Palast - Blair Can't Win

[realFedUp]

TONY BLAIR CAN'T WIN
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
By Greg Palast
http://www.gregpalast.com

Mark my words: Tony Blair won't be re-elected on Thursday. However, he will remain in office.

That's because Brits don't vote for their Prime Minister. They've got a "parliamentary" system there in the Mother Country. And the difference between democracy and parliamentary rule makes all the difference. It is the only reason why Blair will keep his job -- at least for a few months.

Let me explain. The British vote only for their local Member of Parliament. The MPs, in turn, pick the PM. If a carpenter in Nottingham doesn't like Prime Minister Blair (not all dislike him, some detest him), the only darn thing they can do about it is vote against their local MP, in this case, the lovely Alan Simpson, a Labour Party stalwart who himself would rather kiss a toad than cuddle with Tony.

Therefore, the majority of the Queen's subjects -- deathly afraid of the return of Margaret Thatcher's vampirical Tory spawn -- holds their noses, vote for their local Labour MP and pray that an act of God will save their happy isle. A recent poll showed the British evenly divided: forty percent want Blair to encounter a speeding double-decker bus and forty percent want him stretched, scalded and quartered in the Tower of London (within a sampling margin of four percent).

continued

[Cocottelle]

1. I am not sure

If this is the right thread to post this question, but I read somewhere that Clinton (and a Clinton/ Kerry Team) was flying over to help BLAIR with the campaigning. I found it a bit hypocritical because of Blair's stand on the war in Iraq. I would love to be wrong, so please tell me it isn't so.

[realFedUp]

2. I don't know

and welcome to DU Cocottelle.

[FloridaPat]

3. What! They better not be.

[TR Fan]

4. Why would it be hypocrital for Kerry

when he was asked specifically, if he knew now, what he knew then, would he have voted for the IWR, he replied "Yes."

Oh, maybe the wind got in his ears (or between his ears?).

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Unfortunately, the only alternative would be a Tory

and that would be worse, much worse.

[tjwmason]

7. Pres. Clinton has publicly endorsed poodle-boy

He has previously spoken at the Labour Party conference.

I doubt, however, that it will have made much difference to anybody.

It is also well known that king george wants Blair to remain as P.M. (for pretty obvious reasons).

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Clinton did a video linkup with a Labour rally

http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php?id=news2005&ux_news%5Bid%5D=antipovertyrally&cHash=24377d90dd

in which he endorse Blair. I haven't heard of Kerry people being involved.

[Gloria]

9. Clinton spoke a few weeks ago via big screen TV at the Labour

"convention" a few weeks ago....boosting Blair.

[sandnsea]

16. You'd rather have Howard?

Is that what you're saying? :shrug:

[Frederik]

17. Hypocritical?

Clinton has been all for the war all along.

[wakeme2008]

6. Right there is no direct vote for PM by the general public

but two ways to get rid of him. One he could lose his own seat and two another member of Parliament could be elected PM...

I think Greg is right.

[Gloria]

10. Reg Keys is running as an independent in Sedgfield against Blair...

I watched a segment on CSpan last night. His son was killed in Iraq. Seems like a solid guy, very sharp.

[wakeme2008]

12. It would be very nice if Keys won

and Blair did not have a seat.

[SweetLeftFoot]

19. Blair

Has already said he will make way for Brown - probably after two years. And this time the PLP will him to it.

[T_i_B]

21. Hmmm

For another member of parliament to be elected PM the Labour party would have to forcibly remove Blair. That will not happen as New labour are a pretty subservient bunch.

Blair may well retire and let Gordon Brown become PM but I think it is more then likely he will retire when he wants to and not be being forced out.

[tjwmason]

11. I think that he's missing the point a bit

In strict terms, given our current system this is true. But the point is that we are selecting our representatives for the House of Commons. The British tradition has always been to elect to various councils rather than to executive power - the current Labour government has brought in a few directly elected Mayors (most notably in Greater London), but this is not our tradition.

If, and this would be the most desirable change possible in our political system, the power of the political parties were lessened then we have a much improved system.

It is not that we don't elect the P.M. that's the problem - it's that we're loosing a P.M. and gaining a President de facto; this started under Thatcher, though even she was terrified of what Parliament would stomach, reversed under Major (for which I become one of his few semi-admirers), and then built strongly by Blair.

In the absence of real politics, and real policies to convince us - the parties just throw us personalities (not that any of the three leaders appear to have particularly appealing personalities).

But, as always, the most convincing argument in favour of the British system is that it works. In 1979 the people wanted to get rid of what they perceived as a failing government - in came Thatcher; they were scared of the left and so the Tories stayed in 1983, 1987, and 1992; they were desperate to give the Tories a swift kick in the dangly bits - 1997, still minded that way and basically happy with what's going on 2001.

Our systems rarely stand up to close theoretical scrutiny, but they also tend to produce the outcome most desired - or perhaps least undesired. Pallast's entire argument fails in the lack of an alternative - in a presidential system Blair would be the Labour candidate, and would win as well. This is not where the failure of democracy lies - it is the insidious grip which the two major parties, and one pretending-to-be-major party have on our politics.

On a final point - poodle-boy will almost certainly win re-election, he will be re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield, as he has at every election since 1983, and this will be the direct choice of the people in that place.

[FloridaPat]

13. Can the Poodle be tried for war crimes? Or impeached? Anything

like that?

[tjwmason]

18. He could be impeached

Though this has a different meaning from the U.S. it would ammount to the same thing. The problem is that the procedure has not been used for anybody for over 100 years leading some scholars to call it defunct; also even if the Speaker (who is supposed to act impartially) allowed an impeachment debate to take place, as Blair will almost certainly have a majority in the Commons it would have no chance of getting passed.

The best that can be hoped for is that an impeachment debate leads to a widespread airing of the various issues - and even that is very unlikely.

[SweetLeftFoot]

20. Hmmmm

he should have been given a Nobel prize for his work in Northern Ireland ...

[justice4all_1]

14. This always cracks me up...

I always get a laugh when people are surprised about how a parlimentary system works. Maybe it's just another example of a failure in our education system when Palast has to explain this simple and basic stuff to Americans.

[realFedUp]

22. when you have people who don't understand our own government

it's not too hard to conclude that the parliamentary
system is from Mars to them.

[Amonester]

15. that's bLiar, or *?

<snip>

As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says, Tony Blair is a man of principle. So was the Ayatolla Khomeini.

Both were willing to have others pay any price for their beliefs.

<snip>

Did we happen to land on an unknown screwed-up planet for the last couple of years or so?

Wish a good (D) lawyer can tell us about the possibilities for the International Tribunal to start a lawsuit against poodle. Could he be dragged to Hague based on the *official* U.K. secret memo?

Maybe he doesn't *know* they're presently after Pinochet's arse for a few thousands less murdered civilians than his *now official* obvious LIES are responsible for...

[realFedUp]

23. I'd love to see Galloway in Tony's seat...nt