Britain sticks with 'Teflon Tony', with little competition

William Keegan, Observer News Service, London

Just like his good friend Bill Clinton, Britain's Prime Minister is acquiring the nickname "Teflon Tony."

Whether it is the condition of the hospitals, the state school system or transport, the theme of much public debate is that "Britain Doesn't Work."

Yet all the flak is directed at Blair's Cabinet colleagues, and the increasingly presidential figure of the Prime Minister simply rides above it all.

Thus a recent Guardian/ICM opinion poll finds 51 percent of respondents declaring Blair is the best person to be prime minister of Britain -- as against just 14 percent voting for Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and 15 percent for Liberal leader Charles Kennedy.

This is in spite of the fact that Blair is the widespread butt of jokes that he is trying to solve the world's problems, while making a pretty good mess of things back home.

Recent talking points have been the impression that Blair spends more time abroad than at home, and that in the end he will be judged not by the influence he has on America's foreign policy but by whether he can sort out the UK's aged transport infrastructure. It is, for instance, increasingly common here to hear people say "Mussolini made the trains run on time -- Tony Blair's New Labour party can't make them run at all."

The other interesting thing about Blair's government at is that his team of ace spin-doctors and control freaks seem to have begun 2002 by losing their touch. Thus ministers contradict one another in public about the government policy towards plans (or not) for adopting the single European currency. And, as one former advisor put it: "From the general run of comment about the prime minister, you would not think that he has in fact spent only 11 days abroad since Sept. 11."

The man in the front line who has taken most of the criticism is transport secretary Stephen Byers. Byers is not only responsible for transport; he is also Minister for Gaffes, having fallen over one stumbling block after another in recent months. He recently described Blair's precious "third way" as "flaky". And he even had the cheek to say the Government would be judged at the next election by whether or not it had sorted out he railways -- nobody seriously thinks they can be dramatically improved in less than a decade.

But Byers is one of "Tony's Cronies." He has the protection of the Prime Minister. After all, wouldn't you want a Byers around if he acted as a sort of Teflon coating for yourself?

Which leaves us with the other member off the powerful duumvirate that runs this Labour Government, finance minister Gordon Brown. Brown has spent most of the month in his Scottish home north of Edinburgh, recovering with his wife from the appalling tragedy of the loss of their baby daughter Jennifer.

There was a genuine outbreak of public sympathy when the premature baby died within days of her birth. Brown had cultivated a dour image, but his joy over his first born had capture the nation's hearts, and his grief has been widely shared.

It is too soon to tell what impact this tragedy will have on the Government and the often-difficult relationship between Blair and Brown. Brown has worn his ambition to succeed Blair very prominently. The betting in government circles is that the tragedy of Jennifer's death will probably render the finance minister immune to the normal cut and thrust of politics and media criticisms for some months to come.

So, Teflon Tony had better beware of bulletproof Brown.