Blair Tony. Biography. Tony Blair: biography Last years as prime minister

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State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Omsk" State University them. F.M. Dostoevsky"

History department

Tony Blair and his contribution to political life modern Britain

Course work

INTRODUCTION

In the 90s of the 20th century, a movement called “new labor” emerged in the British Labor Party. Its representatives advocated a third option (after the options of liberals, traditional Labor and Conservatives) or a “third way” for solving social problems, based on the principle “from a welfare state to a welfare society.” “New Labor” characterized the “third way” as a special way of social development, which provided for the differentiation of the functions of the state and society in resolving social issues: the state was entrusted with activities only in the main areas of social policy in order to provide for the poorest, and society had to solve all the rest social problems by stimulating citizen activity.

The leader of the Labor Party from 1994 to 2007 was Tony Blair, now the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. Date of birth: May 6, 1953. Place of birth: Edinburgh (Scotland). If we briefly characterize his figure in the international political arena, it is worth saying the following.

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.

The main aspects of British politics that were at the center of his election program in 1997 - education, health care, crime - are still his priorities now.

The purpose of this work is to analyze the contribution of Tony Blair to the entire diversity of political, social and other life in Great Britain.

This goal is specified in the following tasks:

Make a brief overview of the biography of Tony Blair, the features of his personal and family life.

Compile a generalized political portrait Tony Blair as an international figure.

Analyze the main directions of Tony Blair's political activities. blair election politician

Assess the overall contribution of this figure to the development of Great Britain.

Thus, the chronological framework of the work can be defined as a time period from 1994 to 2007 (from the moment Blair took office as leader of the Labor Party until his resignation as prime minister). Let us clarify that in order to expand the research context, we retrospectively turn to deeper periods, namely, to the second half of the twentieth century, since it was during this period that Tony Blair became a future active figure in the international political arena.

In our work we will talk about the biography of Tony Blair, since it was thanks to his life path and the personal characteristics formed in its course that he managed to achieve such significant heights in politics and not only. We will also outline the political portrait of Tony Blair, his achievements and the main directions of his work - this is the content of two chapters of our work.

CHAPTER 1. BIOGRAPHY OF TONY BLAIR

1.1 Tony Blair's personal life story

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. Blair became what he wanted, but his father did not have time to become - a successful politician. However, this is where the similarities end. They are very different in their political views, although his father had a great influence on Tony in childhood. The son of a staunch conservative and an atheist became the leader of the Labor Party and a very religious man. The apple in his case fell very far from the tree.

Leo Blair, Anthony's father, despite his leftist preferences in his youth, supported the Conservative Party for most of his adult life and confidently made his way to parliament in the English town of Durham in the northeast of England. Heading the local Conservative Association, Leo had a good chance of achieving great heights in politics, and was also a successful lawyer. But life had its own way. When Blair Jr. was 11 years old, his father had a stroke.

This misfortune left a significant and deep mark on Tony's psyche. To see someone who was not just close to you, unexpectedly bedridden, but extremely active and energetic, in the prime of life, showed how illusory the constancy of life is, how unpredictable and changeable it is. From these difficult experiences, Blair learned a lesson for himself - life is short and changeable, if you want to achieve something, value the time allotted by fate, do not waste it in vain, act purposefully. Perhaps the influence of the Phaeton complex - the deprivation of a father as a support in childhood - not only played a role in the formation of Blair's character, but also manifested itself in the motives of his political speeches, which are characterized by life-affirming themes of revival, renewal, youth.

In childhood and adolescence, Tony Blair was a very obstinate person; more than once, with his actions, he created problems for parents and teachers. After graduating from primary school, he was assigned to Fettes, a prestigious private boarding school in Scotland. In addition to some real celebrities, fictional book ones also “studied” here, for example James Bond.

In such schools, the future British ruling elite was brought up under conditions of strict discipline. Offending teenagers were often flogged with rods; the practice of hazing prevailed throughout. The younger kids had to “work” for the older students: clean their shoes, polish their buckles, and fulfill other whims. Tony suffered greatly from such practices. When it was time to go to Fettes for the second school year, he waved goodbye to his parents, immediately jumped off the train through the opposite door, got to the airport and tried to get on the plane flying to the Bahamas. However, vigilant inspectors discovered the “hare” in time. Blair had to return to his unloved school.

In high school, Tony became one of the local leaders. At the same time, he constantly violated the rules of wearing a school uniform, grew his hair long, made fun of teachers, and during lessons sang songs from the repertoire of his musical idol, Mick Jagger. More than once the obstinate guy was threatened with expulsion. However, during these same years, Blair showed an inquisitive mind, acting talent, and leadership qualities.

After graduating from school, he became seriously interested in rock music and for a whole year before entering university he drove around London in an old mini-bus, promoting his youth group. Already a student at St. John's College, Oxford, Blair becomes the lead singer in a group called Ugly Rumors. His appearance is still the same: long tousled hair, extravagant clothes. My favorite book when I was 18 was the biography of Leon Trotsky.

But Blair's defiant behavior was not a blind protest. His rejection of conformity was combined with ideological quests and a desire for reflection. Marxism quickly lost its appeal for Tony in favor of Christian socialism, and the Bible eventually took the place of Trotsky's books on Blair's desk.

More than once in the future, Blair will have to bow down to financial aces, newspaper magnates and high-born nobles, and fulfill a lot of the conventions of high society etiquette, which a career requires a public politician to do. But it was Blair who would remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords, it was under him that canings would be banned in private schools, it was he who would welcome rock musicians to Downing Street, it was under him that a person’s social status would finally cease to be determined by genealogy and titles, but solely by professional achievements.

1.2 Family life and its features

Tony Blair and Cherie Booth, the daughter of an English actor, have been married since 1980. Then they not only showed great promise as lawyers, but both also had political ambitions. Cherie, at the age of 15, announced that she wanted to become Britain's first female prime minister. Friends took her claims seriously, and Blair was predicted to have a brilliant career as a lawyer. In fact, the opposite happened.

Tony Blair's wife is constantly called Cherry, although she was tormented at school to explain that her name is pronounced Sheri. This is what her father named her in honor of a girl he accidentally met in a cafe, where he came with his pregnant wife. This frivolous decision was all about Tony Booth - an unsuccessful but resilient actor. Cherie Blair was accepted into the famous London School of Economics at the age of 17 without exams. Four years later, the famous lawyer Derry Irwin invited Sheri to take a course in advocacy with him. Together with her, another new student came to improve her skills - a shaggy guy with protruding ears, a graduate of a prestigious private school named Anthony Blair.

Sheri was a Laborite by conviction and even by family tradition. Blair's father, a successful lawyer, traditionally voted for the Conservatives, but, on reflection, Tony also joined the Workers' Party. He and his wife attended rallies together against the deployment of American missiles in Britain. Together they advocated for the rights of third world immigrants.

Sheri, who was used to denying herself everything as a child, developed a craving for luxury over the years. She wears dresses, although modest, from the best fashion designers, and she does not want to skimp on furniture and other home furnishings. Moreover, the modesty of the dresses turns out to be forced: all attempts to dress bolder were ridiculed by the press.

When the Blairs moved to 10 Downing Street in 1997, they already had two sons and a daughter. Long before this, the couple agreed that they would not hide Sheri and the children from the lenses of television cameras and cameras. This was done at the insistence of the wife, who wanted to spend as much time as possible with her husband. Blair was present at the birth of children twice. He didn’t see anything special in getting up at night to see his babies who were worried about something.

Blair's concerns about excessive public attention on his family have been justified more than once. The Prime Minister found that his interests as a politician and as a father could conflict with each other, and, to his credit, he chose in favor of the latter.

But for all that, Blair is not averse to using the topic of fatherhood to achieve the desired public effect. In his speeches you can often find phrases such as: “I tell you this not only as Prime Minister, but also as a father” or “My children miss me, but they miss me for being here.” To resolve political conflicts, Blair often turns to his wife for help. For example, it was Sheri who called members of parliament, convincing them not to vote against the government's decision to go to war with Iraq.

2. POLITICAL PORTRAIT OF TONY BLAIR

2.1 Professional development and path to big politics

In 1975, after graduating from university, Anthony Blair 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 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. His career quickly took off, and in 1992 Blair was elected to the party's executive committee.

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 Blair assumed leadership of the party after Smith's death in 1994.

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 record lows, and 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 on 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 27 June, 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 as a 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.

2.2 Transformations in the field of education

First, let's outline the transformations in the field of education. Almost no one in Great Britain believed that this would happen: the opposition, the left wing of the ruling Labor Party, students, trade unions, and the public in general were against it. “All the opinion polls show the unpopularity of this idea, but the government is stubbornly pushing it,” Frank Dobson, a member of the House of Commons, one of the left-wing Labor members, complained to a BBC correspondent on the eve of January 28. The new law, which is supposed to replace the previous Higher Education Bill, has been heavily criticized in the press and has received the contemptuous nickname “Top-Up Fees Bill.”

On the eve of the first reading of the law in parliament, the Minister of Education in the shadow cabinet of the Liberal Democrats (a party quickly becoming the “second force” in the UK - amid a crisis in the ranks of the Conservatives and a sharp decline in the popularity of Labour), member of the House of Commons Phil Willis, issued a special statement in which prophesied that a government law would destroy the UK education system for “ever and ever” (the statement is called: “Top-Up Fees Bill Will Damage Education Forever!”).

Oxford students and fellow students from Brooks and Ruskin College seized the main lecture hall (Examination School) of Oxford University in protest against government plans. Moreover, they were supported not only by their own British students, but also by German students. By the time the debate on the bill began, the National Union of Students organized a meeting right outside Westminster. Nothing helped. The Top-Up Fees Bill passed 316 votes to 311. Blair's opponents reassured themselves that this was a Pyrrhic victory (a 5-vote margin in Parliament, where the ruling party has a majority of 161 votes in the House of Commons, is rather a disgrace). Ian Gibson, one of the leaders of the Labor left in Parliament, publicly vowed that he would not sleep until he achieved the repeal of this law. Student organizations also vow that the fight is not over. But all this is already a shock. On March 31, the “Top-Up Fees Bill” successfully passed its second reading in the House of Commons. The bureaucratic machine can no longer be stopped.

Tony Blair made it clear to everyone that the adoption of this law is not a matter of culture or economics, but of politics, linking it with a vote of confidence in the government (that is, exposing his own party to blackmail). “Back me or sack me,” he told his Labor opponents. Never one for much risk-taking, Blair suddenly showed miracles of courage, since his reputation was already hanging by a thread due to the scandal surrounding the death of former government weapons expert David Kelly, who divulged data about the falsification of the “Iraq dossier” by the government and intelligence services. Both events - the adoption of the Top-Up Fees Bill and the publication of the verdict of Lord Hutton's commission on the Kelly Case - occurred almost simultaneously.

What could have caused such transformations, such political behavior of Blair? This figuratively speaking “whip” has a name: corporate power. It was corporations that forced the Labor government to change the Higher Education Act for the second time in a row, commercializing and primitivizing British higher education and destroying the education system that Labor itself created in the “pre-Thatcher” period - starting from the time of Harold Wilson. Labour's actions today are determined by the country's accession to the Bologna process. It was the Labor Minister of Education, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, who signed both fundamental documents of the Bologna process - both the Sorbonne Declaration (1998) and the Bologna Declaration (1999). Immediately after this, Labor abolished free education in public universities (and in the UK all universities except one are public), introducing tuition fees in the amount of 1,125 pounds. Art. in year. True, the Scots, to their credit, fought back - and paid education was introduced only in England and Wales. The result of the fact that it became possible to make serious money from education was easily predictable in advance: new and new universities began to breed like rabbits in the country (this is now a profitable business) with a monstrous quality of education (that is, everything is like ours). And since all of them were also state universities and students, by law, did not pay the full amount, but at best a third - the rest was paid by the state, there was a catastrophic lack of money in the budget for higher education.

All that remains is to wait until the leadership of the universities, which are receiving less and less money from the treasury and therefore impoverished, unanimously complain, and “meet him halfway.” Which is what Blair has now done. He said: since the state does not have money for higher education, let the students themselves pay for education. At the same time, Blair resorted to social demagoguery of the Goebbels type. “Is it fair,” he asked, “to impose additional taxes on the majority of the population who did not attend universities? In my opinion, no." This was also preceded by a well-orchestrated “revolt” of the rectors and vice-chancellors of the most prestigious universities on the island (part of the so-called Russel Group), who demanded - due to the decline in the prestige of British diplomas - to allow them to “enter the market” and set their own tuition prices (according to them, this is 12 thousand pounds a year), and also allow unlimited admission of foreign students (who pay full tuition for education).

As a result, according to the Top-Up Fees Bill, the cost of higher education in Britain will increase to 3 thousand pounds from 2006. Art. in year. At the same time, the introduced system looks humane in appearance. Students from poor families who have proven their talent can expect to receive a grant of £1,200 from the government and, if they're lucky, £300 from the university. That's not all. It is assumed that students, if they do not object (and they will not, this is obvious), will be able to pay the money not immediately, but after graduating from university - and only starting from the moment when they begin to earn at least 15 thousand pounds. Art. in year. The payments themselves should not be less than 9% of annual income. In the meantime, the state will pay for students. Formally, it will look like this: the state will provide interest-free loans to students. It would seem, what does corporations have to do with it? And what are the protests about? All this looks like pure charity.

But here's what it has to do with it. If the British state today does not have enough money to pay part of the costs of higher education, where will the money suddenly come from to pay all the costs? And at the same time, for at least 5 years in a row, without receiving any return (and many students, for example doctors, study longer). The government plans to take loans from private banks for these purposes. So, the average taxpayer (the one who, according to Blair, “did not study at universities”) will still pay for higher education.

But big capital is now “hooking” not only the state, but also university graduates. Because now all graduates will become debtors. The average British student today leaves university with a debt noose of £15,000 around their neck. Art., and a medical student - 50 thousand f. Art. This debt accrues due to the fact that scholarships in British universities have been cancelled, and students must pay for benefits and textbooks, consumables, reagents, etc., including housing and food, out of their own pockets. Now graduates will be left with more student loan debt. Meanwhile, as the US experience has shown, those who pay off loans (for example, for housing) are an ideal workforce from the point of view of corporations. Debtors don't rebel. The one who pays the loan is not free. The last thing he will risk is arguing with his superiors at work, defending his rights, contradicting the employer: he is deathly afraid of losing his job - and, therefore, the opportunity to continue regular payments on the loan (as you know, the creditor, if he is not paid, has the right to take away the property for non-payment debtor - a house, for example).

What seems especially cynical here is that British graduates will not pay immediately after graduating from universities, but only when they start earning over 15 thousand pounds. Art. in year. Meanwhile, the annual income of, for example, lecturers united in the UK Lecturers' Union (the majority of the union consists of recent university graduates) is less than this amount. Thus, this “Top-Up Fees Bill” condition extends the period during which a university graduate is forced to be dependent and submissive, afraid to assert his political and social rights.

In addition, the direct interest of corporations in the Top-Up Fees Bill is that the new law prioritizes the competitiveness of British education. The question arises: who is the current competitor of British higher education? US High School. How does this competition manifest itself? The fact that during “Reaganomics” in the USA it was open a large number of new universities teaching students de facto using accelerated methods, and that in many old universities new training programs were introduced, aimed at the mass production of highly specialized specialists who did not have a sufficient stock of knowledge (especially fundamental knowledge) that could would provide them with at least relative independence from the employer (due to knowledge of “related fields” and, therefore, “related professions”).

Such employees are ideal for corporations, especially in conditions of mass unemployment. On the one hand, they have diplomas of higher education, on the other, they actually have only a secondary technical education, and then within the limits of their narrow specialty, that is, one that is usually given not by secondary specialized educational institutions (technical schools), but by courses.

Such employees, due to their limited education and limited outlook, are not only afraid to defend their rights for fear of losing highly specialized jobs, but are simply not able to understand how exactly the employer violates their rights, how corporations profit from them - and even just how looks like their employer's economic strategy. The example of a graduate of a “Reaganized” university who has a diploma of higher technical education, but is not able to calculate percentage to percentage, has already become a textbook example.

From the point of view of corporations operating in the English-speaking market (that is, those where documentation is maintained in English), British graduates are still overqualified, that is, they know too much, and are therefore less manageable and less useful than they would like. in order to become meek cogs of the corporate machine. It is this “misunderstanding” that the “Top-Up Fees Bill” aims to correct.

At this point, we can summarize the following. As a result of the transformations:

1. The injured party may be students and graduates of universities: they will receive an education of worse quality, but at the same time for more money. In addition, they will become financially dependent on the system as direct debtors.

2. The affected party may be British society, since it will become, firstly, more dependent on the power of corporations, and secondly, in the near future, less intellectual, more culturally defective due to the primitivization of the content of education in higher education, adaptation it to the narrowly utilitarian production needs of corporations.

3. The injured party may be fundamental science and the humanities in general, since they do not fit (and in principle cannot fit) into a strategy in which economic competitiveness becomes the main thing in education.

4. Members of the poor may suffer. A significant part of UK students study in the part-time system (in our opinion, these are correspondence and evening students). This means that their financial situation is such that they cannot afford to study without earning a living (that is, their families are not able to support them). Most of these students, when the Top-Up Fees Bill is implemented, will not be able to continue their studies (soberly believing that they will not be able to pay off their debts).

5. Corporations can benefit because they will receive an army of highly qualified and at the same time highly specialized employees, who are also obedient and do not rebel due to their position as a financial debtor.

The reaction of current and future British students to the Top-Up Fees Bill shows that they do not clearly understand the consequences of the introduction of the new law, how this law will hit them, and also that what is happening is not the result of “ill will” Tony Blair, and a consequence of the globalization process, in this case, the UK’s accession to the Bologna process, which, as is known, openly proclaims the main goal of education is not to provide citizens with the opportunity to develop their personality and realize their natural talents, but simply economic competitiveness. It is for this last reason that the Top-Up Fees Bill was fully supported by the OECD in advance.

Over the years, the British have only once been able to fight back against corporations and the government and force them to retreat. We are talking about the famous “Poll-Tax Revolt”, a “rebellion” against M. Thatcher’s attempt to introduce a new income tax system. The “Poll-Tax Revolt,” during which tens of thousands of demonstrators fought street battles with the police (including in Trafalgar Square), and in working-class neighborhoods and suburbs beat up Tory MPs and smashed ministerial Mercedes to pieces, showed that This is the only way to force Britain's ruling class to back down. But this is how the “overqualified” British behaved. This “reform” of education in the UK is designed to reduce the number of such “overqualified” to a minimum.

2.3 Changes in health and social services

Let's move on to consider the issue related to healthcare. A special place in reforming the British health care system is occupied by the reforms carried out by Margaret Thatcher, as well as their continuation by Tony Blair. With the advent of Margaret Thatcher, a new concept for the National Health Service was proclaimed - the “internal market”.

The presence of the payer as a third party in the system led to the fact that the risk of bankruptcy of individual practices became very real (a single case of an expensive operation could bankrupt a private practice). Margaret Thatcher voluntarily allowed several general practitioners to join together as fundholders. Their budget was larger and allowed them to dilute the risk in the event of a single serious illness.

Such a measure as fund holding allowed England to spend almost half as much money in relation to GDP compared to other highly developed countries and for a long period remain a state that effectively curbs health care costs.

The disadvantage of this system was that not all doctors united into groups - fund holders. This resulted in many patients having to wait a long time for scheduled surgeries or to see specialists. Some researchers even consider the waiting time for medical procedures as the main indicator of medical activity.

An attempt to solve this problem was made by Tony Blair, who formally proclaimed a new course of reforms (rejection of the idea of the internal market and proclamation of the idea of cooperation), but in content maintained the continuity of the previous course. The association of doctors into groups of fund holders has become mandatory. And centralized financing has made it possible to reduce the cost of treatment.

One of the positive characteristics of the predominantly public health care system in England is the emphasis on the development of the health care system, rather than the financing of medical care alone. In the health care concept, the bulk of funds comes from the state budget and is distributed from top to bottom through the management hierarchy, supporting local departments. Prevention programs operate quite successfully (and not sporadically, but regularly); special targeted payments are made as part of the program for the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

At the same time, this healthcare model is accompanied by the following disadvantages: close dependence of industry funding on other budget items, disregard for patient rights, a tendency towards monopolism and, as a consequence, an inevitable decline in the quality of medical services.

So, the reform of health care systems in highly developed European countries occurs on the basis of the continuity of new institutions. Any changes do not affect the basic principle - equality of opportunity to receive medical care.

Let's move on to the characteristics of 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 the social policy of the “New Labour” was the gender program, which was 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, following the signing of 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 involved 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 program for the development of education. 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. .

The main conclusions we made based on the results of this work include the following.

Anthony Blair's personal biography testifies to his high personal potential, which, of course, helped him throughout his life not only as a politician and active public figure, but also as a holistic, original personality.

Anthony Blair has become a kind of record holder for the length of his tenure as prime minister and the speed of development of his career as a whole. He managed to introduce into the rational grains of the transformation of Great Britain laid down by “Thatcherism” that part of the renewal, without which their implementation would have seemed extremely difficult for British society. Thus, the so-called “Third Way” was outlined, keeping pace with New Labour.

Significant changes have been made in healthcare, education, and social life. Time will tell how effective and timely they really are, but these changes are directly related to globalization, and their need is obvious.

In general, the economic situation of the country has improved.

CONCLUSION

With the passing of Tony Blair, an entire era ended in Great Britain. And this was not said for the sake of a nice word. Blair turned out to be a record holder - he became the absolute champion among Labor members in terms of the length of his tenure as prime minister - more than ten years, and the only leader of the Labor Party to win three victories in a row in parliamentary elections. But his main merit lies not in his personal achievements, but in the fact that he led Labor away from their ideals, which served as a guide for almost a century. It was Labor leader Tony Blair who became the true successor and finalizer of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative revolution, giving it its final form and content.

Over the course of 18 years, the tough “Thatcherism” of the British was fairly exhausted, since it expressed the interests, first of all, of big business and the country’s ruling elite to the detriment of the general population. Young Labour, led by Tony Blair, understood this and developed a new ideology that combined economic liberalism with Labour's "philanthropy". It was called “New Labour,” under whose banner Blair brought his renewed party to power.

New Labor was a major achievement for the Labor Party and Blair personally. Over the past 10 years, the UK's economic situation has improved. Industry has grown. The level of employment in the public sector of the economy has doubled, and unemployment has decreased by the same amount. The national health care system was revived. The pound sterling is the strongest in half a century.

New Labor was able to change the long-standing problems of Britain, primarily Northern Ireland. By making contact with the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, Blair was able to reconcile Catholics and Protestants and launch parliament in Belfast.

Despite the fact that the issue of educational reforms still remains open and controversial, the fact that work in this direction is being carried out is indicative. “Education, education and education!” - said Tony Blair, and although he is not a supporter of Marxism-Leninism with the notorious “Study, study and study,” education really requires attention. And what was started by Tony Blair and his associates will be further developed by his followers.

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

A. A. Creder. “Recent history of the 20th century”. Moscow “Center for Humanitarian Education” 1997

Andrey Ivanov. Police have questioned Tony Blair over title trading. - Kommersant, 12.18. 2006. - No. 236/P (No. 3567)

Anna Nikolaeva, Ivan Preobrazhensky. Cold summit. - Vedomosti, 08.06. 2007. - No. 104 (1878)

Arkady Dubnov. "Who will like this?" - News Time, 12.02. 2007. - N°24

Biography of Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain. - Deutsche Welle, 23.06. 2005

Biography of Tony Blair. http://www.ladno.ru/person/bler/bio/

Elena Lashkina. Without unnecessary politeness. - Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 12.02. 2007. - N4292

Zagladin N. Recent history of foreign countries. XX century http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/zagl_novist/index.php

“Our business partners. Great Britain". Moscow “International Relations” 1990

Olga Dmitrieva. Blair promised to leave. - Russian newspaper, 16.05. 2006. - No. 4067

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Beginning of 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 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.

At the head of the party

An active and ambitious politician, Blair quickly moved 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.

Blair became an ideal political leader for the Labor Party, largely deciding the outcome of the 1997 parliamentary elections in favor of his party.

Premiership

Blair was elected by an overwhelming margin, a victory the British Social Democrats had not seen 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 Scotsman Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Known as the most loyal prime minister to the United States

Social politics

New Labour's program of social change was aimed at ensuring and maintaining social justice and stability in British society. The theoretical basis for the modernization of the country was 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.

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 program for the development of education. 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 certain 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.

Sierra Leone

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.

On May 30, 2007, Tony Blair was solemnly proclaimed the 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 stopping civil war.

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 January 2010, he began working for the French group of companies LVMH, where he will hold the position of personal advisor to the owner of the French group, Bernard Arnault.

In October 2011, it was announced that Tony Blair would lead a group of economic advisers to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev

Family

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.

Awards

Presidential Medal of Freedom (USA, January 2009)

Was a classmate of famous actor Rowan Atkinson

In the family of a lawyer. As a child, he lived in Australia for three years.

It is known that while studying at school, the future prime minister’s classmate was “Mr. Bean” himself, Rowan Atkinson.

Beginning of political activity

At the head of the party

Blair became an ideal political leader for the Labor Party, largely deciding the outcome of the 1997 parliamentary elections in favor of his party.

Premiership

Blair was elected by an overwhelming margin, a victory the British Social Democrats had not seen 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.

Known as the most loyal prime minister to the United States

Social politics

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.

Former British Prime Minister (1997-2007)

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.

In 1999, Great Britain took part in the Yugoslav conflict (Blair supported the concept of “humanitarian intervention” put forward by the United States).

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.

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.