Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be judged as much for his domestic achievements as his unpopular decision to support the US-led war in Iraq, newspapers said in London said on Friday.
Britain’s dailies overflowed with comments on the Blair legacy a day after he announced he would resign as leader of the Labour Party, and the country, on June 27, concluding more than a decade as premier.
"Mr Blair has met the standard demanded of statesmen of the highest rank, namely to govern largely on his own terms and take his leave as he wished it," The Times said.
"Let history have the time and space to consider him and the Britain he had headed for the past decade."
The Sun tabloid -- Britain’s best-read daily -- remained a Blair supporter to the end.
" The Sun believes the verdict is already in. The overwhelming majority of people believe Tony Blair has served his country well -- at home and abroad," it said.
"And that’s a verdict he should be proud to live with."
The Daily Mirror likened Blair to a "political rock star" on a farewell tour who deserves the "thanks and tributes of his fellow statesmen and the people of Britain."
But the general theme was one of the promises unfulfilled.
"The great landslide of 1997 was a mandate for so much more than the new government was ready to deliver. The same was true in 2001. Much of that was Mr. Blair’s fault," said left-leaning The Guardian .
The Daily Mail’s editorial was along similar lines, though the paper, no fan of Blair’s, conceded that he was "a remarkable politician."
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