What the World is Reading

Tony Blair8217;s announcement of a late June exit has given Britons an opportunity to mull over the changes of the past decade.

Tony Blair8217;s announcement of a late June exit has given Britons an opportunity to mull over the changes of the past decade. And THE ECONOMIST holds that his prime ministership has made Britain a better place: the economy is in better shape and 8220;less easy to prove, but just as valuable, are the ways in which Blair has helped make Britain a more tolerant, more cosmopolitan place8221;. There is, still, an undeniable feeling of incompleteness. 8220;This, after all, was the most gifted politician of his generation 8212;certainly in Europe and depending on your opinion of the foxier but less disciplined Bill Clinton perhaps wider than that. Before coming to power Blair already had one enormous achievement to his name: dragging the Labour Party to the electable centre. In 1997 he had not just a big parliamentary majority but a country that wanted what he wanted 8212; 8220;an economy that combined the hard-won gains of Thatcherism with a greater emphasis on social justice and modernised public services. How could he fail? By being astonishingly ill-prepared. In retrospect, it is hard to exaggerate the waste of Blair8217;s first term.8221; Plus, he will surely regret that he did not press his case more forcefully with the US in the conduct of the Iraq invasion.

THE NEW STATESMAN has meanwhile moved on to a special issue on Blair8217;s almost certain successor, Gordon Brown. Martin Bright reckons that in constrast to Blair8217;s disposition to lecture, Brown will strike a more 8220;listening8221; strategy, using especially the weeks till the actual handover to tour Britain and guage the public mood. The buzzword is expected to be 8220;empathy8221;.

The Economist also cites an interesting article in the professional journal, ACTUARY. The authors, Sanchit Maini and Sumit Narayanan, have devised a formula to address an oddity of cricket statistics: the distortions introduced in batting averages on account of not-outs, and the disadvantage this gives to top-order batters. In their adjusted ODI rankings, then, Michael Bevan falls from the top of the pile to the fourth slot, his average slashed from 53.6 to 38.7. Viv Richards goes from 47 to 41.4; Ricky Ponting from 42.4 to 38.7; and Sachin Tendulkar from 44.2 to 40.2.

Could football8217;s turnaround have had something too to gain from Blairite cosmopolitanism? TIME doesn8217;t say but focuses its cover story on the business of the sport: 8220;Right now, in sports, the English Premier League is just about the definition of a great thing. Backed by wealthy investors, and tapping into a huge fan base all over the world, Premier League clubs have struck gold. Teams in English football8217;s top flight notched up around 2.5 billion in revenue last season, almost triple the level of a decade ago, making it the world8217;s richest football league by a country mile. New owners are piling in: foreign investors have snapped up four clubs in the past year 8212; Liverpool, Portsmouth, Aston Villa and West Ham United 8212; 8220;to add to the three which already had non-British owners8221;. Key to the transformation: 8220;losing the hooligans, luring big money at home, expanding overseas.8221;

VANITY FAIR carries extracts from Ronald Reagan8217;s diary. He writes on June 7, 1981: 8220;Got word of Israeli bombing of Iraq nuclear reactor. I swear I believe Armageddon is near. P.M. Begin informed us after the fact.8221; Then two days later: 8220;I can understand Begin8217;s fear but feel he took the wrong option. He should have told us 038; the French, we could have done something to remove the threat. However we are not turning on Israel 8212; that would be an invitation for the Arabs to attack. We need a real push for a solid peace.8221; BUSINESSWEEK8217;s cover story, 8220;The Poverty Business8221;, details how companies are providing holders of thin wallets greater access to credit and how this changes spending habits.