I wrote recently of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's efforts not to be left "twisting, slowly, slowly in the wind" by his comrade-in-arms George Bush. But Blair's fortunes if anything have only deteriorated since.

Airy-fairy Blair

Over 90% of British headlines for the past few days have been concerned with Blair's management (or failure to manage) the budget crisis of the European Union (EU). Blair is currently the EU President, and his six-month term is at an end. He was supposed to have shepherded in a budget for the years 2007 through 2013, and nothing has gone well. For his British constituency the worst has been his offer to give up a multibillion euro rebate from the EU that was negotiated by Maggie Thatcher in 1984—and this after swearing he wasn't going to do it.

Simon Jenkins gives a good summation of the consensus on Blair's EU efforts—

Blair cheerily told the BBC on Friday that he could not govern “according to the headlines”. The truth is he knows no other way. He has done rotten deals on Europe since coming to power. He has now wasted six months grandstanding and legacy hunting, desperate to be the leader who set the world to rights. The one foreign policy cause to which he should have devoted himself was EU budget reform. He has blown it.

The Jenkins article was headlined "Airy-fairy Blair lies in a French ditch looking at the stars."

If that weren't insult enough, Blair's machismo suffered another blow last Thursday when his promise to shut down militant mosques was opposed by British police chiefs who feared that such closures would just drive militants further underground.

But there are other issues percolating through that may more directly affect Americans.

Parliamentary investigation

First, the move in Parliament to launch an investigation into how Blair got Britain into a war has surprised the movement's leader with the speed of support. According to Tomos Livingstone,

A BID to set up a parliamentary investigation into how Prime Minister Tony Blair took the country to war in Iraq has gathered the support of 87 MPs in just a week.

The campaign, led by Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, has grown from his earlier bid to have Mr Blair impeached over the invasion.
....

The 26-strong Campaign Group of left-wing Labour MPs are expected to sign the motion (several have already done so), with Mr Price hoping to reach the magic figure of 36 Labour rebels needed to defeat the Government.

Four Labour MPs outside the Campaign Group ... have signed up, together with a raft of senior politicians including Ken Clarke, recently defeated in the Tory leadership contest, and former Labour Minister Clare Short....

Mr Price hopes so many MPs will sign that either the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives will use their allotted parliamentary time to hold a debate and a vote on the issue - probably in the New Year.

The Conservative Party (Tories) have finally managed to elect a new leader, David Cameron.

The position taken by the new leader of the Conservative Party ... could be crucial to the success or otherwise of the enterprise.

"One of the first decisions he will have to make is whether the party will support us officially," said Mr Price.

In the unlikely event this investigation gets underway, Bush may have to bomb Parliament.

Cindy Sheehan on the prowl

Cindy Sheehan is to arrive in Britain tomorrow. According to Barry Wigmore and Vincent Moss, Sheehan has threatened "to chain herself to the gates of Downing Street to protest against Tony Blair's stance on Iraq." They write,

Now Cindy is determined to torpedo Mr Blair's popularity just as she did with Mr Bush.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, she said: "I aim to be a major thorn in Mr Blair's side. He's lied from the outset about all this. I'm prepared to do anything I can - chain myself to railings, march on the House of Commons, shout from the rooftops - to call attention to this unnecessary war and end it."

Cindy is due to meet London Mayor Ken Livingstone and pay flying visits to Scotland and Ireland.

She is also expected to receive an award at the International Peace Conference, in London next Saturday, and anti-war MPs may invite her to the House of Commons.
....

"Bush lied about Iraq and so did Tony Blair. I believe they are complicit in this."

A government drowning in leaks

Martin Bright has just reported that Blair's government is in a panic from all the leaks that are making it into the news. How does he know? Well, somebody leaked him some emails about the leaks. Bright reports,

Early in September a flurry of confidential e-mails started to fly around Whitehall between civil servants desperate to identify the sources of a series of high-level leaks that had appeared under my name. On 28 August, I had reported that Michael Jay, the top civil servant at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, had warned the government as early as May 2004 that the issue of Iraq was fuelling Muslim extremism in Britain, contradicting repeated denials from Downing Street that the war had made the UK a target for terrorists. A week later, two further leaks revealed that MI6 was planning to infiltrate Muslim extremist websites posing as Islamic radicals and that Foreign Office officials had recommended approving the visa application of the controversial Qatar-based cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi to avoid a Muslim backlash in Britain.

Andrew Noble, head of the FCO's security strategy unit, and Chris Wright, the Cabinet Office's director of security intelligence, were deeply irritated that such sensitive documents had found their way into the public domain. They launched a leak inquiry immediately. They even considered putting pressure on my editor at the time, the Observer's Roger Alton, to stop me running the stories. They agreed that "stopping any further leaks should be our priority".

How do I know this? Because their e-mail exchanges have - in the sweetest of ironies - now been leaked to me at the New Statesman. These missives demonstrate a growing panic at the heart of Whitehall over the increasingly porous nature of the civil service.
....

I am beginning to lose count of the number of leaks the government has had to contend with since it began its ill-fated adventure in Iraq. The charges against Keogh and O'Connor recall the earlier prosecution of the GCHQ whistle-blower Katharine Gun, who revealed details of US plans to spy on UN Security Council members in the run-up to war in 2003....

Between the disclosures that tragically contributed to the death of the UN weapons inspector David Kelly in July 2003 and the revelations at the heart of the latest secrecy trial, there has been a regular alternative supply of information to counter the official narrative of the government.

Political patronage challenged

In the U.S. party stalwarts are rewarded with ambassadorships, but the British have another carrot to dangle—elevation of commoners to the peerage, a powerful attractant for the nouveaux riches. This year, however, Blair's list of new peers—which was leaked—has been rejected by the House of Lords Appointment Commission.

Marie Woolf reports that—

In a major snub to the Prime Minister, the ... Appointments Commission has expressed its unwillingness to approve the honours list.... The list includes some high-profile Labour donors and several millionaire businessmen who supported the party's city academy schools.

The move, which amounts to a direct challenge to the Prime Minister's authority and his power of patronage, comes after an investigation into the financial and tax status of a number of peers and follows a leak of Mr Blair's list to The Independent on Sunday.

The fur may yet fly

And finally, no discussion of Tony Blair would be complete without mention of his wife Cherie. On Sunday she was accused of wearing what the government will not confirm was rabbit. This would be all right except that the Blair government banned fur farming in 2003. The speculation is that the coat may have been made from Chinese rabbits. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants her to give the coat to charity.

She should keep it. Her husband is experiencing a notable chill.

Related posts
Cherie Blair: Nancy Reagan Redux (9/28/05)
The bamboozling of Tony Blair (11/26/05)