his second police interview. He did ring Lord Levy, but presumably not to discuss his own confidential meeting. Subsequently Lord Levy was arrested on a second charge of trying to pervert the course of justice. Ten files of evidence have now been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service.

But as I wrote then, "Levy knows where all the bodies are buried". It is a high-risk strategy.

However it does fit in with Blair's legacy, which is the destruction of the Labour Party. He has after all driven almost all its activists out, leaving behind a bunch of careerists and post seekers. By allowing the distinctly dodgy loans system, he has tarred the Labour Party with the stench of corruption. If the scandal continues, Labour will be wiped out at the next election.

This is the legacy Blair and his masters Bush and Murdoch really want.

Colin Challen, MP Rothwell and Morley

In Umbrella 92 I gave a brief résumé (drawn from a much longer pamphlet being prepared for printing) of young Colin's problems with Gordon Brown's lackey Ed Balls, who is after his parliamentary seat.

Initially, and uncharacteristically, Colin said he would fight it out. Then he said he wouldn't but instead he would devote his energies after the next General Election to fighting carbon emissions. More detail emerged in an interview where he said he was going to work for an environmental organisation in Cambridge.

Even charitable people like me smelt a stitch-up.

The following uncorrected transcript is drawn from a Tory press release and reproduced in Iain Dale's Diary. The exchange takes place at the Treasury Committee examining Climate change and the Stern review: the implications for HM Treasury policy on tax and the environment.

David Gauke MP "Was it [Colin Challen] the Chancellor's appointment, do you know?"
Nick Stern "The Chancellor asked me personally if I would be interested in doing this and I said that I am."
David Gauke MP "But Colin Challen as well ... was that the Chancellor's appointment?"
Nick Stern "Yes – I learned about it from the Chancellor and I thought it would be a good idea."
David Gauke MP "I understand that Colin Challen is going to be working closely with you on climate change issues, and I'm just interested to learn when you learned of that appointment, and precisely what you will be doing together."
Nick Stern "My understanding is that, err, we'll be looking at some ideas on how economists and Parliamentarians can talk to each other. Colin and I haven't had the chance to get together and work out the details, but I must say I'm very happy to do it."

The response from those cruel MPs was to chant "Balls" and "My Lord" when Colin entered the debating chamber. He is now beginning to look rather rundown and tired. He obviously needs friends. Perhaps that is why he became practically the only non Socialist Campaign Group MP to turn up to a recent Parliamentary Briefing by the Iraqi Occupation Focus group.

But Colin has been working hard to shore up his CV. My positively ancient friend, the former Councillor Garth Frankland, tells me that Colin has been pushing hard to set up a Carbon Reduction Action Group (CRAG) in Leeds. These groups work to reduce their members' carbon production. This is wholly admirable. What set some people's suspicions up was the haste with which Colin wanted to get the group off the ground. Given that there were only 20 people present (and half of them were from Chapel Allerton) out of a city of three quarters of million, some consideration needed to be given on how to spread the word.

Snippets