Tony Blair's decade of peace and war

"When he promised to be tough on ... the causes of crime, he must have found an 'r' on the floor of Downing Street, and became tough on the causers of crime," says Lord David Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons who regrets the lack of effort to deal with problems that give rise to crime. "There have been torrents of legislation ... which have merely resulted in increasing the prisoner rate."

"It's a more totalitarian society, with much more direction and minute control from above," he adds.

Surveillance and CCTV have soared; ID cards are to be introduced. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has warned of "sleepwalking to a surveillance society." The latest idea is for a talking CCTV camera to relay orders to miscreants.

Health, education, transport reform

The centerpiece of Blair's domestic agenda was reform of public services. Opinion is deeply divided as to whether tens of billions of extra pounds pumped into health, education, and transport systems have rescued the nation's infrastructure from a generation of chronic underinvestment. Blair claims hospital waiting lists are shorter and staff lists longer. He says getting private finance to underwrite new hospitals and schools has accelerated building. His supporters say he has made a big difference to primary education, improving opportunity for all.

"He can take credit for trying to put right the neglect of the Thatcher era which was really serious in the health service and schools," says Paul Whiteley of Essex University. "Investment in public services has clearly made them a lot better."

But critics say that privately built hospitals and schools are proving more costly in the long run. Some hospitals are being downsized. "Despite a huge injection of cash, local health authorities are running out of money," warned Douglas McWilliams, an economics consultant, adding that transport problems were getting worse "despite a near doubling in the transport budget."

But the fact that Blair's Conservative adversary David Cameron has firmly committed his party to the public service renewal agenda vindicates Blair and assures his legacy.

"You could see Cameron as part of Blair's legacy," says Mr. Rentoul, the biographer. "He has brought the Conservatives on to the center ground and in that respect, Blair has won the argument. And not just with things like public services but issues like gay marriages. Blair has shifted the ground of British politics."

"Blairism is just an extension of Thatcherism – it's Thatcherism with a human face," says Whiteley. "It's still an individualist agenda. In an economic sense it has been very successful. People have made money and they like that and they have rewarded Labour.

"But the disaster of Iraq looms over everything. And when the dust has settled, the argument will probably be that Blair is a very good communicator, but he has poor judgment."

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