Tony Blair
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Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. He is also MP for the constituency of Sedgefield. He has led the Labour Party since July 1994, following the death of John Smith in May of that year. Blair brought Labour into power with a landslide victory in the 1997 general election replacing John Major as Prime Minister and ending eighteen years of Conservative government. He is now the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, and the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories. The youngest person to be appointed Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812 [1], he has deployed British armed forces into four conflicts: in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair is a member of the Fabian Society.
Blair is credited, along with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, with moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his policies of support for the market economy from the party's older policy of nationalisation. He has referred to his policy as "modern social democracy" and "the third way". Supporters on the left feel that the Blair places insufficient emphasis on traditional Labour priorities such as the redistribution of wealth and investment in public services. Although Blair has tended not to make any issue of his faith, some have commented on Blair's religious position as high church Anglo-Catholic; in a 2006 interview Blair said that he had sought divine guidance for difficult decisions and considered himself ultimately accountable to God for them, particularly his decisions to commit UK troops to military action [2].
Since the advent of the War on Terror, a significant part of Blair's political agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs. He supported many aspects of United States President George W. Bush's foreign policy including sending British troops to participate in the 2003 Iraq War. At the outset of the Iraq War the majority of the British public (53%) supported the war. This dropped to 35% by 2005. [3]. Blair's domestic anti-terror legislation has also been controversial in some quarters. In October 2004, Blair declared his intention to seek a third term but not a fourth. The Labour party won a third term in government at the 2005 general election for the first time in its history, although its majority in the House of Commons was reduced to 66. The fall in Labour's share of the vote renewed speculation as to how long his leadership will continue. It is widely predicted that he will be succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at some point before the next General Election (which will occur at the latest on June 3, 2010).
Blair is credited, along with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, with moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his policies of support for the market economy from the party's older policy of nationalisation. He has referred to his policy as "modern social democracy" and "the third way". Supporters on the left feel that the Blair places insufficient emphasis on traditional Labour priorities such as the redistribution of wealth and investment in public services. Although Blair has tended not to make any issue of his faith, some have commented on Blair's religious position as high church Anglo-Catholic; in a 2006 interview Blair said that he had sought divine guidance for difficult decisions and considered himself ultimately accountable to God for them, particularly his decisions to commit UK troops to military action [2].
Since the advent of the War on Terror, a significant part of Blair's political agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs. He supported many aspects of United States President George W. Bush's foreign policy including sending British troops to participate in the 2003 Iraq War. At the outset of the Iraq War the majority of the British public (53%) supported the war. This dropped to 35% by 2005. [3]. Blair's domestic anti-terror legislation has also been controversial in some quarters. In October 2004, Blair declared his intention to seek a third term but not a fourth. The Labour party won a third term in government at the 2005 general election for the first time in its history, although its majority in the House of Commons was reduced to 66. The fall in Labour's share of the vote renewed speculation as to how long his leadership will continue. It is widely predicted that he will be succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at some point before the next General Election (which will occur at the latest on June 3, 2010).
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