BLAIR, ANTHONY (TONY) CHARLES LINTON(Blair, Anthony (Tony) Charles Lynton) (b. 1953), Prime Minister of Great Britain. Born on May 6, 1953 in Edinburgh (Scotland), he spent his childhood in Durham in northeast England. He studied law at St John's College, Oxford University. In 1975 he joined the Labor Party. Until 1983 he worked as a lawyer, specializing in cases related to labor law.
At the general election in June 1983, Blair was elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield (near Durham). Since 1985 - opposition speaker on finance, trade and industry, energy and employment. After the 1992 elections - Home Secretary in the shadow cabinet of John Smith.
After the unexpected death of J. Smith, who replaced Kinnock after the defeat in the 1992 elections, Blair took over as leader of the Labor Party on July 21, 1994. Blair announced a review of the party's ideological platform and provisions relating to public ownership and the role of trade unions in party decision-making. Blair sought to present Labor as champions of law and order, taking over the traditional Conservative election theme, and also expressed support for Britain's entry into the European Union. When John Major announced the date of parliamentary elections - May 1, 1997, Blair launched a campaign under the slogan "New Labor" and declared about his support for Conservative economic policies. In addition, Labour's platform called for decentralization of government power (devolution) in Scotland and Wales, the elimination of voting rights for hereditary peers in the House of Lords and the introduction of minimum wage legislation, as well as tough measures against child offenders. In the elections, the Labor Party won an impressive victory, receiving 44% of the vote and achieving an overwhelming majority in parliament (419 of 659 seats).
One of Blair's first acts as prime minister was to relieve the Bank of England of its duty to consult with the government on interest rates. Blair took a constructive position regarding peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein (the political body of the Irish Republican Army). His efforts culminated in a historic peace agreement between the conflicting parties in April 1998. Blair continued to support the peace process despite renewed violence in the region in 1998.
During his first year in office, Blair remained an unpopular figure among British left-wing politicians, who considered him a traitor to the fundamental principles of the Labor Party, but actively pursued the privatization of state-owned enterprises and reform of the social security system.
On the foreign policy front, he acted as an ally of US President Bill Clinton in the peace process in the Middle East and the Balkans. In December 1998, Blair announced the participation of the country's air force in joint actions against Iraq. In March 1999, the RAF took part in the bombing of Yugoslavia. In April 2000, Blair was the first of the G7 leaders to receive the newly elected president in London. Russian Federation V.V.Putin. In 2001 and 2005 he won the elections and was re-elected as prime minister.
On 10 May 2007, Blair announced that he was resigning as Labor leader and would formally submit his resignation as Prime Minister to the Queen on 27 June. In the internal party elections that followed, Gordon Brown won. On June 27, Blair officially resigned and Brown took office as prime minister. On the same day, the UN headquarters officially announced the appointment of Blair as a special representative of the Quartet of international mediators for the Middle East settlement, which includes the United States, the UN, the European Union and Russia.
In January 1999, Blair was awarded the international Charlemagne Prize for his active participation in the Ulster settlement negotiations, and in June 2003 he was awarded one of the most prestigious American awards - the US Congress Gold Medal. He was also honored for his "outstanding and lasting contributions to the security of all freedom-loving nations."
Anthony Blair(English Tony Blair, full name Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, English Anthony Charles Lynton Blair; May 6, 1953, Edinburgh) - former leader of the Labor Party of Great Britain, 73rd Prime Minister of Great Britain (from 1997 to 2007). Record holder among British Labor members for the longest tenure at the head of the party. In the 20th century, only Blair and Margaret Thatcher remained in power through three general election campaigns.
Anthony Blair Anthony Blair - 73rd Prime Minister of Great Britain 2 May 1997 - 27 June 2007
Citizenship: UK
Religion: Catholic, former Anglican
Birth: May 6, 1953 Edinburgh, Scotland
Party: UK Labor Party (since 1975)
Education: Oxford University, St. Joanna
Profession: Lawyer
Tony Blair born in the Scottish city of Edinburgh in the family of a lawyer. As a child, he lived in Australia for three years.
From 1961 to 1966, he attended the private choir school at Durham Cathedral, together with Rowan Atkinson, the future actor and performer of the role of Mr. Bean. Then Tony Blair entered the privileged private school Fettes College in Edinburgh. In Fettes, Tony was not distinguished by exemplary behavior; he hated the official uniform, which was mandatory for all students; imitating Mick Jagger, he wore jeans and grew his hair long. Teachers constantly complained about him because he interfered with classes.
In 1971-72 Tony Blair went to London to try his hand at rock music before studying law at St John's College, Oxford University. Student Tony Blair was the vocalist in the band Ugly Rumors. In 1975 he received a second degree bachelor's degree in law.
After graduating from Oxford Tony Blair joined the Labor Party. In 1976 he became a member of Lincoln's Inn as an apprentice barrister. In the summer of 1976, Tony traveled to France and worked in a hotel bar in Paris.
The beginning of Tony Blair's political activity
In 1975, after graduating from university, he taught law at Oxford, after which he began working in the law firm of Darry Irwin, a close friend and one of the leaders of the Labor Party, John Smith, under whose influence Tony Blair began political activity. In 1983 he took the newly created seat in Parliament, representing the Sidgefield constituency, a mining region in the north. Actively involved in the party struggle, the future prime minister was engaged in journalism and in 1987-1988 wrote his own column in The Times. Career quickly went uphill, and in 1992 Blair elected to the party's executive committee.
The activities of Tony Blair at the head of the Labor Party
Active and ambitious politician Tony Blair quickly walked up the steps of the party hierarchy. On July 21, 1994, Tony Blair, after 11 years of parliamentary activity, becomes the youngest leader of the Labor Party in its entire history. He was only 41 years old then.
Tony Blair became an ideal political leader for the Labor Party, largely deciding the outcome of the 1997 parliamentary elections in favor of his party.
Activities of Tony Blair as British Prime Minister
Blair was elected with an overwhelming majority of votes; British social democrats had not seen such a victory for a century. As Prime Minister of Great Britain following the 1997 elections, he replaced the conservative John Major, thus interrupting the 18-year period of rule of the Tory party.
Since May 2, 1997 - Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was re-elected in the elections of 2001 and 2005.
On May 10, 2007, Tony Blair announced that on June 27 he would submit his resignation from the post of Prime Minister to the Queen. Blair's predetermined successor was a Scots Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Known as the prime minister most loyal to the United States.
Tony Blair's social policy
New Labour's program of social change was aimed at ensuring and maintaining social justice and stability in British society. Theoretical basis Modernization of the country was promoted by the concept of the “Third Way”, developed by Tony Blair’s chief adviser Anthony Giddens. The “third way,” according to Blair, is a search for an alternative, a compromise and a combination of two elements: a market economy and universal social justice, combined with increased attention to the human factor.
One of the main vectors in social policy“New Labour” was a gender program based on the need for equality in society, which would contribute to sustainable democratic development. Labor focused its attention on the problem of women's employment and the problem of gender inequality in the labor market, which is most manifested in the wage gap between men and women (in 1997, women's hourly earnings amounted to 80.2% of men's hourly earnings, and in 2004 they rose to 82%).
In 1997, after signing the EU Social Charter, the UK announced new directions in social policy. Thus, British workers received the right to three weeks of paid leave, and since 1999 - four weeks; It was decided that the duration of overtime work should henceforth not exceed 8 hours.
In 2003, the government created the position of Minister for Children, Youth and Families with a wide range of powers. As a result, local authorities were obliged to provide the necessary assistance to families with children, especially disadvantaged ones. In March 2004, the Children's Bill was adopted, which meant ensuring a decent standard of living for children, as well as measures to provide them with sufficient assistance. Moreover, child benefits for low-income families were increased (in 2004, benefits for the first child were £16.50 per week, for each subsequent child - £11.05) and £6 billion were allocated. Art. to combat child poverty. Also, for children living in the poorest areas of Great Britain, the Sure Start program was developed, which included the creation of nurseries, teachers visiting poor families with small children, and informing parents on issues of child education.
In 1998, Blair developed a new education development program. A review of school curricula was announced, with an emphasis on children's individual abilities and a focus on their future professional activities. The education reform was accompanied by the introduction of an additional fee of 1 thousand pounds at universities in Wales and England. Art. (“mentoring fee”); Scotland has abandoned this innovation. In 2000, it was decided to set a course for each school to have a specific specialization, in other words, its own ethos. In addition, Great Britain was divided into 25 regional educational action areas and 750 thousand pounds were allocated for each. Art.
Events in Sierra Leone with the participation of Tony Blair
In 2000, Tony Blair sent 1,500 British troops to Sierra Leone to defend the country's capital, Freetown, from the rebel army of the Revolutionary United Front.
May 30, 2007 Tony Blair was solemnly proclaimed Supreme Leader of Sierra Leone. The new title formally gives Tony Blair the right to sit in the parliament of Sierra Leone. Thus, as The Daily Telegraph reports, the country's authorities noted his role in ending the civil war.
Activities of Tony Blair after resignation
On the day of his resignation, June 27, 2007, he was appointed Quartet special peace envoy for the Middle East settlement.
In January 2008, he was appointed senior advisor and member of the International Affairs Council of JPMorgan Chase. Blair also works as an advisor to the financial group Zurich Financial.
In July 2009 Tony Blair announced a strategic partnership with Durham University, following similar partnerships with Yale University and National University Singapore to create a global network of twelve leading research universities to advance its Faith and Globalization Initiative in collaboration with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
Since the beginning of 2010, Blair has been an adviser to the owner of the French group of companies LVMH, Bernard Arnault. Since autumn 2011 Tony Blair advised the President of Kazakhstan on economic reforms.
Tony Blair's family
Married since 1980. The wife was born Sheri Booth, a lawyer by training, the daughter of British actor Tony Booth (English) Russian. and, according to some sources, a distant relative of John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln's assassin).
They met in the late 1970s in Paris. They have three sons (Ewan, Nicky and Leo) and a daughter, Catherine. The last child, Leo, was born on May 20, 2000.
Tony Blair Awards
In 1999, Blair received the International Prize for his contribution to resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland and participation in the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Charlemagne. On 22 May 2008, Tony Blair received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Queen's University Belfast for his contribution to resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland.
In 2009, US President George W. Bush awarded Tony Blair the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The image of Tony Blair in fiction and cinema
In 2007, Robert Harris wrote the novel Specter, in which Tony Blair was portrayed as Prime Minister Adam Lang, a British prime minister under the influence of the CIA. In 2010, the premiere of the film “Phantom” took place, directed by Roman Polanski based on the book.
Michael Sheen played the role Tony Blair three times: in the 2003 TV movie "The Deal", in the 2006 film "The Queen" and in the 2010 TV movie "The Special Relationship".
Tony Blair, who took office as Prime Minister of Great Britain on May 2, 1997, was the youngest head of the British government since 1812. It ended 18 years of Conservative rule in Britain and cemented Labour's position of power.
During his years in power, Prime Minister Blair carried out highly successful reforms in the areas of health care, school education and the labor market. Under his leadership, the UK economy entered a stage of sustainable growth, and the country has added almost 3 million new jobs over the past decade.
In 1997, in his first year as prime minister, Blair fulfilled his promise to hold referendums in Scotland and Wales to transfer some of the functions of central power to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
The undisputed achievement of Tony Blair was the settlement in Ulster. In October 1997, Blair met with Gerry Adams, the leader of the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, Sinn Féin. In April 1998, Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestants, who had been at war for decades, signed the Good Friday Agreement, paving the way for a further peace process. And in the fall of 2006, the warring parties came to a historic agreement on the creation of a unified government, which will begin its work on May 15, 2007. On May 8, 2007, Tony Blair said that he considered it a matter of honor to complete “on a high note” the process of forming his own authorities in Ulster, which began in the first year of his premiership.
In 1997 Blair granted independence to the Bank of England, which received the right to set interest rates independently, without consultation with the government.
In May 1998 A successful referendum was held to establish a London Assembly and an elected mayor of the capital.
In 1999 Tony Blair's government carried out a radical reform that changed the centuries-old system of forming the upper house of the British Parliament. As part of the reform of the House of Lords, the number of hereditary peers was reduced to 92.
In January 2004 Blair managed to pass a package of education reform bills through parliament.
After the terrorist attacks in London July 7, 2005 Blair promised not to make the slightest concession to terrorism, which won him the support of citizens.
In November 2005 In the Labor parliamentary faction, a movement began to impeach Blair: the basis was the prime minister’s actions before the Iraq War, when, according to critics, he deliberately misled parliament.
In February 2006 Blair suffered a setback in parliament: his proposed bill to make incitement to racial hatred a criminal offense was rejected by a majority of one vote.
In 2006 Demands for Blair's resignation began to sound increasingly louder in connection with a whole series of scandals. In March 2006, it emerged that some wealthy entrepreneurs who had made large secret loans to the Labor Party had received seats in the House of Lords, knighthoods or other titles. Journalists called this scandal “money in exchange for titles.” Some people from the prime minister's inner circle were involved in the loud scandal, including Lord Levy, who was responsible for collecting donations in the party. Tony Blair himself was forced to give evidence in this case to the police, becoming the first sitting head of government in British history to be questioned by Scotland Yard.
In British foreign policy during Blair's first term, the main event was the country's participation in the Kosovo conflict. Several thousand British troops were sent to the region as part of a peacekeeping force.
In March 2000 Blair became the first leader of a Western country to visit Vladimir Putin, who was elected president of the Russian Federation, in Moscow.
In January 2003 Blair released information according to which Iraq continued to create chemical and biological weapons and hatched plans to use them. He declared the need for a speedy solution to the problem of disarmament in Iraq and traveled to European countries, campaigning for the overthrow of Hussein.
March 19, 2003 Britain sent 45,000 troops to participate in the US-led "coalition of goodwill" assembled to invade Iraq. Blair spoke to reporters in defense of his decision to participate in the Iraq campaign.
In March 2006 Anti-war activists criticized Blair for his statement that the decision to go to war with Iraq would be ultimately judged only by God.
He argued that if circumstances had been the same as in 2003, he would have decided to go to war again.
In mid-May 2007 Tony Blair is expected to announce his resignation as leader of the Labor Party, and after the election of a new leader, presumably at the end of June 2007, he will transfer the powers of prime minister to him.
In May 2007 There have been reports that Tony Blair intends to try himself as an actor in a play about the dangers of extremism after retiring.
Anthony Charles Linton Blair was born on May 6, 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland, into the family of a lawyer, and graduated from two colleges - Edinburgh and Oxford (St. John's College, Oxford). As a child, he lived in Australia for three years.
He was educated at the privileged private secondary school Fettes College in Edinburgh, then at St. John's College, Oxford University. Legal specialist. While studying, he joined the Labor Party. After graduating from college, Tony went to Paris, where, in order to “experience life,” he worked as a bartender for a year.
In 1975, after graduating from university, he taught law at Oxford, after which he began working in the law firm of Darry Irvine, a close friend and one of the leaders of the Labor Party, John Smith, under whose influence Tony Blair began his political activities.
In 1983 he took the newly created seat in Parliament, representing the Sidgefield constituency, a mining region in the north. Actively involved in the party struggle, the future prime minister was engaged in journalism and in 1987-1988 wrote his own column in The Times. His career quickly took off, and in 1992 Blair was elected to the party's executive committee.
An active and ambitious politician, Blair found himself in the endless battles and intrigues of the sophisticated political elite of Foggy Albion. He quickly walked up the steps of the party hierarchy. On July 21, 1994, Tony Blair, after 11 years of parliamentary activity, becomes the youngest leader of the Labor Party in its entire history. He was only 41 years old then.
Labor had been in opposition for 18 years by that time. Blair is a politician of a new wave and new views on how Great Britain should enter the new millennium. He became an ideal political leader for the Labor Party, largely deciding the outcome of the 1997 parliamentary elections in favor of his party.
Blair was elected by an overwhelming margin, a victory the British Social Democrats had not seen for a century.
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Former British Prime Minister (1997-2007)
Prime Minister of Great Britain (1997-2007), the country's youngest prime minister in the last 200 years. Member of the House of Commons (1983-2007), leader of the Labor Party (1994-2007), founder of the ideas of the so-called “New Labour”. He pursued a policy of decentralizing government power, but began to lose popularity after Great Britain took part in the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns. On June 27, 2007, he left the post of prime minister, giving way to the new Labor leader Gordon Brown. On the day of his resignation, Blair was appointed special representative of the Middle East Quartet (Russia, EU, USA, UN). Later, in January 2008, he became a senior advisor to the American bank JPMorgan Chase.
Anthony Charles Linton Blair was born in 1953 in Edinburgh into the family of a university law teacher. He spent his childhood and youth in England and Australia. He studied at Fettes College in Edinburgh and then studied law at Oxford University. After graduation, he taught at Oxford, and in 1976 he joined the bar, specializing in labor and commercial law. At the same time, he began to take an active part in the activities of the Labor Party.
In 1983 he was elected to the House of Commons of the British Parliament. He joined the right-wing Laborites, supporters of party reform. In the 1980s, he held various positions in the shadow cabinet and became a member of the party's national executive committee. In 1992, the new Labor leader, John Smith, appointed Blair to the post of shadow home secretary, and after Smith's death in 1994, Blair took over the leadership of the party.
Blair intensively carried out party reform: he sought to make the party's positions more centrist and more attractive to voters, to reduce the role of traditional ties with trade unions, for which he received the nickname of the godfather of “New Labour”.
In 1997, the Labor Party won a landslide victory in the general parliamentary elections, and Blair took over as prime minister. The Blair government pursued policies to decentralize government power, resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland, reform the social sector and improve relations with the European Union.
In 1999, Great Britain took part in the Yugoslav conflict (Blair supported the concept of “humanitarian intervention” put forward by the United States).
In 2001, the Labor Party again won a majority in the parliamentary elections. Blair's second term as prime minister was marked by the "war on terror" launched by the United States. The UK took part in military operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. This foreign policy course of the Blair government caused discontent in the Labor Party and in the country as a whole.
In 2003, a scandal erupted over a BBC News report on pre-war intelligence fraud and the suicide of biological weapons expert David Kelly. Although in January 2004 an independent commission cleared Blair of charges of fraud and pressure on Kelly, criticism of the prime minister and the government did not subside. Blair himself continued to insist on the correctness of his chosen foreign policy course.
In 2005, Blair led Labor to victory in parliamentary elections for the third time in a row, but the party's number of seats in parliament decreased significantly compared to previous elections. The loss of popularity of the prime minister and his party was facilitated by the publication of new materials about the period of preparation for the war with Iraq. Labor lost the municipal elections in May 2006. National support for Blair was at an all-time low, and there was a growing anti-Prime Minister movement within the party. At the same time, Blair faced a new wave of criticism in connection with British policy in Iraq.
In May 2006, under pressure from criticism, Blair announced that he planned to resign in the summer of 2007. Blair's most likely successor was considered to be his longtime ally Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, according to observers, almost single-handedly directed the country's economic policy during Blair's premiership. On 16 November 2006, the Prime Minister officially named Brown as his successor.
In March 2006, a huge scandal began surrounding Labour's 2005 election campaign: it is known as "loans for peerage". It turned out that some of the party's sponsors were offered honorary titles in exchange for large cash loans. On December 14, 2006, the Prime Minister gave evidence to the investigation in this case.
On May 10, 2007, Blair made a long-awaited announcement about the date of his resignation: he announced that he would leave the post of prime minister on June 27 of the same year. On June 24, internal elections were held in the Labor Party, as a result of which Brown became leader of the Labor Party. On June 27, Blair officially resigned as head of government, handing it over to Brown.
On the same day, the four parties involved in the Middle East settlement process (the "Middle East Quartet" - Russia, the EU, the USA and the UN) approved Blair as their special representative in the region. In this regard, the ex-prime minister left his seat in the House of Commons. In January 2008, Blair was also appointed senior advisor and member of the international affairs council of the major American bank JPMorgan Chase.
Blair became the record holder among Labor prime ministers for the longest tenure. He was the youngest leader of the Labor Party in history and the youngest Prime Minister of Great Britain in almost 200 years. Labour's only leader, Blair led the party to three consecutive general election victories. On the other hand, Blair's opponents believe that his policies led to a split within the party and in society as a whole.