There just aren't enough hours in the day. Academic Linda Colley, a history professor from Cherie Blair's alma mater, the London School of Economics, argues that she is a victim of her husband's and her own achievements, and a failure by Britain's political machinery to adapt to change.
Colley says Cherie Blair needs more staff, support and understanding. It would be inconceivable, for instance, for a US First Lady to buy two flats in a provincial town as Blair did , with or without the aid of a conman. Certainly Cherie Blair is a cosmic mile away from recent Downing St spouses. Norma Major largely stayed at home in the country; Denis Thatcher carried Maggie's spare handbag and kept out of the frame. But the Blair family of four children, including three-year-old Leo, smiling father and huggy mother are the ultimate New Labour roadshow.
For the best part of five years, the beaming Blairs have seduced the British public, as if to say, "yes, it's possible to have, and do, it all", but as the Foster affair has shown, the magic is fading. Cherie Blair is now not only inextricably linked to Foster and his kooky girlfriend, Carole Caplin, a former topless model who acts as her lifestyle guru, but she is seen as someone seriously lacking in judgment, who lied to get out of trouble, failed and still left questions hanging.
As the Daily Mirror put it, " And it all ends in lies". Germaine Greer has even suggested the PM's wife has gone a bit nuts. Areputation for telling untruths, deserved or otherwise, might prove troublesome if Blair ever wanted to rekindle her political ambitions.
She has been a Labour Party member for more than 30 years and made an unsuccessful attempt to win a seat at Westminster in , the year Tony entered parliament. More urgently, it may well prove a barrier to any ambition she might entertain about becoming a full-time judge. The Bar Council, which regulates lawyers' conduct, told The Age it had received several letters of public complaint about her dealings with Foster in relation to his deportation case.
Though the council is unlikely to proceed to a formal inquiry into her conduct, the letters indicate the strength of feeling now aroused against her. They either surround themselves with bad advisers or don't take the good advice they are given.
That deal with Clinton was the making of his relationship with Bush. When the Twin Towers came down nine months after Bush entered the White House, Blair's words were the most powerful that Americans heard from abroad - eloquent, and from the heart. And some of those with him on that day marked a decisive change in his demeanour and belief after talking with Bush, alone in the Blue Room of the White House.
The conviction that the world had changed irrevocably was one that would always torment him, and it fed a habit when talking about world affairs - in contrast, intriguingly, with his attitude at home - to talk about black and white, good and evil. In parts of the Bush White House, that was a gift from the gods. Vice-President Dick Cheney was the leader of those whose eyes had never turned from Iraq, and the most determined of those who called themselves neo-conservatives.
They saw the Gulf War as unfinished business, and could hardly believe their luck in having a Labour prime minister who was willing to join a war coalition.
It was in effect to give powerful cover to an administration struggling for international support - with Blair setting aside the concerns of many of his officials including some who saw the "whatever" memo before it was sent to the White House and were horrified by its tone, and the implicit promise of unconditional support.
Such was Blair's confidence at that time - greatly bolstered by the Tories' leadership travails and the consequent weakness of the parliamentary opposition - that no-one could hold him back. Gordon Brown, his iron chancellor, absorbed himself in the economy and declined to intervene strongly in foreign affairs. But Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a weak secretary of state - not trusted by the ideologues who were pressing the president towards a confrontation with Saddam, and outside the White House inner core.
We now know, from Chilcot, what the consequences were. Fragmentary and thin intelligence was used to feed certainty, not to spread doubt; Blair's formidable political command meant that some officials became courtiers; there was too little appetite to question the assumptions that were driving policy.
In short, the fabled Whitehall machine didn't do its work. Alastair Campbell, director of communications, was having video conference calls with the White House every afternoon. Blair and Bush were talking regularly, so intimately and informally that some officials who saw the transcripts afterwards had to work hard to decipher precisely what each of them had meant in their exchanges.
This is not to say that Blair was determined on war, come what may. Highs and lows of the Blair era. Blair's Cabinet of ' Timeline: The Blair Years. Blair: In his own words. Blair v satirists. Blair's big day.
The leadership years. How others portrayed Blair. Blair's economic record. How will he be remembered? The day I met Tony Blair. England reacts to PM's departure. What next for Blair? In his own words. Decade at the top. Voicemail goodbyes. Full coverage. Ghost town. The guerilla plant. Walking away. BBC Copyright Notice. One-Minute World News. Printable version. Mrs Blair answers the door the day after Labour's victory Cherie's legacy. Editor's note: Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time -- remarkable professionals who have made it to the top in all areas of business, the arts, sport, culture, science and more.
London, England CNN -- Under constant scrutiny, hosting countless functions and attending numerous public events are just some of the practices expected of you as the wife of a prime minister. So when Tony Blair was elected British prime minister in , Cherie Blair went from being a fairly obscure but accomplished barrister to the spouse of the country's political leader.
But she was never going to be a traditional political trophy wife smiling quietly in the background. Moving the family into England's most famous political address was worlds away from how Cherie herself was brought up in a working class household in s Liverpool. The eldest of two daughters, Cherie Booth -- her maiden name, which she continues to use in her professional life -- came from a tumultuous family background.
Both parents were actors but she describes her father Tony -- a minor sitcom star -- as "flawed", recalling how he left the family when she was 8 years old. As it turned out, Booth had an aptitude for academics along with a hardworking nature instilled through her upbringing by a "formidable" mother and grandmother. She went on to read law at the London School of Economics graduating with first-class honors and emerging as the top law student in her class when she sat the bar exams.
She continued to excel during her apprenticeship with prestigious attorney Derry Irvine. And it was there she met another advocate undergoing "pupilage" by the name of Anthony Blair.
Ever the astute young lawyer she also noted how her gender was considered an impediment when she went up against her future husband for a position at Lincoln's Inn -- one of the four Inns of Court in London. Tony got the job. She says it was because they assumed "I am a female, I'm bound to leave when I had children. It was my husband because he left to become an MP Member of Parliament. As her spouse rose in the political ranks, Booth carved out a successful career first as an attorney then, in , she received the senior advocate status of Queen's Counsel.
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