For almost any politician, nine years in office is long enough to curdle public opinion, but Tony Blair's fell from grace seems particularly poignant. As he stonewalled reporters last week about how soon he would depart Downing Street and issued uncharacteristically clunky ripostes during the Prime Minister's Question Time in Parliament, he scarcely resembled the vigorous, fresh-faced powerhouse who rode a landslide to office in 1997. No wonder: a year after winning a third term in office, the British leader is drenched in a storm of disdain. "He should go and give a different leader a chance," says Josie Brown, 54, an adult student in London, over lunch in the park. Francis Duncan, a Scottish taxi driver, puts it more bluntly: "Vote Tory! We're pissed off with Blair."
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