Government in the UK is made up from MPs in the House of
Commons. After an election, the political party with the
most MPs is selected to form a government. As well as being
a normal MP (who vote on issues and deal with issues in their
constituencies) some members of the biggest party are expected
to be ministers.
Ministers decide upon what new laws to let parliament vote
on. They also sort out the details of these laws and control
some government agencies (such as the UK Passport Service).
The most senior ministers sit in a ‘cabinet’,
this group of the top people in government decide upon the
big decisions. The cabinet is chaired by the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister is the leader of party with most MPs.
He is the leader of government and controls all decisions.
A Prime Minister has several powers known as ‘Royal
Prerogatives’ these include going to war, deciding
when to call an election and appointment and dismissal of
ministers. Both the Prime Minister and Ministers are responsible
for their actions. If something they did was severely wrong
they are expected to resign. Once you resign you become an
ordinary MP but are not part of government.
Tony Blair
Tony Blair became the leader of the Labour Party in 1994.
At that time the Labour party had less MPs than the Conservative
Party. The Conservative Party was therefore in power. The
Labour Party won the 1997 election by getting 177 more MPs
than all the rest added together. This meant that Tony Blair
became Prime Minister.
Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh and educated at Oxford
University but now represents the constituency of Sedgefield.
At the time of the election he was 43, the youngest British
Prime Minister ever. He won the 1997 election by leading
the Labour party away from the very socialist stance they
once had. This made the party appeal much more to voters.
Achievements
For the last 10 years, Tony Blair has increased public spending
on education and health services while making them much more
competitive. Other prominent policies Tony Blair has pursued
have been introducing a ‘minimum wage’ and introducing
a fee for university students so that the universities can
offer a better educational service while increasing the amount
of people going to university.
One of the most important things Tony Blair has achieved
in the UK is devolution. Devolution is the name given to
the process of giving power to regional governments. What
this means is that under Tony Blair, the UK government have
created a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly. These
parliaments are voted proportionately (unlike the main London
parliament). Quite a lot of power over law making in their
countries has been given to these ‘devolved’ parliaments.
This makes Britain much more democratic and localised in
its governance.
Foreign Policy
The most prominent aspect of Tony Blair’s policy has
been on foreign affairs however. In his early years, Tony
Blair engaged the UK in military conflicts. Firstly he engaged
British and NATO forces in Kosovo in 1999.
When Yugoslavia began persecuted the large Albanian population
of the region of Kosovo forcing many refugees out of the
country, the Albanian group KLA tried fighting back. NATO
gave its support to the KLA and the many countries of NATO
commenced a bombing campaign against the Yugoslav forces.
For the German Luftwaffe, this was the first conflict they
had participated in since the Second World War. Many observers
noted the bombing was making little difference on the ground
and in many cases were harming innocent civilians.
Tony Blair therefore commenced a long period of lobbying
fellow NATO countries to start a ground war. He believed
that it was the only way to stop the bloodshed. The countries
did not react well to his suggestion, even Bill Clinton (Tony
Blair’s friend) refused to offer any ground forces.
As times moved on it became obvious that Blair was right,
ground action was needed. Tony Blair diligently lobbied many
countries to commit troops and led the operation of freeing
Kosovo. British troops played a large role in this conflict
and Tony Blair’s actions were seen as a great success
by a large majority of the world’s population.
The second military action led by Blair was in helping British
nationals out of war-torn Sierra Leone in 2000. When troops
helping people out of the country were kidnapped by the rebels
in Sierra Leone, Blair took the unprecedented and risky step
of sending the British Special Forces, the SAS, in to rescue
them. In the large assault that followed, which included
a frigate, several aircraft and more than 200 soldiers, the
hostages were rescued with only one casualty. The international
community praised Blair for his selfless and unusual action
which resulted in a very positive result.
Then, on September 11th of 2001, Al-Qaeda attacked the USA
with hijacked passenger aircraft. This instantly changed
both British and worldwide views on foreign military intervention.
Within a month, George Bush had led a war against the Taliban
in Afghanistan with NATO support. The UK took a large part
in this, prompted by Tony Blair. However needed the conflict
was (many argue it was not needed) it was not well planned.
It is still going and troops, many of them British, are still
dying. This is a turning point for two reasons. Firstly it
did not go brilliantly like Blair’s other conflicts
had. Secondly it was led by the Americans, more specifically
by Bush.
In 2003, Blair and Bush decided to defy the UN by invading
Iraq. This is the real turning point in Blair’s career.
Despite calls from many countries not to and despite a huge
protest of over a million protestors in London, Tony Blair
still went into Iraq on the premise of finding weapons of
mass destruction. When he went in the initial war was swift
and effective but there were no weapons of mass destruction
and the turmoil that followed was disastrous. Over 100 British
soldiers have died so far as well as over 3000 American soldiers
and Iraq is now in a state of civil war and religious persecution
on all fronts. This invasion was ill-considered and ruined
Blair’s previously sky-high popularity; he is now (maybe
unfairly) the third most unpopular prime minister ever.
However bad the invasion of Iraq is, and however much he
will be remembered for it we must remember what Blair did
in other areas. This has been recognised by Charlemagne award
which was given to him to recognise his authorship in the ‘Blair
doctrine’ of “doing what is right”. His
policies in Britain have been recognised by most as radically
common sensed and his foreign policy, with Iraq and Afghanistan
as exceptions, have set a new precedent in international
involvement.
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