The Blair era is almost over...

So today Tony Blair annouced his intention to stand down as the leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister. He will visit the Queen on the 27th of June to offer his resignation as Prime Minister at which point Gordon Brown will almost certainly take over. Blair's speech was nothing new. Though he has not been forced out of office. He made that decision for himself when he said he would not be fighting another election. That was probably his biggest blunder in Office aside from Iraq. The moment he said he had no intention of fighting for another term in Office, his authority began to drain away from him. The irony is that he could have fought for a forth term in Office, had he not got along with Bush and invaded Iraq. That will be part of his legacy, but perhaps not the main part of it. He has changed British politics in terms of giving personality to politics. It was part of Blair's charm that won Labour 3 elections on the trot. Now is not really the time to pick apart Blair's legacy. I'm looking forward to the post Blair era, which should be interesting in how it unfolds. I don't believe that the Tories will have any drastically different policy's than Labour. It has been said of Blair that he has carried on what Thatcher started, with David Cameron waiting in the wings to follow on from Blair. I think it's far too early to say how the next election will go. People are fed up with Labour, but more importantly fed up with Tony Blair himself. My stance is that i will vote on the issues come the general election. If i vote Labour or the Liberal Democrats i don't know, i shall probably decide when i have the ballot paper in front of me. I'm willing to give Brown a chance, the signs are he is going to clear out the cabinet and have younger Labour MP's to combat the Tories. David Milliband is one Labour MP to keep an eye on. But to sum up the Blair era ? It started off with so much promise and hope, and ended in apathy and discontent. BBC news article Nick Robinson on Tony Blair The ups and downs of the Blair era. CNN article Fox News article