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Blair set to announce his resignation
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Topic Started: May 10 2007, 06:22 AM (120 Views)
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24thcenstfan
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May 10 2007, 06:22 AM
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Blair set to announce his resignation
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TRIMDON, England - Tony Blair returned to his Parliamentary district Thursday to call an end to a decade in power by announcing his resignation as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, his office and a party official confirmed.
Blair's first step is to resign as party leader, remaining as head of government until his successor is elected, likely by early July.
"There are a mixture of emotions today. There's disappointment and sadness that we are losing the prime minister after 10 years," said John Burton, Blair's political representative in the northern parliamentary district of Sedgefield. "But there's joy, happiness and thanks for what has been achieved."
The 54-year-old Blair was traveling to Sedgefield to speak to staff at Trimdon Labour Club — where he launched his campaign to become Labour leader in 1994 — and spell out his intentions.
It's an announcement that Blair's Labour Party, and the nation, have been expecting for nearly three years, ever since the prime minister said in 2004 that his third term would be his last.
"Today, the beginning of the end," read the front page of The Guardian newspaper.
Blair met earlier with Cabinet members, who left No. 10 Downing Street without answering questions shouted by reporters swarming outside. "For once, Cabinet discipline is holding," quipped Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons.
Blair's successor is all but certain to be Treasury Chief Gordon Brown, Blair's partner in reforming the party as "New Labour" but an impatient rival in government.
"Gordon paid a very full tribute to Tony in there," Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
Brown has already declared he will be a candidate; at least one opponent from the party's left wing was expected to announce his candidacy Thursday afternoon. Burton said Blair would continue to represent Sedgefield in Parliament until the next national election, expected in 2009, unless he is offered "a major international or United Nations job."
The Iraq war, a police investigation of allegations that the government traded honors for political contributions and endless questions about when Blair would step down overshadowed his last term in government, after winning the third term in May 2005.
Blair has stopped short of openly endorsing Brown, a stern Scot who has long coveted the top job, but said last week that Brown would make "a great prime minister."
"One of the things I very much hope will be part of the legacy of the government is the strongest economy in the Western world which he has been responsible for," Blair said.
Blair led Labour to two landslide election wins in 1997 and 2001, and a narrower but still comfortable victory in 2005.
The first term was marked by several significant initiatives: the Bank of England was given the freedom to set interest rates, Scotland and Wales were given regional governments, London gained an elected mayor and all but 92 hereditary members were ejected from the House of Lords.
In 1998, Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern led successful negotiations for a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, launching a process which reached its culmination earlier this week as former enemies from the Protestant and Catholic communities joined to form a new regional government.
The Iraq war severely dented Blair's popularity. Blair's close alliance with President Bush was unpopular at home, there were mass marches in Britain opposing the U.S.-led invasion before it began, and the government's claims that Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction proved false.
For more than a year, Labour has consistently trailed in opinion polls behind a Conservative Party revived by its new leader, David Cameron.
In local and regional elections earlier this month, Labour lost hundreds of seats in city and county councils, and was beaten into second place in the Scottish Parliament elections by the Scottish National Party, which advocates independence.
In recent months, Blair's thoughts have turned to the lessons of his decade in power.
"When I first started in politics, I wanted to please everyone," Blair said during a tour of the Middle East in December. "After a time I learned that you can't please everyone, and you learn that the best thing is to do what you think is right and everyone can make their judgment."
Blair is the first British prime minister since Harold Wilson in 1976 to leave at a time of his own choosing, rather than by losing an election or being forced out by the party.
Blair's leaving had little of the drama of downfall of Margaret Thatcher, who announced her resignation in 1990 just nine days after she was the target of a savage resignation speech by her former Cabinet colleague, Geoffrey Howe.
This is actually a little sad. Tony Blair has taken a few hits over the last few years and I wish he were going out on a more positive note.
A lot of hits because of his alliance with the US (in the realm of the War on Terror). Whatever the back drama is with entering the War in Iraq, that does not negate that our two countries are friends and he and the UK were there with us these past several years since 9/11. I think he is a pretty classy guy for taking such an unpopular stand.
I wish him well. I think he could have a great diplomatic career if he decides to go that route.
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24thcenstfan
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Jun 27 2007, 08:34 AM
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Its official. It appears that Gordon Brown will be Britian's new PM.
Tony Blair makes resignation official
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LONDON - An emotional Tony Blair resigned as prime minister Wednesday after a decade in power, clearing the way for Treasury chief Gordon Brown to take command of the government.
Blair submitted his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II during a 25-minute closed-door meeting at Buckingham Palace. With his wife, Cherie, he waved to reporters and then traveled to his constituency in northern England, where he is expected to quit as a lawmaker to take up his post with the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators.
Brown, a 56-year-old Scot known for his often stern demeanor, beamed as he was applauded by Treasury staff before heading with his wife, Sarah, to the palace to be confirmed as prime minister.
Blair received a warm sendoff in the House of Commons, from his opponents as well as members of his own Labour party, after one final appearance at the weekly question time session.
"I wish everyone — friend or foe — well. And that is that. The end," he said.
Legislators rose to their feet and applauded as he left for his meeting with the queen. Some, including Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, wiped away tears.
Blair also used the session to say he was sorry for the perils faced by British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he gave no apology for his decisions to back the United States in taking military action.
Blair expressed condolences to the families of the fallen, this week including two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
"I am truly sorry about the dangers that they face today in Iraq and Afghanistan," Blair said.
"I know some may think that they face these dangers in vain; I don't and I never will. I believe they are fighting for the security of this country and the wider world against people who would destroy our way of life," he said.
"Whatever view people take of my decisions, I think there is only way view to take of them: they are the bravest and the best," Blair added.
David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, saluted Blair's achievements and wished him well.
"He has considerable achievements to his credit, whether it is peace in Northern Ireland, whether it is work in the developing world, which I know will endure," Cameron said.
"I'm sure that life in the public eye has sometimes been tough on this family. So can I say on behalf of my party that we wish him and his family well, and we wish him every success in whatever he does in the future."
Workers packed furniture and boxes into a van outside Blair's Downing Street home as he prepared to hand power to Brown.
The incoming leader, who for many lacks the charisma of his predecessor, must woo Britons by shaking off the taint of backing the hugely unpopular Iraq war. With promises of restoring trust in government, he is planning to sweep aside the Blair era after a decade waiting for the country's top job.
Brown will seek to head off a challenge from a revived opposition Conservative party. Polls already point to a "Brown bounce," with one survey putting his Labour party ahead of its rivals for the first time since October.
Few expected the dour former finance chief to be greeted with public enthusiasm. In fact, Brown's ascension was widely seen as a political gift for the more youthful Conservative chief David Cameron.
But Blair's last full day in office brought an unexpected present — the defection of a Conservative legislator to his Labour party. The move put Brown in bullish mood and he will now weigh calling a national election as early as next summer.
President Bush paid a final tribute to his ally and will later call Blair's successor with congratulations.
"Tony's had a great run and history will judge him kindly," Bush told Britain's The Sun tabloid in remarks published Wednesday. "I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that."
Bush is thought to have been instrumental in winning Blair his new role as envoy to the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators.
Irish leader Bertie Ahern said Blair he told him his new role would be "tricky," but said he wanted to focus on peacemaking.
"He believes if you have hands-on, persistent engagement then you can have real progress," Ahern told Ireland's state broadcaster RTE.
Brown has waited 13 years for this moment. Most keenly watched will be his policy toward Iraq. British troop numbers there have rapidly fallen during 2007.
Blair has left his successor an option to call back more of the remaining 5,500 personnel by 2008 — an opportunity likely to be grasped by a leader with a national election to call before June 2010.
"His hands, whilst not quite clean, are certainly not sullied," said Alasdair Murray the director of CentreForum, a liberal think-tank. Brown can "portray it as Blair's war and differentiate himself."
Brown may sanction a future inquiry on Iraq, similar to the U.S. Study Group, telling a recent rally that Britain needs to acknowledge mistakes made over the conflict.
In Europe, bridges have been built with German chancellor Angela Merkel and new French president Nicholas Sarkozy, but tensions are likely to emerge.
The succession of Brown ends a partnership at the pinnacle of British politics that began when he and Blair were elected to Parliament in 1983 — sharing an office and a vision to transform their party's fortunes.
It has been widely reported — but never confirmed — that the two men agreed a pact over dinner in 1994: Brown agreeing not to run against Blair for the Labour leadership following the death of then party chief John Smith.
In return, Blair reportedly vowed to give Brown broad powers as Treasury chief and to step down after a reasonable time to give Brown a shot at the senior post.
Though Brown, who was unopposed in a contest to select Blair's successor, is moving jobs — he won't be moving house.
He, his wife, Sarah, and two young sons already live in the private quarters at No. 10 Downing Street — the prime minister's official residence — having switched homes with Blair's larger family, who needed the roomier apartment next door in No. 11, Brown's official residence.
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