Has he gone yet?

Is it safe to come out? 

Not just yet it seems.  He was just officially announcing that he was resigning but he’s still here for another five or six weeks yet.

This has got to be the longest ever goodbye.

Well, I wasn’t going to bother but I really feel that, although I’ll be saying  much the same as everybody else, I must dedicate a small part of this blog to Tony Blair and his muchly-anticipated resignation. 

Back in ’97, you couldn’t have found a more euphoric and optimistic girl than little me here.   T’was all because of a Tony Blair-led Labour party winning the general election.  I look back with a sigh and remember that very night ~  and the following days ~ and how I yearn to have them back.  Because there was hope then.  And good vibes.  Really good vibes.  And the music…D:Ream  ~ Things Can Only Get Better.  And U2 ~ You’re the Real Thing.  Those two songs become symbolic anthems for the Labour party and every  time I hear them, I think of 1997.  And I could cry.

[cue the scratched record sound effect]

Right!  Enough of all that crappery!

Of course I’m exaggerating my helpless emotion. 

But I did have high hopes for Labour with Tony Blair leading the way.  And it has to be said, he hasn’t done bad in many ways.  He got my thumbs up on lot’s of things.  Things such as such as his handling of the fuel protests, fox-hunting (eventually and begrudgingly dealt with), the economy (for now), the minimum wage etc..  I’m sure there’s more but without googling I can’t recall anything at this late time. 

But he’s certainly not lived up to all the expectations that were placed upon him.  Maybe that wasn’t all his fault.  Maybe we, the public were so desperate to place a gazillion miles between ourselves and the Tories that we placed an enormously unrealistic burden of expectation upon him.  I don’t know.  But even so, he willingly accepted the challenge.  And he failed on some very vital issues.  Issues such as the Green movement…bowing to public/media pressure on immigration…the creation of the ludicrous Asbo’s.  And I just can’t not mention the NHS because the NHS is my employee.  He has failed there.  Despite all the self-congratulatory acclaims of success, the NHS is not quite the success story that Blair would have us believe.  Waiting list reductions – yes they’re lower but a lot of it is just a result of cooking-the-books….playing with figures.  And outsourcing our health.   Shareholders are delighted but services are poorer and front-line employees are totally despondent.  I will say no more on this but Watch This Space.

But the biggie is of course Iraq.  I can’t forgive him for that and although the British people on the whole are better off under Blair’s Labour, Iraqgate simply and absolutely overshadows the good stuff and completely blots out the light.  To repeat what I said earlier – astonishingly, he really believes he can be redeemed of the Iraq mess by claiming that he did what he thought was right at the time.  We are actually watching him brush the mess off his shoulders and walk away. And he thinks that by adding a touch of humility, we will buy it. No chance! The images of maimed and blooded innocent citizens will haunt his dreams.

Thing is though, I watched him on TV tonight and I still dearly want to like him.  I really do.   I really want to say that he’s been a great leader in so many ways.  

“He’s been a great leader in so many ways.”

…is how I feel.

Bye bye Blair.