How successful was Blair’s government

Economic successes
- Introduction of the minimum wage helped reduce poverty.
- The Bank of England was given power over setting interest rates. This decision helped end
stop-go economics and thus allowing long term economic stability.
- In the first term, Brown presented himself as a prudent Chancellor, keeping to Tory spending
limits and paying down the national debt.
- By 2001, interest rates, inflation and unemployment were all relatively low: Labour had a
reputation for economic competence.
- Didn’t reverse popular Thatcherite reforms such as trade union restrictions and privatisations.

Economic failures
- The creation of a tripartite system – the Bank of England, Financial Service Authority and the
Treasury – to oversee banks and the City clearly failed in the long run.
- Brown is criticised for selling off gold at a low rate, which in the long term cost Britain hundreds
of millions of pounds.
- Brown began taxing the dividend payments for pensions. The savings ratio declined from 9.7%
1997 to 3.7% 2007. This also meant that total UK share values were some £120 billion lower
than they would have been without government interference.
- Brown’s reliance on the Private Finance Initiative stored up huge debts for Britain’s future.
- Current Chancellor George Osborne: “Blair and Brown failed to fix the roof while the sun was
shining”.
- Brown’s methods of reducing poverty were too complex and inefficient (e.g. the tax credit
system was bureaucratic, and Blair himself later said that he was not a fan). The final act as
Chancellor – scrapping the 10p tax rate – harmed the poorest in society.
- While poverty fell, it did not fall fast enough to meet targets, and rich-poor income gap grew.
- Brown was described by Cameron as a “road block to reform”.
- Much of Britain’s economic growth was based on borrowing and high personal debt – a mirage.
- When the Conservatives came out of office, the inflation rate was 2.6%. By the time Brown
became Prime Minister it was 4.8%, as Brown had relaxed his prudent approach and engaged
in large-scale government expenditure.
- In order not to break promises of low taxation policy, Labour made financial adjustments which
were not technically classes as taxation (e.g. raising National Insurance contributions and
removing tax relief on mortgage payments).

Foreign successes
- Britain took a leading role in negotiations for EU enlargement and for the Treaty of Nice. Blair
was especially keen on strengthening the role of the EU in the world. Britain was a the centre of
the efforts to develop a common European strategy against the threat of global terrorism
following 9/11. Blair wanted to make Britain the bridge between Europe and the US in action
against Iraq and towards the peace process between Israel and Palestine, and towards Iran.
- Blair took the lead in European initiatives in climate change, world trade, and aid for Africa at
G7 meetings.
- By 2007 Blair had good relations with Sarkozy and Merkel
- From 1989, Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic threatened violent action against the
Albanian population in Kosovo. In 1991, the Yugoslav state began to break up with war erupting
between Serbia and Croatia. The efforts of European diplomats failed. By 1992, it was obvious
that Bosnia was in danger of attack from Serbia or the formally independent Croatia. War began
in Bosnia in 1992, as Bosnian Serb paramilitaries backed by Milosevic’s government drove out
the Muslim population through ethnic cleansing. After the horrors of the siege of Sarajevo and
the Srebrenica massacre, reliance on EU diplomacy and UN peacekeeping was perceived to
have failed massively. Blair managed to persuade a reluctant Clinton to back military action
against Serbia, which led to Milosevic pulling his forces out of Kosovo in 1999. Not long
afterwards, Milosevic was overthrown, the collapse of Yugoslavia was complete and the way
was open for new states like Serbia and Croatia to join the EU. This success moulded much of
Blair’s thinking both on the importance of moral interventionism and of the special relationship.
- Post Kosovo, Blair ordered military action in Sierra Leone on a risky mission. The rebellion
collapsed relatively quickly. Alongside Kosovo, it gave him huge confidence that his foreign
policy approach was right and that moral interventionism was a correct philosophy.

Foreign failures:
- The 2003 invasion of Iraq proved to be the defining issue of Blair’s premiership. Robin Cook
(the then foreign secretary) resigned in protest and many claimed it was an illegal war without
UN backing. Public opinion polls did show that most were in support of Blair at the start, with
the Liberal Democrats being the only party to fully object to intervention. In sept 2002, an
intelligence dossier was published to show the urgent danger from Saddam’s weapons of mass
destruction. This failed to convince many people and claims by journalist Andrew Gilligan that it
had been “sexed up” for political reasons caused a sensation.
- No WMDs were found in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, though Blair claims to have
believed there were. The tragic death of scientisit David Kelly further damaged the
government’s reputation.
- Saddam was overthrown but the war did not end neatly, as it seemed there had been no
thought out plan for Iraq’s future. The government was blamed by its many critics for human
rights abuses by British and American soldiers.
- Britain did not join the Euro in 1999 and the press remained Eurosceptic. Deep divisions
between some EU countries and the UK were opened by the Iraq war. Perhaps this was de
Gaulle’s prophecy coming true (that Britain would always regard the special relationship over its
relationship with Europe).
- Progress on climate change and “making poverty history” was slow.
- Attempts to reform the workings of the EU ended in the rejection of a proposed new
constitution. The diluted version (the Lisbon Treaty) was eventually signed in 2007, but aroused
considerable controversy. This was because Blair had promised a referendum over the new
constitution, but when it became the Lisbon Treaty failed to offer on, claiming it was ultimately
different.
- Blair increased Britain’s annual contribution to the EU, which rose from £7bn in 2006 when he
negotiated away the rebate.
Domestic/Social/Political successes:

- Huge constitutional changes were made by the Blair government, including devolution.
Following referendums in 1997, a Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly and Welsh
Assembly were established in 1998, followed by a London assembly in 1999.
- Blair’s finest and most historic achievement came in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday
agreement of 1998. On the whole, this led to a decade or more of peace and historic
relationships between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
- The House of Lords was reformed in 1999, with the removal of all but 92 hereditary peers,
which reduced Tory dominance. The government promised to be “tough on crime, tough on the
causes of crime”.
- Blair’s government included a number of skilful media performers (Robin Cook and David
Blunkett); not least Blair himself, shown by his “People’s princess” comment in 1997. This
allowed them to completely overshadow the competition.
- They engaged in major capital improvement programmes for building hospitals and schools in
the 2nd term.
- During the 2nd term, Blair launched the academies programme for struggling schools, with the
aim of levelling the two tier education system to ensure all students had equal opportunities.
- People lived longer due to improvements in medical care and living standards.
- Regeneration projects had considerable success as towns and cities like Glasgow,
Birmingham, Leeds and Gateshead benefitted from new museums, art galleries, concert halls
and extensive property development.
- Rapid expansion of the EU opened the way for people from central and Eastern Europe to
move to Britain. After 2004, many “guest workers” entered Britain from the A8 countries,
especially from Poland. They filled Labour shortages, brought valuable skills, set up small
useful businesses and were a net gain to the economy in the opinion of many economists.
- 2006 Religious Hatred Act intended to protect people abuse due to religious belief.

Domestic/Social/Political failures:
- There were continued complaints that police forces were “institutionally racist”. There were
complaints from others that not enough emphasis was being placed on the responsibilities of
immigrants to the British way of life and that the identity of the working class communities was
being unfairly rejected. The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 had been the first incident to
show the urgency of these concerns. The second was the terrorist attacks of 7th July 2005,
when the Jihadist terror came to London. In four separate suicide bombings – on a bus in
Tavistock Square and on 3 underground trains – 52 civilians were killed. The British-born
bombers caused much soul-searching about security issues and community relations. This
created two arguments of necessity: that Britain needed to do more to integrate ethnic
minorities into society and that Britain needed greater security.
- The Macpherson report took the issue of police racism to the press. This led to cultural shifts in
public services.