14 MAY 07 / "Tony Blair Announces Resignation"

British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week returned to his constituency of Sedgefield to announce he would tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth next month. Blair's decision brings an end to his 10-year premiership that included an unparalleled run of 3 consecutive election victories. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will likely succeed.

As the longest serving Labour prime minister in British history, Blair deserves enormous credit for turning his party from the brink of oblivion and putting Britain's economy on a path to prosperity. Although I do not agree with his philosophy concerning the extensive role government should play in people's lives, Blair was right to steer Labour back toward free market economics and away from enervating socialism. In 1994, as the newly elected Labour leader, Blair removed the clause in his party's constitution calling for 'common ownership of the means of production and exchange."

As prime minister, Blair has increased spending, but also instituted reforms that were not popular with liberals. Blair has not increased the income tax during his tenure and has stayed away from other collectivist policies. He believes that center-left is preferable to radical left, and even likes to describe himself as having a hold on the 'radical center'.

Having just turned 54, Blair is a still leader of remarkable energy, enthusiasm, and charisma; but his popularity has waned significantly because of the lack of progress in the Iraq war. An interventionist in support of human rights abroad, he followed President George Bush to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair was articulate and steadfast in support of the war, despite enormous opposition.

Blair is a masterful politician. Balancing ambition with an appreciation of political reality, Blair expertly reshaped Old Labour into New Labour. He was tested early in his first government by the tragic death of Princess Diana helped Great Britain through an emotional time outpourings of emotion and grief and helped bridge the divide between the British people, who loved Diana, and the members of the monarchy, many of whom did not.

What does the future hold for Britain's relationship with the United States? Americans should hope for continued strengthening of Britain's economy and a shoring up of the resolve of its citizens in the fight against Islamic extremism. As lesser countries of Europe fall one by one to over-burdened governments, declining native populations, and rising Muslim populations, Britain may prove the place where the jihadists are stopped and turned back, as at the Battle of Tours in 732. Britain must control and assimilate its Muslim population.

It does not augur well that the foreign policy of the United States is no longer widely supported in Britain. The majority of Brits do not believe military force is sometimes necessary to secure and promote freedom abroad. Britain seems to be going the way of Europe -- away from American policy.

The English political philosopher John Locke believed that human beings possessed the natural rights of freedom and individual liberty and that governments should exist to protect those natural rights. Tony Blair actively sought the expansion of these rights abroad. The United States is losing a friend in Tony Blair. We are now even more alone on the world stage.