Tony Blair leaves interest rates go up

Blair will stand down on 27 June (BBC)

UK interest rates raised to 5.5% (BBC)

So Tony Blair has finally named a date, finally the media can stop harping on about it. Although now they get to harp on about the leadership elections for seven weeks. It looks like they are going to be really dull as for leader, only Gordon Brown is standing. No stalking horse to make it slightly interesting. To be honest I understand the need for the long, full process but I am already bored of it and will be completely bored of the media going on about things, probably by tomorrow. After all its one of the things the media does best, go on on and on about something.

The question the media have been asking about Tony is "What is his legacy ?". I think Tony hit the right note in his farewell speech, he was an honest man trying to do what he thought was right and best. He made his mistakes notably on Iraq but he did what he thought was right at the time and right for the country.

Although I could join the hordes and criticise him for his decision to send troops into Iraq, in my heart I feel he made the best decision on the information he had at the time and I would probably have made the same decision myself based on that information at that time. It was with hindsight a mistake and was compounded by the fact that once we got in, there was and still isn't an easy way out. Remember that based on the information available at the time a majority of 310 MP's voted in favour of the case for war (Source: The Public Whip).

Moving on from the Iraq issue what legacy has he? Well the economy is robust and there has been no recession since labour has taken office. Inflation Policy is now an economic rather than a political decision. Public Services have received investment. Taxes have increased in complexity and have not always been designed to support the poor and vulnerable of society.

All In all I think he has done a good job, Tony Blair has been a steady hand on the country and has modernised politics back to a two party system where we do have a choice.

The other story today was the interest rate rise where the Bank of England added another 1/4 point on to the interest rate. This is the fourth in a steady rise since last year but on the upside the Bank of England expects inflation to fall back in the mid to long term so hopefully this will be the last rise for some time. The bank will be watching statistics over the next few months to see whether another 1/4 point rate rise is justified. If inflation still has a bit of short term steam expect another small rise in June /July.

The media are fairly mediocre at predicting the outcome of interest rate meetings mainly because they like to hype it so much, doom and gloom is always better than saying we don't expect anything much to happen. For individuals with debts it will tighten belts further and may push some people over the edge but the average man in the street should not be effected. As far as the housing market goes it will have little effect, as almost nothing effects the housing market any more due to the supply / demand issues.