Mining the Middle in Britain

...10 Downing Street...

...Britain's next general election probably will not take place until 1996 or '97...

...Should the prospect of higher wages or the lost days wind up weakening the nation's incipient recovery from a three-year economic slump, Blair would be left dangling...

...Before entering Parliament, Blair was a promising barrister...

...Judging from their previous performances, he should not be surprised to encounter bits of family history unknown even to himself...

...Nevertheless, prominent members of the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties are having difficulty concealing their concern that Blair's emergence has presented them with a possibly insurmountable challenge...

...The Conservatives have already begun to plaster Blair with the same mud, mocking his refusal to put price tags on the social programs he favors...

...Now he has grabbed another big Conservative plank, "family values," and gone so far as to criticize single women who intentionally raise children outside the traditional mother-father relationship...

...Elected to Parliament in 1983 from the safe Labor constituency of Sedgefield, in northeast England's County Durham, he became a member of Labor's Shadow Cabinet five years later...

...To keep a hold of Labor's newfound middle-class support, essential for his election as Prime Minister, he may feel obliged to distance himself from the strikers—a move his left wing, whatever Prescott's entreaties, would probably find intolerable...

...Its stalwarts may ultimately find themselves unable to muffle their righteous anguish over his attempts to court Britain's middle class...

...Blair's youthful exuberance, "crusade for national change" and undoctrinaire approach to policies could very well steal the thunder of Britain's third party, the Centrist Liberal Democrats, or even lead to an alignment...

...Another grew out of the disclosure that two Tory Members of Parliament were prepared to take about $1,500 to raise questions in the House of Commons on behalf of a businessman in search of political favors, who turned out to be a Sunday Times reporter...

...During a trip to the United States in 1992, Blair personally consulted Democratic campaign managers on behalf of John Smith...

...Both he and his wife—a successful barrister herself—appear to be squeaky clean and to enjoy a happy life with their three small children...

...Thanks to a close association with Labor Treasury Spokesman Gordon Brown, Blair also projects a greater appreciation of fiscal responsibility than any previous Labor leader (he says, for instance, that welfare should be "a hand up, not a handout"), even as he offers assurances that basic social programs will not be neglected...

...His latestbook, Ike and Monty: Generals at War, has recently been published by Morrow...

...In spite of their diminishing power, the result could be a renewal of the internecine fighting that has frequently thwarted Labor's electoral hopes...

...This has prompted some observers here to predict the "Clintonization" of British politics...

...At that point, the youthful Tony Blair might well find himself rapidly aging...

...The key to Blair's defense will be fiery leftwinger John Prescott...

...While serving as Labor's Home Affairs man, Blair stole the Tories' "get tough on crime" rhetoric and turned it against them, suggesting their extended tenure was partly responsible for soaring crime rates...

...Thus far the Transportation Ministry's mishandling of the dispute has allowed him to credibly hold the government to account for the damage done to business and the inconvenience faced by hundreds of thousands of commuters...

...But efforts to dismiss Blair as a lightweight have not been effective...

...The problem with the tactic is that their party was the last to break a promise not to raise taxes...

...The sight of Labor lined up rather neatly behind Blair has sent a shudder of apprehension through the Tory camp...

...used for the good of each...

...Some newspapers backing the government have tried to stick the boyish-looking Labor leader with the nickname "Bambi...

...Smith's sudden death this past May catapulted Blair into the July contest for the top job...

...On the hustings he insisted, "a strong united society is necessary to individual achievement...

...A comparative political stripling at age 41, he is the youngest man ever elected leader of the Labor Party—an organization never before partial to youthful guidance, eager to govern a country similarly inclined toward senior statesmen...

...Yet any successes on the part of the strikers, no matter how small, could prompt an eruption of similar demands—and stoppages—by workers across Britain...

...In addition, he has demanded higher educational standards for schoolchildren, coupled with measures to improve their discipline and sense of duty...

...At this stage, the best chance the Tories have of tackling Blair lies in finding flaws in the Labor Party's policies...

...A greater threat to Blair is his own left wing...

...Still, party publicists are taking care to identify Blair with the less threatening "Christian socialism," rather than the discredited Marxist variety...

...The fact that he truly is a devout Christian without making a fuss about it has helped them craft an image of him many Conservative voters do not find at all menacing...

...But passions have been stirred by the news that some Tory MPs are well-paid consultants for public relations firms specializing in lobbying Commons...

...What is more, Tony Blair has only recently risen from obscurity...

...Labor lost the last general election despite a strong lead in the opinion polls because voters equated the party with higher taxation...

...The second case has touched off an inquiry into a practice that dates back to the days when serving in Parliament was apart-time commitment...

...So far, though, the only "dirt" turned up is that while at Oxford he was the lead singer in a rock group called Ugly Rumors, and that his father-in-law is a self-confessed philanderer...

...For above all, he employs a simple tactic potent Labor elements had long shunned as heretical: He claims the political middle ground as his own...

...that he won with relative ease, however, reflects the changed mood within the party...

...That is why we call it social-ism...

...If the two groups did join forces, the Conservatives would confront a unified opposition for the first time in decades...

...Actually, the word has today come to signify a form of social justice so loosely defined that Laborites from one extreme to the other can stake a claim to it...

...London's tabloids have unleashed their usual legions to sift through Blair's past, too...

...Employment Secretary Michael Portillo, the least restrained of the Tory political brawlers, has demanded of Blair, "Where's the beef...

...Tories such as Board of Trade President Michael Heseltine and Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind have sought to dismiss their newest adversary as nothing more than a slick public relations creation—looks, youth, a comforting line of patter, but little substance...

...NORMAN GELB is THE NEW LEADERS regular London correspondent...

...One of the most revealing examples of Blair's strategy is his skillful revival of the "s" word, studiously avoided in Labor's 1992 manifesto because it was felt to have become too heavy a burden at the ballot box...

...Blair's numbers have undoubtedly been boosted by Prime Minister John Major's fumbling performance of late, and by a series of highly publicized scandals within Conservative circles...

...The danger of warfare erupting once again within his party nonetheless remains a matter of deep concern for Blair, as he recently demonstrated by reacting cautiously to a series of one- and two-day strikes by British railway workers...

...Outraged and exasperated by 15 consecutive years of Conservative rule, Labor's often bitterly divided factions have set aside their fraternal squabbles and political reservations, at least for the moment, and agreed on a leader the increasingly middle-class British electorate is likely to consider worthy of its trust...

...Socialism," he declared in his victory address, means to him "the power of all...

...They are keenly aware of how grave a threat that could pose: Like President Bill Clinton, who faced down two opponents in Ross Perot and George Bush, they held on to power with only a plurality of votes...

...Opinion polls indicate that despite his unexpected arrival at center stage, he is now the most popular politician in Britain...

...Elected deputy leader, he seems ready to provide the support necessary to ward off any flanking attacks on party unity, at least until the Laborites reoccupy the residence at No...

...This allows MPs—who are paid roughly $50,000 a year plus housing, travel and office expenses—to engage in virtually any outside business activity so long as they record it in the Register of Members' Interests...

...But he first began to attract some national attention just two years ago, when Opposition Leader John Smith tapped him to be Labor's Spokesman for Home Affairs...

...To particular effect, he has conspicuously and unapologetically distanced himself from the trade union "barons," who in past years have had a strong voice in party policies...

...One of these has centered on the unconscionable salaries awarded to the executives of public utilities newly privatized by the government...