Skipper

Part II of my assessment focuses on the authoritative opinion poll used in The Observer supplement on The Blair years. It has to be said that the results carry a depressing message for all politicians, along the lines of: ‘don’t complain about ingratitude, just expect it.’

Gaby Hinscliff, The Observer’s political editor sums up the major findings as follows:

‘While just over a quarter rated the government's general performance under Blair as good or very good, 61 per cent disagreed that Britain was 'a more pleasant place to live' now than in 1997, 69 per cent thought it was more dangerous and 58 per cent disagreed that it was happier. On education, 45 per cent rated the government's performance as poor or very poor while 60 per cent thought the same on transport.’

In addition, over half rated government performance on the economy from ‘average’(31) to ‘poor’(15) or ‘very poor’(10). Such an assessment is hard to believe as the UK economy has been the envy of Europe and has performed exceptionally well with Brown at the helm. Virtually everyone is now better off then they were in 1997 but somehow voters have taken prosperity for granted. In similar vein, judgements on Education are extremely negative with 76% rating the government from 'average' to 'very poor'; on the NHS it is 84%. Now I would be the first to allow that both areas have fallen below expectations, given the amount of money thrown at them but that bad? Memories are short it would seem and the near meltdown state of both services in 1997 have been forgotten. Do voters think they would have been in a better state had the Tories stayed in power? I would imagine not.

Similar figures are returned on ‘tackling poverty: 77%; and crime: 87%. Yet Brown has done a huge amount to redistribute income to the less well-off and crime figures have plummeted by almost 40% in the last ten years. As many as 69% think Blair has been ‘soft on criminals’ yet most lawyers and civil libertarians would argue the direct opposite. It doesn’t quite add up. Whilst judgements on Iraq, transport and climate change are understandable and justified these earlier ones seem savagely unreasonable.

I think the answer to this negativity is found in the other responses offered to Blair personally. 24% said they 'strongly disliked' him with another third registering on the 'dislike' side of the scale. When it came to associating pejorative qualities with him the story was even worse: 'too concerned with spin'- 49%; 'out of touch with Britain'- 45%; 'not trustworthy'- 43%; while 55% believed he 'is too influenced by the rich'. Significantly, while 28% thought he 'genuinely believes all of his statements and actions are morally right', a damning 51% believed
'he manages to convince himself that whatever he has decided to do must be morally right.' Adding to the bonfire of his popularity is the judgement of 69% that Blair's relationship with the US has been 'too close' and, even 48% that Cherie's influence has been a 'hindrance' and not a 'help'. Oh dear.

What has happened to Tony Blair, since he was welcomed as the Messiah in 1997, is that limitless expectations have been disappointed to the extent that what has been achieved has virtually been discounted. He has, moreover, been his own worst enemy in: sucking up to Bush and leading us into the worst foreign policy mistake since Suez; sucking up to the rich in a multitude of ways but most damagingly by those freebie holidays; by his obsession with presentation and overuse of his admitted gifts in this department; and it seems his acquisitive wife's behaviour has not brought anything to the party either. So, to return to the 'love affair' metaphor used in my previous post, we seem to have become so bitterly disillusioned with the man we once loved that his perceived betrayals have soured perceptions of everything else he has done. What makes it worse for his party, is that by hanging on far too long, he appears to have made Gordon Brown's chances of winning the 2009 election about as buoyant as England's cricket team of winning the World Cup in the West Indies.