Irish voters and 90 per cent of voters in the
Republic. It marks not the end of all violence, but
the beginning of the end.
While the devolution of government with
Gerry Adams’ Sinn Féin ministers sharing power
with Ulster Unionists had a rocky beginning and
the IRA did not complete its decommissioning,
the military paramilitias on both sides did not wish
to renew ‘the war’ opposed by the overwhelming
number of people Catholic and Protestant in
Northern Ireland. Even the breakaway ‘Real IRA’
suspended bombing after the horrific explosion
they caused in Omagh on 15 August 1998 which
killed twenty-nine and injured many more. An
uneasy peace descended on the province.
Blair scored highly for his firm moral leader-
ship in urging intervention in the Kosovo human-
itarian crisis in 1997 and 1998 and seeing that
conflict to a successful conclusion. At home he
was equally sure-footed when responding to the
unprecedented outpouring of public grief at the
funeral of Princess Diana in September 1997.
Over Europe the country was still divided but
Blair hoped to lead his reluctant countrymen to
the heart of the European Union. A formula was
found that would leave the economic decision to
join the Monetary Union when conditions were
right to Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the
exchequer; the political decision had already been
made in favour. Blair was attempting to ride two
horses at once.
Though the promise of a better National
Health Service and improved public services did
not materialise, the economy remained in sound
shape. The Bank of England, not politicians, was
now setting interest rates to meet a low inflation
target; unemployment was low and the country
was doing much better than Britain’s neighbours.
Blair’s strong leadership in the crisis in Kosovo in
1999 won him much support (Chapter 78). Blair
asked for a second mandate to complete New
Labour’s promises. The general election was
called in June 2001. New Labour won by a land-
slide almost as great as four years earlier. In his
second administration the country expected New
Labour to show the results of its reforming poli-
cies. Trust in the prime minister was at its peak.
At home, the public services, especially the
National Health Service, failed to improve fast
enough; it attracted increasing criticism during
the second administration. Chancellor Brown
until 2002 kept a prudent financial policy going
and opposed the entry of Britain into the Euro-
pean Monetary Union as the ‘five tests’ had not
been passed. In 2003 Brown massively increased
public spending and accepted that a large deficit
would result. Blair, more keen than Brown to
place Britain fully into the European Union, was
unable to make much progress against a sceptical
British public.
A defining moment for the prime minister was
the decision to back the US in the war against
Iraq in March 2003 (Chapter 79). There was
strong parliamentary and public opposition
though the majority approved driving Saddam
Hussein from power. Blair’s reputation for trust-
worthiness, however, received a check when
investigations caused by the suicide of a civil
service scientist Dr Kelly, in the summer of 2003
broadened into questioning whether the case put
by Blair before parliament for going to war had
been sound. That may be a just criticism as it
related to the 45-minute claim, that this is all
Saddam needed to ready weapons of mass
destruction, but not that Blair had deliberately
misled parliament and the British people. Trust in
him was again brought into question when it
became clear in 2004 that there were no weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. But the Conservative
opposition had to make up much ground to place
Labour into serious doubt of winning a third
term on 5 May, 2005. ‘New Labour’ espoused
‘one nation’ politics and moved to the middle
ground, Michael Howard and his colleagues had
to find a fresh Conservative electoral appeal. The
Liberal Democrats offered an alternative as the
electorate was not enthusiastic about either major
party in the election year.
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