[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Even loyalists desert Blair's ship of state Even loyalists desert Blair's ship of state (Filed: 07/09/2006) Comment on this story Read comments In a little over a fortnight the Labour Party gathers in Manchester for its annual jamboree. From the gloomy depths of the Downing Street bunker, those two weeks will seem an eternity. A chemical reaction is tearing through New Labour and it would take a brave soul to predict its outcome – or even to have confidence that Tony Blair will still be at the helm when the conference opens. What we witnessed yesterday was a coup. They may be tiddlers in the Westminster pond, but the resignation of the junior defence minister Tom Watson and six parliamentary aides is a body blow to the Prime Minister, because most were seen as loyalists – as were the other signatories of Tuesday's round robin letter calling for the Prime Minister to announce a timetable for his departure. How wonderfully ironic that members of Mr Blair's praetorian guard, so obsessed with their all-consuming feud with Gordon Brown and his acolytes, lost sight of the discontent in their own camp. Mr Blair will find it hard to recover. His authority is seeping away by the hour and he is no longer master of his own fate – and he knows it. Witness his intemperate statement attacking Mr Watson for being "disloyal, discourteous and wrong". The Prime Minister's outburst was ill-judged, undignified and smacked of panic. advertisement The notion that Mr Blair can cling on until May 31 next year now appears absurd. Government is at a near-standstill as ministers wait to see which way to jump and stasis grips Whitehall. How hubristic those farcical plans for "Blair's farewell tour" now sound – and how predictable that they focused on the froth of PR and spin, not on the weighty political issues by which successful premierships are judged. The collapse of Mr Blair's authority was inevitable given his inexplicable error of announcing before the last election that he would not fight the next. It was only the timing of the meltdown that was in doubt. It is now evident that next May's mid-term elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and to local councils across England were the catalyst. The party has concluded that, with a lame-duck leader and a resurgent opposition, it faces a May massacre. But as the Blair era enters its death throes, the party must avoid making another fundamental mistake. There must be a battle for the succession, not a coronation. Mr Brown looked like the cat who got the cream when he emerged from his meeting with Mr Blair yesterday. A hand-over is clearly starting. But the Chancellor should be made to fight for the job that he has coveted for so long. The party and the country need to know what makes him tick – and the best way of finding out is in the heat of a leadership contest.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||