The dashing Mr Blair

摘要

Returning to the office after the new year is not a bundle of laughs. Nor were Britons cheered to find their commuter trains―filthy and overcrowded at the best of times―washed away by strikes. But even allowing for seasonal adjustments, Tony Blair must be wondering what he has done to earn the scorn dumped on him after his own return this week from a visit to India, Pakistan and, fleetingly, the Bagram airbase outside Kabul. Having won golden opinions for his deportment on the world stage since the terror attacks of September nth, he now stands accused of burnishing his reputation abroad while his ministers fiddle and fail at home. Sensing the mood change, he has rushed out a semi-apologetic party-political broadcast saying that he never forgot "for a moment" why he was elected, "which was to put right our public services".