Blair's 48 bloody hours

[DoYouEverWonder]

7 September 2006

After a second day of frenzied political manoeuvring and plotting in Westminster, Tony Blair appears to have accepted the inevitable and is expected to finally announce a timetable for his resignation within hours.

It is thought that, in meetings with Gordon Brown and others, he has been forced to face the real prospect of being removed from office by his own party unless he names the day.

So, in what seems likely to formally mark the ending of his nine-year premiership, Mr Blair will set out his plans in public - precisely what he has been desperate to avoid doing ever since he announced his intention not to stand for a fourth term in office before the last election.

Commons leader Jack Straw has suggested that might see a timetable that would see Mr Blair announcing his resignation before or around the time of next May's local and regional elections on 3 May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5322314.stm


Why wait until May?

[acmavm]

1. The sooner the better. The world needs someone in there that won't

go along with every war scheme the neocons come up with.

Poodle is got it made in the future. Like a number of people here, I too believe he will find himself a nice cushy spot with Carlyle.

[saigon68]

6. The Poodle will continue to get Props from Me

Here he is listening to his Master'S voice

THE SINGING COWBOY

[0007]

9. One dog that one one will forget very soon

[saigon68]

13. LOL Outrageous

[missTheBigDog]

8. Good and take your butt munching sidekick with you

Wish we had this sort of checks and balances in America where we can pressure the president to resign. Oh wait....

[newyawker99]

12. Hi missTheBigDog!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[aquart]

2. Exactly. Get the new admin up and running BEFORE the elections.

This is just ridiculous.

Of course, I'm simply green with envy that they can do it and we can't.

[Mr Creosote]

5. It's no big deal

It's just window dressing - the heir apparent is no better than Bliar. Whilst it is theoretically possible that Brown is being forced by collective responsibility to publicly support the illegal crusade in Iraq and the TWAT whilst being privately critical I think it is hugely unlikely. He is hugely adept at getting his personal views leaked in the public arena and I can never remember even the slightest suggestion that he opposes the conflicts. But even if does oppose them whilst remaining silent what sort of man would that make him? I suppose the change of figurehead would make a policy u-turn easier to spin, but I just don't see it.

Brown has the reputation of being more left wing than Blair - but he is an enthusiastic proponent of, for example, the PFI and means-tested benefits. Makes him right wing IMO.

In one sense you are better off than us - you can vote your right wing crooks out and replace them with something better (unite behind Al Gore PLEASE) but if we vote our right wing crooks out we get in their stead.......................a different sense of right wing crooks. Hurrah!

[Vidar]

3. Heartiest congratulations to our British posters.

[izzie]

4. We all knew he was just a tool to Bush and he would go down

Bush is number one and all must fall to him. I can hardly believe Blair did this to him self. When one thinks he has a line to God how do you even think you have a way to go against him. Blair really guessed wrong on this one.

[Ghost Dog]

7. Blair will outline exit timetable today, says Kelly

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1369928.ece

Blair loyalist Ruth Kelly called for peace in the Labour Party as she confirmed the Prime Minister would outline the timing of his departure from Downing Street later today. Ms Kelly said Mr Blair's planned announcement was in line with "perceived wisdom", and added that it "should be absolutely sufficient" to allow the party to move forward.

<snip>

He will use a pre-planned photo opportunity with Education Secretary Alan Johnson to make the announcement, following one of the most serious political crises of his premiership.

<snip>

Asked about Mr Blair's departure date this morning, Ms Kelly said on GMTV: "I think that will become clear. I mean, he's given an indication that later today he'll probably confirm some sort of yardstick so that people know approximately that he, along with the perceived wisdom, probably won't be in Downing Street a year from now.

"And my view is he's been such a successful prime minister, he's doing such a good job for the country, that he's earned the right to choose his own time of departure and I think we should respect that."

She added later: "I think he will clarify his departure time and I think he will say that along with the perceived wisdom it's probably not going to be the case that he'll still be in Downing Street a year from now. And I think that should be absolutely sufficient for the vast majority of our colleagues who just want us to get on with the job."

/...

Don't trust this immoral mad bastard one more minute (nor most of his sycophantic 'loyalists', and 'advisers' neither). Get him, and them, out NOW!

[Peace Patriot]

10. I wonder if the anti-Blairites have finally nailed him on the David Kelly

assassination, and this is why he had finally agreed to resign. There is a current back-bench investigation into Kelly's death. The Hutton Report was an absurd whitewash--but it did reveal that, after Kelly was outed to his bosses, interrogated at a "safe house," and threatened with the Official Secrets Act, Blair was informed (on July 7--ten days before Kelly's death) that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things." (Notably, COULD say. Not HAD said. Kelly had been whistleblowing, anonymously, to the BBC, about the "sexed up" pre-war WMD intel, starting in late May. And so, this item in the Hutton report would suggest that Kelly knew something MORE, and that Blair was apprised of it on July 7.) Valerie Plame was outed a week later (July 14). Kelly was found dead, under highly suspicious circumstances, July 18. His office and computers were searched, and, four days later (July 22), Bob Novak ADDITIONALLY outed the entire Brewster-Jennings WMD counter-proliferation network that she headed, putting all of its covert agents/contacts around the world at risk of getting killed, and disabling all projects. It was just yesterday disclosed that Plame HEADED the covert Iraq WMD team!

(Theory: What Kelly knew, that got him killed, was about a Bush/Blair black ops effort to PLANT nukes in Iraq--for a phony "find" of WMDs by the U.S. troops who were "hunting" for them. Such an attempted deceit, if it were exposed, would have brought down both governments. Kelly (the Brits chief WMD expert), Plame and the B-J counter-proliferation network were all in excellent positions to notice covert weapons movements, and it was all of their jobs to stop any such proliferation. If what Kelly knew was that the B-J network had foiled this deceitful scheme, this may explain the Bushites' precipitous--and highly risky (treasonous--with many top Bushites involved) outing of both Plame and BJ. The story that it was Rovian political revenge against Wilson has never made much sense--and makes even less sense when you consider the SECOND outing, of the entire B-J network. It may be that Plame/B-J were the main target, and Wilson the collateral damage (not the other way around).)

[w4rma]

11. It was because they were going to no confidence him out of office if he

didn't resign on his own. They are trying to give him some respect by letting him walk out with a firm hand on his shoulder rather than being thrown out.

[saigon68]

14. BLAIR AS SUICIDE BOMBER