British Prime Minister Tony Blair still has it – you know, moxie: “backbone, grit, guts, … gumption (fortitude and determination).”

Remember that Mr. Blair is a member of the Labour Party, the UK’s analog to the American Democratic Party. Blair won an unprecedented third term in office earlier this year, despite the fact that he is President Bush’s closest ally, even though he has stood firm in the war against Islamo-fascism, and regardless of the fact that Britain maintains the second largest contingent of troops in post-war Iraq.

If the UK’s population was anti-war, would Labour have been reelected? Blair’s Labour Party now holds 356 seats in parliament, while the Conservatives (Tories) hold 198.

But I should let Mr. Blair speak for himself, and prove his moxie. Here are some excerpts from a speech he gave yesterday to a Labour Party conference in Brighton, the UK:

We believe in tolerance and respect, in strong communities standing by and standing up for the weak, the sick, the helpless. …

And the British people share these values. …

Today, of course, we face a new challenge: global terrorism.

Let us state one thing.

These terrorists do not, never have and never will represent the decent, humane and principled faith of Islam.

Muslims, like all of us, abhor terrorism. Like all of us, are its victims.

It is, as ever, only fringe fanatics we face.

But we need to make it clear.

When people come to our country, they have and should have the full rights we believe in. There should be no second-class citizens in Britain. But citizenship comes with a duty: to give loyalty to our nation, its values and our way of life.

If people have a grievance, politics is the answer. Not terror. …

Britain should also remain the strongest ally of the United States. I know there’s a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and tell America where to get off. But the difference between a good film and real life is that in real life there’s the next day, the next year, the next lifetime to contemplate the ruinous consequences of easy applause.

I never doubted after September 11th that our place was alongside America and I don’t doubt it now.

And for a very simple reason. Terrorism struck most dramatically in New York but it was aimed then, and is aimed now, at us all, at our way of life.

This is a global struggle.

Today it is at its fiercest in Iraq.

It has allied itself there with every reactionary element in the Middle East.

Their aim: to wreck this December’s first ever direct election for the Government of Iraq.

I know there are people, good people, who disagreed with the decision to remove Saddam by force. …

How dare the terrorists justify their campaign of hate by claiming they are angry about Afghanistan? Was it better under their Taleban?

They use Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they use the cause of Palestine, whilst trying to destroy by terror the only solution that will ever work: a secure Israel living side-by-side with a viable independent and democratic Palestine.

Just as they chose the day of the G8 when the world was trying to address the heartbreaking poverty of Africa, to kill innocent people in London.

Strip away their fake claims of grievance and see them for what they are: terrorists who use 21st century technology to fight a pre-medieval religious war that is utterly alien to the future of humankind.

I know we could have hidden away at the back after September 11th and let others take the strain.

But that is not Britain at its best.

Hear, hear. This is Tony Blair at his best.