Sound Bite Kid waiting in the wings

Date: 23/01/1997

EUROPE awaits Tony Blair.

The young(ish) dynamic leader of Her Majesty's Opposition Labour Party; the man who admits he would rather be a rock star than prime minister but will settle for second best, is about to gallop on to the EU stage on his white charger and lead the British nation out of the cold, snowy wastes of isolationism and on to the sunny uplands of federalism.

And la toute Europe, saved after nearly 18 years of a British Conservative vendetta against its hopes and dreams, will blossom and grow and live happily ever after.

Or not, as the case may be.

Much as the UK's partners in Europe would love to believe that 43-year-old Blair is the answer to all British Euro-ills, they know better. They know that it will take more than just an American- style sound-bite strategy, a winning smile and a smooth public relations machine to banish endemic British Euroscepticism.

Blair, of course, has all of the above. But, he says, he has much more. He claims to have a clear vision; a sense of political direction which is now lacking in the rudderless Eurosceptic-infested Tories.

He is a natural team leader, jollying the troops along with a ready smile and smooth charm. And the team members, apart from a few old grumps at the back, love him for what they think he will do very soon for a party which was almost past its vote-by date before he came along.

When the Labour leadership fell vacant with the untimely death of the highly popular John Smith in 1994, eyes first turned to Smith's fellow Scot and heir apparent Gordon Brown.

But it was 'Shadow' Chancellor Brown's good friend Blair, also born in Scotland but with any hint of regionality driven out of him on the way through the halls of academe, who emerged as the more marketable of the two.

Blair is said to have groaned when his closest supporters told him he must stand for the good of the party. For this was a man who had entered the political arena seemingly on a whim, leaving behind a successful career as a barrister. Asked about his motives, he said: “I suppose you just look at the world around you, think things are wrong and want to change them.”

Blair rose swiftly, quickly recognised as a future star. By the time of Smith's death, he had already held two shadow cabinet posts and ended Labour's traditional commitment to the trade union closed-shop policy.

Nobody knew it then, but 'New' Labour was quietly being born.

Blair had also carved out a tough reputation on law and order, traditionally a Tory issue. When he became shadow home secretary after the 1992 election, 'Mr Sound Bite' made his first appearance, with the famous slogan: “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.”

There was no doubt it had to be Blair or Brown for the leadership and, with the youthful Bill Clinton installed in the White House, Labour members saw their fortunes reflected better in the young thruster with the picture-book family than in the slightly crusty bachelor. On looks, charisma and style, it was Blair by an aquiline nose.

Blair made his mark within the party soon after being elected leader, when he took on the old guard over Clause Four of the constitution, the Labour Party's hitherto sacrosanct creed on public ownership.

It was a move calculated to broaden his appeal, shake off Labour's cloth-cap image and trample all over the traditional Tory heartland. And where Hugh Gaitskell failed in the Fifties, Blair triumphed.

When the New Labour leader came to Brussels a couple of years ago, he demonstrated his strength of character by sticking to his guns as the veterans hammered him for selling Labour's birthright down the river.

It was on that trip that the Sound Bite Kid came into his own. Blair demonstrated a remarkably sophisticated version of the old political ethos of sticking to the mantra whatever questions are hurled at you. He simply recited time and again that Clause Four had to go so that he could develop a 'New' Labour Party for a new millennium, a new party to take Britain into the 21st century, a fresh start for a fresh era.

It worked. The next day the papers were full of brave words about Labour's new dawn for a new adventure. The mayhem and the smouldering ashes of a once-proud working-class party were ignored.

During that trip, the Labour leader also gave an early display of the toughness which was to instil a new sense of discipline in a party long famed for its rebellious tendencies, and which has won Blair many admirers but also more than a few enemies within the rank and file of his own party.

He has been accused by critics both inside and outside Labour's ranks of lacking principles, of being willing to do or say anything to help him win the next election.

It is this perceived trait which has gradually sown the seeds of doubt among many in Europe that he is the British answer to their prayers.

He was, and remains, the right man in the right place, probably at the right time. But Blair rock star manqué, successful lawyer and aspiring player on the world stage will only impress the rest of Europe if he can turn back the tide of Euroscepticism.

He has already made his mark with fellow Socialist leaders in Europe, taking centre stage at a mini-summit in Dublin last year. He made no silly promises, delivered no hostages to fortune. But his reticence is enough to make Europe's leaders wary.

“In the European context, a Labour victory in Britain will only be welcomed if it means an end to this tired debate about whether you should be in the Union or not,” said one Brussels diplomat. “Unfortunately there is nothing to show that having Mr Blair in power would make any real difference at all to the debate in Britain.”

True, the challenger for the British premiership lacks all the heavy political European baggage that Major has been forced to lug around with him since taking over from Margaret Thatcher.

But the Labour leader knows the risks of promising a bright new Euro-dawn under his leadership, only to find as many Eurosceptics on his own back-benches as there are on Major's.

The lack of any clear commitments from Blair on key Union issues is also concerning many and where he has been crystal clear, it has been in the wrong direction as far as the EU is concerned. He has stipulated that he will not be a “soft touch” on Europe. He wants to make the UK a “strong leading player” and will sign the social chapter, but he will not give up the veto and will retain national control over areas such as defence, tax, immigration and border checks.

So what is the real difference between the Conservatives and Labour on Europe? Blair said last week that the contrast was that under Labour, other member states would know where the UK stands.

This is hardly reassuring. “We know where we stand with John Major,” retorted a senior official who may soon be dealing with Blair and his cabinet team. “And we don't like it much.”

For all his glad-handing on the European stage, Blair remains an unknown quantity. The UK was already a member of the EU by the time he joined the Labour Party in 1975. He entered parliament as an MP in 1983, which was, after all, only the day before yesterday.

The official Blair curriculum vitae does not make mention of his time as a long-haired singer with Ugly Rumours, but that biographical fact is better known in Europe than his legal background.

The PR grooming has naturally centred on soft-focus publicity pictures of him surrounded by loving wife and successful lawyer, Cherie Booth (who, says Blair, is cleverer than him) and his three children.

New Labour, new man.

But the acid test for Europe's leaders will be whether Blair can perform a miraculous British conversion on the road to the Justus Lipsius. First of all, they point out, he has to get elected.

Only then will anyone see whether, on Europe at least, the tail will continue to wag the British bulldog. New Labour, but same old EU woes?