Wow
I have tried to ignore what has been going on - as I am busy in the salt mines that are www.pinknews.co.uk making a name for myself. I thought this weekend would be a good time to bring politicsjunkie.co.uk out of hibernation.
But the events of the last 24 hours have been like manna from heaven.
Chris Byrant and Sion Simon faxing letters to the PM telling him to go now!
Tom Watson resigning!
Leaked memo demonstrates that Blair's advisers are a bunch of nutters who think the voters give a toss about the PM!
Gordon Brown's people complaining that Milburn and Byers are briefing against him!
Oh my sweet Lord - where to start?
Well lets start at the very beginning.
politicsjunkie has been reporting for some time on the unrest in the Labour party about Blair's departure. There seems to be general consensus that he should go soon, and that there shouldnt be a decapitation but an 'orderly transition.'
The PM came back from sunning himself in Barbados full of ideas. Mad ones, obviously. Mad as a bag of snakes that man. He really really is - talking 24-carat bollocks about getting at offenders BEFORE birth
was that in the manifesto?
no i bloody wasnt
of course TB coming back from his hols full of mad ideas is nothing new. What was the final straw was the breath-takingly arrogant way in which he dismissed serious demands from serious people that he set a timetable for his departure.
TB does love to defy the Labour party, to snub his nose at them and say I AM THE MAN.
It worked when he was popular, the party would grudgingly accept his mad ideas and the fact he is a natural Tory, cos he kept winning them seats.
What makes me seriously think it is time for TB to leave is that he seems to have lost any sense of the reality of his own political situation. The party hate his guts, the electorate dont think about him and when they do they think he is a liar and a warmonger. The opposition are starting to look like a threat. All that nonsense about being friends with Cameron at PMQ was a disaster for Blair. MPs are nervous about losing their seats. The Welsh and Scottish parties are worried that he is going to be a factor in their elections next year. Gordon Brown is close to exploding with rage like something from Alien.
But the PM sees a different reality - one where he can defy his party and announce even more right-wing policies. So he comes back and tells The Times that he is staying as long as he likes and the party can just bloody like it.
Serious mistake. When interviewing a senior member of left wing think tank Compass recently, he expressed the hope that at this year's party conference the Labour party would "acquire some balls."
They just got some, and they didnt have to wait till party conference, because it is not just a mere matter of being a 'rebel' or 'loyalist' anymore. The whole parliamentary party seem to have realised that if they do not force Blair out he wont go. The nutter thinks he alone can save Britain.
The series of letters from MPs asking him to consider setting out a timetable have been replaced by other letters telling him to go
Not asking - telling.
I would make a comparison with the Charles Kennedy incident - where MPs who loved and respsected Charles forced him out - for his own good and that of the party.
Now Blair is making things so much worse for himself by lashing out at people who previously were 'loyal' to him. He is wrong to call a junior minister "disloyal, discourteous and wrong"
It just makes him look like a wanker, to be frank, who cant handle criticism.
The quick climbdown by Blair, voiced by David Miliband, that announed the PM would be gone in a year was supposed to silence critics
In fact the opposite has happened - it has emboldened them. The Labour party appear to have remembered that THEY decide who leads the party and for how long and NOT the PM
Now it is open season on Blair, I cannot see any way in which he can remain in office into 2007. The party dont want him and for the first time in 15 years they have got the balls to tell him to go.
And all this before the conference. It was going to be a febrile get together even before the PM made such a massive miscalculation with refusing to tell the party his plans
Now his departure date is becoming a matter for real debate within the party, and for the first time in his life he cannot control the outcome fo that debate.
I just cant wait to conference, but with the pace things are moving at the PM could conceivably be gone by then.
If other ministers start resigning then Blair might have to go. The beautiful irony is that far from dividing Labour, getting rid of Blair has united the party.
I have tried to ignore what has been going on - as I am busy in the salt mines that are www.pinknews.co.uk making a name for myself. I thought this weekend would be a good time to bring politicsjunkie.co.uk out of hibernation.
But the events of the last 24 hours have been like manna from heaven.
Chris Byrant and Sion Simon faxing letters to the PM telling him to go now!
Tom Watson resigning!
Leaked memo demonstrates that Blair's advisers are a bunch of nutters who think the voters give a toss about the PM!
Gordon Brown's people complaining that Milburn and Byers are briefing against him!
Oh my sweet Lord - where to start?
Well lets start at the very beginning.
politicsjunkie has been reporting for some time on the unrest in the Labour party about Blair's departure. There seems to be general consensus that he should go soon, and that there shouldnt be a decapitation but an 'orderly transition.'
The PM came back from sunning himself in Barbados full of ideas. Mad ones, obviously. Mad as a bag of snakes that man. He really really is - talking 24-carat bollocks about getting at offenders BEFORE birth
was that in the manifesto?
no i bloody wasnt
of course TB coming back from his hols full of mad ideas is nothing new. What was the final straw was the breath-takingly arrogant way in which he dismissed serious demands from serious people that he set a timetable for his departure.
TB does love to defy the Labour party, to snub his nose at them and say I AM THE MAN.
It worked when he was popular, the party would grudgingly accept his mad ideas and the fact he is a natural Tory, cos he kept winning them seats.
What makes me seriously think it is time for TB to leave is that he seems to have lost any sense of the reality of his own political situation. The party hate his guts, the electorate dont think about him and when they do they think he is a liar and a warmonger. The opposition are starting to look like a threat. All that nonsense about being friends with Cameron at PMQ was a disaster for Blair. MPs are nervous about losing their seats. The Welsh and Scottish parties are worried that he is going to be a factor in their elections next year. Gordon Brown is close to exploding with rage like something from Alien.
But the PM sees a different reality - one where he can defy his party and announce even more right-wing policies. So he comes back and tells The Times that he is staying as long as he likes and the party can just bloody like it.
Serious mistake. When interviewing a senior member of left wing think tank Compass recently, he expressed the hope that at this year's party conference the Labour party would "acquire some balls."
They just got some, and they didnt have to wait till party conference, because it is not just a mere matter of being a 'rebel' or 'loyalist' anymore. The whole parliamentary party seem to have realised that if they do not force Blair out he wont go. The nutter thinks he alone can save Britain.
The series of letters from MPs asking him to consider setting out a timetable have been replaced by other letters telling him to go
Not asking - telling.
I would make a comparison with the Charles Kennedy incident - where MPs who loved and respsected Charles forced him out - for his own good and that of the party.
Now Blair is making things so much worse for himself by lashing out at people who previously were 'loyal' to him. He is wrong to call a junior minister "disloyal, discourteous and wrong"
It just makes him look like a wanker, to be frank, who cant handle criticism.
The quick climbdown by Blair, voiced by David Miliband, that announed the PM would be gone in a year was supposed to silence critics
In fact the opposite has happened - it has emboldened them. The Labour party appear to have remembered that THEY decide who leads the party and for how long and NOT the PM
Now it is open season on Blair, I cannot see any way in which he can remain in office into 2007. The party dont want him and for the first time in 15 years they have got the balls to tell him to go.
And all this before the conference. It was going to be a febrile get together even before the PM made such a massive miscalculation with refusing to tell the party his plans
Now his departure date is becoming a matter for real debate within the party, and for the first time in his life he cannot control the outcome fo that debate.
I just cant wait to conference, but with the pace things are moving at the PM could conceivably be gone by then.
If other ministers start resigning then Blair might have to go. The beautiful irony is that far from dividing Labour, getting rid of Blair has united the party.
