Tony Blair: evaluation

Transcript context

…That's really interesting. Let’s take you back with everything you knew, let's say in 2007, but you have the majorities and the popularity you had in 1997. Is it that you know now what is a waste of time? Would you say, "I'm not going to do these PMQs, they're total theatrics" or "I'm not going to meet the queen"? Is it the time? Is it that you're going to go against the bureaucracy and say, "I think you're wrong about your inertia"? What fundamentally changes? It wouldn't be that you wouldn't do Prime Minister's Questions, because Parliament will insist on that. You certainly wouldn't want to offend the Queen, who was the monarch in my time. But you're right. You would have a much clearer idea of how to give direction to the bureaucracy and how to bring in outside skilled people who can help you deliver change. I always split my premiership into the first five years, which in some ways were the easiest. We were doing things that were important, like a minimum wage. We did big devolution. We did the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. It was only really in the second half of my premiership that we started to reform healthcare, education, and criminal justice. That's when your skill set as a chief executive really comes into play. Many people have a preconception that if you could get a successful CEO or businessperson into office, these executive skills would transfer over pretty well into becoming a head of state. Is that true? If not, what is it that they'd be lacking that you need to be an electable leader?…

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