By BILLY ADAMS herald correspondent
LONDON - Another week, another nightmare. Spare a thought for a hard-working father trying to come to terms with the demands of a 2-month-old son.
Sleepless nights? He must know them only too well. But what must he think about in those long, lonely, dark hours? Crying baby? A Government falling apart? Does Leo's nappy need changing? Are colleagues plotting against me? Maybe he's hungry? Don't voters like me any more? Is Euan out getting drunk? Leaks, leaks and more leaks? Crisis? Oh no, not again!
Yes, these days Tony Blair has plenty to keep him awake.
Whether it has been in his role as a father or British Prime Minister, you could say that he has enjoyed better times than the beginning of the 21st Century.
Cast adrift on a sea of spin, his Government, populated by unelected advisers and shadowy spin-doctors, is reeling in a public image that is plummeting faster than the Titanic.
According to his own advisers, a British public who loved him dearly is now on the verge of filing for divorce and jumping into bed with a bald rival who sounds constipated every time he opens his mouth.
Which is all very ironic because if this week's evidence is anything to go by - and this week has been described by many as the worst of his Government - then Blair has only got himself to blame.
Take a look inside the upside-down world of New Labour.
It is April 2000, and the Conservative Party is doing what Opposition parties are supposed to do - giving the Government a hard time. Opinion polls put Labour 16 points ahead, a margin that would translate into a 200-plus majority in a general election; another landslide.
Political leaders accustomed to mid-term blues would kill for such an enviable position, but it is in this context that Philip Gould, one of Blair's closest advisers and his personal pollster, writes a memo to Blair and a close circle of other high-level figures that reads like an obituary for his boss.
Claiming the Prime Minister has been outflanked on crucial issues by the Tories, Gould says the public no longer trusts the Government, and that it could be defeated at the next election.
"I think our current situation is serious," he writes. The New Labour "brand" has been "badly contaminated." It has become an object of criticism and ridicule.
Shortly afterwards, Blair writes a memo to the same close group that is equally scathing. There is a "bizarre" perception that the Government is failing on "touchstone issues" it has made its own.
"All of these things add up to a sense that the Government - and this even applies to me - is somehow out of touch with gut British instincts," says Blair.
In the three months since he wrote that memo, and said there should be tough action to re-establish the initiative, the Government has slumped even further. Attempts to repair the apparent ills have made things worse, with opinion polls putting Labour's lead over the Tories at between 3 and 10 per cent.
For a Government so obsessed with spin, the events of this week have provided an interesting spectacle. Using ammunition supplied by the ruling party, incredulous opponents have been firing back - and hitting - at will.
It all started with a leak of Blair's memo to the Times and Sun newspapers. The media seized on Blair's admission that his Government was seen as out of touch just as Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown prepared to announce a huge £43 billion ($132.6 billion) increase in public spending.
When he did, the same two newspapers went to press with Gould's leaked memo. It brought to the fore the number of high-level Government memos leaked in recent weeks, overshadowing Brown's spending announcement and sparking speculation of a "traitor" orchestrating a campaign to derail Blair from within the Government.
The Prime Minister's office believes a large batch of memos written between April and last month could now be in the hands of the two newspapers, and expects them to be made public to coincide with future important Government announcements.
The leaks have sparked a bitter row within the Labour Party. Blair is accused of running the country through a tiny band of shadowy advisers, with most cabinet ministers, MPs and the party's grassroots supporters sidelined.
David Blunkett and Clare Short led calls by senior ministers to spend less time on spin, and not get "carried away" by present problems. There should be a "lot fewer memos and a lot more straight talking," said Blunkett.
Within the party Gould is now an object of ridicule and criticism. But he is likely to emerge unscathed.
The winners from this week's debacle would appear to be Opposition leader William Hague and his rejuvenated Conservatives. But Hague would be unwise to get too excited. Despite a decent few months, he is still highly unpopular with the electorate.
Cynics may even suggest that the whole episode is the ultimate in spin-doctoring to win back Labour's core audience. But even considering New Labour's obsession with presentation, that is one spin too far.
In the last couple of months, Tony Blair has looked a tired man, a shadow of the youthful, enthusiastic leader who took power in May 1997.
Politics aside, he has had to cope with a new baby son and family humiliation when his 16-year-old son Euan got steaming drunk in the centre of London and was picked up by police.
John Barnes, a lecturer in modern British politics at the London School of Economics, believes the Prime Minister has almost had enough. He will win the next general election, which is likely to be held next year, and soon afterwards step aside for Brown.
"All of this has not necessarily damaged the Government, but it has damaged Blair. It has strengthened the hand of the likes of Brown and Blunkett. The important question is where did the leaks come from and what was the motive."
The MPs' summer recess begins next week. Blair will be hoping for a quiet holiday so he can get some sleep, but you sense there are more nightmares to come.
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