LONDON: For a man who has just won a war and will soon be heading the longest Labour Party government in United Kingdom history, Tony Blair does not look too happy.

Rather than basking in the US-British victory over Saddam Hussein, the prime minister is embroiled in an unseemly furore over the credibility of his original case for war.

Instead of self-congratulation as he leads Labour past an historic milestone in government on August 2, Blair is sweating over how to re-launch his jaded party and overcome disillusionment with public service inadequacies.

"It's a mistake to say 'Oh God, the government is falling,'" political analyst John Curtice said. "But we are reaching a point where people feel that we no longer have a government that walks on water - we have a mortal government that makes mistakes, and can get into trouble."

Benefiting from Labour's recent woes, the opposition Conservative Party is creeping out of the doldrums and mockery it has experienced over the last decade. It was even ahead in the public's eyes in one recent poll.

A survey on Tuesday showed 54 per cent of Britons in agreement with the phrase about Blair: "I wouldn't trust him further than I could throw him."

Certainly the euphoria of 1997 - when Blair became Britain's youngest prime minister in nearly two centuries and rescued Labour from 18 years in opposition - is now history.

And Blair's once seemingly inevitable victory for a third successive general election, due by 2006 but likely in 2005, looks considerably more complicated.

Still more likely than a Conservative victory would be a fresh face at the head of the Labour Party, some analysts say.

"This is the existential crisis of a party leader who needs to face the unthinkable fact that he may have stayed too long," wrote political commentator Hugo Young, arguing Blair should bow out, given the traditional six-year disillusionment with leaders.

"People might have different reasons to be pleased to see him go, notably his terrifying faith in personal moral crusades as George W. Bush's henchman. But...the big reason...is the need to re-enliven sterile, thankless government."

Blair, however, shows no signs of such a dramatic option. Although looking tired and fed up with the never-ending saga over claims his government exaggerated evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Blair was in fighting form at a two-hour grilling by senior parliamentarians on Tuesday.

"I believe we did the right thing, I stand 100 per cent by it," he said, challenging his interrogators to prove him wrong.

On the domestic front, Blair remains determined to push through controversial plans to tamper with the UK welfare system by giving some hospitals the freedom to raise funds and making students pay for previously state-funded university education.

An idea mooted by one of his cabinet ministers to raise taxes for the rich, and public anger at creaking transport services, have further fuelled disillusionment.

Sensing their long-desired "tipping point" may be around the corner, the Conservatives have launched a poster campaign depicting Blair as the long-nosed lying puppet Pinocchio.

"The government has been in quite serious trouble now for about two to three months on a variety of issues, including the disarray over Iraq's WMD but mainly for not delivering on public services," Conservative legislator John Maples said. "It still looks very difficult for us to win the next election, but quite a few of us have felt for the first time that it's not impossible."

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 07/10/2003 page4)