His first term in office was cautious and at times hesitant. Blair had expected to win by a far more narrow margin than the landslide he received, and supporters say the prime minister, who had touted "New Labor" as a fiscally responsible, mainstream movement, shied away from ambitious and costly initiatives that could have rekindled fears among voters and the business community.
For Labor, "the very factors that made it a success as an electoral project inevitably weakened it as a transformative governing project," Geoff Mulgan, a former senior policy strategist at Blair's Downing Street office, wrote in Prospect magazine. "The big-tent approach made it hard to take on the most powerful interests that often stood in the way of progressive reform."
Prime Minister Tony Blair greets supporters on the campaign trail at Lord Street Primary School in northwest England. The leader has faced scathing criticism from British voters, with the election less than a week away.
(Reuters)
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Following his 2001 victory, Blair said he was prepared to be much more ambitious in rebuilding Britain's public services. But the war in Iraq became the defining event of his premiership, overshadowing his domestic program.
Because Britain's economy has performed at record levels during his time in government, Blair has been able to pour billions more pounds in tax revenues into the public services. But critics say that while his government has succeeded in reducing poverty levels, it has fallen short of expectations in other areas because the increases in expenditure have not been accompanied by effective reforms.
While Thursday night's audience hammered Blair on the war, perhaps the most revealing moment came when Diana Church, an accountant, told him that doctors in the health service were forcing patients to wait until the last minute to book appointments in order to meet a government-imposed target that all patients be able to see a physician within 48 hours. Blair said he was unaware of the problem -- but the next day promised to reduce the number of targets in both health and education.
His aides say Blair is keenly aware that many of the policies of his fellow social democrat, former president Bill Clinton, have been dismantled by the Republican administration that followed. Blair is keen to embed his reforms so no future Conservative government would dare attempt to undo them.
The aftermath of the war led Blair to a crisis of confidence last summer known as "The Wobble." Aides have confirmed that Blair felt battered by allegations that the government hounded one of its critics, British weapons inspector David Kelly, so badly that he committed suicide. Blair felt physical discomfort from a heart irregularity that eventually required surgery, and was coping with a family crisis that the British media and political opponents have never publicly disclosed, out of respect for the family's privacy.
He also was depressed by revelations of abuses of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib that he believed undermined the moral authority of coalition forces. All in all, said a senior aide who spoke on condition of anonymity, "It was a pretty black moment."
But Blair snapped out of it by late September, when he announced he would run for and serve a full third term as prime minister. He made that statement on the same weekend he underwent an operation, and emerged from the hospital ready and eager for renewed electoral combat. Brown, who had hoped to succeed Blair as prime minister before the new election, had to shelve his plans.
One way that Blair's aides have sought to combat his unpopularity is through what people here call the "masochism strategy" -- subjecting Blair to angry voters in an attempt to drain the vitriol and to show that he is listening.
On one recent daytime television program, he faced a nurse who asked him if he'd be willing to wipe patients' backsides for the British minimum wage, and a midwife who demanded that he apologize for the war. In another, a woman told him she was so frustrated by not being able to find a dentist that she'd used a pliers to yank her own rotten teeth -- and showed Blair her gums to prove it. The prime minister grimaced, sympathized and patiently defended his policies -- "I can't tell you I did the wrong thing when I didn't," he told the midwife -- but never once grew visibly angry.
"He's very good at explaining himself and remaining calm," an aide said.
His advisers say Blair readily acceded to a campaign strategy that stressed the Labor team over himself. At the launch of the party's manifesto two weeks ago, Blair shared center stage with six of his senior cabinet secretaries, with the rest of the cabinet sitting behind them.
"Why are you so de-emphasized?" asked Adam Boulton of Sky News. "Are you a liability?"
Blair grinned and said voters wanted policies that worked, and that Labor was running on its record and its promises to do even more. "The Conservatives can try to run a personal campaign," he said. "I don't think they'll get very far with it."
Jeremy Paxman, one of the television news personalities who have grilled Blair relentlessly, asked him at the end of a recent session, "Isn't there a point where you think it's going to be great to be shot of all this?"
Blair replied that he still felt he had a lot to accomplish, but added a rueful footnote. "The irony of this job," he said, "is that you're less popular as you go on, but in some ways you're better equipped to do the job."
