No, the road builder from County Durham who happens to have the same name as the prime minister has not had a smooth ride. From the day of Labour’s election in 1997 he realised his life had taken an odd turn and it wasn’t entirely his own fault.
“I wanted Labour to win, but I wasn’t happy that the prime minister had the same name as me,” he said last week. “It’s not easy having the same name as someone famous, you know: for a start when they call you out at the dentist, everyone looks round.”
Since then Blair the construction worker has followed Blair of the toothsome smile with more than usual attention, and yesterday he noted his namesake reached a milestone: Blair became the longest continuously serving prime minister Labour has ever had.
After notching up six years and 93 days in Downing Street, Blair surpassed the record of Clement Attlee, the Labour leader who reforged Britain after the second world war. (Though Harold Wilson spent longer as prime minister overall, he did so in two separate spells.) Was it a moment for celebration? Not exactly. True, Blair went out last night for a few pints before moving on to a nightclub — but that was part of a friend’s stag night. He saw little other reason to mark the occasion.
“I voted for him in 1997, I’ve always voted Labour, round here everyone does,” said Blair, who lives in Chester-le-Street. “But I’m disillusioned. We’ve not noticed any improvement, and I didn’t bother voting for him last time.”
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Job prospects in the region are poor and, after payments to the Child Support Agency, the divorced father of two is left with little spare cash. This Blair has not had a holiday abroad for four years.
His namesake is faring rather better: the prime minister is this weekend in Barbados, staying at a property owned by Sir Cliff Richard. But he, too, has let the milestone pass almost without comment.
At a press conference last week when taxed on the government’s achievements he merely said: “The overall record is one that bears comparison with any government, Labour or Conservative.”
Aides were told not to mark the passing of Attlee’s record in any official way for fear of drawing comparisons and raising questions about what Blair’s government has actually achieved. Few ministers or backbenchers spoke out.
But if the prime minister will not pass judgment, what about the select band of other Tony Blairs who are listed on the electoral role in Britain? How do they view their namesake’s record and performance?
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THE Tony Blair of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, is just the sort of voter for whom the prime minister ought to be delivering results. He is a worker — an electrician — but he’s entrepreneurial, too, since he is self-employed. He has four children and his wife helps out in the business. And he is a former Tory voter who decided in 1997 that it was time for a change.
“There was sleaze everywhere, and with Labour being led by a young, articulate, clearly intelligent family man, I thought here was the guy to change things,” said Blair the electrician, 61. “I thought things were going to get better after May 1997, but . . .”
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One of his particular concerns was the National Health Service, whose creation had been a glory of Attlee’s government. The moment of revelation for the Berkhamsted Blair came in 2001 when his elderly mother was referred by her GP to a consultant because of her failing eyesight.
She had to wait until January this year before being told she needed an operation to remove cataracts. When it was scheduled for May, only to be postponed until October, Blair felt impelled to pay for her to have it done privately. It cost him £3,000.
“She’s 94 so I wasn’t going to let her wait,” he said. “Besides, my mother is an independent woman and copes on her own at home — but this problem meant there was a possibility she would have to be looked after, at additional cost to the state. I couldn’t see the sense in that.”
He faces a similar dilemma with his twin grandsons, 19 months old, who suffer from hearing problems. They are waiting for an operation and he fears the consequences of delay could ultimately lead to extra costs for the taxpayer if the boys’ development is impaired.
If there was a general election tomorrow, he says, his vote would not help give Blair a third term.
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In the town of Carnforth, Lancashire, another Tony Blair is marginally more forgiving. Having the same name as the prime minister, he says, has been good publicity for his business “even if my wife gets it with people calling her Cherie”. When the prime minister’s youngest son, Leo, was born, an American woman even phoned up the Carnforth Blair to offer congratulations.
This Blair too is a self-employed electrician and his concerns have been the stranglehold of bureaucracy and crime.
He used to have several helpers in his business but in the years since 1997 has gradually let them all go. “I was finding that I was spending more time doing the paperwork, so the profit margin wasn’t any better. There didn’t seem much point in having the hassle of being a small employer.”
For all the boasts of the prime minister and chancellor of being attuned to the needs of business, this Blair found himself drowning in red tape and regulations.
“I’m on my own now,” he said, “and I’ve cut out a lot of the paperwork.”
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He’s been none too impressed either by his namesake’s mantra about being tough on crime and the causes of crime: his garage was broken into 18 months ago. Though the police turned up, Blair complains the protection they offer is unpredictable.
“They keep altering the policing arrangements around us,” he said. “Sometimes it’s better than it was, sometimes it’s not.”
For Tony Blair of Bexleyheath, Kent, education is his bête noire. This Blair, 58, is a former engineer and since he retired his personal circumstances have “stood still” under Labour. He is broadly supportive of the prime minister for keeping the economy on track. “I’ve got no better,” he said, “but I’ve got no worse.”
Instead his worry is his daughter and her prospects. “She’s just finished university and is saddled with all these loans,” he said. “They will be a millstone around her neck from now on until she’s paid them off.”
In his eyes, the government’s drive to increase fees will also be a millstone around the prime minister’s neck.
ATTLEE was a man of few words, described by Churchill as a “sheep in sheep’s clothing”. Not for him soundbites and spin doctors or the white heat of Blair’s smile.
He came to power at a turning point in history, the end of the war in 1945, seized the opportunity and delivered results, though their consequences are debatable.
“Attlee and Blair are two very different characters, operating in very different eras,” said Kenneth Morgan, historian and biographer of the former Labour premier Lord Callaghan. “Attlee was much more a team leader.
“And in many ways it was easier to be radical then, coming out of the war. For Attlee there was a whole list of policies that were clearly needed when he came to power, whereas the priorities for New Labour have never been that clear.”
Yesterday Peter Hain, leader of the House of Commons, tried to defend Blair’s record in comparison with Attlee’s.
“I am constantly struck by how few people know what we have actually achieved,” he wrote in a newspaper article. “Attlee achieved many things. But he did not conquer poverty pay by introducing a national minimum wage. We did. He did not devolve power to our nations and regions. We have.”
It was classic spin. Attlee might not have introduced a minimum wage, but he implemented key elements of the welfare state as well as creating the NHS. He did not devolve power to Scotland and Wales but he gave independence to India, Burma and Ceylon. He also took Britain into Nato and the Council of Europe.
For the ordinary Tony Blairs of Britain, spin remains one of the biggest problems for their namesake in Downing Street.
“You just can’t believe what anybody says any more,” said Tony Blair of Canterbury, a retired insurance claims manager.
The rows over the war on Iraq have completed his disillusion. “Blair’s got a complex about red carpets now, hasn’t he? He can’t keep away from them. Meanwhile nobody is looking after the shop with any integrity, and it shows across the board from transport to asylum to education.”
Surely every cloud has a silver lining?
“Well, I have had great fun out of being Tony Blair,” he said. “When I’m phoning someone and they don’t know me, I tell them my name and there’s silence at the other end.” Tony Blair from Paisley, near Glasgow, agreed. “I quite like being Tony Blair,” said the 21-year-old apprentice engineer. “The first time people hear my name they think it’s hilarious.”
But he doubts the fun will last. “There’s going to have to be a big push if they want to get the people back on side, and I can’t see him doing it at the election. Then I’ll just be a guy who used to have a funny name.”
As the economy comes under pressure and the government struggles to deliver on public services, Blair remains determined to continue as prime minister. Last week he said his appetite for office is “undiminished”, adding “there is a big job of work to do”.
He enjoys a majority in the House of Commons larger than Attlee ever had — but there is one parallel that might give him pause for thought. Attlee’s downfall lay in a dispute over introducing charges for some NHS care; Blair faces a very similar battle over his plans for foundation hospitals.
Who will history treat more kindly? No Clement Attlee appears on the electoral role, but there is a substitute arbiter.
“I’d rather be an Attlee than a Thatcher or a Blair,” said Charlotte Attlee, 45, a relative of the former prime minister who lives in Oxford. “Blair’s unpicking a lot of what Clement set out to achieve. He’s very charismatic, which Attlee wasn’t really. He was a very unassuming person who was driven about by his wife.
“Blair is the opposite, obsessed with his media persona and his place on the world stage. But Attlee’s actions spoke much louder. I was thrilled in 1997 when Labour came to power. But it was a different country then, a different world.
“It feels like an eternity since Blair came to power, but for all the spending I can’t really say what’s improved.”
HIS NAMESAKES' JUDGEMENT
Tony Blair, 71, retired insurance claims manager, Canterbury, Kent: "I thought he offered a clean start and deserved a chance but I've become disillusioned, particularly in the second term."
Tony Blair, 66, retired fireman, Manchester: Back in 1997, I thought Britain would get back on its feet with Labour. I thought it would be different to how it's turned out. But I think he's done pretty well.
Tony Blair, 21, apprentice engineer, Paisley, Scotland: After Iraq, I can't see him winning back people's trust by the next election.
Tony Blair, 52, electrician, Carnforth, Lancashire: The way I look at it, there were a lot of people in Iraq being mistreated by Saddam Hussein. The fact that we've stopped that has to make it worth it.
Tony Blair, 61, electrician, Berkhamsted, Herts: I knew they weren't going to turn the ship around overnight, but after six years we should be seeing something moving. I don't know who I'd vote for now, but it wouldn't be him.
Tony Blair, 41, construction worker, Chester-le-Street, County Durham: I didn't bother voting for him last time and I can't see that I will bother next time.
COOL CLEM V TORTURED TONY
CLEMENT ATTLEE 1945 - 51
The man: Public-school, Oxford-educated lawyer, elected to parliament at 39
The premier: after serving in coalition government, became PM at 63
The record: Nationalised Bank of England, and several industries, including gas. Created NHS, but faced revolt over charges. Oversaw independence for India. Opened Festival of Britain as symbol of post-war reconstruction. Soon afterwards Attlee was out of office.
TONY BLAIR 1997 -
The man: Public-school, Oxford-educated lawyer, elected to parliament at 30.
The premier: Straight into Number 10 with no experience of government aged 43
The record: Granted independence to Bank of England, and used private finance initiatives. Pledged to reform NHS but faces backbench rebellion. Devolved power to Scotland and Wales. Opened Millennium Dome as symbol of new Britain. After a year it closed.