I always thought that the big change of government occurred in this country when John Major took over from Margaret Thatcher, rather than when Tony Blair took over from John Major. Indeed, the change occurred the day John Major forced Margaret Thatcher into the ERM before he gained the Prime Ministership.

What are the characteristics of Blajorism?

The first and most important is the??obsessive??fixation with the media. The image of what the government is doing is deemed to be?? more important that what the government is doing, and the belief is that you can detach the image from the reality if you spin enough. You spend so much time watching yourself in the mirror, you do not have the time to finish dressing.I can even remember a John Major Cabinet meeting being informed of some article that had just appeared in??the latest??edition of the Evening Standard, which was thought important! Under Tony Blair this fascination has become routine, where it appears that bad headlines need to be managed whereas an underlying problem in government performance can be ignored if no-one writes about it in the national press.

The second is both leaders distrusted the instincts of the natural followers of their own party, causing endless tensions between their parties and the leaders. Tony Blair deliberately picked a fight with the left to show his party had changed, and then ignored much of it in power.??John Major’s administration was defined by a whole series of briefings in unflattering terms about the Eurosceptics, who just happened to speak for the overwhelming majority of the British people. The centre created an image of a split party by unwisely disagreeing with the majority over such a huge issue as Europe.

??The third was the search for consensus policies, where the whole UK establishment united to get it wrong. The worst of these was the ERM itself, which not only damaged the Uk economy badly, but brought about John Major’s own eventual heavy defeat at the polls.Both administrations followed a higher tax and higher spend policy, whilst failing to get value for the money or to focus the point of it all.??

??The notable exception has been the pursuit of the consensus policy to bring about peace in Northern ireland. Both John Major and Tony Blair devoted great energy and abnormal amounts of Prime Ministerial time to the affairs of the province, and both deserve loud and long applause for the latest - and we hope long lasting -??initiative by the warring communities to lay down their arms?? and to create a democratic way of resolving differences.

In a way both men were well equipped to do this. They understood the complex factional politics of both sides in the troubles, and went to great lengths to build a consensus approach, using the media intelligently to change attitudes. It is good that this has happened.

Unfortunately the skills needed to bring peace to Northern ireland are very different from the skills needed to sort out our schools, hospitals, and competitiveness. What Northern Ireland has gained, the rest of the Uk has lost from 17 years of Blajorism.

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