On the night of the American election, Tony Blair went to bed at 10.30pm. Like nearly everyone else, he thought that John Kerry had won. But unlike the rest of the British political establishment he was not celebrating. Nor, it is fairly safe to say, was he nearly so glum when he rose at 5.30am to discover that he would, after all, be working with George Bush for another four years (always assuming Mr Blair surmounts the little hurdle of his own re-election). Until his memoirs are published, Mr Blair will not divulge just how pleased he was. All he will say for now is that he was not particularly surprised by the result. The prime minister's equanimity contrasts with the deep gloom that has settled on most of political London-not least on Mr Blair's own aides and senior ministers. Nothing, not even the Iraq war itself, has discomfited Mr Blair's party more than his unapologetic closeness to Mr Bush. The idea that a Kerry presidency would do much to "draw the poison" from Iraq has become a cliche in Westminster. For Mr Blair's colleagues, the possibility that he might have helped Mr Bush to win, albeit indirectly, is almost too ghastly to contemplate.
展开▼
