5/16/2007

Britain’s changing of the guard
By Tom Range, Sr.

Of passing interest to many Americans was the announcement by Tony Blair that he would be resigning the office of the Prime Minister (PM) of the United Kingdom (UK) after 10 years in office.  He was elected to this position by the leadership of the Labour Party, the political party that had the most votes in the British Parliament in 1997.

Blair's term of 10 years in office, while not commonplace, is not unusual.  Margaret Thatcher who assumed the office in May 1979 and relinquished it in November 1990 exceeded his longevity.  Thatcher incidentally was the first, and the only woman to serve as prime minister of the UK.

Blair's tenure in office has spanned the ongoing war in Afghanistan, in which the military of the UK is part of an international force formed to suppress Islamic terrorism and to find Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.  He also led his country's military in joining the United States in the occupation of Iraq after the deposing of that country's dictator Saddam Hussein.

The fates of the U.S. and the UK have been intertwined since at least the fighting of World War I in which they were allied against imperialist Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  David Lloyd George served as PM from December 1916 to October 1922, the period in which the bulk of World War I was fought and the Treaty of Versailles was signed.  The harshness of the treaty led to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s.  Unlike the U.S., the UK did join the League of Nations, the "between the wars" international effort to peacefully mediate differences among nations and thereby avoid armed conflict. 

During the 1920s, the office of PM appeared to alternate between two men of opposing political parties, like a tag team in a wrestling match.  Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party held the office for a year in 1923, then Ramsey MacDonald of the Labour Party assumed the office for a short period, then to be replaced by Baldwin, and then it was MacDonald's turn again.  The cycle was broken by the election of the Conservative Party leader Neville Chamberlain in May 1937.

Chamberlain's tenure is stained by his attempt to appease Nazi Germany by failing to stop the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, and disregarding other acts of aggression against Germany's neighbors.  In August 1939 Germany invaded Poland.  The era of appeasement was over.  Chamberlain clung to power until May 1940 when Winston Churchill assumed the office.  The close relationship between Churchill and America's President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led to the defeat of the Axis powers.  Amazingly, "Winnie" was voted out of office in July 1945, as World War II was drawing to a close. 

He was replaced as PM by Clement Attlee, who governed until October 1951 at which time Churchill's Conservative Party returned to power.  Winnie led the country until April 1955 and was succeeded by a parade of representatives of both political parties.  These PMs included Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson.

The UK did not participate in any meaningful way in the war in Vietnam.  It became embroiled in the Falkland Islands territorial war with Argentina in Margaret Thatcher's term of office.  As Tony Blair exits, the world awaits the next step to be contemplated by the UK in the ongoing war and/or occupation of Iraq.

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