In my absence from the other side of the pond (I am in Halifax Nova Scotia at the SMBE conference 2007), Tony Blair took his last steps outside the door of number 10 Downing Street and stepped down as Britich PM. I’m not sure how history will view Blair. In Ireland he will be remembered for his work in the North and a very fine job that he and Mo Mowlam did indeed. I always felt that it would need to be a conservative PM that sorted out the North. My reasons for that are largely the same reasons why I always felt that it would require Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley to sort it out. The most entrenched on all sides needed to be convinced before it could be said that it would all truely be over.

In the event, it was not a conservative PM who sorted it out, but a Labour PM. Blair was a pragmatist. A man who was apparently Labout and by definition a left-wing politician. I don’t know to what extent he expoused and implemented left-wing politics, but for sure he was left of centre, preserved and supported the NHS, etc. However, he sent his own children to public schools, rather then the state-funded schools. Unusual move for somebody that should have been unequivocaly supportive of the state school system.

Naturally, Iraq will feature strongly in his legacy. I was very surprised and disappointed with Blair on that issue. I always felt that Hans Blix should have been given more time and the international community should have learned from Northern Ireland that conflict only ceases when the reasons for conflict cease to be.