Calls for Blair to go increase.
The end of Blair's premiership has never felt more palpable.
He has managed to cling to office despite invading Iraq on false premises and unleashing catastrophe in the Middle East, the crime for which Anthony Eden had to resign after Suez. However, it now appears as if his reluctance to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon has proven the straw that broke the camels back.Thirty-seven party activists in foreign secretary Margaret Beckett's constituency of Derby South yesterday defected to the Liberal Democrats in protest at his Lebanon policy. The defectors, predominantly Muslims of Pakistani origin, included Mohammed Rawail Peeno, a Labour party ward chairman, and Masood Akhta, a former city and county councillor. He was also under pressure to name his departure date, amid reported concern among ministers that the government is "drifting".
The Labour Party under Blair are now tanking in the polls, showing their worst poll position since Blair became Prime Minister.
The Conservatives reached 40% in this week's ICM poll for the first time since 1992, while Labour's 31% was its second lowest since 1984.The departing words of some of the Labour activists deserting the party should ring in Blair's ears.
Blair, as he always does when demands for him to quit reach a peak, has announced a new range of measures in the hope of distracting the public and ending the speculation. To be honest, he has always been very good at this. However, there is a feeling that the Labour Party is no longer simply discontented with Blair, they are sick of him and simply want him to go.Ravail Peeno said: "The Lebanon war has made me change my mind and made me feel I am in the wrong party. The people who are getting killed out there are innocent women and children.
"It's sad. For many years I have been a Labour Party member but we have no choice. We can't take it any more."
His fellow defector, Shayad Mahmood, 31, a father of three, said: "We are not backing Hizbollah but we are against the killing of innocent women and children. They are dropping bombs in highly populated areas where civilians are. In this day and age, in 2006, there is no way this Government can allow this to carry on."
Lebanon was the final proof that he does not represent the values of the party that he leads.
He has also still to be interviewed by the police regarding the cash for honours scandal.
The writing is on the wall for Blair. He will now scramble and try to find a dignified exit. However, no matter what route he chooses, Iraq will be engraved on his political tombstone. He, like Bush, has always insisted that history will be the final judge of the wisdom of his decison to invade Iraq without a UN resolution.
However, it appears as if the Labour Party may make that decision rather sooner than Blair would like.
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2 comments:
I'm still making my mind up which party I am going to support in future elections (definately not Labour). Although Torys had a change of leadership/policy with Cameron, its all about Green issues now, nothing about the war or social policies.
I recieved the news of the 37 with sheer joy. Yes Blair will attempt to distract the public with yet more measures, however with -37, he is going to have an absolute struggle to get any passed.
I believe this Prime Minister will be remembered with the most shame any has in history to date. His name will be forever connected to Iraq, terror, Orwellian control measures, and New Labour scandals. He has become representative of everything that is wrong in Britain. The day after he leaves, the biggest collective sigh of relief ever will be heard all over the land.
Trouble is, I don't hold much for any of the competition either. At the moment I can't see anyone I would prefer as Prime Minister in any parties. What about you?
Alex,
The tragedy about Blair is that people like me waited and campaigned for 18 years to have a Labour Prime Minister elected and we ended up fooled with Tory-Lite.
Don't get me wrong, he has redistributed wealth and the investment made in schools and hospitals was unprecedented.
However, I loathe his student fees and his hospital trusts but there were times when I thought I could thole that as long as a Labour leader got re-elected. We mustn't forget that Blair is the first Labour leader in history to be elected a second time, and when he succeeded in being elected for a third time he exceeded any expectations I might have held throughout the grim eighties.
However, even though I voted for him at the last general election I did so only because he had promised to stand down before the next election. I have no idea how Brown - if indeed it turns out to be him - will fare as Prime Minister. He's played his cards so close to his chest for the past nine years that it's impossible to tell.
I think Cameron is a smoke and mirrors man. He talks often about changing the Tory party without ever specifying what any of those changes will be.
As for Blair, it was his foreign policy that eventually wore most of us out. He's had more wars than any other British Prime Minister in history.
As for who I'll vote for in the next election, it might be much easier for me to vote Labour if Brown can energise the party and give it a genuine direction. Cameron's already talking about tax cuts, an argument that I thought the Tories lost at the last election when the public made a clear choice between tax cuts and continued improvements in health and education. They chose the latter.
I think a lot of people may forget just how grim the national health service became after 18 years of Tory cuts.
So my heart will always be with Labour as I do favour the collective, and the leader has to stray very far from my values before I desert the party - as I did at the last local elections.
The problem with politics in this country at the moment is that all parties are playing for the mythical middle ground, so left and right are becoming meaningless terms.
I'll hold my opinion until I see how Brown copes once, and if, he takes the reins.
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