The shadow of long-dead Scottish theologian, John Macmurray, hangs over this British election.
Three weeks ago Tony Blair and his closest friends - Dr.Geoff Gallop, Labor Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia, and London-based Australian church minister, the Rev.Peter Thomson - gathered in London and talked about the huge influence of Macmurray on their lives from their days at St.John’s College, Oxford.
‘We were students together who used to meet in Peter Thomson’s room at St.John’s College,’ recalls Gallop, ‘drinking coffee and talking about how the problems of the world could be put right.’
They decided to make a pilgrimage to Edinburgh to see John Macmurray, philosopher, teacher and Christian Socialist, then 84. (‘If you really want to know what I’m about,’ says Tony Blair today, ‘you have to look at a guy called John Macmurray.’)
Geoff Gallop admits he and Tony Blair were hesitant to go in to see Macmurray and waited outside his rooms. ‘He was very old,’ said Thomson, ‘so it was decided I would go in.’
Macmurray became a significant influence on all three - particularly Blair. Thomson, who had been studying Macmurray’s philosophy since the 50s, recalls: ‘Tony had never heard theology spoken of in this way and he devoured the stuff quickly; I had no idea just how deeply it had got to him. We would spend hours in our digs at Oxford getting stuck into Macmurray’s philosophy. He grounded our Christian thinking in human relationships.’ "All meaningful knowledge is for the sake of action, all meaningful action is for the sake of friendship," Macmurray had said.
Three weeks ago, Thomson, Gallop and Blair again got together and Tony Blair outlined some of the campaign ideas he would "borrow" from Australia for May 1.
‘What we discussed is of course a state secret,’ says Geoff Gallop. ‘But being active in the Labor Party, we talked about how it could be effective in campaigning and policy presentation. There are lots of analogies to be drawn, comparing the last Australian Federal election and the coming British one. I told Tony, who is well tuned into Australian politics, how the then Opposition (the Liberal Party) presented themselves and developed their arguments.’
Labor sent observers to Australia last year to monitor the election voting and now Tony Blair will embrace some of the strategy of Australian Conservatives.’ (He will use the Liberals’ slogan "Enough is Enough!").
Gallop said he told his friend where Australian Labor went wrong in losing the election in a landslide. ‘We met together quite often before the final dinner,’ says Gallop. ‘Peter had been preparing to give an important lecture to the Christian Socialist Movement on rebuilding community, so we spent some of the time discussing theology and what he was going to say.’
What is the image of a possible Tony Blair PM?
‘Tony will present a youthful image to Britain, making education a top priority. He has a young family still at school so he has a direct link with education, which makes him different from prime ministers of recent times. He embraces information technology and technical advances generally and will project that image. He will want to be outward-looking; in tune with the next millenium.
‘He has an egalitarian, outward-looking approach and is not confined to some of the conventions that have constrained other political leaders in the past. The reform of the House of Lords is one of these: the Labour Party will move to end hereditary voting there; he will loosen up the democracy, which has become very centralised. He understands that to the Establishment in Britain, these will be seen as very dangerous moves. But as a person at the radical centre of British politics, he sees it as fairly normal to have a House of Lords without an hereditary element.’
British Labor was determined to make "everyone stakeholders in the economy," Blair told his friends. "A part of the team and a part of the process."
Did he and Thomson still influence Tony Blair?
‘Tony and Peter and I are close friends. When you are close friends you don’t think in terms of how you influence one another. You think about it in terms of enjoying their company, sharing their experiences, taking pleasure from their achievements; seeing their kids come along and grow up. I think Peter has given Tony a philosophical framework in terms of the Macmurray philosophy, examining social obligations that may have been downgraded in recent years.
‘Tony Blair is a straight man with the courage of his personal, religious convictions which he uses and which impacts on his approach to politics.’
Did Tony Blair say at the end of their dinner: "Next time I see you, I’ll be PM."?
‘No. He is not at all complacent. He still believes, very strongly, that no stone should be left unturned. He knows things cannot be taken for granted.’
