Case study: Prime Minister Tony Blair (May 1997 to June 2007) Flashcards
1) How did Blair taunt Major?
1) In the Commons in April 1995, he stated the following: ‘I lead my party, he follows his’.
1) What did Blair remodel Labour as?
1) A modernising centre party. This combined with the weaknesses of Major’s government, led to his victory in May 1997.
1) How did Blair win in June 2001 and May 2005?
1) He won overwhelmingly in June 2001, and even after the loss of 100 seats in May 2005, he still had a majority of 66.
1) When did Blair suffer defeat in the Commons for the first time?
1) In the Autumn of 2005, on a proposal to extend the time that the police could hold terror suspect before charging them.
1) How did Blair always operate within a favourable economic context?
1) He inherited a recovering economy, and left office before the financial crisis.
1) What caused Blair to lose his credibility?
1) He took Britain into the Iraq War in 2003.
Assessing Blair’s control over events and policy:
1) How much autonomy did ministers have, under Blair?
2) What was the relationship between the Cabinet Office, and the Downing Street Policy Unit?
3) What did the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit seek to deliver?
4) How did Alastair Campbell’s Strategic Communications Unit work?
5) How did Blair use informal meetings more often?
6) What is the most spectacular example, of such informal meetings?
7) How did Lord Butler criticise this course of action?
1) Cabinet ministers had much less autonomy, and worked on a more centrally managed agenda.
2) They worked more closely together.
3) The creation of this unit in 2001, sought to drive reform of the public sector.
4) They transferred the methods used in opposition, to ones that continued being used in government.
5) He used them to revise progress on policy. These meetings bypassed committee structures, and they were’t recorded properly. This increased Blair’s power to direct events.
6) Decisions were taken prior to the launching of the Iraq War. There was little discussion in Cabinet about the war, and ministers were denied important documents.
8) He believed that the Cabinet’s exclusion, reduced the scope of informed collective political judgement.
1) Who limited Blair’s power?
2) What informal deal did the two men strike in May 1994, after the death of John Smith?
3) Why did relations between the two deteriorate?
4) How did Blair attempt to reconcile relations.
5) On which policy areas did Blair have to concede power to Brown?
6) How did Brown do this.
1) Gordon Brown
2) Brown gave Blair a clear run at the party leadership, in return for the post of chancellor. Brown then believed that Blair would eventually step down, allowing him to become PM.
3) Blair did not step down before the end of Labour’s second term.
4) He announced that his third election victory would be his last.
5) Brown denied Blair’s wish to enter the European single currency.
6) By devising 5 economic tests, and the Treasury would decide on whether they had been met.
1) What policy achievements did Blair have?
2) Which radical step was not carried out?
3) What policies did he have in relation to Scotland and Waled?
4) What did Blair avoid holding a referendum on?
1) Most hereditary peers were removed from the Lords, therefore ending Conservative party dominance.
2) That of replacing an appointed chamber, with an elected one.
3) Devolution was granted to them, with new representative bodies being elected using proportional systems.
4) Electoral reform for Westminster, as he preferred to retain a model that delivered Labour victories.
1) What was Blair’s greatest personal success?
2) What skills did he display?
3) Although mistrust appeared, how did Blair manage to restore devolved government, shortly before he left?
1) The April 1998 Good Friday agreement.
2) He was a good negotiator, as he brought unionists, moderate nationalists and hard-line republicans together.
3) By creating personal relationships with key individuals on both sides of the sectarian divide.
1) Blair successfully introduced self-governing city academies, how do they work?
2) Blair successfully introduced Foundation hospitals, how do they work?
3) Which policy in relation to university fees, faced backbench opposition?
4) What were some distinctively ‘Labour’ measures, that Blair introduced?
5) What was their effect?
6) How was Blair socially liberal?
1) They replace failing state schools, and take their funding directly from the central government, rather than from local authorities.
2) Their managers are given additional powers and funding.
3) The level of tuition fees was hiked in 2004.
4) A national minimum wage, free nursery places and SureStart centres to help families in deprived areas.
5) To halt the widening gap between rich and poor.
6) He introduced civil partnerships for same sex couples.
1) What event in his second term, diverted his attention?
2) How did the UK, support Bush’s ‘war on terror’?
3) Why did the Iraq War in particular, have a lasting impact on Blair’s reputation?
4) What did critics focus on?
5) Who did Blair surrender his judgement to?
1) Terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
2) By sending British troops on lengthy campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3) Order inside Iraq disintegrated, and allied troops faced guerilla resistance.
4) Blair took action on unsubstantiated evidence, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He also faced criticism for not formulating a plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.
5) To the US.
Blair’s legacy:
1) How did Blair place Downing Street at the centre of power?
2) What were his main achievements?
3) What was his authority enhanced and undermined by?
4) What caused levels of trust in him, to decrease?
1) By pushing forward policy initiatives, and managing the government’s public image.
2) Constitutional reform, the delivery of public services, and bringing about a peace settlement in Northern Ireland.
3) Enhance by winning 3 general elections, undermined by Brown.
4) The invasion of Iraq, diverted his focus from domestic reform.
