Blair shaken after 'Black Wednesday'

[Robbien]

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced the challenge on Thursday of restoring his Labour Party's authority as a government after it was engulfed in scandal and crisis just a week ahead of crucial local elections. The man once dubbed "Teflon Tony" for his ability to shrug off political dirt, woke up to a slew of headlines which screamed of a "triple whammy" for "a government in meltdown".

. . .

Blair's deputy, John Prescott, was forced to apologise on Wednesday after admitting to an affair with one of his secretaries.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke was next to apologise after his ministry allowed more than a thousand foreign prisoners, including rapists and murderers, to walk free without considering them for deportation.

. . .

The third embarrassment for Labour saw Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt jeered by nurses at a conference as she tried to explain her party's policy on public healthcare debts. Unions have criticised her for saying the state-owned National Health Service enjoyed its best year ever, despite a financial crisis which has led to thousands of job cuts.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1146103560815B216

[Lithos]

1. Hmmm

Karma...

[dweller]

2. ahem ...

Connections.

dp

[rpannier]

3. John Howard must be getting really nervous now

Everyone that scrub touches or that is touched by scrub decays away.
Berlusconi is gone (or will be in a month)
Labour is a shell of its once seemingly invincible self.
In Australia, investigations into criminal deals committed by the Howard government are just getting under way. Experts say they're unlikely to cause any serious damage to his government. But...death by 1000 cuts is still death.

[lukery]

4. death by 1000 cuts?

not sufficient punishment for howard

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[regnaD kciN]

6. Yes, but if Labour falls...

...it will only be replaced by a Conservative government even more in lockstep with the Bushistas.

:-(

[komuckway]

7. Don't see that happening.

Don't see that happening.

[Robbien]

8. Yes. There is no good ending here.

Blair has taken the Labor party down.

[LivingInTheBubble]

9. Labour ARE fully in lockstep already.

The tories would at least be honest about being right wing.

[ShockediSay]

10. Vote Green n/t

[evermind]

22. The best we can really hope for is a hung parliament

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't hang all of them - there's about 35 labour MPs and a few liberals and independents I'd let off with probation.

[0007]

23. Poor Tony

[T_i_B]

13. Oh Labour's current problems are not the fault of Bush

Labour's current problems are of their own making, be it Prescott's love life, making a complete mess of the health service or Charles Clarke's current problems with deportation of criminals.

Where this could be interesting is that there are local government elections next week, and there is a possibility that this could go badly for Labour. Especially if people vote on central government, as opposed to local government matters what with the current problems in government plus both the other main parties having new leaders. (even if one of them is Ming Campbell)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x16003

[rpannier]

18. The OP was referring to all of scrubs friends finding themselves in

trouble.
The touch-of-death syndrome.

[T_i_B]

21. Blair would be in this trouble anyway...

...even if Al Gore were in the Whitehouse. Indeed John Major had similar problems when Clinton was in power. It may come as news to most DUer's but George W Bush is not responsible for the failings of every other government. Other countries governments can cock things up quite well enough without any interference from America.

[Kailassa]

14. Just to get some facts straight. -

John Howard, the prime minister of Australia, is a member of the Liberal party.

The opposition party is the Labor (not Labour) party.

It's confusing to Americans, because our Liberal party is the equivalent to your Republican party, and our Labor party is the equivalent of your Democrat party.

Here, Liberal = right-wing, Labor = left-wing.
But these days the Liberals have moved so far right that Liberals of old are disgusted with them, and the Labor party have moved towards the right.

However you were right in that our Labor party is, sadly, just a shell of its former self. It seems to be fully under control of people who want to prevent it from ever being a threat to the ruling party by keeping it as a watered down "would-be-Liberal" party.

[Cha]

15. Whew! Thanks for that

explaination of your political terms. So howard's people don't think "Liberal" is a dirty word? :)

[rpannier]

17. My apologies if I did a poor job of presentation

Let me start by saying: I watch Asia-Pacific every morning before work (I live in Asia) So I am aware of much of Australia's political climate.

Next: The Labour Party that is the shell of it's former self is Britains Labour Party. Not Australias which is not spelled with a "u" of which I am aware.

[autorank]

11. bLIAR is Bush; Bush is bLIAR. Simple as that. What a freak show

the Labour Party is. The truly honest and courageous members end up "suicided" and the so called 100 or so "young Turks" don't ever put their money where their mouth is. The Democratic Party should have nothing to do with Labour again after the way bLiar has steered things to Bush.

:puke:

[Cha]

16. "bLiar" is the best

word for him! :)

[autorank]

20. If God wanted to have us think he was truthful, she wouldn't have given

him that name. Am I right or am I right;)

[Javaman]

12. Funny how all this comes on the heels of blair saying that

britian wouldn't go along with an attack on Iran.

coincidence?

[Rex]

19. What is this? Bush & Poodle getting ready for court dates?

One can hope.