Blair urged to loosen ties with US

[cal04]

Senior figures across the Labour party are intensifying pressure on Tony Blair to publicly detach himself from the Bush administration, calling on him to spell out an independent British position on the Middle East, peacekeeping in Iraq and the US presidential election.

Normally loyal ministers have joined backbench colleagues to urge the prime minister to demonstrate his political detachment from Washington amid fears that the crisis in Iraq is undermining his domestic standing.

According to ministers and Labour backbenchers from all wings of the party interviewed by the Guardian, Mr Blair should seize the earliest opportunity to recalibrate his approach to foreign affairs.

Key party members are advising Downing Street to change tack in three key areas:

· Drawing a line between Britain's widely acclaimed peacekeeping record and the heavy-handed military tactics of US forces in Iraq;

· Advocating a more emollient approach to the Middle East peace process, undoing the damage of Mr Blair's Rose Garden endorsement of the Sharon plan. In particular, they want No 10 to highlight the EU's refusal to follow Washington's imposition of sanctions on Syria;

· Courting US Democrats more actively in election year without breaking traditional conventions of government-to-government neutrality.

Mr Blair has made clear to his supporters that he will not criticise President George Bush in public. In an interview with the Independent today the prime minister said it was not a time to start "messing around with your main ally".

But he is said to have conceded tha he will have to soften his stance on Iraq in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. "Tony can seem a bit one-dimensional on Iraq because he is so sure that what he did was right. That has changed with the pictures from Abu Ghraib: he now realises that people who supported the war are very worried and have the right to ask: How did it end up like this?" one former minister said.

Mr Blair has also indicated that he will do more to court the Democrats, who are seeking to put Senator John Kerry in the White House. Mr Blair is understood to have heeded the advice of ministers who say that, unless his party can improve ties with the Democrats, the government will be badly exposed if Mr Kerry wins on November 2.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1216540,00.html

Blair: 'I will remain shoulder to shoulder with George Bush'

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=521085

[LittleApple81]

1. Will Blair be coming to a US restaurant soon? Remember Bush

making fun of Kerry's saying foreign leaders wanted him to win. He had a snide comment saying that somebody in a suit with a foreign accent in a restaurant didn't make a foreign leader or something as stupid as that.

Mr Blair has also indicated that he will do more to court the Democrats, who are seeking to put Senator John Kerry in the White House. Mr Blair is understood to have heeded the advice of ministers who say that, unless his party can improve ties with the Democrats, the government will be badly exposed if Mr Kerry wins on November 2.

[Arkana]

2. It's a basic rule of survival

Try to abandon the sinking ship before it drops to the bottom of the sea.