Blair to abandon controversial plans

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=b6451336eb9a17c5

Big News Network.com Sunday 3rd April, 2005 (UPI)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was expected Saturday to abandon two pieces of crime legislation before announcing the start of the general election campaign.

Blair's controversial plans for national ID cards and legislation outlawing incitement to religious hatred were expected to be cut to help Labor push other legislation before Parliament is dissolved, the Observer reported.

The Cabinet was expected to focus on the economy, starting with a commitment from Chancellor Gordon Brown to raise education spending for every year of the next Parliament.


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This shows the Labour party is dying and dying with Blair at the helm!!!

[autorank]

1. BLAIR GOES DOWN!*****BLAIR GOES DOWN*****BLAIR GOES DOWN

He's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic! Little man, war criminal, tweaker, twit. I hope Labour loses every single seat they hold! except for those MPs who openly challenged Blair. Its not the party of the working man and woman, it's a blow dried group of silly boys and girls.

Opening polls show Blair in a precarious position. Now the fun begins and he has one place to go, DOWN!

[PeaceProgProsp]

3. Don't national polls have Labour up by 7%?

Do they have constituency-specific polls showing Labour in trouble?ˇ

[autorank]

4. The last polls I saw were a couple of weeks ago and it they were

up 4-5% which is way down from where they were pre-war. I should have been more precise and said relative to previous campaigns, their polling is down. In any event, I hope they get smacked and smacked hard.

[PeaceProgProsp]

5. Well, NPR said they're up by 7% now.

And they sounded like he was going to win. I think they mentioned some of the crazy stuff Michael Howard has been saying lately, and they played a very sensible quote of Blair talking about religion and politics.

[gbarford]

8. Latest bunch of polls have a 3-6% Lab lead

However, the polls recently have been VERY erratic, some suggesting a 12% Lab lead, then the next week a 2% or 3% lead. Anything could happen.

Labour will win probably, but their majority could be severely cut back; I think this would be a good thing, as it would mean Blair would be kept in check by the left of the party, who would vote down any measure before Parliament that Blair is going too far with.

[T_i_B]

11. Blair has a landslide majority

And his nearest competitors are the Conservative Party, who have still not recovered from the first Blair landslide in 1997.

Blair is expected to win again without any major scares.

[PeaceProgProsp]

2. Labour will retain majority due to their economic policies.

And they deserve to win. What they've done with that economy has been incredible. They're really holding the pieces together in a global economy that is polarizing wealth at an incredible pace. The UK has managed to keep things fair and equitable. They've been bucking a global trend despite being a nation where many of the companies are headquartered which are driving the global polarization of wealth..

[autorank]

7. How about complicity in a war of aggression? How about lying to

the British public? How about Tony Blair being Bush's bitch?

Nixon did a fine job with the economy but he ran a war for at least 3.5 years longer than he had to. He deserved to be impeached and I believe that the fury over his extension of Viet Nam ("I have a plan to end this" he said in 1968, but it had to be "secret) was the key factor in public rage against him. Blair misled the nation and my understanding is that is hard for the British public to forgive. The prosperity may be due in large part to Labour. The blow back from Iraq, which I think will be a huge hit to both US and British influence, will also be Blair's responsibility.

And BTW, are people in England looking at the reports on the imminent demise of the gulf stream and the impact on England? It's all out there, it's happening. And are people in England aware that Blair's/Labour's policy on the impact of global warming is 'adjustment' rather than prevention; an open admission that they're supporting the short term gains of polluters everywhere.

When you have a leader who betrays his country by lying his way into a war so he can be a madman's buddy (i.e., Bush) and when that leader ignores an eco-catastrophe for his nation (you will have the ecosystem of Labrador), he deserves to lose the election and face his nation in utter humiliation. But, hey, that's just my opinion.

N.B. I just showed this response to my wife who said, "You know who it sounded like you were talking about, Bush!" What more can I say.

[Henny Penny]

12. "and they deserve to win???"

if they do win, it'll be by default since the opposition is so god awful.

"What they've done with the economy has been incredible".... you are right there, literally.

Replacing manufacturing jobs with Government and service sector jobs is just papering over the cracks. When the bubble in the housing market bursts the cracks will be all too obvious.

In my view, Lab voters will not have the same motivation to vote as lib dem or tories, expect a low turn out and maybe a few surprises.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Blair ahead as election nears: poll

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair is on course to win a third general election, according to an opinion poll published today as he prepares to announce the date of the vote.

The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph newspaper put Mr Blair's ruling Labour Party ahead of the main opposition Conservatives, but with a reduced lead compared to the last election in 2001.

It put Labour on 36 per cent, down six points from 2001, and saw the Conservatives unchanged on 33, with the Liberal Democrats up three on 22.

Mr Blair won the last two elections in 1997 and 2001 with big majorities.

more: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12748168-23109,00.html

[Massacure]

9. Whats the possibility of labour staying in majority but tossing out Bliar?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Hard to say, but it seems unlikely

The only way it can happen is with a mass rebellion of Labour MPs. Not many are willing to criticise him in public (because it means that if he doesn't go, he'll never give them a job in government, and his successors might not trust a malcontent MP either; and it might upset some of their constituency party members too). So, unless there's an efficient conspiracy amongst the MPs, it won't happen.

It's not impossible - the Tory MPs did it against Thatcher. They had various gripes against her, but I think the ultimate reason was the poll tax, an incredibly unfair and unpopular new tax that she was determined to implement. The MPs saw themselves getting booted out at the next election, and decided she had to go. Iraq is the closest thing that Blair has, but its effect on voting just doesn't seem big enough.

[Henny Penny]

13. or...

if they have to go into coalition with the lib dems and have to sacrifice Blair as part of the deal.

fingers crossed,

best possible outcome imho.