Blair Learns to Rule

...Witness his new Social Exclusion Unit, a mix of civil servants, social workers and various other specialists...

...This gives Blair political leeway that Helmut Kohl in Germany and Lionel Jospin in France can only envy...

...He would devote his attention almost exclusively to fundamental concerns, it was said, such as lifting the nation out of the classridden, sleaze-laced, dispirited rut it had fallen into during the closing years of Tory rule...

...And he could not help getting drawn into the public controversy over whether his Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson—a wealthy former auto industry executive whose joining the Labor government lent it much credibility in the business community— was acting improperly in maintaining tax-exempt assets offshore...

...In the 1960s, Labor's Prime Minister Harold Wilson sought to enlist the "white heat of the technological revolution" to do the job...

...Then there is the reality of inexperience...

...DEVILISH DETAILS Blair Learns to Rule By Norman Gelb London Last May, shortly after Tony Blair became Prime Minister with the biggest parliamentary majority in modern British history, word went out from Number 10 Downing Street that he would be a "big issue" leader...

...None of this is meant to convey a picture of a government in crisis or confusion...

...At present approximately 30 per cent of the population receives cash benefits of one kind or another from the government in the form of rent support, child support, income support, or a disability pension...

...Central to Blair's objectives is a thorough reform of the welfare state fashioned by Labor after World War II...

...Blair did succeed in staying out of the picture, however, when the 17-year-old son of tough-on-drugs Home Secretary Jack Straw was arrested for dealing a small amount of marijuana in a London pub...

...In the 1980s it was the Tones' turn...

...For one thing, resolving Britain's deep structural problems clearly will take more time than anticipated, regardless of how assiduously Blair applies himself to that task...

...Inevitably, the crusading image he brought to his job nine months ago has lost some of its luster...

...Well, it hasn't quite worked out that way...

...Blair strongly believes that excessive dependence on government largess has sapped the once-legendary—and still revivable—ingenuity and enterprise of the British people...

...But a few have proved slow at learning the fine points of running the country, or simply find it difficult to embrace a radical revision of traditional Labor programs...

...It has been assigned to examine how the appallingly large number of "people who do not have means, material or otherwise, to participate in social, economic, political and cultural life" could be integrated into society...

...No one can accuse the Prime Minister of taking a narrow approach...

...Thus far, though, he has at least managed not to be drawn into needless combat with the smallish, doctrinaire hard Left of his party over its objections to some of his New Labor initiatives, particularly his decision to adhere for now to the Conservative line on budgetary controls...

...After almost two decades of uninterrupted Tory rule, his Cabinet members are, like him, new to governing...

...It is this party," he says, "that built the welfare state, and this government that will save the welfare state...

...It is now bruised and creaky, and has established unreasonable levels of expectation that eat up one-third of all government expenditures...

...His reported intention to treat single-parent families no differently from other families on the benefit rolls has produced especially vigorous outrage...

...First, and more important than his impressive opinion poll lead, is his massive majority in the House of Commons...

...In rural areas, Britain's farmers are furious at projected subsidy cuts...

...This sort of talk has raised questions about whether Blair's drive to transform British society can be sustained...

...He dodged criticism, too, when Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was alleged to have replaced his appointments secretary with the younger woman for whom he left his long-supportive wife...

...Other British leaders have attempted to revitalize the nation during the second half of this century as well...

...Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Education Secretary David Blunkett, for example, have had to be bailed out...

...That was amusingly illustrated recently when the popular British movie The Full Monty depicted imaginative, resourceful men regularly extracting unemployment insurance from the government as they shunned the horror of taking a job...

...Blair, meanwhile, would methodically lay the groundwork for a dynamic British society ready to face the millennium...

...Such is the volume of the protests that Blair has felt obliged to urge people not to be panicked by "scare stories" about New Labor's plans...

...Blair offers assurances, too, that he is not embarking on a "short-term fix...

...Finally, the British economy is the strongest among the industrial nations of Europe, with the highest employment and lowest inflation levels...

...So do his current presidency of the European Union, the faltering peace process in Northern Ireland and Saddam Hussein's shenanigans in Iraq...

...Forty years ago a mere 4 per cent claimed such benefits...

...As a result, the Prime Minister has repeatedly had to step down from Olympus to clarify matters when a minister somehow stumbles in explaining his actions to an expectant electorate...

...Although Blair has set out the broad outlines of what he expects his ministers to handle on his behalf in the immediate future, he has found that the devil is in the details...

...Except in emergencies or special cases, day-to-day administration and lesser policy questions would be left entirely to his subordinates...

...Indeed, the government spends more today on disability handouts than on the entire state-run school system...

...Those in genuine need will always be helped...

...Part of the problem is that benefit fraud of one kind or another is not only widespread, it is accepted by many as legitimate...

...Blair has also rebuked Social Security Secretary Harriet Harman because several of her pronouncements seemed contrary to basic government policy...

...That is my guarantee...

...On a more personal level, there was unavoidable unpleasantness when a biography of Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the second most important figure in the government, revived memories of a spat he had with Blair...

...Howls of apprehension have arisen from people who probably voted for him but fear their welfare checks will be "reformed" out of existence...

...Neither left much in the way of a lasting achievement, skeptics note, as they express doubts about Blair doing any better...

...Despite the initial misunderstandings and embarrassments, Labor's policy goals remain reasonably well-defined and it appears to be pursuing them energetically...

...For the foreseeable future it is capable of withstanding the defections of Labor MPs unable to reconcile themselves to the proposed Blairite welfare state revolution...

...He even avoided the spotlight when it was revealed that a small fortune of taxpayer money was lavished on redecorating the official residence of his mentor, Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor...

...Second, the deeply split Conservatives still appear feeble and cranky under William Hague, their new 36-yearold leader...

...To the delight of the press and the annoyance of the two men, who work closely together, the book suggested that Brown has never gotten over Blair's nudging him aside to head the Labor Party when its previous leader, John Smith, succumbed to a heart attack four years ago...

...Norman Gelb reports regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...

...The Unit will deal with poverty, crime-ridden housing projects, rampant school truancy, families whose unemployment is three generations deep, and the growing communities of homeless...

...But he also needs the funds that would be saved through welfare reform for improving sagging educational standards, for investment in the National Health Service, badly run down during the Tory years, and for modernizing the country's deteriorating public transportation systems...

...Moreover, according to the opinion polls the Labor Party continues to enjoy the overwhelming support of the electorate...

...For another, the cut and thrust of parochial political controversy keeps demanding his personal attention...

...But the Prime Minister remains in an unusually solid position to work toward his goals, for he has three advantages his predecessors lacked...

...He points out that many of the reforms, like those involving pensions, will take years to work through the system...

...Margaret Thatcher promoted the virtues of free enterprise and gnawed away at the foundations of the welfare state in her effort to put the Great back in Great Britain...