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It's nice to see that Tony Blair is rated internationally. Strangely, in his home constituency of Sedgefield, County Durham, he's commonly called "Phoney Tony".
To be fair, he does have a significant advantage over Bush (and no - it's not the freehold ownership and possession of a brain :>). One of the fundamental differences between the UK & US Governments is the permanence of department heads - the level at which permanent professionals can rise to. For example, while in the US the head of HHR or the NIA is a political appointment, in the UK, the head of MI5, SIS, etc... are career civil servants who remain in their posts regardless of changes of government. As such, while Bush had to bring in his advisors when he was appointed president, and those advisors had to largely learn to run departments AND formulate policy, Blair's advisors have effectively spent their entire careers in the departments they now head. This leaves the UK ministers (who are political appointees) free to set policy guided by a senior civil service who have also served the previous administration.
MIke.
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