Word: labouring
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...Lord Levy, Tony Blair's special envoy to the region, might be expected to be busy. But Levy's time is taken up by another task he performs for Britain's Prime Minister: persuading wealthy patrons to stump up cash [an error occurred while processing this directive] for the Labour Party. Those donors, and the Prime Minister he devotedly serves, were bound to be concerned after Levy was arrested last week. Police are investigating possible breaches of the laws governing party funding; 48 people have already been interviewed by the authorities, who hope to determine whether some donors have been...
...private schools give to rich parents means much of the country's élite is ignorant and unconcerned about state schools. Add the conviction that places like Eton exist mainly to preserve the privileges of those who already monopolize too many, and you understand why many in the postwar Labour Party wanted to abolish them. In the 1960s, Eton took that threat seriously enough to start contemplating a move to Ireland. Under New Labour, the danger of extinction has vanished. Blair's government has limited itself to a bill that will require private schools to publish the social benefits they...
...troubles, Blair has shown no signs of even thinking about stepping aside. A Labour Party activist says that when he recently told a Blair aide that a change of leadership seemed necessary, the aide "looked at me as if I'd said his child wasn't his." Despite the personal awkwardness of their complex relationship, Blair and Brown agree on most policy questions, and Blair knows a crucial part of his legacy will be how well his successor fares. But Blair, still only 53, will never have a better job. And "he has amazing self-belief," says a Downing Street...
What will he leave behind? Beyond spurring Britain's remarkable economic performance, Blair led Labour's rise from a rump to a three-term party of government that boosted investment and raised standards in schools and hospitals. But Blair's political skill will complicate his party's future because it has motivated the opposition to copy New Labour's popular centrist policies. After years in the wilderness, the rival Tories have rallied behind Cameron, 39, who is stressing ecology, international development and the promotion of women and ethnic minorities instead of old Tory standards like immigrant bashing and tax cutting...
...victory that must be carefully tended to avoid defeat. Now that it faces a breathing opposition, Labour has to resolve the internal ambiguities that Blair was able to blur, like the tension between cutting poverty and cutting taxes. The good news for Labour is that it has a crop of competent young Ministers who want to try. The ultimate test for Blair's legacy is whether Labour can prosper without him. Britain may find out soon...