So...regarding the May elections...

[dolo amber]

My British friends (mostly Scots) have zero faith that Blair will be defeated. I can see how *no one* wants the Tories back in control, but are they right in thinking the Lib Dems have no hope? (I do try to keep up, but it's not the same reading things and actually being there...) I know it's somewhat a long shot and all but I really can't help thinking you guys are (en masse) a far more sophisticated lot than we are...is there no chance Blair will be tossed out on his finely-groomed Poodle arse?

[Wat_Tyler]

1. I love Charlie Kennedy, but he's just one man, sadly.

The rest of the Lib-Dems, in the main, are not up to Charlie quality. If I were still in Scotland, I'd vote SNP. Voting SNP infuriates Labour.

[madison2000]

2. Blair to be impeached?

Hello everyone
I am from Wisconsin.. can't trust the media here any more so I look at newspaper websites from around the world.

This is from the Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/After-Saddam/Blair-to-face-humiliation-of-impeachment-motion/2004/11/07/1099781244178.html
A draft of a parliamentary motion to impeach British Prime Minister Tony Blair accuses him of "gross misconduct" over the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The Independent on Sunday said it had obtained the text of the motion from a cross-party group of MPs, adding it would be offered for debate soon after the new parliamentary session begins later this month.

The motion calls for a select committee to investigate the "conduct of the PM in relation to the war in Iraq", the daily said.

The committee would draw up the "articles of impeachment" and a panel of law lords would judge whether Blair deliberately misled the nation into waging an unlawful war, it said.

A guilty verdict would see Blair arrested by parliament's Sergeant at Arms.

Michael Martin, the speaker in the House of Commons, must rule on whether the motion can be proposed for debate on the floor of the house.

The newspaper said that although Blair had little chance of losing an impeachment vote, the very fact it was held would represent a serious humiliation.
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Downing Street has ordered officials to compile a case against the motion on the grounds it is obsolete.

Adam Pryce, the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru MP who began the campaign to impeach Blair, said he hoped 30 to 50 members of parliament would support the motion, according to the Independent. So far 23 have signed up.

The text calls for a committee to investigate and report to the house on Blair's conduct regarding the war and to consider the following:

* The conclusions of the US Iraq Survey Group which reported that in March 2003, when the invasion was launched, Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and had been essentially free of them since the mid-1990s.

* The opinion of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the war was unlawful.

* "Whether there exist sufficient grounds to impeach ... Blair on charges of gross misconduct in his advocacy of the case for war against Iraq and in his conduct of policy in connection with that war."

This seems like a very big deal- even if it is just a "humiliation" for Blair wouldn't it hurt his chances for re-election?

[Briar]

3. Sadly, no

Our only hope was for Labour MPs to kick the creep out. Unfortunately they don't have the guts or the integrity to do so.

[Guy_Montag]

4. I'll stick my cross on th Lib Dems

but I don't expect it to make much difference.

Labour safe seat up here.

[D-Notice]

5. Just vote tactically & hope for the best...

[Guy_Montag]

6. Scottish Lib Dems

Are sucking Labour's pecker, so in Scotland a vote for the Lib Dems is effectively wasted.

[dolo amber]

7. I thought

Charles Kennedy was yer man in Scotland, tho...? :shrug:

[Wat_Tyler]

8. No, Charlie is the UK leader of the Lib-Dems.

[dolo amber]

9. Well, in fairness

my usual source for news of this nature is a drunken 28 yr old techno freak who lives at home, designs web pages, is on the dole, and spends far too much time at The Arches. It's easy to see how I could get confused. ;)

[Wat_Tyler]

10. Gonna get eckied up doon the arches, big man?

Goany geez us a couple?

[Guy_Montag]

11. It's years since I've been to the Arches

Mind you I hate techno & was only ever dragged along against my will.

[dolo amber]

12. There is no justice in this world

You live where you could see nearly any great dance act at any time, yet you hate it. I adore it, yet I live where Paul fucking Oakenfold is considered "techno". :cry:

[non sociopath skin]

13. And would be just as happy sucking the Tories' peckers

... if the occasion warranted it.

The Skin

(Sorry, this was meant to refer to Guy's posting about the LibDems in the Scottish Assembly)

[Guy_Montag]

14. I'm afraid to say, you're probably right

they would also suck SNPeckers I imagine too.

[T_i_B]

15. Well you can find more info on the Lib Dems

on this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x6

And as for the election being in May....well that's the rumour but we can't say for sure just yet. Blair actually does not have to call an election till May/June 2006 but the word is that it's going to be next year.

[non sociopath skin]

16. As I've pointed out elsewhere, TIB...

... the LibDems' official website is probably not the best source of unbiased information.

The Skin

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. Very little chance indeed of Blair losing, I think,

and if he does it will be to the Tories, not to anyone further left.

Blair is incredible. There have been many politicians who have managed to be politically unassailable for a time, but Blair is to my knowledge the only one who has managed the trick while simultaneously being universally loathed.

It's not even that everyone thinks all the alternatives would be worse, it's that everyone disagrees about which of the alternatives would be better. Bush is hated by many but loved by even more, Blair is hated by absolutely everyone.

He's annihliated the right, emasculated the left, and sits in the middle looking smugly invulnerable while everyone fumes impotently. Whatever your views on his principles or his ethics, his political skill demands to be admired. He's made both "left-wing" and "right-wing" dirty words, and no-one worth taking seriously has yet dared to disagree with him.

That said, I think there is a non-trivial chance of getting him replaced in the next term: if the labour majority is reduced in May then the Tories will probably dare to reveal their true colours again, and at that point I think (and hope) the left will probably be sufficiently enthused to reclaim the Labour party.