The Hindu : Blair goes on five-nation trip as home turf turns hot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 18, 2003

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International

Blair goes on five-nation trip as home turf turns hot

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JULY 17. Seldom before at the start of a foreign tour has the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, looked politically so vulnerable at home as he did today when he embarked on a hectic round-the-world trip, which would take him to five countries in seven days.

With his controversial public services reforms under fire from his own party and the controversy over allegations of abuse of Iraq-related intelligence showing no sign of subsiding, even Mr. Blair's supporters admitted to a "sinking sensation'' that things might have started to unravel for him after six years of unquestioned supremacy.

``Is Blair mortal after all? Could he fall from power'' asked the pro-Labour Guardian as he headed for Washington to become only the fourth British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress before moving on to Japan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong.

This is the first time that Mr. Blair is travelling abroad with his personal credibility at home at its lowest since he came to office in 1997, and the Labour Party rapidly losing ground in opinion polls. "Far from offering an escape from his domestic travails, this journey will add to the stress on a man already testing the limits of his endurance,'' The Times said in a editorial.

Normally, an invitation to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress would have been regarded as a rare honour — Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, and Margaret Thatcher were the only other British leaders to have been thus honoured — but such is the hostility to Mr. Blair's pro-U.S. stance that the American gesture is seen as no more than a `crumb' thrown at a loyal ally.

Indeed, there is reported to be relief in Government circles that the presentation of a Congressional gold medal to him for his support to the U.S. invasion of Iraq has been delayed.

There is speculation that it was deliberately delayed to save Mr. Blair the embarrassment of being seen to be `rewarded' for the services rendered to the Bush administration. But Americans have cited technical reasons for the delay.

Even his relations with Washington have come under pressure after the CIA publicly rubbished British intelligence claims that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Africa for its nuclear weapons programme.

Mr. Blair and his Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, have angrily rejected the U.S. stand and insisted that British intelligence was correct. Hours before he left for Washington, he defended his claims in the Commons amid calls for an independent judicial inquiry into all intelligence-related allegations.

Yet, Mr. Blair remains America's most loyal ally this side of the Atlantic and in his `historic' address to the U.S. Congress, he is expected to play the role he likes best: that of a peacemaker between America and what Washington regards as `old' Europe. But who will play the peacemaker in his increasingly bitter row with his own party and the voters?

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