In the days when Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee faced each
other in the House of Commons, there was disagreement about whose
hands should be on the Mace, the symbol of power at Westminster.
Everyone assumed that the hands on the Mace would be British. In
the past half century, the Prime Minister's power at Westminster
has increased greatly, but it has diminished in the worlds
beyond.
In Westminster, the Prime Minister is now first without equal.
But in councils of the European Union, he or she is only one among
fifteen national leaders. In a shrinking world the chief issues
facing Downing Street today are 'intermestic', an amalgam of
domestic politics and international concerns. Tony Blair may say
that he is batting for Britain, but cricket skills are no match for
an American president playing hard ball, and policy-making in the
European Union is definitely not cricket.
In an era of television politics, the faces and voices of
Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair are familiar to every voter, and
the press cooperates in turning politicians into media celebrities.
But what you see on the box is politics; it has little to do with
the policies of British government. Old-school leaders such as
Harold Macmillan devoted as much time to policy as to politics. But
new-style prime ministers put politics first.
Tony Blair wants to speak for all the British people, but the
result is 'managed populism', for his voice travels down a one-way
street. In Whitehall, Blair's Third Way blunts the cutting edge of
policy, leaving officials puzzled about what to do when hard
choices arise, especially about Europe.
Anyone interested in politics and current affairs, whether a
studentor a thoughtful reader and viewer, will find insight and
illumination in a book that draws on the author's unrivalled
first-hand knowledge of British politics over the past half
century.
Richard Rose's work has been recognized by a lifetime
achievement award from the Political Studies Association. He is a
Fellow of the British Academy and director of the Centre for the
Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde.
General
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