Exile on Downing Street

Just as my two six year-old nieces gave me signs that the rat saga was well past its expiry date, Tony Blair gave a farewell speech at the Labour congress, his last as Labour party leader. It was a perfect speech so I heard and he got a standing ovation from the crowd... except that he still didn't let anyone know of his resignation date.
The first thing you must remember about Tony is that Mick Jagger used to be his role model. Whereas political history is rich in heroes, legendary statesmen and forward thinkers, Blair favours a pop singer who fronted one of the best rock'n roll bands in the world for a while and then spent the next thirty years jumping about on stage either because it is the only thing he can do well or because he was looking for a knighthood title that means nothing to true Stones' fans. The second thing you should remember about Tony is that he has been a big liar.
But when I moved to Scotland in 1999, Blair was still the right man at the right time for the job of prime-minister. New Labour - whatever that was - had somewhat succeeded in keeping Britain's economy strong while regaining some of the welfare and social security that had been lost under the Tories' leadership. Plus, he had given the Northern Ireland peace process a step forward with the Good Friday Agreement. Only trains were crashing more often than they ought to in what eventually became a showcase for ill-advised privatising policies - of the rail network.
But then Blair stuck his fingers in Afghanistan and Iraq in support of America's war on terrorism. Worse, he lied to the nation about the reasons for invading Iraq - the sexed up dossier left too many scars - and, consequently, exposed Britain to terrorism. He managed the situation and juggled the balls knowing that the opposition was weak and did not oppose him on that matter. And when most of Europe was (and is) in a profound crisis of identity and of economic growth marred by unemployment, Britain remained low in unemployment and competitive enough. The Iraqi war was still too many miles away for the British people to make such a radical turn - as it happened in Spain, for instance.
And so Tony survived and stuck around, and in spite of all pressures from the party, who knows until when. In a world which constantly and quickly updates itself, only him and the Stones remain.