I recently discovered that my (soon to be former) MP has a blog, on MySpace. It’s actually not awful, for a MySpace blog, but today, he’s speculating Blair Resigns? :
something is definitely in the air. I don’t know what it is, but if Blair announces his resignation by the end of this week, you read it here first.
So the Westminster bubble says something is up. It would, of course, be a good thing for him to go. Here’s just hoping the constitutionally illiterate morons don’t make much running with getting Brown to got for an early election, we need to give the man time to mess things up utterly.
January 16th, 2007
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, NuLab, Political Weblog Project |
4 comments
From new blogger Sammy Morse:
Personally, I doubt Blair will last 12 months or anything like it. Until he goes, civil war will reign in the Labour Party. Unlike Blair, too many people in the Labour Party have an interest in not losing the next election for that to happen. Unless they’re really, really stupid. And I don’t think they are. … Brown will be a disaster as Labour leader. If Brown really had the capacity to be leader, he would have become so after the Granita restaurant, after Blair was clearly out of step with the country on the war, after Labour lost 50 seats at the General Election, etc., etc. He didn’t because he has no killer instinct and no real leadership skills. Brown likes to skulk in the corner and avoid difficult issues
He goes on to analyse the state of the parties, the poll rankings, the likely effect on the next election, etc. It’s one of those “I wish I’d written that” posts, well worth a read.
In addition, Caramel Betty asks “what’s Charles Clarke up to?” and has re read his resignation speech:
However, I do not think it would be appropriate to remain in government in these circumstances and return to the backbenches, where I will be a strong and active supporter of this government and the leadership of Tony Blair for his full parliamentary term.
Do we detect a note of “well Gordon’ll never give me a job” in the Safety Elephant’s behaviour? In the meantime?
Keep an eye on Jack Straw over the weekend. Have fun in the Middle East Tony…
September 8th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Brown, Blair, Leadership, Infighting, NuLab |
3 comments
I’d forgotten this, oops. Um, online conference involving some bigwigs, cross party, looks like a good idea, started today.
Taking Power - Have your say about how Britain is run
Worth giving a look and getting involved in methinks.
I, um, spent the day with my grandmother, not even mobile phone reception in South Pool, ’tis a lovely place. We didn’t turn the radio on in the car on the way back either. So, I’m currently catching up with the news. Initial reactions?
Go Tom! Agree with Bob’s assesment. Tired Tony on his way out? Good. However, and this is important, look out for buried news. Blairwatch is already on the case.
I might be able to put together a more coherent reaction, but in the meantime? Yay!
September 6th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, NuLab, Reform, POWER, Constitution |
no comments
On the subject of the Lords as
an accident waiting to happen, we have two interesting post.
Garry Smith shows that the loans were probably not, really, on commercial terms, and were really donations in disguise.
In fact, the loans are actually only repayable six months after the lender specifically asks for them to be repaid. If the lender does not do so, the loan might conceivably never be repaid. It’s almost as if the terms of the loans have been specifically written so that they could be turned into donations at a later date.
In the meantime, Shaun Rolph has all the evidence pointing that Levy and Blair acted illegally if they did withhold details of the money to the elected party treasurer, Jack Dromey (via).
anyone who, with intent to deceive, concealed from Jack Dromey (i) the amount of any donation made to the party, or (ii) the person or body making such a donation, has committed a criminal offence.
It’s probably a good thing for tired Tony that he knows a few decent lawyers, right? When I wrote that post, I didn’t even think to dream he’d be out because he broke a law he himself wrote.
July 23rd, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, NuLab, Party funding, Levy, Dromey, corruption |
no comments
Hmm. Just finished listening to Charles Clarke on On the Ropes (again) - always worth a listen anyway, but this one had added comedy value. From the BBC coverage, David Davis said Mr Clarke’s comments were a Blairite version of Sir Geoffrey Howe’s attack on Margaret Thatcher in 1990, something that Simon predicted nine months ago. Also, I really like this comedy quote:
Education Minister Jim Knight said ex-ministers “bitching” about Mr Blair were doing Labour “no favours”.
Well no Mr Knight, they’re not, but then, neither is tired Tony.
Are we getting there d’you think? Is Simon right, is this the beginning of the end?
Addenda
:Is it possible this was timed to minimise the damage instead?
June 27th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, NuLab, Charles Clarke |
no comments
Tim Ireland:
I am coming for you, and I will not stop.
Your time is up, your goodwill is shot to hell, and your plans for further reform are doomed to failure.
Further; the longer you hang on, the easier it will be for me to tie your political heirs to your poisoned legacy.
I will soon be coming for them, and I will not stop.
This is not a vendetta… it is a necessity; I simply cannot allow those in power to continue to cynically exploit the threat of terrorism for political and financial gain.
As your staff have read Bloggerheads, they will no doubt be aware of my clear position on violence… so they will know that I mean you no physical harm, even when I say the following:
I plan to pursue you to the end of your political career and beyond. Further, I have taken a solemn vow to one day piss on your grave. You lying, torturing, murdering bastard.
Cheers
Tim Ireland
It won’t surprise any of our regular reasons to learn I pretty much endorse Tim’s campaign 100%.
Blogger’s playing up and not even letting me post comments. I’m swamped at work. Paul’s got a new job and is busy. Updates may be sparse. Bear with us, we’ll be back up to speed as and when…
June 9th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, NuLab, Parties |
no comments
Gordon Brown:
“Tony Blair said last night that he was going to organise it in a stable and orderly way.”
Does anyone else read that as if they’re planning a coronation, no election, no party democracy?
May 9th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Brown, Blair, Leadership, NuLab, party democracy |
no comments
This from Ken at Militant Moderate is a nice analysis of the way blogging could be used by politicians and their supporters in the future. I think, overall, I agree with him; blogging is at its best when talking through policy and ideas rather than personality and gossip (although, let’s face it, the latter can be fun(ny) at times). Huhne was very popular amongst the LibDem bloggers precisely because he engaged the policy debate strongly, and has done his future prospects a world of good by running I think.
Also, this on the Snow in Summer. The GOD corporation has a record of its discussions with Tony, but they’re protected by client priviledge. Definately worth a read through.
March 5th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, LibDems, Political Weblog Project, God |
no comments
Oh dear. The British Blogosphere’s favourite kicking ball is being even more obtuse than normal. For readers not aware, Neil Harding is a Labour supporting blogger in Brighton who has a tendency to disagree with, well, everyone, and thinks, as far as I can tell, that Tired Tony can do no wrong. His current crusade is on behalf of the (dis)Respect Agenda generally and summary confiscation as a specific. He has two posts on the subject, Why Tony is Right and Tony Blair and the respect agenda continued. The comments threads on both posts are impressively long, and, apart from Neil himself, no one has any support for his position. No, don’t worry, I’m not posting this to support him. You see, it’s so bad I thought I’d give him some more publicity.
I sometimes find in debates that the person that does the most damage to your position isn’t the person opposed to it, but the misguided supporter who, well, doesn’t quite get it and links everything together as one big overarching theme and assumes everyone opposed is inherently arguing from the same position with the same reasons.
January 13th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, NuLab, Constitution, freedom, History, Neil Harding, summary fines, confiscation, Authoritarian |
25 comments
So…:
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt will vote for a complete ban on smoking in pubs and clubs in England when MPs vote on the plan
They’ve decided to have a free vote because a lot of backbench MPs and the NuLabber in charge want a complete ban. Speculation is it may pass because a lot of MPs on all sides want to protect us from ourselves.
January 11th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, NuLab, freedom, LibDems, nanny state, smoking, Hewitt |
no comments
Well, I got the first Google referral for “Don’t you think Blair looks tired?”, for which this is currently the only result. I suspect that will change. Why?
I want Blair out of office by the end of 2006
January 7th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Brown, Blair, NuLab, Xblogging, Labour, tired |
3 comments
Well, I’ve been thinking of something to write all day, and fiddling with the template a bit. Opening up a random post to see what it looked like, I found this from Gary:
December 27th, 2005
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Xblogging, Cameron, nanny state, Authoritarian |
no comments
I had one of those rare moments yesterday. I was sat in a friends shop chatting and listening to the radio news. A familiar voice came on, and I found myself agreeing with every word. Then I realised it was Blair. The great shame of the UK electoral system is it denies the UKIP tendency seats at Westminster, letting Blair off the hook when it comes to genuinely putting the case within Parliament. The Tories aren’t in favour of withdrawal, even with Cameron, and none of the other parties really challenge him. Hearing him ripping into Farage was brilliant. It’s just such a damn shame that Blair gave up on Europe so early in his term (you know, back when he was popular and some of us believed in him?).
December 22nd, 2005
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Britain, europe, EU |
6 comments
