The Million Dollar (Half a Million Pound) Question
December 20, 2007 
I’m a member of the Labour Party, the Fabian Society and a Co-operative member, I care about the world, I take notice of the current affairs domestically and internationally that happen and thus aware of happenings and changes that happen around me. And I also believe that my political mind can work out the rationale behind most of the political decisions that are made in the UK though of course, more often than not I disagree with them.
But for a long time I have really struggled to understand the relationship that Blair had with Bush, that is to say why the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had such a good relationship with the President of the United States. To all extent and purposes, Blair’s policies were centre of the road for us in the UK and Bush’s policies leaned to the far right in the US political spectrum. If Bush’s views were the manifesto of a UK political party, I have no doubt in my mind that we would be talking about a Religiously Fanatic UKIP style organisation.
Of course their relationship did appear to be more than professional, which is strange enough, but also personal. Now one aspect of Blair’s personality was that he wasn’t always merely political and so a life outside of politics for Blair, even as PM, always looked likely. But Bush and Blair appear to also be opposite ends of the intellectual ladder.
Now this relationship has never helped Blair domestically, even to the extent that he seemed like Bush’s lap dog by following the US into Iraq - regardless of the reality. And internationally this relationship must be the subject of many in-jokes between other world leaders and thus hurt us internationally.
And let’s also look on the other side of the coin, if Brown wanted to lock up the next election here and now, all he would have to do is come out and say that Bush is a dick and internationally we would gain so much influence, as most of the world hates Bush too and would have huge respect for us for coming out of the closet and saying this too.
Of course, there is at least one common factor that binds both New Labour and the Bush Presidency together. On election night 2000, the FOX network stole the election from Gore by calling it for Bush even though other networks had already called it for Gore. And in the UK, without the support that we received from Murdoch’s Papers, Labour would not have even won the 2001 election let alone the 2005 election.
So the question I put to Sunder Katwala, the Fabian Society’s General Secretary, was this: Why on earth did Blair have this relationship with Bush and why doesn’t Brown now run a hundred miles in the opposite direction?
