Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

“A new dawn has broken….has it not?” were the famous words of Tony Blair after becoming Prime Minister back in 1997. His words to mark his departure yesterday seemed suitably bereft of such optimism and hope: “That’s it. The end.” It gave the impression that after a decade of toiling away at Number 10 and seeing so many of his policies go wrong, notably Iraq, he is happy to, in his oft-quoted way, simply draw a line under the matter and move on.

However, in the chamber for his last Prime Minister’s Questions, there was a feeling that his tenure of 10 years as PM ought to be recognised and on all sides of the House, appropriate tributes were paid to him, especially for his work on the Northern Ireland peace process. On a fitting note, it was Dr Ian Paisley who asked him his last ever question and spoke kindly of their working relationship during the sometimes fraught negotiations.

David Cameron was right to encourage Tory MPs in rising for Blair’s standing ovation. The departure of a Prime Minister and his final appearance at the despatch box, ought to be appropriately marked, and on this occasion the courtesy and civility of the House of Commons was clear for all to see.

Whilst we can appear to be rowdy, passionate and sometimes vitriolic in debates and arguments between the opposing parties, MPs do have a sense of occasion. Yesterday was such a moment.

In the years since Tony Blair first became Prime Minister there has been no enduring progress in resolving the Israel-Palestine problem. Quite the reverse. Britain’s reputation in the region has suffered greatly, not only because of Iraq. Our ability to sell ourselves as the influential bridge to the United States has been shown to be one of virtually non-existent influence. Everybody, in Israel or the Arab world, knows this to be true.

Tony Blair is no longer a head of government. Without the real will and determination of Washington, nothing will happen. Northern Ireland’s problems were not resolved by charisma, charm or eye-catching initiatives, but by patient hard work over many years. All the members of the Quartet carry baggage in varying degrees. One country which has universal credibility is Turkey, secular yet Islamic, which enjoys excellent relations with Israel and its neighbours. If there is going to be a broker, it should be Turkey, backed by all those who do not want to see civil wars engulfing the region.

I suspect that if any outside influences can be successfully deployed, this route will yield much better results.

Meanwhile, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye Tony.

Some visiting friends wanted to see the shop in the House of Commons. One of the items on sale was a fridge magnet which said “Politicians complaining about the press, are like captains complaining about the sea.” I pointed this out to a Labour MP, who suggested that it could be a farewell present to Tony Blair. Truly it is the ultimate spin for a Prime Minister who has been at the epicentre of the greatest political spinning operation in our history, to have made such a fatuous observation.

However, the wonderful thing about our Tony is that he probably believed it.

Yesterday normal service was resumed at Prime Minister’s Questions as Tony Blair stepped back into place, for one of his last few appearances, taking questions from the despatch box.

After John Prescott’s dismal performance last week, (see here http://richardspring.mpblogs.com/?cat=88) with his hot air and blustering, I was fortunate to have a chance to question Tony Blair. As Prime Minister for a decade, he has presided over a huge increase in public spending. However, much of this money has been disproportionately allocated to traditional Labour strongholds. I am thinking particularly of the urban city centres in the North and especially in Scotland.

Therefore, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the injustice felt by many of my constituents to see that in 2006/07 Scotland received 40% more in public funding per person than people in the East of England. That works out at £2500 more from the Government for a person living in Scotland.

Not only have we seen council tax rise by more than 120% since 1997, but NHS organisations in the East of England are facing deficits of £152 million this year due to below-average NHS funding from the Government. It is simply not fair that rural dwellers are discriminated in this way.

Here is the full text of question and answer:

Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk) (Con): Considering the massive health deficits and high council taxes in the east of England, may I tell the Prime Minister how interested my constituents would be to know that in Scotland public spending per head is higher by 40 per cent.?

In retrospect, does the Prime Minister consider that to have been a worthwhile investment?

The Prime Minister: I do support the Barnett formula, as a matter of fact. It is there for very specific reasons, and it has been there for almost 30 years. Let us be absolutely clear: as well as the extra investment that has gone into Scotland, with the Barnett formula applying there, there has been extra investment in education and health, not least in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. He need only look around to see the massive amount of investment in, for example, new health care facilities in his constituency, schools in his constituency, and programmes such as Sure Start and the new deal. Of course, the Barnett formula will no doubt continue to be an issue of dispute, for the Conservative party at least, but I think that we have put a major amount of investment into our public services, and that investment is paying off.After hearing that typically Blairite evasive answer on the reasons for this stark inequality, I felt that it really was business as usual…

The actress Joan Plowright used to say that she never knew whether her husband Laurence Olivier was acting or not – or indeed whether he knew himself.

The brilliance of Tony Blair is that he is able to take a brief, like any competent barrister, and stick to it, but he can also convince himself in the process that he does actually believe everything he is saying.

Until Blair arrived on the scene, we thought that Harold Macmillan was probably the greatest post-war actor/Prime Minister that we have had in Britain.

Yesterday, in what was almost his final curtain call announcing his resignation as leader of the Labour Party in Sedgefield, he combined all his accumulated stage talents for a farewell. However, even as the New Labour project draws to a close, some of its defining characteristics remain, such as the obsessive desire with spin and presentation. People were bussed in from South London and placards praising Tony were clearly displayed for the assembled media. The whole event was magnificently scripted and brings to mind the words leopards and spots. 

If it is true that all political careers end in failure, there is a strong underlying assumption that politicians never leave office at the time of their own choosing.

Had Margaret Thatcher left on her tenth anniversary, she would have gone in the most favourable circumstances. The next two years were the unhappiest possible for her. By contrast Tony Blair is going deeply mistrusted and unpopular.

I suspect that ultimately attitudes will level out, especially when Gordon Brown takes over. I would like to suggest that those Labour MPs who have been baying for his blood will begin to miss him. We will not!

It is curious that when Members of Parliament discuss reactions on the doorstep, wherever they come from in most of England, it is as if there is an invisible hand, as the comments are so similar.

Whilst canvassing for this Thursday’s local elections, it was once again confirmed that Labour voters have a much diminished incentive to vote. What struck me this time, however, is how many of my constituents who normally vote Labour, wanted to discuss the current political scene. It was clear that it arose out of a belief that the Government is discredited, with Tony Blair held in contempt, and with no enthusiasm for Gordon Brown.

Now throughout the ages politicians have been held in varying degrees of suspicion or even contempt. The Blair government has elevated these emotions to new heights because of all the spin and unfulfilled promises. Would we be different? Are the Tories going to be just the same? They really wanted reassurance. Such is the way politics has been degraded under Labour.

There are many players who have contributed to the extraordinary sight of Dr Paisley and Gerry Adams coming to an agreement yesterday. There is no doubt that Tony Blair deserves approbation for his role, as does the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern. None of this would have been achieved without the support of successive Irish governments.

Ireland in the last twenty years has changed so dramatically, and is now so prosperous, that the situation in Northern Ireland ceased to become a romantic quest for unification, but a terrible embarrassment. Equally Americans, after 9/11, began to look more critically at the terrorist links of Sinn Fein/IRA.

Tony Blair will want to include this achievement in his legacy, which he is entitled to do. However we should just remember that all of this was started by John Major, at a time of bombings and real personal danger. It took political courage to press on, when the actions of the IRA continued to fortify the sceptics.

For Tony Blair, and the Labour Party, as John Major discovered, this magnificent breakthrough will not be recognised in the votes of the British electorate.