Tony Blair says he will step down as Prime Minister

[Matilda]

before September 2007

Breaking now, BBC.

No link yet, more news coming.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Here's the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5322094.stm

I was hoping he'd say he'd go next Wednesday.

[flordehinojos]

8. they want him gone NOW, not tomorrow, not next year but NOW.

[Matilda]

2. Blair confirms plans to step down.

Tony Blair has confirmed he will be stepping down as prime minister
within the next twelve months.


Link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5322094.stm


Somehow I don't think this is going to do the trick. He will be a
total lame duck PM, and it just won't work.

[coalition_unwilling]

24. How much more blood will he have on his hands after another 12

months?

[leesa]

27. So this is nothing new. He had already said he was going in a year.

[wakeme2008]

3. looks like May

He has not said a precise date but it is expected to be some time in May, allies say


from the BBC piece

[Benhurst]

4. Yeah, sure, Tony.

Flush :hurts: the nasty little turd NOW!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

29. Looks like he's checking it out.

[fedsron2us]

5. Unless a timetable for a leadership election

is set out in the announcement it is meaningless. The key word in the article is that the timing is 'provisional'. Personally, I would not trust this bastard further than I could throw him. If he really cared about the future of the country that he purports to govern the he would resign immediately. I do not normally agree with the Tory commentators in the Daily Telegraph but I do think Boris Johnson has summed up the current fiasco quite well


Here we are, with British soldiers being killed almost daily in Iraq and Afghanistan on missions that are growing in scale and horror. We have rises in gun crime, rises in unemployment, rises in interest rates — and these flaming lunatics in Downing Street seriously expect the nation to line the streets with bunting and shower Tony with confetti as he goes on a six-month lap of honour, a "farewell tour" in which he accepts the praises of a smiling people.

<snip>

In his indifference to reality, he is chilling, Neronian. This is no longer about the interests of the country. It is not even about the Labour Party. It is all about him, his desire to prosecute his long-running feud with Gordon Brown, and his vainglorious desire to be well remembered — to have a "legacy".

<snip>

Well, it is not a good enough reason to remain in office. The point of being prime minister is to serve the interests of the country, not himself. It is obvious that Blair intends to spend his last year simply luxuriating in power, while all 3,000-odd government spin édoctors (or as many as remain loyal) squander untold millions burnishing his image.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/09/07/do0701.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/09/07/ixopinion.html

[confludemocrat]

6. You could have left out the Tory propaganda

you say you don't normally agree with a Tory line but then go on to tacitly endorse lot's of stuff way beyond the need to simply dump Blair. Lots of posts like this on DU.

[Matilda]

9. Boris Johnson is a loon,

but always good for a quote if there's nobody else around. Do they go
to him or does he find them?

[fedsron2us]

16. No need to get personal

For your information I have been an active member of a British Trade Union for 25 years. I made my bones fighting Margaret Thatcher on the picket line and need no lessons on the stuggle against capitalism from the paranoid conspiracists that seem increasingly to populate this board. Boris Johnson may be a loon but his portayal of Blair as a deluded fantasist who is more concerned about his personal legacy than the future of his party or his country strikes me as being pretty close to the truth.

[LeftishBrit]

17. I totally agree with you!

I despise Boris Johnson in general; but, on this occasion, I fully agree with what he says.

[Matilda]

30. I think Boris Johnson is a very amusing loon,

and always enjoy watching him, and I also agree with what he says in this case.

I just can't help thinking it's inevitable that he'd have something to say, and that journos would
rush to ask him to say it.

[fedsron2us]

31. As a former full time journalist

I expect Johnson gets quite a lot of information denied to other politicians. What roused my ire here was the fatuous implication in the earlier post that everything that emanates from the conservative press is part of some huge neo-con conspiracy. Johnson is just a rather eccentric Tory MP who is too much of a loose cannon ever to hold down a top job in his party. He is not the Prince of Darkness. Anyway when it come to the nitty gritty of politics such as privatisations, charging for public services, shutting hospitals, suspending civil liberties, waging unjust and illegal wars etc the Tory party are going to have to pull out all the stops if they are going to come up with a more right wing agenda than Blair's Labour government. As someone who works in the public sector in the UK I can not honestly say that I see that much of a difference in a lot of Blair's policies and those pursued by either Margaret Thatcher or John Major. The current Prime Minister's father always voted Conservative and I think at heart the younger Blair is a natural Tory. How he managed to wind up as leader of the Labour party is something for the historians to ponder.

[Matilda]

35. Cherie?

Her background is much more left-wing than Tony's, and although recently
she seems to have been rather more into raking in the loot than I'd
like to see, she's done a lot of legal work representing left-wing
causes.

One journalist with the Independent credits Cherie with being the one
who is keeping Tony hanging in there when he gets depressed and fed up
with the job, so it seems that she is considered a big influence on him.

[muriel_volestrangler]

36. Boris in hot water over Papua New Guinea remark

I thought this would happen when I read his column. He is a bit of a fool - and you'd think some editor at the Telegraph could have just taken out the specific country reference. Still, they think rather like he does.

Mr Johnson wrote: "For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party."

But Jean L Kekedo, Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner in London, reacted angrily to the remarks.

She said: "I consider the comments, coming from a senior British MP very damaging to the image of Papua New Guinea and an insult to the integrity and intelligence of all Papua New Guineans.
...
Mr Johnson sent an apology within minutes of the story emerging, adding that he might embark on apology world tour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5327984.stm

[T_i_B]

38. Yes

Boris Johnson has many faults, but in spite of all that he still remains a very good writer.

[Matilda]

7. I think he may still be pushed out sooner than he thinks.

He really does seem to be living in fantasyland.

[Nikki Stone 1]

14. "In his indifference to reality, he is chilling"

This sounds like the entire Bush administration. Hey Tony, can you take the chimp with you?

[cal04]

10. Britain’s Blair says he will quit within a year

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14712210/

[Ghost Dog]

11. This is bullshit, yet more bullshit.

Nope he hasn't said he'll be gone within a year (which would be too late anyway).

He said he tinks he's the one who should 'for the good of the country', 'do things properly'. :spit:

Get him out NOW.

see BBC video here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3681938.stm

[lpbk2713]

12. Tony --- You are judged by the company you keep.

Let that be a lesson to you.

[Stand and Fight]

13. Good riddance.

Pray that he moves to do so quickly -- like in the next few months.

[NCSTATER3]

15. Suprised?

I think not! Buh-bye Blair. Bush's puppet.

[Gregorian]

18. Can I have my excitement back, please?

I let out a pre-informed cheer when I saw the news.

BOOOOOOooooo!

Resign NOW.

[indepat]

19. To little, too late my friend

[IChing]

20. To pursue life of fetching slippers, newspaper for George Bush

He has a busy schedule ahead of him in retirement.

[mogster]

21. Smile, Tony

Ugh.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. He's estimating how long it will take for "trickle down" theory to take

effect after Dumbyass is impeached.

[MisterP]

23. hooray! (but didn't he say this in '01 and '04 too?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrAfEqSMTDE
I'm senile, who's the (Tory) MP who looks like Fabio?

[mitchum]

25. Time for the lapdog to start raking in the Carlyle Group $$$$

[AwakeAtLast]

26. O.K., so what's going to happen before Sept. 2007?

Just putting on my :tinfoilhat:

I don't do that very often, either!

[citizen snips]

28. Tomorrow sounds good

for him to step down

[0007]

32. Tony wants to help us.....

[ShortnFiery]

33. Yes, spank the Poodle out of the UK leadership, Woof! eom

[Mad_Dem_X]

34. Leave NOW, Tony, and take * with you!

PLEASE!!!!!!!

[Imagevision]

37. Who's Bush going to use for a mouth-piece now??