Financial Times: Blair’s popularity hits all time low (23% approval)

[DeepModem Mom]

Blair’s popularity hits all time low
Christopher Adams, Political Correspondent
Published: July 30 2006

Public support for Tony Blair, British prime minister, has plunged to its lowest since he became premier, according to a new poll that shows growing disapproval over how he has handled the Middle East crisis.

The survey by Ipsos MORI, carried out this month as the US and Britain blocked international calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, found Mr Blair’s personal popularity at an all-time low.

The prime minister, who is facing unease in the British cabinet over his closeness to George W. Bush, appears to have lost more public support for his backing of the US president’s strategy than he did over Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war three years ago.

The survey findings, which one senior British minister on Sunday gloomily conceded were “unsurprising”, could stoke calls within the Labour party for Mr Blair to use September’s party conference to announce a timetable for his departure.

Ipsos MORI found 67 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the way Mr Blair was doing his job, while only 23 per cent were satisfied....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/46dff968-1fee-11db-9913-0000779e2340.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Good another tyrant on his way out....

[saigon68]

9. He licks the "SINGING COWBOY"

[NightHawk63]

14. Maybe it's the bottle of Chiraz that I just finished off...

...but that is funny as HELL!!!!

[saigon68]

22. It gives you a different perspective

That's for sure

[Olney Blue]

2. Tony, you've been bushwhacked.

[joemurphy]

3. He's down there in Dick Cheney territory. Cheerio, Tony.

Don't let the door hit your arse.

[unblock]

4. how is it that you can sustain that level w/o a 'no confidence' vote?

i can understand how a president can't get impeached regardless of popularity, but it's a bit more surprising when a no confidence vote can be called at any time without the same quasi-criminal trial overtones that the u.s. has for impeachment.

yeah, yeah, i know, if the ruling coalition is still holding, there won't be a no confidence vote. but such a thing is much harder when the pm has abysmal approval ratings.

[w4rma]

20. The Tories had more votes in favor of keeping Blair than the Labor Party

did at the last no-confindence vote.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Huh? There's never been a vote of no confidence against Blair

You may be thinking of the vote to support sending troops to invade Iraq, but that wasn't a vote of no confidence. No confidence votes are specific in the British parliament, and Blair's never faced one.

[w4rma]

24. I am pretty sure there were two votes of no-confedence held.

Blair won them both. The first was with mostly Labor backing. The second was won with more Tories than Labor.

I haven't read much about the two votes (which were about a year or so apart, I believe) since they happened so I am working from memory.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. No; last simple no confidence motion was in 1993

though Major said a vote in 1994 was "in all essentials" a confidence motion. See http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/notes/snpc-02873.pdf , at the end.

[CountAllVotes]

5. that is what you get

when you play dice with the devil.

:kick:

[CJCRANE]

6. Time to go, Tony..nt

[acmavm]

7. Will this cause the British Labor Party to try to boot Poodle out of

office?

[Betty]

8. the percentage of stupid Brits is less

than that of stupid Americans, since the last I heard bush is at about 37% approval.

[flaminbats]

18. if Bush was a Democrat..he would now have 23% or less

I believe those who disapprove of Blair include the third of voters who are liberal and oppose the war in Iraq. The other third who disapprove are conservatives, who would probably approve of Blair if he was a member of the Conservative party.

What is left are a few Labour party voters still supporting the war and independents who really don't care.

[lovuian]

10. And yet he can still stay in office and Parliment kisses his

arse...He will be prime minister no longer it will happen...

[ckramer]

26. Just shows how pathetic people in England are

Kick the guy off the power!

[mom cat]

11. Another kick for Tony

:kick: right where it hurts!

[TrueFunkSoldier]

12. I don't understand why...

it's not even lower. The Brits are so much smarter than us!

He's in the shithouse just like Lil' Dumbya!

[mom cat]

15. There is a lower portion on the Bell curve in every country. It

would take a real education system to make a dent. With "No Child Left Behind: all they are getting id "drill and kill".

[goforit]

13. Yet neither the British nor Americans do a damn thing about their leaders

[TrueFunkSoldier]

16. The Labour Party will submit..

...a no-confidence vote for Blair and has asked him to step down as early as September. But you're right: there's no guarantee that he will step down. If the approval gets any lower, he'll have no choice.

And you're right: both the Canadians and the Brits went with the chickenhawks and warmongers because the alternative would have been a lot worse. The conservatives won in Canada because the Liberal Party was so corrupt. Blair won this time around because the Conservative Party would have been even worse warmongers that even Blair.

These countries have similar problems like we have here: the minority or alternative choice isn't that much stronger. I wish that the Democratic Party would grow a spine and start fighting back, giving us a viable, alternative choice...

[Solly Mack]

17. I'll feel sorry for him when he's struggling for food, looking for shelter

and running from bombs. He's a mover and shaker of world events that put people in danger ...and I feel the exact same way about other world leaders

I know no one has asked me to feel sorry for Blair... I'm just venting. The senseless death all over the world pisses me off and I really, really, dislike government right now and all it's faces.

[Vidar]

19. Lower than Bush. Heck of a job, Tony.

[Quantess]

21. Obviously,

there is something in it for Blair and Blair alone, that makes severe unpopularity worthwhile for him. Someone out there knows what his incentive might be, for sucking up to B*sh.