The Guardian: Ministers say Blair must name day

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Guardian Unlimited (London)
Dated Monday May 1

Ministers say Blair must name day
· Demand to go public on handover
· Prescott and Clarke still under threat
· Labour lag in polls
By Patrick Wintour and David Hencke

Senior cabinet ministers want the prime minister to rescue his flailing government by agreeing a public date on which he will hand power to the chancellor. The group includes normally loyal cabinet ministers who fear it is the only way to stabilise the government in the wake of more damaging revelations at the weekend threatening the careers of both the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and the home secretary, Charles Clarke.

Mr Blair is considering a reshuffle as early as a week today, just long enough to give him time to reflect on what is expected to be terrible local election results for the Labour party on Thursday.

Some backbenchers are organising to mount a challenge, and set a new political direction for the party. Leftwing MPs have been planning for months to put up a "stalking horse" challenger to Mr Blair if he does not agree to go by the middle of next year. The move comes after a weekend of lurid and damaging headlines on Mr Prescott's affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, dominating the Sunday newspapers.

He is facing an internal Whitehall inquiry after the former Tory whip Derek Conway filed a complaint demanding an investigation into Ms Temple's use of government cars to travel to and from trysts with Mr Prescott. The use of the cars, revealed in a diary by the ex-secretary published in the Mail on Sunday, could be seen as abuse of ministerial perks.

Read more

The War Criminals of 2003:

Aznar
Berlusconi
Blair
Bush
Howard

[savemefromdumbya]

1. The sooner they dump blair the better

[Robbien]

2. Too little too late

How the heck will that help in next week's elections? Why didn't they get off the dime sooner than now.

[mike_c]

3. "...his flailing government..."

Poodle bites,
Poodle chews it.

-- Frank Zappa

:rofl:

[depakid]

4. For a contrary opinion

see: Right now, we need Blair

A disorderly abdication would damage the prospects for a genuine Labour government

Nobody, with the possible exception of Gordon Brown, has been more impatient for the departure of Tony Blair than I. But, during the last week, the political world has changed. The interests of the Labour party - the underlying reason for wanting the prime minister to go - now require him to stay. The deeper the so-called crisis, and the worse the local election results, the more important it is for him to remain in Downing Street.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1764974,00.html

[Jack Rabbit]

5. I respect Lord Hattersley, but I don't agree with him on this

The history of the Labour Party during the dark Thatcher years was as turbulent as Lord Hattersley makes it out to be. Gerald Kaufmann called the 1983 Labour manifesto "the longest suicide note in history," a view shared at the time by Hattersley. The manifesto consisted a number of initiatives that would be near and dear to most leftists, but they knew very well it was not what the British electorate wanted at that time or even now. Blair deserves credit for bringing the party back to electable respectability.

Nevertheless, he had failed as a Prime Minister and must be removed. The scandals show that he is too comfortable with some people who should not be trusted and they are too comfortable with him; Mr. Clarke must have believed he either wouldn't get caught or, if he did, that Blair wouldn't give two bits about it.

This is a personal failure, not a failure of the general Labour program or even New Labour. But it is time for Blair to turn power to Gordon Brown.

The underlaying problem Blair has in this matter is not mentioned in Hattersley's piece: his decision to join Bush in an imperialist misadventure in Iraq. Blair lied about that almost as badly as any one in the Bush junta. Forty-five minutes for Saddam launch an attack? Really, Mr. Blair? A so-called intelligence dossier plagiarized from an outdated graduate thesis? Come, come. And Blair has no regrets over Iraq? Shame, shame!

We say on this side of the Pond that if one lies down with dogs, one wakes up with fleas. Blair slept in Bush's soiled bed and woke up with no credibility. He could use some credibility now. He might even survive if he had some.