Prime Minister Tony Blair

In the term of the Prime Minister centuries prior to Blair, which started in the early 18th century, the English considered this position a place of special trust and regarded it as a high head of government. It became an elite position where a person could become almost as powerful as the queen or king, without actually being blood related. Close examples of powerful Prime Ministers have been Thomas Cromwell under Henry VII, Robert Cecil under Elizabeth I, and Godolphin under Queen Anne. References to Prime Ministers over the last two centuries have changed from "The Minister," to the "First Minister," and finally, called " Prime Minister." The monarch has complete control over the extent of power dealt to the Prime Minister. If the current monarch does not care for the policies or actions of the Prime Minister, he or she can dismiss him, or even worse, execute him. Some monarchs hire two or more ministers, so one can not have more power than the other, which has been successful in some cases. For example, in the Queen Anne's reign, Troy ministers Harley and St. John shared the power dealt to them, and, in turn, it resulted with an effective way to handle the delicate balance of power. Prime ministers tend to deal mainly with the problems of foreign countries that the monarch may have problems or treaties to discuss. In the turn of the eighteenth century, the Irish government had a social problem with the English government. It was never resolved until Prime Minister Tony Blair gave one of the most socially important speeches in English history. Given the fact that he has changed the way we perceive

the United Kingdom today as an economic and social power along side the United States, it gives me great honor to speak on behalf of his legacy today.

Tony Blair was a well rounded individual, making to most of his career by non-stop commitment of his goal to be a major part of politics through various connections and hard work. Blair was born in Edinburgh, England, but spent the majority of his life in Durham, England. He ended up returning to Edinburgh, at the age of 14, only to finish his education at Fettes College in the vicinity. He then attended Oxford University to study law. Blair graduated in 1975 and joined the Labour Party. He then, in order to further his career he immediately became a Barrister. He tried to be an active member for the Labor Party, fitting himself into the Hackney Borough Concouil Party that at the time was getting good reviews as a political sect, but, unfortunately, was rejected by a landslide vote of the opposing candidate. But, persevering through the hardships of becoming a major part of politics, he settled for a seat at the Sedgefield in 1983 in the General Election. Blair had several close connections with the government through his brother-in-law who contacted a man named Tom Pendry. Pendry attempted to give Blair a seat at the Parliament after the death of former MP, Ronald Bell, but was once again, overcumbered by another close election. He ended up becoming elected into Britain's House of Commons in 1983, where he served for the next dozen years in shadow cabinets in the Labor Party. In the summer of 1994, he took a well deserved control of the Labor Party, giving it life and a sense of importance that it needed for the last two decades. He set out some common goals in the party like pro-unionism and taking an active concern in welfare acts to nuclear disarment. He followed through on his promises like no other, getting closer to his one day of becoming somebody important.

Blair was credited on many occasions for making the Labor Party a center of national interest in British politics. All in all, he modernized the whole structure of the party by taking cues of the American system and trying to abandon the old way of thinking. His ideas stuck like no other before him, priming himself up to be a major candidate to the prime minister of Great Britain. Blair frequently used the word "New Labor" to get his new view in. Included in his view was making a market economy rather than sticking with the older based approach of nationalism, which is basically command, conquer and rule type of economy. America is run the same way, by letting the countries survive on their own, and then trade with those countries, and they will inevitablelly thrive. Using such terms as the "modern social economy" and " the 3rd way," gave his campaign an early push it needed. And, in the spring of 1997, he became the youngest prime minister for the country of Great Britain to since 1817's Lord Liverpool.

Blair, as soon as time allowed, absorbed as much good public relations with the public as possible. His first term as Prime Minsiter was his completion of the negotiations with the Ireland's government, which became called the Belfast Agreement. The Belfast Agreement gave peaceful negotiations with England and Ireland over the power sharing of North Ireland, also known as the "Good Friday Agreement." The initial attempt to bring peace was brought about by the previous minister John Major, but ultimately struck down by a cease-fire of the IRA. With Blair's careful wording and compromising at every point in his speech, he lead the two nations to united a bond that hasn't ever been done in the last 800 years. It was signed in April 10, 1998, and became also the first prime minister to address the Republic of Ireland's Parrliament. He appealed to these folks by giving his background in the Ireland culture and saying things like this in his speech, "Ireland, as you may know, is in my blood. My mother was born in the flat above her grandmother's hardware shop on the main street of Ballyshannon in Donegal. She lived there as a child, started school there and only moved when her father died; her mother remarried and they crossed the water to Glasgow." Ireland gave in and gave England their trust and support. Another significant achievement early in his first term was his effort in helping fix the Bank of England from becoming a corrupt, interest gobbling machine. Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time and wanted to have complete control of the interest rates of loans. Blair was in office just in time to settle the dispute over this atrocity by bringing down spending from the government down to a minimum to eliminate the need for the interest rates, and to remain in place over the next two years.

Blair polics from then on won national appeal has he spoke to the nation, rather than one of the other government officials that would only work in the deep shadows of politics behind the monarch's puppeteering. One of Blair's first acts as prime minister was to host a bi-weekly,

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