Talking Heads on BBC>>>>Blair likely to leave as PM in near term

[Jacobin]

IraqNam quagmire has destroyed his credibility.

[malaise]

1. Came to the same conclusion

a while ago - the social democratic wing will have more say when the results ae in. Good that he lost a lot of credibility here but truthfully a conservative victory would have been worse.
The planet is in deep trouble if Blair is the best option. Wish the lib-dems could have done it but that ws never on the cards. Still they have made gains.

Iraq has cost Labour big time.

[blm]

2. If he's forced out based on "BushLIES" can US media still cover for Bush?

Probably.

They serve fascism, not democracy.

[blogbear]

3. I believe that Tony is no tiger (unless paper) and deserves to go..

but unlike W..I believe that Tony is intelligent and that it's a shame he will be dragged down on account of W..(W who is the culprit of the political fall-out)..

[truebrit71]

4. Blair made the decision to lay down with the dogs of war..

..he has no-one but himself to blame for his fleas.

Plus, he made the fatal error of believing his own press releases.

[Jacobin]

5. I'm conflicted

He is/was an amazing politician with policies that seemed to be working. Extraordinarily good communicator.

I remember when he went around the world before Afghanistan, speaking so eloquently about 9/11, as contrasted to the idiot in the WH with his 'smoke em out, with us er ginst us' crap.

I was horrified to see him jump on the IraqNam train. .....in Britain I knew this would be his end.

[blogbear]

6. I agree and therefor support a Blair witch hunt..

[JDPriestly]

10. Intelligent people have the responsibility to say no

to stupid people. Sharing assets is how society makes progress. The rich have to be share their money with the poor; the intelligent have to share their wisdom with the stupid. Blair was irresponsible and did not share what he had to give. Shame on him. My husband says that Blair will probably be rewarded with a great job at Halliburton. I don't doubt it for a minute.

[blogbear]

17. There seems to be no shortage of injutice in the world..Blair may

win reelection undeservedly but he is and was no Churchill..History will catch up with him (soon I hope)..

[Straight Shooter]

29. Your husband is close, but the job probably won't be at Halliburton.

Carlyle, OTOH, is quite likely. Quite rightly.

[FreedomAngel82]

23. He did it to himself

He could've said "no" and if he was being blackmailed taken action on it. He only has himself to blame. Now he's paying the price. He's a criminal and deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life.

[blogbear]

26. I agree and favor the Blair witch hunt..He did do it to himself and

I agree. I just feel that if it weren't for W that Blair 'probably' would have been alright..But that's not how it is (or was) and so now I say "burn the Blair witch"!!

[wookie294]

7. Blair looks depressed tonight

I saw Blair's opponent speaking at a microphone tonight, with Blair standing in the background, and the opponent asked Blair to apologize for Iraq. Blair looked completely depressed. I predict Gordon Brown will be PM before Christmas.

[Jacobin]

8. Did you see Blair on the stage with the candidate whose son was

killed in IraqNam?

My gawd he skewered Blair UNMERCIFULLY...Blair..twitching, grimacing.

I'll give that SOB one thing, he has SUFFERED public humiliation over and over and over for his dimwitted invasion idea, unlike the Smirk who only goes where people worship him

sad, very sad

[AlCzervik]

9. Blair looked like he was going to puke.

and Cspan just cut away from coverage.

[Jacobin]

11. dammit, is the coverage finished for the night?

[AlCzervik]

12. it looks that way, i'm so pissed

i've been glued tot his thing for the past 2 hours!

[AlCzervik]

13. hey you can stream it live on bbc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok

[Jacobin]

14. Thanks, cool!

But my sound card blew a fuse......waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

Hopefully, some kind souls will do a running commentary on DU

[AlCzervik]

16. Charles Kennedy was just re-elected, no big surprise there

he had a large margin.

[Jacobin]

18. I miss their weird graphic floor thingy

It's quaint and distracting and not very helpful in understanding where things stand, but I like it anyway.

[AlCzervik]

19. i really like thier coverage, the whole package

i thnk it's excellent and it's amazing how many facts you can get in a short period of time.

[wookie294]

20. LOL, I thought the same thing

Gotta luv the Brits! I like that dude David Dimbleby. What a classic British name!

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. People like it so much, his brother presented the rival channel's coverage

Their father was a war reporter in World War 2, who then became the BBC's chief current affairs presenter for about 20 years.

[wookie294]

15. Yeah, that is major news !!

Somehow, I think our "liberal" media won't re-play the video where that candidate asked Blair for an apology while Blair stood there looking very grim. I assume he's the guy whose son died in Iraq. He dedicated his campaign to the 88 UK soldiers who died for the lie. I thought the moment was very awesome and must be aired here in America.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Right

I'm glad someone is getting it though. His response is all the proof I need that the memo is real. It appears he's not quite as good as Bush at hiding things and he doesn't have a controlled press like Bush does which is very good.

[Southsideirish]

28. Oh, that we could humiliate our loser the same way.

[LibDemAlways]

38. I saw it. I wish every chimp voter would be forced to look at it.

It was extremely interesting to me that the candidates for PM in a particular district all appear together on the stage as the vote totals are announced. I saw that man earlier on c-span as he was campaigning, talking with ordinary voters who were telling him, "I hate Blair." Talk about adding insult to injury for the chimp's poodle to have to stand on that stage and receive a public scolding from a man who lost his twenty year old son due to the */Blair lies. If that ever happened to the chimp, he'd probably go berserk and strangle the guy on the spot.

[FreedomAngel82]

24. That would be nice to have some justice

I hope Blair brings Bush down with him. I think he'll probably end up blaming him for the whole ordeal.

[LynnTheDem]

35. He's still facing trial at the Hague.

His own countrypeople know he lied their nation to an illegal war of aggression, ignoring the will of the majority of his own people, and the Brits know very well who called wars of aggression "the supreme crime". The Nuremburg Tribunal.

Bliar has 87 dead of his fellow citizens standing behind him every second of the day.

Standing behind them are the dead ghosts of every Iraqi, soldier and citizen, man, woman and child, who are dead because of him.

His own wife (Cherie) warned him (she's a QC). Pretty much every international lawyer in the world, including his own, warned him invading Iraq would be illegal; blair knew this, he speaks of it in the leaked UK memo.

His "approval" ratings are in the toilet and have been for a long time now and he'll be ending his career forever known as the man who lied Britain to a Hitleresque war of aggression.

He should look depressed; not for himself, but for all those hundreds of thousands of human beings he is responsible for killing, maiming, lives forever destroyed, and the wholesale raping and pillaging and destruction of an entire nation that had not been doing a damn thing to anyone.

[readermostly]

21. Have a few questions.

Many reports are saying Tony Blair won't serve out his term. I'm not up-to-date on British political law. If that happens, do PM's just step down? Is there a version of an impeachment process? I don't think there is a vice PM, so, if he leaves, does the next ranking person in that party assume the job? If Blair leaves, will there be another election to fill out the term? I'm afraid my lack of knowledge is pretty bad here, and I apologize.

[Massacure]

22. I think the Prime Minister is elected by the largest party.

Tony Blair actually holds a seat in the House of Commons doesn't he?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

30. The PM can stand down at any time

when he does, the Deputy PM will act in his place until the Labour Party members elect a new leader who will take Blair's place.

[readermostly]

31. Thank you to both of you for clearing this up for me.

So there is a deputy PM. I'm guessing, if Tony Blair feels he should leave or is asked to leave, the deputy PM will fill out the term.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

32. "the deputy PM will fill out the term"

The Deputy PM won't fill out the rest of the Parliamentary term, just simply until a new leader is chosen (it usually takes a few months). The Deputy PM can however stand in the leadership election.

The leadership election is only voted amongst members of the political party in question.

[readermostly]

36. Ok, now I understand

Sorry, Anarcho-Socialist, I was on my way to bed and misread your previous post. Thank you for taking the time to correct this for me. I will be watching to see how this all plays out.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

43. No problem n/t

[ikri]

37. Deputy PM - John Prescott

I'd love to be a fly on the wall during any meeting between John Prescott and *.

Prescott at his finest:

[lonestarnot]

27. Poodle done for on his war based on lies right alongside bushilter the

horse maturbator!

[blogbear]

33. "bushilter"? or bushitler? or bu(ll)shitter?

[Bridget Burke]

39. bbcamerica commentators said that Blair's pet projects are in trouble....

Two that were mentioned: National ID card & movement of more health care to the private sector.

Congratulations to the UK!

[Jack Rabbit]

40. It is very clear what the issue was and why Labour lost so many seats

The Tories showed only a marginal improvement in their share of the overall popular vote yesterday. Although they may be the beneficiaries on paper, this can hardly be called a comeback for them.

The real story was the 4% shift in votes from Labour to the Liberal Democrats. This was due to the Prime Minister's stubborn insistence of going to war behind the tyrant Bush against the wisdom of the British people. The result was Labour losing seats in many marginal districts; most of these fell to the Tories, but several to the Liberal Democrats.

The Tories chastised Blair for lying. They only got it half right. Michael Howard still insisted that Blair was right to enter Britain into a war that most Britons feel was unnecessary and not in the national interest. The result for the Tories has already been noted: virtual stagnation at the polls. They didn't win so many seats as they simply backed into them.

It was the Liberal Democrats who got it right and improved their voter share as a result. Blair had entered Britain into an illegal war of aggression behind a tyrant bent on world domination and predicated his actions on a pack of lies. Neither the war nor the lies that justified it could be forgiven.

It should be further noted that many of the seats Labour lost were held by those who stood behind Blair when he stood behind Bush. Those in Labour who stood with the British people in opposition to the war fared much better. Perhaps former Labourite George Galloway's narrow victory over Blair loyalist Oona King in Bethnal Green was emblematic of Labour's problems.

There can be no mistaking that this election rendered the British people's verdict of Bush's war and Blair's foolish participation in it. It is now up to Labour to finish the job and evict Mr. Blair from Number 10 Downing Street. The sooner that is done, the better.

[progressivejazz]

41. The Coalition of the Lame Ducks is now in office.

Berlusconi

Blair

Bush


I'm amused.

[rocktivity]

42. I think it would be more fun to see Blair forced rather than voted out

It sends a better message to Bush: It COULD happen.

It's like when the four-minute mile barrier was broken. Once someone did, it was done more regularly because it wasn't "impossible" any more. We've considered it "impossible" to impeach the Prezel-Dunce, but if enough moderate Repubs can be made to realize that he's puttting their future job security on the line--well, ANYTHING'S possible.

:headbang:
rocknation