Voices and faces from the past- Tony Blair

Voices and faces from the past - Tony Blair.

I may be imagining this but do you get the impression that there are voices and faces from the past who refuse to go away? It may be me but I think the 1990s have come back again and could be here for quite a while. There is a sense that one man simply vanished off the political map and then found that he couldn't keep away from the frontline of politics. He just wanted to remind us all that you can't keep a good man down and however hard he tried to keep away from the limelight, there was an irresistible temptation to get back onto the stage and deliver his highly influential speeches.

There could only be one man with these innate desires and all consuming ambitions. His name? It had to be Tony Blair. Tony Blair became the Prime Minister of Great Britain 20 years ago at a time when everything was happening in Britain and the public felt a deep affinity with its blooming, burgeoning culture. its positive self image, Oasis, Blur, the controversial Gallagher brothers, European Championship football at the old Wembley, mobile phones, the World Wide Web and everything that was years ahead of its time and rightfully belonging in the here and now.

But now Tony Blair is back folks and here to make his presence felt. It can be no coincidence that Blair has timed his return to the public domain with an imminent General Election around the corner. The fact is that Blair has come back in the role of  social commentator which pays the going rate but couldn't have been the job he was looking for. Blair is permanently driven and ambitious, a man determined to re-assert himself in the public consciousness with no regrets about the past and a genuine hunger for publicity.

For many of us Blair was undoubtedly one of the most charismatic and purposeful Prime Ministers Britain has ever seen. Of course he made mistakes and for those who can only remember him for his unfortunate involvement in the Iraq war it may be advisable to think of the good times. Blair brought stability to most of the nation at a time when perhaps it could have fallen apart at the seams and then addressed the whole of Britain with re-assuring words of comfort and joy.

Undoubtedly Blair will always be remembered for that most forthright of slogans. For Blair the whole concept of Education, Education and Education had to be underlined and re-emphasised over and over again because the very future of the country had to be the most pressing of all issues and the most outstanding of priorities,  The children were our foremost  concern and if there was a lack of investment in education then ministers had to be sacked and somebody would have to take the blame.

And yet throughout his 10 year tenure it became increasingly obvious that Blair had too much on his plate as the years passed. When he came to power in 1997 the images were very appealing and photogenically correct. There was Blair the family man with Cherie, his wife, devotedly smiling at her husband and young children perfectly turned out and immaculately presented. There were plenty of toothpaste white teeth grinning from ear to ear and it all looked like as though Blair had everything he could possibly have wanted.

For the first couple of honeymoon years Blair had his finger on the pulse, a poised and businesslike figure, a smart, presentable man with a capable hand on the ship's tiller. The economy was thriving and in the rudest of health, the NHS was in moderately good health without ever looking absolutely perfect. Housing, the emergence of social housing and the general re-generation of the inner cities was something Blair could rightly be proud of. He'd got it right at all levels and although there were problems and complications along the way he still seemed to know where he was going.

But then half way through his Prime Ministerial office it all went haywire and the wheels came off that well oiled juggernaut. As is often the way with these things, Prime Ministers always seem to lose their way at some point. All it takes is one global incident and disaster strikes. Before you know it, you've got a war on your hands, a bloody war at that and all you can do is just sit there in Downing Street and watch events unfold with horrified eyes.

Poor Tony. If only he'd seen it coming. If only he'd been prepared. If only his football team Newcastle United would politely oblige with the Premier League title but oh no not for Tony. Blair was now almost forcibly dragged into a major war over which he may have felt he had no control. His American pal George Bush Junior was on the brink of calling the first shots and what happened next made for  terribly harrowing viewing.

Before Blair knew it, British troops were primed and ready to go and the Iraq war became a terrifying reality. Now he was totally engaged in some horrendous conflict that would claim the lives of thousands of British soldiers. The blood, death and heartache that is the inevitable consequence of war now reverberated around not only the world but into the prettiest acres of the English countryside as well as its impressive cities.

So it was that the British public averted its gaze and wondered why they'd voted for Blair in the first place. They'd seen Margaret Thatcher take the country into a maddeningly ludicrous war in the Falklands and now history was repeating itself. Suddenly Blair had become public enemy one and now they were pleading for his resignation. It was all very ghastly and unnecessary. The bullets and bombs continued to pour down in their obscene numbers, violence and destruction scarring the world landscape in all its ugly and gory frequency.

Finally when it all became too much for Blair he picked his moment and decided that enough was enough. He was never pushed because the damage had been irreparably done. After 10 years of aggravation, irritation, hassle and major bust ups Blair called it a day. A man could only take so much. He'd been criticised, blamed, singled out for more condemnation and then almost driven beyond the point of no return. He'd suffered the back lash of a war he was never really keen on in the first place and then tried to justify it in lengthy government reports and the hanging out of dirty washing.

At long last Blair could walk away from it all, tired, emotionally wrecked and glad to be on the outside of events rather than at the centre of it all. On that final day Blair once again smiled broadly but this was a smile of utter relief  rather than simple joy. In smart suit, shirt and tie he looked like a bank manager on retirement day. He waved at a public that at times were initially elated with him but then torn and underwhelmed. Maybe he had done rather well but then maybe not.

 That's the thing with Prime Ministers. You never know what to make of them. At the beginning it's all about warmth, feelgood factors and bring on the good times. At first it's all about good natured geniality and humorous in jokes But then when the interest rates soar through the roof and the level of taxation becomes unbearably high then it's your fault mate. So what did Blair do? He just walked out of Downing Street and left Gordon Brown with all that troublesome responsibility.

This week Blair got back on his horse and rode back into the town with all the showmanship of a Roy Rogers. He lassooed his way  past the Wild West saloon on his trusty steed and then galloped into the sunset. Blair was through with it all, the vicious warmongering, the deeply hurtful allegations, the sheer nastiness of it all, the malicious rumours, the slanderous jibes and the never ending problems.

Still with just over a month to go before the country goes to the polls for the umpteenth time it is almost comforting to know that Tony Blair is still going strong. He's still laying it on us thick, leaving them rolling in the aisles. cracking those cracking gags, exhausting the after dinner circuit. telling those sparkling stories, those rib tickling anecdotes, those fond reminiscences of  wild Downing Street parties and how all of that bubbly bonhomie seemed to last for ever.

When the country votes at another General Election Blair will presumably glance at No 10 for one last time and wish Theresa May well. Then he'll probably look at the present day Labour leader and then bow his head shamefacedly because it couldn't get any worse or maybe it has and we didn't notice. What must be going through Blair's head at the moment? Maybe he's having a Neil Kinnock moment. On second thoughts Kinnock had popularity on his side among his loyal followers. But then there came Jeremy Corbyn and popularity is not the word that springs readily to our mind.

It now seems as if that Jeremy Corbyn will go down in history as the worst General Election contender since way back when. Still the dizzy optimists will continue to hold a soft spot for Corbyn but poor Tony Blair. Did he ever think that 20 years hence that the Labour Party would find itself on the point of complete disintegration and oblivion? How Blair must wish that he hadn't been so hasty and just stuck it out for a while. Still good luck with that one Jeremy. I hate to tell you but you may need it.