User:Nick Gardner /Sandbox

The Civil Service had and has great strengths. It was and is impartial, It is, properly directed, a formidable machine. At times of crisis, superb. Its people are intelligent, hard working and dedicated to the public service. It was simply, like much else, out of date. Faced with big challenges it thought small thoughts. It reckoned in increments when the system required leads and bounds"

"The Prime Minister headed 'the most two-faced, interfering, over-regulating, bossy, intolerant, arrogant and crony-run' government in Britain's history. It would be 'written off by history as people without principle, purpose, belief or conviction.'"

Conservative leader William Hague, quoted in The Independent, 8th October 1999

Personal relationships

The influence of Gordon Brown

Tony Blair's 14-year parliamentary career was strongly influenced by his relationship with Gordon Brown. Together, and each with his band of devoted followers, they conducted the business of government in a way had never happened before. They made less use of the established government machine than had any of their predecessors, and they were even known to take major decisions without involving any one else. Their actions nevertheless commanded widespread support at the time, although many of them have since become deeply unpopular. Although close (but not identical) in political outlook, they were poles apart in temperament: one (Brown) by far the more intense, introspective and intellectual, and the other (Blair) by far the more laid back, outgoing and instinctual. Colleagues and biographers have observed a relationship of contradictions: a mixture of intimate friendship and distant hostility. Their exchanges appear to have been mostly supportive but frequently obstructive, and the outcomes appear to have been mainly constructive but often destructive.

Political alliances

Blair's Governments reflected a balance of power between Blair and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout Blair's time in office. Blair and Brown had been long-standing friends and close political allies, but Brown's own ambitions to hold the highest office himself, and important differences in emphasis on several issues, especially Europe, led to this central relationship becoming strained; the Cabinet became effectively a coalition of Blair's allies and Brown's . A key Blair supporter was John Prescott, elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1994, and appointed as Deputy Prime Minister throughout Blair's tenure. Prescott, as a traditional "old Labour" working class Trade Unionist, played a vital role in ensuring the acceptance of Blair's reforms of the Labour Party by the Trade Unions and by Labour Party activists. Another close Blair ally was David Blunkett, Education Secretary from 1997 to 2001 and Home Secretary from 2001 to 2004. Blunkett's blindness made him invulnerable to personal attack from the media, and his tough image on law and order made him equally invulnerable to political attack from the right. He eventually resigned after a series of personal indiscretions made his continued role in Government untenable.