Global failure: Tony Blair will be judged on his foreign policy, says Douglas Davis, but he has made a mess of it in Iraq--and in Syria and Iran.

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 19-NOV-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

It took just 49 bloody-minded Labour backbenchers to demonstrate that Tony Blair cannot, after all, walk on water. Many are now ready to defy his 'legacy' reforms. His position is becoming untenable. And this at a time when he should have been at the top of his game--president of the G8, president of the European Union, leader of the world.

Blair might see his legacy in domestic reforms--devolution, the Lords, pensions, health, welfare and, of course, education, education, education--but he seems most at ease when pouring his energy and enthusiasm into the big global issues; perhaps because Gordon Brown has effectively cornered the domestic agenda, perhaps because he finds the international community more forgiving and the business of international diplomacy more congenial.

So strong is Blair's commitment to world affairs that the subtext of much of his foreign diplomacy has become conflated with the domestic agenda: the war against terror is helping to keep Britain's streets safe; the war against Saddam is protecting Britain from an existential (albeit phantom) strategic threat; the...

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