Brown secures the crown but he must wait still longer to take power
Gordon Brown has been confirmed as having enough votes to make him the next Labour leader and the next British Prime Minister rendering the need for an election pointless and raising the question; if there is not going to be a leadership election, then why are we waiting six weeks to hand him his crown?
Blair is in the US saying goodbye to Bush and has no real function as Prime Minister now that it is known that he is going, so why can't he simply go now and put us all out of our misery? What possible purpose is served by us waiting for six weeks?
This is, of course, a nonsense. Blair cannot actually do anything now without Brown's permission as policy will from now on be decided by Brown rather than Blair. So we are all left sitting about twiddling our thumbs for a month and a half whilst Tony swans around the world stage making his protracted goodbyes.The Chancellor crossed the finishing line last night when it became clear that the left-wing MP John McDonnell would not be able to muster the backing of 45 Labour MPs needed to secure a place on the ballot paper.
At 6pm last night, Labour announced that Mr McDonnell had been nominated by only 29 Labour MPs, while Mr Brown had secured the backing of 307 of 354. Mr McDonnell conceded defeat at 8.30pm yesterday when another MP signalled his intention to back Mr Brown.
Although Mr Brown has won the leadership in an unopposed "coronation", he will have to wait almost six weeks before he moves into 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair could now face pressure to stand down earlier than 27 June, the date he announced last week. "He is in office, not in power," one Labour source said, in a deliberate echo of Norman Lamont's wounding description of John Major's ailing Tory government.
As Mr Blair had dinner with President George Bush on his final trip to Washington as Prime Minister, his allies insisted he would not stand down early. "He has work to do, he will be at full speed up to the wire," one said.
Blair's aides are pointing that American Presidents take two months to make any handover and that this six week period allows for a "stable and orderly transition". This rather ignores the fact that British elections are fought in a very different way from American elections and that outgoing Prime Ministers who have lost elections find the removal vans at their door the very next morning and the new incumbent waiting eagerly at the gates. If this can be done overnight when an entire administration is changing political colours, it seems bizarre that it must take six weeks when the new occupant of Number Ten is a member of the administration and, indeed, thanks to Blair living in Number Eleven during his term of office because of the children, when the new Prime Minister already lives in Number Ten!
We are now being told it will take six weeks for Gordon to move nowhere. It will take six weeks for him to live in the same place and change his title from Chancellor to Prime Minister.
A contest would have been preferable to this coronation as it would have given Brown an opportunity to spell out what he regards as his vision and inform the electorate about how his style of governing might differ from that of Blair. However, as things have panned out, that is obviously no longer going to be possible. So what the Hell are we waiting for?
Blair's team will no doubt cite the two upcoming summits at which Blair will represent British interests, but as Blair will no longer have anything to do with Britain's future after 27th June surely the person who should attend these summits is the person who will be in charge of Britain's interests for the next few years?
Blair's team are saying that he remains in office to put the final polish to his legacy, but I can save them a lot of bloody time: His legacy is one word.
IRAQ.
And there's no amount of polish that will make that turd shine.
Click title for full article.The long goodbye
There are 42 days to Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister...
Today John Prescott chairs Cabinet, while Tony Blair is in Washington. Nominations for leader and deputy leader close at 12.30pm. Brown expected to be declared leader.
20 May Brown joins hustings tour for deputy leadership candidates in Coventry.
21 May Hustings at Westminster for MPs for deputy leadership and Brown.
26 May Hustings run by the unions in Bristol.
27 May Hustings in Bradford for Brown while Blair in Africa as part of his 'farewell' tour.
30 May Brown at the deputy leadership hustings in Leicester.
2 June Hustings in Glasgow.
3 June Hustings for unions in Newcastle.
6 June Blair attends G8 summit in Germany.
9 June Hustings in Cardiff.
10 June Labour young members' hustings Oxford.
16 June Hustings London.
21 June Blair at EU summit in Germany.
27 June Blair will resign as Prime Minister. Brown will be invited to receive the seals of office from the Queen.
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