PM will quit after election, Kinnock says (Blair)

[54anickel]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=515290

Tony Blair will step down after the next election, Neil Kinnock hinted yesterday, as pro-European cabinet ministers warned Downing Street to get a grip amid fears that the furore over the proposed European constitution was damaging the Prime Minister's authority.

Aides said Mr Blair and other senior ministers would launch into making the case for Europe this week as the Government prepares for 10 new states to join the European Union at the weekend.

snip>
Mr Kinnock, the former Labour Party leader, raised the prospect of Mr Blair "hanging up his boots" soon after the election and said it was only "probable" that he would stay on until the next election.

snip>
CABINET VIEWS ON THE EU REFERENDUM

Tony Blair

Repeatedly ruled out a referendum on the proposed constitution, but changed his mind dramatically after the intervention of senior ministers and Irwin Stelzer, a close associate of Rupert Murdoch, who warned that The Sun and The Times would not back Blair at the general election if he did not concede a vote.

more...

[Sandpiper]

1. He'll be heading off to take his seat

At the Carlyle Group.

[saracat]

2. When is the next election?

Are they saying Blair is not running for reelection?

[Democat]

3. Blair as a lame duck leader?

Could he get any worse than he is now? We'll see.

[legin]

4. Irwin Stelzer :

Irwin Stelzer is a senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute’s regulatory studies program. Prior to joining Hudson Institute in 1998, Stelzer was resident scholar and director of regulatory policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He also is the U.S. economic and political columnist for The Sunday Times (London) and The Courier Mail (Australia), a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard, a member of the Publication Committee of The Public Interest, and a member of the board of the Regulatory Policy Institute (Oxford).

(more...)

http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&eid=StelIrwi

[unionjack]

5. Great.....

.....Murdoch proves it's not just OBL that can interfere in European democracy.

[smirkymonkey]

7. I'm beginning to think that Murdoch

is the anti-christ :evilgrin:

[Matilda]

8. Hey, that's exactly what the great English writer Dennis Potter said.

He said that Murdoch was the most evil man in the world, the Anti-
Christ in interview (we have it on tape).

When Potter got the cancer that finally killed him, he named his
tumour "Rupert".

[smirkymonkey]

9. Why is it that only the good die early?

And evil bastards like Murdoch seem to live for ever!

[sasquatch]

6. (BUMP, BUMP, BUMP)"AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!!"

:evilgrin:I can't wait to see his ass frogwalked into the Hague along with shrub.