In other areas of British life, where you might have expected a politician of Mr. Blair’s apparent élan and ambition to make a difference, he has made no impact whatever. One of his weirdest displays of oratory — delivered this time by Mr. Blair in his role as semi-tearful revivalist preacher — was that he would “heal the wounds” of Africa. That was Blair the Redeemer.  Then there was Blair the Efficient, who told us he would improve the educational system, transportation, hospitals: in all these areas, Britain is in a parlous state, with railway accident rates reminding us of the 19th century and true literacy levels much lower than those of the Victorians. As many as one-quarter of British parents now pay for ruinously expensive private education for the children. That is the measure of Mr. Blair’s success with the schools.  Being a man of quick though skin-deep intelligence, Mr. Blair found out very quickly that there are in fact fewer and fewer areas over which British politicians, perhaps any politicians, have control in today’s world.  The economy in Britain has been so successful over the last decade because politicians have at long last had so little to do with it. Our Bank of England, rather than our Treasury, has controlled the interest rates. The largely non-British City of London, most of whose firms and institutions are now in American, German or Japanese control, is the bubbling center of British wealth, and has nothing to do with Mr. Blair or his likely successor, Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer.  To make an impact — and there is no doubt that Mr. Blair wanted to make an impact as prime minister — he could play on only two stages: the theater of Europe as a member of the European Union, and that of the wider world as an acolyte of the United States. He quickly discovered that Europe was too amorphous for him to stand out beside the bigger players, especially beside the president of France, Jacques Chirac. It was inevitable that he would emerge as the Odd Man Out of Europe, the one who supported President Bush in his Middle Eastern adventures.  Some people think he did so out of religious conviction. Maybe. Commentators make much of Mr. Blair’s religion, but it has never been an issue of public importance in Britain, and it has made no obvious impact on his policies. (Abortion, the rights of gay couples to marry and adopt children, the rights of religious schools to determine their own curriculum — in all these areas the laws enacted by the Blair government have gone against the expressed views of the Roman Catholic Church, to which his wife belongs and which it is rumored he wishes to join.)  Iraq has been a fiasco, but I think he got involved in the calamity because, once again, he is superficial, decent and brave. The superficiality made him think it would be a quick and easy operation, like the military action in 2000 in Sierra Leone, where the British Army nipped in and out to remove a rogue warlord.  Alas, his disregard for truth — indeed it seems very unlikely he even quite knows what truth is in this case — led him to think it did not matter what reason he gave for sending in the troops. You have to concede that he has been brave in his unwavering support for the war, but not so brave as the many people who have died as a result of his and President Bush’s calamitous mistake.  A. N. Wilson is the author, most recently, of “Betjeman: A Life.”  A version of this op-ed appears in print on , on Page A33 of the New York edition with the headline: A Player Who Never Found His Stage. Today's Paper|Subscribe
Tony Blair, who announced his resignation date today, is a figure vilified and loathed by his own party and disliked by people in Britain at large.