Seven Questions: Harry Potter and the Underestimated Prime Minister

Ian Waldie/Getty Images NewsBroken promises: Clare Short made a ruckus in Britain when she quit Tony Blairs cabinet over the Iraq war, and she hasnt stopped speaking out.

FOREIGN POLICY: You resigned from Tony Blairs government in 2003, citing the Iraq war. Why did you resign, and how prescient is that move looking right now?

Clare Short: The tradition in Britain is that senior politicians form the cabinet and the prime minister is essentially the first among equals. Youre expected to thrash out policy and then collectively be responsible for it. In the run-up to Iraq, there wasnt proper consideration of all the options. It was very much [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair trying to keep everyone sweet, but not thoroughly discussing what was possible.

I was convinced that we needed to do something about Iraq because the sanctions were causing untold suffering, but it needed to be done right or it could inflame the Middle East. But of course we were getting all these leaks about what was really going on, and we were getting all these promises from Tony Blair that hed only proceed through the United Nations. And then we got the second U.N. resolution is not necessary/not possible; its all the Frenchies fault; were going to war anyway.

So I said, Im going, then. Youve broken the promises youve made. And then the prime minister engaged in a big negotiation to keep me in the government by getting [U.S. President George W.] Bush to announce that he supported the Road Map.

FP: That was all for you?

CS: Well, Blair said, Does that make a difference to you? That will help me with Bush. Then he had me in the next day and said, At 3:15 today Bush is going to announce this.

At that stage, I thought that if the president of the United States and the prime minister of Britain promised something, it was kind of sincere and a binding commitment. I thought it was wrong to have launched a war without a U.N. resolution, but I responded to the pleadings of my prime minister and the promise that wed make progress on Israel-Palestine and that thered be a real internationalization of reconstruction. It became clear within a few months that there was to be no such thing. So I left the government.

FP: And yet, British troops are still in Iraq. What do you think Britain should do now? Get out as soon as possible?

CS: We shouldnt be in the position were in, but we are in the position were in. The question now is, What do we do for the benefit of [the] people of Iraq and the world, and how do we prevent further chaos in the Middle East? I personally think that the Iraq Study Group report was brilliant. I totally support it, and I think the U.K. should then have said, So do we, and lets negotiate how to implement. But if not, were coming out of this as soon as we safely can because youre on a road to nowhere. We should have used that leverage. Of course Blair wouldnt do that; hes now gone; and [current Prime Minister Gordon] Brown is looking at it again. Iraq made Blair profoundly unpopular in Britain and has really destroyed his reputation.

FP: Do you think that Iraq is going to overshadow everything else that Tony Blair did as prime minister?

CS: I have no doubt about it. Hell be remembered for Iraq (FP: And not Northern Ireland, for instance?) Well, Northern Ireland, I think everybodys glad of [it], but knows it started before Blair. He played his part in a historical process thats brought a very important and enduring peace, so he gets praise for playing his part, but it wasnt his unique creation.

FP: Do you think Blairs new role as envoy in the Middle East is about doing penance for Iraq and trying to restore his legacy?

CS: Most people thought when he got this job that it was just like well, they didnt know whether to laugh or cry. That this man who had destroyed his own reputation and helped to bring about chaos in the Middle East would volunteer to be a peace envoy was a joke. It isnt the peace envoy; its the job Jim Wolfensohn did after he ended his two terms as president of the World Bank, which is to help the Palestinians create the economic conditions and the institutional capacity for statehood.

I mean, what does Blair think hes doing? One, it shows that he is delusional. It also shows he doesnt attend to the detail of policy on the Middle East, or otherwise he wouldnt think this job would take him forward. Tony Blair is a very intuitive PR manprofoundly clever with lots of personal charmbut a no-detail, flies-by-the-seat-of-his-pants politician. Thirdly, I think he still wants to be some kind of big actor on the world stage. And maybe, lurking underneath all that, there is some guilt.

FP: Lets move on to Gordon Brown, who came to Washington this week. Just this week, Brown reaffirmed the special relationship between Britain and the United States, and even evoked Churchill to do so. Is Gordon Brown just Tony Blair with a Scottish brogue?

CS: Gordon Brown has been a very close friend of Tony Blair, and the New Labour strategies came from both of them, so it would be a mistake to assume hes coming from a completely different analysis on domestic and international policy. Hes much cleverer; hes deeply well read; he does detail; and he has less PR charm. But of course, Brown knows that Iraq destroyed Blairs reputation, that Bush is not popular, and that Bush has got only a little over a year to go. He doesnt want to fall out with the United States, so he wants to be sort of friendlybut not too friendly. And weve just seen that in the body language this week.

FP: Youve got another young leader in David Miliband, Browns new foreign secretary. Hes only 42 years old. Do you think his age is going to inhibit him when he goes to, say, China and meets with 60-year-old men whove clawed their way up the political ladder in the Communist Party?

CS: David is very clever and personable. Hes very close to Blair; he ran Blairs office at Number 10. I dont wish him any ill, but its Harry Potter for foreign secretarya very, very clever boy, but theres a sort of weightiness, a solidity that he just cannot have because of his age. I think its a mistake, but never underestimate what Gordons up to.

Clare Short is a member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood in Britain and was international development secretary in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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