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Labour's Blair roars to power in Britain
"We have been elected as 'New Labour' and we will govern as 'New Labour.'" 
British voters embraced a new political era with the overwhelming election of Labour Party leader Tony Blair as prime minister in May. Labour's victory over the incumbent Conservatives was on a scale unseen for 165 years, and put a decisive end to the administration of John Major and the Tories' 18-year grip on 10 Downing Street. Blair, an energetic baby boomer whose team consults with the Clinton administration and is often said to resemble it, was determined to update Britain's profile. It was time, they said, for "Rule Britannia" to give way to "Cool Britannia." More substantively, Blair kept a campaign promise to let Scotland and Wales vote for increased home rule. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to create its own Parliament with limited powers to raise taxes. Wales narrowly passed a measure to create a governing assembly with fewer powers. That paved the way for the biggest constitutional changes since Ireland won independence in 1921. Blair also pushed ahead on Northern Ireland, opening peace talks for the first time to Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. The IRA had to pledge nonviolence as a condition of admission. Out of public view but not without controversy, Blair even shook hands with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams as he became the first British prime minister to meet with an Irish republican leader in 70 years. Later, Blair hosted Adams for a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London. It was the first time an Irish Catholic republican leader had been received at the prime minister's residence since negotiations that led to Ireland's division more than 70 years ago. More popularly, Blair helped comfort the grieving nation at the August death of Princess Diana, whom he dubbed "the people's princess." |