WHAT a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, Tony Blair reluctantly brought down the curtain on his time as prime minister, the British public having fallen out of love with him, his pursuit of war in Iraq and a decade of spin.
Gordon Brown was his beaming replacement. The joy of realising his lifetime's ambition could not be disguised as his limousine swung back into Downing Street after an audience with the Queen. But this time he headed to No10 rather than No11.
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l forward a year and there is no disguising who is the happier. Mr Blair strolled back into the media spotlight yesterday looking tanned and relaxed as he returned to parliament to answer MPs' questions about one of his new jobs, envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
By contrast, a Downing Street press conference called by Mr Brown to outline his efforts to cut the high price of food could not even secure uninterrupted coverage on Sky TV's rolling news channel. The funeral of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was judged more of a draw.
Mr Blair glowed with good health as he appeared before the international development committee in the Thatcher Room, in Portcullis House. His face was tanned and shorn of the weariness and stresses of office. He took his seat, facing the MPs arranged before him in a horseshoe formation. A portrait of Margaret Thatcher looked down on him. He adjusted his eyes, as if blinking in the sunlight and grinned widely. "How are you guys doing?" he asked.
More than 100 members of the "Westminster village" – peers, journalists and MPs' researchers – had turned up to watch. There was no doubting his star status. "Aye, he's a class act," one Brownite Scots Labour MP conceded later.
Mr Blair recounted the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians faced terrible hardships as a result of Israeli blockades. But these had to be understood in the context of the 2,600 rockets fired by Hamas militias into Israel, he said.
On Wednesday, 27 June, 2007, Mr Blair bowed out of Downing Street after just over a decade as prime minister. "I wish everyone, friend or foe, well," he said. "That is that. The end."
He left the Commons to an unprecedented standing ovation – David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, even summoning his back-benchers to their feet.
Since then, Mr Blair, aided by his wife Cherie, has put in place the financial foundations to secure his family's future. He has landed deals worth about £10 million – a £5 million advance on his Downing Street memoirs, a £2.5 million salary after being signed up by the US investment bank JP Morgan, and £2 million for an adviser's role with the finance firm Zurich. There was also a £200,000-plus cheque for a speech to Spanish businessmen.
The Blairs' property empire has also grown. Added to their main London home north of Hyde Park and a flat in the Isle of Dogs was a £4 million stately home in Buckinghamshire once owned by Sir John Gielgud. They also have two flats in Bristol and the former constituency home in Durham.
Mrs Blair has got in on the act too, earning a reported £1 million advance for her memoirs, which gave more than a hint of her disdain of Mr Brown. The book, said Mr Blair, was "a bit of fun and it's lively and it's well meant".
As for Mr Brown, his honeymoon period was all the sweeter for knowing that he was the antidote to all that was disliked about Mr Blair. He promised a government free of spin and one which vowed to make announcements to parliament first, rather than via selected leaks to favoured newspapers.
But after standing tall in the face of three sudden crises – the summer floods, the return of foot-and-mouth disease and the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow – Mr Brown ran aground when he allowed the thought of a snap October general election to gather steam. Then came a catalogue of disasters – Northern Rock, the 10p tax, the Crewe by-election defeat – all played to the undercurrent of a worsening world economic situation. Pollsters found Mr Brown's personal popularity falling below that of Michael Foot, the modern-day yardstick of dire Labour leaders.
Yesterday, Mr Blair, looking as at ease on the GMTV sofa as Mr Brown does uncomfortable, tried to deflect the blame from his successor. "It's tough for all leaders at the moment, right round the western world, they have got things that are happening that, to be fair to them, is not really their individual fault," he said.
Mr Brown, for his part, was preparing a six-point plan for European action to bring down food prices. Further headaches are on the horizon: the risk of parliamentary defeats or Cabinet resignations on the counter-terrorism and embryology bills, another humiliation in the unwinnable Henley by-election and a summer of discontent that could see him fighting for his political life at the Labour Party conference in September.
Labour MPs joke openly about the need to update their CVs in advance of losing their seats in two years' time. The question is whether they dare to replace a second leader in the hope of minimising the looming electoral defeat. Hardly what Mr Brown could have imagined when he stepped into Downing Street a year ago.
Toned Tony turns back the clockON HIS dramatic return to Downing Street yesterday, former prime minister Tony Blair looked like some sort of suave and mature Hollywood star – if you half-closed your eyes and squinted at the TV screen.
However, even headache-inducing squinting was unlikely to produce the same effect for his successor, Gordon Brown.
He may have a new job as a Middle East peace envoy, but Mr Blair has clearly been devoting much of his time since he left No 10 to renovations and improvements.
While Mr Brown has taken over Mr Blair's mantle as the increasingly haggard, baggy-eyed leader who needs scaffolding to prop up the saggy skin, Mr Blair's appearance suggests that he has been hard at work chiselling his cheekbones and topping up his tan.
Giving up the top job in the country would appear to have the same effect on worry and frown lines as Botox – they have simply melted away, leaving Toned Blair looking smooth-skinned and even more convincing as a wannabe American than he did before.
With some colour about his complexion and his once-receding hairline doing a U-turn, he has shaken off the Dracula look – which Mr Brown, with his ashen skin and black hair, was obviously a natural to inherit. And don't Tony's teeth look considerably less prominent now that he's no longer in charge of sucking the life out of the country?
Mr Brown's teeth – to judge by the length of his nails – spend most of their time gnawing anxiously on his fingers.
You can bet that the new "improved" Mr Blair has perfectly filed (and buffed) nails to complement his American aesthetic.
And let's face it, if you want to make pots of money after scunnering the population of your own country, America is the place to go. Just ask the Duchess of York.
Both Mr Blair and Mr Brown share an inexplicable fondness for overly dark suits but these days, Mr Blair's are looking sharper and, even when paired with a stark white shirt, less severe – thanks to that new tan.
Mr Brown, on the other hand, favours undertaker chic. But while the current PM looks haunted by what might have been had he stayed in his old job, his predecessor exudes the peace that comes with knowing that the worst – ie the wife's memoirs – has already happened.
• Alison Kerr is a Scottish-based style writer.
