BLAIR'S TRIAL
British Prime Minister Tony Blair took on his critics at the conference of his Labour Party at Blackpool. War with Iraq and the funding of public services through private investment ('Private Finance Initiatives') were the set piece debates. Both go to the core of the traditional labour party's beliefs - in the enlargement of the state machinery and an imperial policy independent of America - and in raising them at conference, the Prime Minister was once again signalling his role as moderniser. But more than any policy argument, the telling transformation was Blair's personal pilgrimage.
Blair turned up the heat on the PFI debate with a personal manifesto published on the eve of conference refusing to be a 'prisoner' of the welfare reforms Labour made in 1945. Despite picking the argument with the trade union leaders who oppose PFI, Blair lost a vote calling for investigation into the effectiveness of PFI. Rather than suffering from this reversal, though, Blair made a virtue of his isolation from the conference and public opinion. The climax of his speech to conference was an invitation to them to understand what it is like to be him, having to carry through policies that provoke criticism. He told the story of an apparently respectable man ('it could have been my father in law', Blair joked against his trenchant critic Tony Booth) flicking 'V' signs at him. 'I should have flicked one back', he added, precociously. A funny enough story, except that it exemplified the mutual distrust between leader and led. The Daily Mirror headline paraphrased 'Nobody likes me and I don't care'. The essence of his appeal was personal, not political: It's tough at the top; try to see it from my point of view.
On Iraq it fell to guest speaker and former US President Bill Clinton to rhetorically carry the conference from an anti-war, to a pro-Blair position. His star quality raised by contrast to the Labour Party hate-figure George W Bush, Clinton appealed to the conference's qualms over Iraq, saying 'I don't care how smart your bombs are' they will kill people. But this was not the prelude to an argument against bombs, but for the conference's understanding of the moral dilemmas of leadership. If somebody has to make that call, Clinton was saying, it should be someone of Blair's moral calibre.
In both cases the policy was put beyond question. There simply were no doubts allowed as to whether these were the right decisions. But what the leadership did expect the conference to engage with was the personal trials of decision-making. What Blair was looking for at the Labour Party conference was not a consensus around his policies, but recognition of his personal tribulations, and affirmation for his character as a man of conscience.
SOME STORIES THAT FELL OUT OF THE NEWS
With the gathering storm over Iraq, some lesser details of the past history of humanitarian intervention have been overlooked. Three years ago Australian troops formed the backbone of a United Nations force wresting control of East Timor from Indonesia. At the time Premier John Howard welcomed the opportunity to use his troops to establish a regional presence, while at the same time acting the part of liberator. Now troops from the elite Australian SAS are under investigation for the torture and summary execution of Timorese loyal to Indonesia, following the exhumation of their bodies.
Meanwhile the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe that has been running Bosnia since the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, has deigned to allow Bosnians to elect their own representatives. Despite the claims that the US-European intervention in the Balkans was designed to make this former Yugoslav province independent, an unelected 'High Representative' oversees its government. The present incumbent, Paddy Ashdown took to the stump campaigning for Western-sponsored 'moderate' parties, fearing that Bosnians would once again endorse the radical nationalists. Ignore the 'hoary old ghosts of the past', said the High Representative. Paddy Ashdown, who was leader of Britain's tiny Liberal Democrat Party in the 1990s, never held an elected office in his own country. -- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'