@Mickft @ReggieHere @thecasualcritic @ChrisMayLA6 Those were indeed some of the immediate post-1997 points of disagreement.

But fundamentally, Blair had a stonking majority in the Commons, and calculated that he no longer needed to make concessions to the LibDems, who most of his party hate. The LibDem party grew increasingly hostile to "The Project", and as #Ashdown's star waned, Charles Kennedy's opposition to Blair propelled him to the top.

The Project was just a Blair–Ashdown bromance