June 27 - Bye Bye Blair

[Rob McCow]

Tony Blair is finally stepping down as Prime Minister after ten years.

"I tell you one thing: hand on heart, I did what I thought was right," Blair told Labour Party members on Thursday. "I may have been wrong, that's your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else I did what I thought was right for our country."

Ian Hislop said that this basically amounts to: "It seemed a good idea at the time. You tell me if I was wrong."

So tell him - was he wrong? It's your call!

[Anthony Williams]

about bloody time!

now the Labour party will continue to destroy itself by having Gordon Broon as leader, and Big Dave will win the next election!

and yes, he was wrong.

Ant x

[Paul Monk]

Does anyone else find it annoying that Gordon Brown can just walk into the role of Prime Minister without any say from us?

[Alex]

Yep, I think he was wrong too. Now all the lib dems need to do is get rid of their leader, get someone charismatic in (as that seems to count far too much when people consider their vote) and I could be optimistic about politics again.

Can't see it happening though, alas.

[Anthony Williams]

Yep, I think he was wrong too. Now all the lib dems need to do is get rid of their leader, get someone charismatic in (as that seems to count far too much when people consider their vote) and I could be optimistic about politics again.

Can't see it happening though, alas.

was just gonna say... never gonna happen! The Lib Dems are back to being a national joke again, rather than a real possibility!

Ant x

[Si Hunt]

Does anyone else find it annoying that Gordon Brown can just walk into the role of Prime Minister without any say from us?

YES!! It's outrageous! A new PM should trigger a general election, especially when the changeover has been planned for over a year beforehand!

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

YES!! It's outrageous! A new PM should trigger a general election, especially when the changeover has been planned for over a year beforehand!

agreed. let's get Big Dave in ASAP!

Ant x

[Anthony Williams]

agreed. let's get Big Dave in ASAP!

although on the other hand, one could argue that it isn't Blair or Brown that has a mandate to run the country, but the Labour party. Whoever is leader of that party is Prime Minister.

Ant x

[Larry]

YES!! It's outrageous! A new PM should trigger a general election, especially when the changeover has been planned for over a year beforehand!

Si.

agreed - apparantly Brown, was asked about this and he came up with some load of B.S excuse about there being no need for it yet every body knows the real reason he won't hold an election is because he knows Labour would be slaughtered.

[Rob McCow]

Gordon Brown as Prime Minister is only a small step up from having that awful Michael Howard in charge.

Personalities, not politics!

In my opinion, all the trends started by Thatcher in the 80's were continued by Blair. He's been a sheep, rather than a leader. We've had more privitisation, close ties with the US, stayed out of Europe by and large, we've still got the poll tax, NHS funding is down and house prices are up.

[Paul Monk]

I think Brown could technically be made leader of the Labour party but since no-one actually voted him in I don't see how he can technically be Prime Minister. Using that method any old geezer could become Prime Minister as long as they were an MP. You'd just get a charismatic person to win the electon for you, then they could resign as PM and some old windbag could just swan in and run the country.
And I don't bye this hogwash about voting in a politial party. Sure technically thats what you do do, but policies etc are surely as dependent on the leader as they are the party. If you get a new boss at work they usually try to change things not keep things the same.

[Ralph]

Using that method any old geezer could become Prime Minister as long as they were an MP.

[Milky Tears]

Callaghan raped my childhood!

[Wayne]

I'm surprised you're old enough to remember him!

[Si Hunt]

we've still got the poll tax

Say what now.

Si.

[Captain Tancredi]

YES!! It's outrageous! A new PM should trigger a general election, especially when the changeover has been planned for over a year beforehand!

Si.

I think Labour could argue that (i) Blair's intention to go halfway through the term was public knowledge well before the last election and (ii) as the largest party in Parliament and having an overall majority, every political convention we have says that they should continue to form the government- and (iii) the Tories rejected the same argument when Mrs Thatcher was stabbed in the back.

It's a weakness and a strength of our political system that it gives one party carte blanche to do what it likes for five years- we don't have a proper system of checks and balances which would ensure that the government of the day accurately reflects the mood of the electorate. That said, the five-year term enables a certain amount of medium-term planning and ensures that a government can, if it needs to, make unpopular decisions without facing instant electoral annihilation.

Not sure there's anything to look forward to in a Brown government, though- or that Labour won't be as unelectable in three years' time as the Tories were ten years ago.

[Paul Clement]

1997 was a year when I felt confident in giving my vote to Labour confident in the belief that in Blair the country would have a good leader who would overturn years of Tory misrule.
To begin with, things did improve, or at least I believe they did, but as the decade of Blair as PM has wound on, he transformed more and more into a carbon copy of the Tories that went before him.
Sadly, Brown will become PM, and Labour will most likely lose the next election and we'll be back to another pointless Tory power trip.

[Jon Masters]

YES!! It's outrageous! A new PM should trigger a general election, especially when the changeover has been planned for over a year beforehand!

Si.

What, like we did when Thatcher got knifed in the kidneys ?

I disagree that we vote for a personality; we vote for a party based on its policies. If a new leader changes those policies and we don't like it, then its up to us to badger our MPs and perhaps cause a vote of no confidence, and so lead to a general election.

Otherwise we end up with a US system of voting for a leader and ending up with a party in power that doesn't have any ideas fo what its going to do by consensus. What if John Smith or Robin Cook had dropped down dead 7 days after becomming PM ? Would you want to have another election straight away?

Brown now has enough time to prove that he deserves to be PM in his own right before an election, or fail on his own terms. Just the same as the other party leaders do.

(and 'Big Dave' better start rehearsing for his guest appearance hosting HIGNFY if he wants to do something useful for his future )

[Wayne]

(and 'Big Dave' better start rehearsing for his guest appearance hosting HIGNFY if he wants to do something useful for his future )

[Si Hunt]

What, like we did when Thatcher got knifed in the kidneys ?

I haven't a clue what this means, so I assume it's wittily satirical! I'm not good on political satire.

Si.

[Jon Masters]

No, just a reminder that when Mad Ol' T lost the leadership election in November 1990 and John Major became PM we didn't get a general election until 1992.

Of course modern Tory history doesn't start until Dave appeared, so anything before that has been conveniently washed from their minds

Edited to add: Reading back through the thread I notice Ant Williams seems to be having an argument with himself

[Andrew Curnow]

I wish Tony had announced it thus:

"I've decided that I will be leaving 10 Downing Street shortly. And the new Prime Minister could be a woman!"

That is all.

[WhiteCrow]

I saw some of this at lunch, and he seemed to say "If I seemed to have failed, it's only because expectations for me were so high".

i.e. after a campaign about "things can only get better", and how he'd end sleaze in Downing Street to get into office, we the public are to blame for believing it when we voted for him.

The King of Spin is dead.

I will have a drink to celebrate him leaving, followed by a few more when I realise Gordon Brown's taking over!!!

[Ralph]

Meantime the longest departure in Prime Ministerial history has got another 7 weeks to go...

[Raston]

The differance between Thatcher going early and Blair going early is quite simple. Thatcher never said she was going to 'serve a full third term' but Blair did. It is therefore a far more obvious argument that people voted Labour to get a full term of Blair (lets face it he has always been more popular than labour). Which is what strips Brown of his mandate in a way that did not affect Major, or indeed any previous swapping of leaders.