Despite his constant assurances that he will soon resign, Tony Blair continues to limp on as Britain's longest serving lame-duck prime minister. His government has been consumed by his quest for a personal legacy. He has skipped from one policy area to another, each time promising that he will be held accountable if he does not succeed and each time leaving behind a mess for his successor. After running out of domestic problems to "fix" he decided to move on to the rest of the world.
The beasts of burden who have carried him on his globe-trotting adventures have been our military. In his first six years he sent troops to Kosovo, Sierra Leone, East Timor, the Congo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. That is not an exhaustive list — British troops have been put in harms way around the globe and often not under British (or even NATO) command. Yet while other public sector workers have received large pay rises without being asked to deliver anything more, members of the military have been asked to give much more without even being given the manpower or equipment to do the job, let alone pay rises.
The problems have only been exacerbated by Blair's enthusiasm for "modernisation". While he slashed the size of the army he has spent heavily on buying the Eurofighter-Typhoon. The Eurofighter was envisaged as a replacement to the Tornado, itself designed to defend West Germany from the Warsaw Pact. Despite the fact that aircraft is redundant, the government has set about telling us how "state-of-the-art" it is.
That misses the point. Blair has confused shiny and new with fitness for purpose in modern warfare. We are increasingly reliant on our army for peacekeeping and counter-terrorism activities while we need warships and dogfighters less. Soldiers need better radios and the current British Army rifle, the SA-80, is sub-standard. Even better boots would make a difference.
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Article comments
1 - Webbie
"Tony Blair continues to limp on as Britain's longest serving lame-duck prime minister...."
Beg to differ old chap. That would be Thatcher.
2 - Heloise
Hey buddy we got our own damn problems here. I care about Britain but at least you don't have the frogs from france swimming across the channel to get into your country and take all your jobs. Or their unwanted north africans coming there to take your jobs.
Then you would be crying in the channel.
Heloise
3 - Mark Richard Adams
Webbie,
Thatcher may have served longer but the day she realised she had to go she went. Blair announced his resignation before the last election and he is still here.
4 - Mark Richard Adams
Heloise,
The French have a legal right to work here under EU treaties so they wouldn't need to swim.
We also have a very high level of non-EU immigration in the UK (I believe the highest in Europe). People seem willing to cross water and continents and ignore more temperate climes because of the better opportunities in Britain.
5 - Christopher Rose
Hi Mark, surely the comparison between Blair and Thatcher is flawed? She was pushed (and only went when told there was no option, not when she realised it for herself) whereas Blair, possibly in a misguided effort to prevent the same thing happening to him, offered to go. What a glaring political mistake for somebody who has been fairly shrewd.
I think it's the war that's undone him by forcing him to adopt a series of increasingly false positions as events have unfolded.
6 - Mark Richard Adams
"I think it's the war that's undone him by forcing him to adopt a series of increasingly false positions as events have unfolded."
I would agree. Since Iraq Blair has been left impotent.
My point (which was incidental to the article) is that Blair has carried on without launching any major programmes except for reintroducing the programmes he abolished shortly after coming to office. Thatcher was a die hard who pushed her agenda too hard and too fast until her party stabbed her in the back. The Labour party has done nothing but stab Blair in the front.
7 - Shaun Williams
Hi Mark
I have a friend that is a RAF Helicopter pilot and just hope and prey that he is not one of the pilots asigned to them as for other equipment used by the armed forces the armys SA-80 has always had problems with it but our army is still having to use it as the main gun and as for the new Eurofighter-Typhoon the only thing from it being a white elephant is that we were able to sell some of the them to the middle east but back to the title of this article Britain Is Becoming A Banana Republic (Except For The Weather) well it is my opion that we are already are A Banana Republic (except For The Weather)you see I think that Blair is trying to get into the what I call the USA Status Club and while we could of got in to that club a few hundred years ago we can no way be a member of it now so I think its high time that Gorden Brown kicked Blair out office with a bump then maybe Blair would come down from Cuckoo Land and face the REAL WORLD!
8 - Ruvy from Jerusalem
I hope the folks from the States are reading this carefully. The future of America (if some Divine intervention doesn't throw it all these prognostications out the window) is to be read in this article.
Spending itself into an unexitable hole will bring America the same fate as the once great British Empire...
9 - tommyd
The British should really know better about the woes and miseries of Empire. Why would they join up for America's Empire building? I know that Americans are largely ignorant of history and given over to pure emotion, but I'm surprised that the British haven't stormed Downing street and cast out that wretched fool Tony Blair for what he's gotten Britain into.
And at least those "frogs" from France learned their lessons about Empire and Occupation and resisted getting involved in the Iraq Debacle. Now, if they only stopped immigrants from flooding their country they'd be pretty well off.