by Roger Bunn

London: May 15th 1997
On the 3rd of May 1997 the door of Number Ten opened and there with her hair all over the place stood Mrs Blair. Probably unused to having servants around she had opened the door to receive some flowers.

Fresh from her slumbers for ten seconds she was caught by the worlds press, a simple woman in a dressing gown and in a simple situation. She will continue to practice law and will eventually not forget that the wives of PMs do not open doors themselves.

But it only took two more days and the broom was out and sweeping, but not the Mrs, the Mr B was responsible.

First the Bank of England got what it wanted, more control over the balancing of the pound. Second came the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The one responsible for selling Hawk military aircraft to Indonesia and then denying, even to ex Chancellor Ken Clark on national TV last night that Hawks had ever been used in the repression of the East Timorese population adding to the death toll of some 200,000 to 300,000 mostly Christian citizens, loyal to the allies during WW2 that had "disappeared" since the US, the UK, Australia and Holland closed its Foreign Office eyes to the illegal (under UN mandate) Indonesian military invasion of 1975.

While the puff puff of the parliamentarians deposed still continues in the media and Peter Mandelson now an MP in his own right and composer and conductor of the landslide LP election campaign, is seen staying loyal to what this author considers to be a hard left foreign policy that has been waiting in the wings for over two decades, there is a rumbling in the background that just maybe there are some clever and caring people around.

"This will be the very first really caring government that the UK will have ever known" said Dominic, a bright young LP volunteer on the day of the election.

Knowing the London hard left from the years working at their side towards the attainment of democratic elections in S Africa I feel safe in the knowledge that they always hold a watching brief. Because if there is a civil rights riot in London it feels like its sweeping the country. And that political methodology can be most useful.

In the past the Tories would buy any old corporate bull as long as it came via MI6 or MI5, they developed a habit of using it as "the ultimate truth" upon which all arms export decisions would be made. We may even have a case where the ex Home Secretary Michael Howard called an internal security briefing as "independent" and sacked his Director of Prisons..

Maybe Mr Howard wanted Wackenhut to take over at the Home Office?

But now a visit from the President of the United States!!!!

What's he doing lurking around here? Ireland and the failure (take it from one who knows) of US policy in that troubled land really hurt the Clinton administration who eventually saw the IRA as a small but well armed fringe group, "getting in the way" of the peace which everyone else desired before anything political or principle were to be considered.

So what has Mrs Blair's hair got to do with Hawks?

It may be that by the time the Pres arrives at Number Ten Mrs Blair will have combed her, (wish she had dread locks don't you?) hair. But there is no guarantee that the Blairs will meet the Clintons without a complete briefing as to all the little quirks of the most powerful office on the planet. One presumes that from this time forward the PM's briefings on "foreign visitors" will not just include the security services and Foreign Office nor exclude those from the decently left.

New Labour New Muscles. Waiting for the USA to "move on foreign policy issues" can get very very tiresome. And if it were not for the UK hard left, or if it had been left to the Tories, Mandela would still be in prison. His release was an experience from which the UK left arose less idealistic, (the Mandela "sell out" had been predicted) but much more cunning. And now they have no other target except the foreign policies of the USA and the Criminal Justice Act at home.

In London, Contragate / Grenada / Kuwait even to Whitewater (just about the whole US shebang really.) US / so called UN Foreign Policies are held in contempt by the UK left.

But one thing we all don't need is any more amateurs, musicians or politicians. Guess its Tony's on guitar and Bill on tenor? Y'think that the Pres will suggest to the Blairs that life is more interesting than death?. An offer that one cannot refuse?

Maybe, but one sniff of that stuff, and "the man" will be thrown out on his nose.

Roger Bunn