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My moral manifesto for the 21st century Teen mothers, bad teachers, high tax… Tony Blair
has no place for any of them in his model nation. Andrew Rawnsley meets a man intent on
revolution. Saturday September 04 1999 The Guardian

Between sips of cold lager and gobbled handfuls of peanuts, Tony Blair describes what he
sees in his shaving mirror. The tanned Tuscan man who stares back at him is reinvigorated
for the next great leap forward in what he calls his ‘revolution’.

He is relaxed – or anyway only mildly ratty – about the attacks on his holiday
arrangements. ‘This froth comes in and it comes out.’ No, he will not be taking the advice
to spend his next holiday in Britain.

What he does not recognise is the image painted by his critics of a Prime Minister who
runs his government like another zealot for improving public services, Benito Mussolini.
‘You’re either a weak Prime Minister – in which case they’ll knock you for that – or if
you appear to have a clear sense of direction, and know what you want to do, then you are
a quasi-dictator. And all this President Blair rubbish, it’s absolute rubbish.’

It’s also rubbish that he so distrusts his Cabinet that he tries to do all their jobs for
them. ‘I don’t believe you’ll find any of them will say they are micro-managed by me. What
I do is this. Constantly, I will sit down, for example, with Frank Dobson and say:
"Right, Frank, how are we doing on this? What are the strategic objectives?" I
believe in unremitting focus on the Big Picture.’

The Blairite canvas is the ongoing modernisation of Britain, but several components of the
kingdom are proving less than tractable to his mission. Northern Ireland, to begin with,
where bipartisanship with the Conservatives has broken down in acrimony. Blair denies he
is suggesting ‘people should not make criticisms of our Northern Ireland policy – that
would be absolutely fatuous. Neither do I think what the IRA have done – threatening
people out of their homes, the murder of that person – is anything other than totally
reprehensible.’

But for William Hague to talk about ‘betrayal’ was ‘name-calling’ which didn’t help the
process. ‘You can argue that we are doing the right thing or the wrong thing, but we
should respect each other’s motives. We are all trying to do our best.’

Blair fiercely rebukes David Trimble and his Ulster Unionists for demanding the head of Mo
Mowlam. ‘Mo is not the problem in Northern Ireland. Mo has worked night and day to bring
about a solution. I can tell you: nobody has worked harder, nobody has spent more hours,
more emotional energy on the problem. She is not the obstacle in getting it solved. I do
plead with people to remember how much we have achieved in Northern Ireland, because if
they forget it, they’ll learn it again if they throw it all away.

‘Look at what is happening on the ground. Yes, appalling things are still happening. But
you drive through Belfast, and compare it with six or seven years ago. Look at the levels
of violence now and compare it with then. There is an immense amount that has been
achieved.’

Many still expect Mowlam to leave Belfast when he reshuffles his Cabinet. ‘I’m not saying
she will,’ comments Blair guardedly. The name of Peter Mandelson has been linked with the
job as it is linked with every potential vacancy in the Cabinet. He has repaid his debt to
Geoffrey Robinson and to the building society. Does Blair think Mandelson has repaid his
debt to society? ‘When and if Peter returns to Government is my decision.’ Would he
describe his old friend and ally as a man without a stain on his character? ‘It’s not a
question of whether he’s a man without a stain on his character. He resigned. He paid the
price. And that’s that.’

Blair’s next comments may give further heart to his modernising comrade that the Prime
Minister wants to res urrect him from the backbenches. He dismisses the Tory argument that
there can be no return for Mandelson, at least until after he has faced the voters of
Hartlepool at the next election. ‘I’ve absolutely no intention of letting the Tories
decide who goes in the Cabinet.’ Nor, he says, will he be deflected by any criticism from
Labour MPs. ‘The decision is mine, and it will be taken by me, because that’s what happens
in our country. The Prime Minister takes the decision.’ Gordon Brown and John Prescott,
both of whom are known to be resistant to seeing Mandelson around the Cabinet table again,
have no veto over Blair’s decision. He repeats emphatically. ‘I will decide.’

It is a paradox of this missionary of modernisation that one of the themes that has always
most engaged him is the traditional family. He has pledged his Government to reducing the
number of teenage pregnancies in Britain, currently the highest in Europe. In the last
week there have been two cases of 12-year-old mothers. Blair addresses this issue in his
most urgent speaking mode. ‘I think it’s appalling and it should be a matter of anxiety
and concern to anyone who believes in the future of the country.’

The practical solutions are ‘complex’ and he half-confesses that he is struggling for the
full answer. He checks off hostels for teenage mothers, parenting helplines and the
opportunities provided by the New Deal. None of which, I say, would have made any
difference in the case of a 12-year-old who, according to her mother, set out to get
pregnant by a 14-year-old boy who could be prosecuted. Should he be? ‘That’s a matter for
the legal authorities,’ Blair swerves. ‘But I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is
how you could get to a situation where you have 12-year-old girls becoming pregnant by
14-year-old fathers. That’s not in their interests or in the interests of the child. We
should be asking: why? That is not the right age to have a child. You’ve got to make
youngsters aware of the undesirability of having sex at the age of 12.’

Sex education, though it brings a blush to the face of David Blunkett, is part of the
solution. The answer was cer tainly not ‘to go back to the old days when sex wasn’t talked
about – it doesn’t mean you revisit a whole series of old prejudices.’ What it does mean
is this: ‘Parents have got to take responsibility for their children. 12-year-old kids
should not be on the streets at night.’

The prose of legislation may help, but Blair reaches for the poetry of the Big Picture to
describe a much larger ambition. ‘We need to find a new national moral purpose for this
new generation. People want to live in a society that is without prejudice, but is with
rules, with a sense of order. Government can play its part, but parents have to play their
part. There’s got to be, if you like, a partnership between Government and the country to
lay the foundations of that moral purpose.’

He endeavours to find a link with another of his large ideas. ‘If the economic imperative
is to develop what we call the knowledge economy, the social imperative is to develop a
modern, responsible notion of citizenship.’

Everyone assumes Blair will have at least two terms in Government to pursue these designs.
Everyone knows the next election is already won for New Labour. Everyone, that is, except
Tony Blair. ‘You never take it for granted: that’s part of our mantra.’

Does that explain the strange insecurity of this mammothly powerful Government? ‘It’s not
insecurity,’ he insists. ‘It is a desire to do it right. No Labour government has ever won
a full second term. You are never bound to win. I want to create a Labour Party that is a
real alliance for progress and justice for the 21st Century and that requires constant
working at. I want to make a real 21st Century model country, which it can be. I tell you,
it’s amazing how the world is changing, and so quickly, and if you get left behind, you
get left behind.’

This is quintessential Blair-speak in which nothing is more important than momentum, even
if sometimes it is only the momentum of his words. The Prime Minister does reveal some of
his plans for making certain of that famous second term. It is safe to assume, from what
he said to me, that there will be cuts to income tax. The working fam ilies tax credit,
which comes on stream this week, will ‘give a huge boost to two million low income
families’. Gordon Brown has already cut the basic rate of income tax once and will cut
again before the election if Blair has his way. ‘We want to achieve for ordinary families
as lower a tax burden as possible. No one likes paying tax. Get the fundamentals right,
get the public finances sorted out, get the investment we need in the public services,
then get the tax cuts.’

He is eager to address the discontent of relatively modestly paid people – such as
teachers and police officers – who find themselves in the top rate bracket. ‘I totally
understand that. Absolutely,’ he says. ‘I want to do something for middle-income families
and we’ll try to do that.’ This suggests New Labour plans to raise the thresholds at which
people start paying the 40 per cent rate. He also flags cuts to the basic rate. ‘I look at
the person earning £15,000, the person earning £20,000, they’re people
who need to keep more of their own money.’

The tax-cutter Blair will be regarded with apprehension by the Tories and meet with
antagonism from Labour supporters who think that any surpluses at the Treasury should be
spent on improving public services. ‘You spend what you need to spend,’ replies Blair.
‘You invest in the public services to the level you need to, but it is also important that
you get people’s taxes down if you possibly can. The New Labour way has been to do
everything we can to let people keep as much money as they can.’

He attempts to smooth over the abrasion caused by his notorious remark that grappling with
the public sector had left him with ‘scars on my back’. It was ‘just a phrase’. He wasn’t
attacking public sector workers, but ‘the system’.

Mmm. The system is made up of people. What will happen to those people working in schools
or hospitals who didn’t or couldn’t respond to his demand that they ‘change and adapt’,
modernise or die? ‘If people aren’t up to the job, they are not up to the job.’ He takes
teachers as his example. ‘The vast majority do a good job, but everyone knows that there
are those who don’t.’

Even when he is trying to sound admiring about public services, Blair can’t help
expressing it in words which draw an unflattering comparison with what he sees as the
dynamism of the private. ‘It is far harder to change the way a public service works
because it doesn’t have the great engine that the market is always creating for change in
the private sector. You don’t want the health service to be turned into a marketplace, but
you’ve got to look at ways of pioneering change.’

He speaks glowingly of the one-stop centre for elective surgery at the Middlesex Hos pital
that he opened last week. ‘All your problems are taken care of on the one site and you’re
out again in a far quicker space of time. That is what I mean by putting the customer’ (a
Freudian slip he hurries to correct) ‘er, the patient, first. We’ve got to drive that
revolution right through the health service.’

The next big dose of modernisation’ will involve more performance-related pay, however
much it arouses the hostility of the public sector unions. ‘Let’s be honest about it, the
private sector, in its reward and motivation, has moved on apace. The public sector is
still incredibly inflexible.’

He concedes there is dis gruntlement within his party, but refuses to compromise with
these discontents. Wait, he says, until the Left see the whites of the electorate’s eyes.
‘As we move into the election, people will see the alternative. The choice is not between
the Labour Government you have and Utopia.