Tony Blair


The Rt Hon Anthony Charles Lynton
"Tony" Blair (born May 6, 1953) became
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in
1997.                                   Appointed PM:    May 2, 1997
                                        PM Predecessor:  John Major
Born in 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland,
and educated at Fettes in Edinburgh,    Date of Birth:   May 6, 1953
known as the "Eton of Scotland". He     Place of Birth:  Edinburgh, Scotland
read law at St. John's College, Oxford  Political Party: Labour
where he obtained a degree. During his
college years he also played guitar and sang for a rock band called Ugly
Rumours. Shortly after graduation in 1975 he joined the Labour Party,
running unsuccessfully for parliament in 1982 in the safe Tory seat of
Beaconsfield. During the early 1980s he was involved in the Hackney Labour
Party, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" who looked to be taking
control of the party.

During the 1983 UK general election he was elected in Sedgefield, where he
has served until the present day. Following two general election defeats by
Margaret Thatcher in 1983 and 1987, Blair aligned himself firmly with the
reforming tendencies in the party, headed by leader Neil Kinnock who gave
Blair his first shadow cabinet post, and worked to produce a more moderate
and electable party. When Kinnock resigned after defeat by John Major in the
1992 UK general election, Blair became Shadow Home Secretary under John Smith.

In 1994 Smith died of a heart attack. Blair and fellow shadow cabinet member
Gordon Brown struck a deal that would see Blair stand for the leadership,
with Brown becoming Chancellor in the event of victory. Elected using the
reformed election rules he had helped to bring in, Blair and Brown set about
changing the Labour Party, modifying its constitution away from commitments
to public ownership, focusing on presenting itself as fiscally competent
(after the failures of the Conservative government of that time) and
"rebranding" itself as New Labour.

Although it attracted much criticism for its alleged superficiality from
both political opponents and traditionalists within the party, the
transformation was nevertheless successful. Aided by a Conservative
government split over policy toward the European Union and tainted by
allegations of corruption, "New Labour" achieved a landslide victory over
John Major in the 1997 UK general election.

Blair presided over the British involvement in the Kosovo War, and was the
only Prime Minister of the 20th century to sire a child while in office.

In the 2001 UK general election, the Labour Party preserved its majority at
an unprecedented level, even in the face of a reduced turnout, and Blair
became the first Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive terms. The
leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague resigned and became the
first Conservative Party leader since the 1920s not to have served as Prime
Minister.

Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center,
Blair was quick to align the UK with the US, engaging in a round of shuttle
diplomacy to help form and maintain the allied coalition prior to their
attack on Afghanistan (in which British troops participated). He continues
in this role to this day, showing a willingness to visit countries on
diplomatic missions that other world leaders might consider too dangerous to visit.

As is usually the fate with British Prime Ministers, he has become the
central focal point of satire in the magazine Private Eye. A regular feature
is the St Albion Parish News (incumbent: Rev. A.R.P. Blair MA (Oxon)), in
which recent political events and Blair's penchant for spin and his zealous
enthusiasms are relentlessly pilloried.

Blair is married to successful barrister Cherie Booth who he met in 1976
whilst both were studying law. They have three sons and one daughter. His
wife and children are Roman Catholics, and he has increasingly been seen
attending Mass with them.

On August 1, 2003 he became the longest sitting Labour Prime Minister,
surpassing Harold Wilson's 1964 - 1970 term. However, because of the crisis
around the death of David Kelly, there was no celebration.

Quotes

   * "But what has come home to me more than anything else is the utter
     futility of Opposition. I did not join the Labour Party to protest. I
     joined it as a party of government and I will make sure that it is a
     party of government."—From Tony Blair's speech to the TUC,
     September 1995

   * "As Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible,
     but, in fact, it is transient. The question is: What do you leave
     behind? And what you can bequeath to this anxious world is the light of
     liberty?"—From Tony Blair's speech to the US Congress, July 18,
     2003