PRAGUE — When Tony Blair, having procrastinated about his departure almost to the point of unreason, finally gives up the British premiership this month, it will be to the general relief not only of the British public as a whole, but also of the overwhelming majority of his own party.
After three terms in office, it could hardly be otherwise. Despite the cliche, power does corrupt, and the late Blair era — like that of Margaret Thatcher before it — has been a squalid spectacle.
The paradox is that, for a man who wielded so much power for so long, it is unclear what domestic legacy, if any, Blair will leave. Blairism was a mood, a style, but in substantive terms, it represented no radical break with the Thatcherite legacy that New Labour repackaged so cleverly and, in fairness, administered more humanely than the Iron Lady did.