Squall masks deeper concerns for Blair

By HELEN GIBSON

t was an unusually choppy week for Tony Blair, who has sailed smoothly through 14 months as Britain's Prime Minister buoyed by his huge majority, sky-high popularity polls and little personal criticism. As he grappled with Northern Ireland's intractable problems, a row over lobbyists and political advisers back in Westminster forced him on the defensive. Although in itself the controversy seems to be more squall than real storm, it has raised important questions about the style and tone of the Blair government.

Charges of arrogance and cronyism in New Labour's top circles have long been flung from the opposition Conservative benches, but last week these accusations spread through most of the national press and were even muttered by disaffected M.P.s on Blair's own side. Veteran Labour backbencher Austin Mitchell says disparagingly, "We have a presidential system with a court."

The row was set off by an article about New Labour lobbyists and political advisers published in the left-of-center Sunday newspaper, the Observer. Two journalists posing as American businessmen seeking help with energy contracts reported they were offered unusually privileged access to inner government sanctums and, in one case, some commercially-sensitive government information in advance of publication. One lobbyist, Derek Draper, in boasting of his powers, was reported to have said, "Mayor Daley has nothing on me."

The evidence so far indicates that Draper is guilty of being a braggart, but of no crimes or misdemeanors. Likewise, Roger Liddle, senior member of the Downing St. policy unit, denies that he offered clients of his former business partners access to policymakers. Labour's spokespeople have had little difficulty deflecting the implication of any legal impropriety. But the whole affair left a nasty, lingering smell. It corroborated worries that nothing exceeds like success: that Labour's huge majority and the Tories' disarray have produced an arrogant use of power that could be altering subtly the way Britain's parliamentary democracy works.

It is not only the new breed of young, wheeler-dealing lobbyists--often former Labour employees and still friends of now powerful ministers--who are thought to have too much influence. Under Blair, the number of special advisers, many of them political aides rather than substantive policy experts, has expanded by 50%. These unelected people wield considerable power--certainly much more than most elected M.P.s. And while spin doctoring has become almost an art form, New Labour also exercises tight control over its pager-carrying backbenchers whom it aims to keep constantly "on message." Added to the recent ministerial tendency to announce government initiatives to the media rather than to the House of Commons, there are worries that New Labour wants to sideline parliament and its often uncomfortable, challenging system of debate.

Conservative leader William Hague last week accused Blair of protecting his "feather-bedding, pocket-lining, money-grabbing cronies." That sounded a bit rich given that the Tories are still trying to recover from their reputation for sleaze, both sexual and financial, that helped cost them last year's election. But when Blair took office, he promised a government of high moral tone. Last week that pledge looked slightly tarnished, and his government will now have to work much harder at being seen, as Blair put it, to be "purer than pure."