Wrinkles, receding graying hair and a furrowed brow attest to the difficulties of Tony Blair’s eight years in power.
Yet despite a heart operation, back pain and the ever present rumblings of dissent within his governing Labour Party, Blair (52), insists his passion for politics is undiminished.
”In fact, I feel vigorous and enthusiastic,” he said in an interview. He brushed aside a question about what he might do after leaving office — which he has suggested he would do before his term is up in 2010.
”I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because the job is pretty all-engrossing,” he said, sitting on a terrace adjacent to the Cabinet room at No 10 Downing Street.
Those close to Blair marvel at his energy and stamina. Earlier this month, he travelled to Washington for talks with US President George W. Bush, departed three days later on a whirlwind diplomatic tour to Moscow, Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg and ended the week at an acrimonious European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium that stretched into the small hours of the morning.
While journalists accompanying the prime minister complained of exhaustion, Blair was back at work the next day with a bounce in his step.
His health is subject to frequent speculation, however. In October 2003, he was hospitalised for heart palpitations. An electric jolt was used to return his rapid, irregular heart rhythm to normal.
A month later, doctors were called to his Downing Street residence after he complained of stomach ache. Last October, he underwent an operation to correct the heart condition — called supraventricular tachycardia — caused by rapid electrical activity in the upper parts of the organ. Only last month, he was treated at a London hospital for a slipped disc in his back.
Blair biographer Anthony Seldon said the prime minister had extraordinary resilience, but questioned how long he could last in the job.
”Although he’s had the heart problem, one has to recognise this man has a phenomenal physical and mental toughness,” said Seldon.
”What no one knows is whether the heart problem is solved and how, after this strain of the G8 and battles with the EU, he will stack up,” he added. ”British prime minister is the most stressful of jobs. All his predecessors began to run into physical, mental or emotional problems.”
When Blair surged to power in 1997, he was just 43 — Britain’s youngest prime minister since Lord Liverpool, who was a year younger when he assumed office in 1812.
At international conferences, he looked notably younger than many of his fellow government leaders — with a boyish grin, dark wavy hair and a certain twinkle in his eye. Despite a punishing workload, he kept his youthful looks for several years.
”I do more exercise today than I’ve done since I was at school,” he told Saga magazine, shortly before his 50th birthday. ”I pay more attention to looking after myself, I watch my diet a bit. But really I find it’s exercise that’s fantastically helpful for coping with stress,” added the prime minister, a keen tennis player who said he also used a treadmill to keep fit.
The past two years have been his most stressful in office, however. He has faced a storm of criticism across Britain for committing British troops to military action in Iraq.
In the tense months following US-led invasion, Blair appeared increasingly tired in public and often looking haggard at press conferences.
As well as constant criticism from a frequently hostile media, he has fended off discontent inside his Labour Party, whose left wing is unhappy about his centrist policies.
He now frequently dons spectacles mid-way through a speech, and self-deprecatingly pokes fun at his appearance. ”I now look my age,” Blair told a Labour conference in 2003.
Some commentators have been cutting about Blair’s physical transformation.
”The rosy-cheeked, dynamic, boyish sparkle that intoxicated all of us back in 1997 has eroded into a dull-eyed, balding and, frankly, knackered man,” wrote Piers Morgan, former editor of The Mirror newspaper earlier this year.
The grueling, month-long election campaign also appeared to take its toll. Unable to exercise regularly as he criss-crossed the country, and suffering from back pain, his usually sleek waistline turned into something of a paunch.
He won a third term, something never before achieved by a Labour prime minister, but his majority in Parliament was slashed — a fact that became the focus of much of the coverage, and even of Blair’s own self-appraisal.
Nevertheless, some commentators believe Blair has been energised by a battle over the future of the EU and the challenge of his G8 presidency.
How does Blair cope with the daily grind? ”Well if you believe in what you are doing, it is exciting to take on the challenge,” he said. ‒Sapa-AP