British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he'll seek third term in office

[MaineDem]

LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his popularity bruised after leading Britain into a divisive war in Iraq, said he intends to seek a third term in office.

In an interview published Sunday in the News of the World newspaper, Blair said that ''whatever the problems and pressures, this is an immensely enjoyable and fulfilling job and I intend to carry on doing it. I will be putting myself forward.''

An election must be held by mid-2006, but could come next year.

Blair's Labour Party was elected in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule, and won another landslide victory in 2001. But Blair's decision to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq has hurt his popularity, and many Labour lawmakers are unhappy at the government's plans for reforming public services.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/052/world/British_Prime_Minister_Tony_Bl:.shtml

[kalian]

1. And just watch him "win"....

:eyes:

[asjr]

2. Does Great Britain

have BBV?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. they've tried a few pilots in local elections

this is from The Register, a UK website for technology:

"In July, the electoral commission gave the thumbs up to postal voting after finding that turnout increased in those areas where it was tried.

" in relation to electronic voting," said the commission, "we are clearly some way from the prospect of an e-enabled general election."

Among the issues the commission identified that needed more work was security and the prevention of electoral fraud.

However, it did recommend that the Government should continue to test evoting to "ensure that in the future, the mechanics of democracy are not regarded by considerable sections of the public as irrelevant and effectively redundant, even if there is widespread adoption of all-postal voting".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32900.html

No-one wants voting machines for their own sake (no-one thinks there's a problem counting pencil-and-paper ballots); they just want to get the total number of people voting up. The ideas for this include over the Internet, via mobile phones, and so on.

[T_i_B]

18. Death of the secret ballot

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,945383,00.html

While British people may regard the process of choosing between almost identical candidates as unspeakably dull, we retain an affecting faith in its deportment. After all, we invented the idea, and we send election monitors all over the world to ensure that lesser beings are implementing it properly. Our complacency is beginning to look ill-founded.

The government's problem is that it needs to raise the vote. It knows that there is little prospect of revitalising people's interest in politics until some significant difference between the major parties re-emerges, but it cannot present us with distinctive policies without upsetting the powerful agents - everyone from Lord Sainsbury to President Bush - it seeks to appease. It also knows that a government elected by a small proportion of its people is a government whose claim to legitimacy is dubious. So, rather than expanding our choice, it has sought to boost the turnout by tinkering with the mechanics of voting. In doing so, it has also enhanced the opportunities for interfering in the way we vote.

Under the Representation of the People Act 2000, all electors are now entitled to apply for a postal vote without presenting a reason for not turning up in person. Convenience voting seems to be working. About three times as many people (7.7% of the electorate) voted by post in the local elections last year as in previous ones. Encouraged by this success, the government has now scrapped the polling stations in 33 of the elections on Thursday; 3.6 million people are no longer entitled to vote in person. If this approach is popular (and already, in places such as Rotherham and North Lincolnshire, the vote has beaten the entire turnout in the last local elections), it could be applied universally. British people might never need to enter a polling booth again. During last year's local elections and the general election of 2001, some candidates began to discover just how convenient the new voting can be.

The new technique for winning votes is simple, effective and legal. You pick up a stack of postal-vote application forms, then walk from door to door asking voters to fill them in. You either leave the forms with the voters or encourage them to complete the forms on the spot, then take them back and deliver them to the registry yourself. By this means you come to possess a list of the people who have applied to vote by post in your constituency. Postal-voting forms are all sent out on the same day; to seek to govern the way that confused or vulnerable electors may vote, you merely need to arrive at their homes soon afterwards.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

3. He can seek all he wants,

but I don't think he'll find one.

Unlike George the Teflon Cowboy, Mr. Blair has not been able to avoid persecution by the court of public opinion for his role in the invasion of the Iraq. He's poison to the Labour Party, so either they sack him and choose a new leader, or they're guaranteed to lose the next election. Either way, Tony Blair is on his last term as PM.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

5. Vote for the Liberal Democratic Party!!! Labour is ruined thanks....

to Blair.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. There's a more progressive choice: Socialist Alliance

http://www.socialistalliance.net/


The Socialist Alliance is a left-wing party which aims to offer a "real alternative to the New Labour-Tory consensus".
It is composed of individual members with no affiliated organisations.

However, there are a number of supporting organisations such as the Socialist Party (formerly Militant), the Socialist Workers Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, Workers Power, and the International Socialist Group.

The alliance's well-known backers include film director Ken Loach, playwright Harold Pinter and comedian Mark Thomas.

Among the members are former Labour MP Dave Nellist and Liz Davies, who was on Labour's ruling national executive committee from 1998-2000.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/parties/newsid_1179000/1179195.stm

[T_i_B]

12. That sounds suspiciously rosy

When I was doing the anti-war marches surrounded by this lot the Socialist party had left the SA due to a tiff with the SWP.

Also Mark Thomas who your post mentions has written at least one article slagging off the SWP for control freakery. If there is one thing the far left loves to do it is bicker amongst themselves.

And that's before you come to the spartacists or the Workers Revolutionary party, The Socialist Labour party and all the others who are not part of the SA and who seem to spend more time slagging off the SWP then they do Blair or the tories. Socialist solidarity is something of a joke if you ask me.

[T_i_B]

6. Of course he will run

Nobody in "new" labour has the balls to stand up to him and when all said and done he is a power mad fool.

And because he is starting out from an unassailable parliamentary majority he will win. He may lose a few seats but he will hardly lose enough to put another PM into Downing Street.

[saigon68]

7. I hope he likes his Studded Pink Poodle collar

Attached to his Neo-Con Leash. I wonder if Dick Cheney is going to take him out for his morning dump today.

[Avonrepus]

9. Labour will win

Theres no chance The Conservatives can overturn a 165 majority whilst in the state they are in, however it's possible Blair will resign sometime in his third term I can't see him lasting much more than 10 years.

Also I saw on Daily Politics a few weeks ago that other than Gordon Brown theres a possiblity that Peter Hain (health secretary i think) could run for PM although it seems unlikely. He was in the UK Communist party in the 70s but you wouldn't think looking at him now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. I don't think Hain was a Communist

Liberal first, then Labour from 1977, according to this Guardian article. He was an anti-apartheid and anti-Nazi activist, so he did work alongside Communists. He has gone well right of his origins, though.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. If I were British, I'd vote Lib Dem

Mr. Blair's "new Labour" holds no appeal to me.

As far as I am concerned, Mr. Blair himself irreparably damaged his reputation by buying into Bush's criminal war. They should both be brought before an international tribunal.

[truthspeaker]

13. 3rd term? He doesn't even deserve to finish this one!

Labour backbenchers better grow some balls quickly.

[T_i_B]

15. Here's some good news

In Reading the constituency party has grown some balls and deselected their Blairite stooge MP. Let's hope some more sycophantic idiots get called to account.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3512057.stm

The Reading Labour party has voted overwhelmingly to deselect Jane Griffiths MP as its member of parliament for Reading East.
Elected in 1997, Mrs Griffiths has become the first member of parliament to be deselected by her constituency in 10 years.

The 49-year-old has fallen out with local party members because of what has been described as personality issues.

Mrs Griffiths was outspoken on a number of issues, including her support for the government's military action in Iraq.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

16. Ha ha!

In yer face George Foulkes, who was raving just before the top-up fees vote about how any backbench rebel should be deselected because their loyalties should lie with Blair & not with their principles.

[T_i_B]

17. It's that sort of attitude...

...which makes me for one refuse to have anything to do with the labour party. I value my ability to say what I belive in far too much.

[Dead_Parrot]

14. So what?

I'm seeking the fountain of eternal youth, doesn't mean I have a cat in hell's chance of finding it.

"Not while I have my strength he won't" - Blackadder