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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Blair Battles back

Blair Battles Back

Following yesterday's House of Commons defeat, Prime Minister Tony Blair has started to feel the full force of the British press which has gone into a feeding frenzy, with many commentators starting to count the days towards the Prime Minister's demise.

According to the BBC the
Prime Minister thinks that MPs are "out of touch"

Tony Blair has accused some MPs of being out of touch with the public and of failing to face the terror threat.
Mr Blair met his Cabinet after a vote on anti-terror plans brought his first Commons defeat as prime minister.
He told ministers there was a "worrying gap between parts of Parliament and the reality of the terrorist threat and public opinion". - Read more here

Reuters makes the point that further rebellions within the Labour Party ranks are now more likely following yesterday's vote.

Blair heads for clashes on future reforms

Tony Blair set himself up on Thursday for high-risk clashes with his party, refusing to compromise on future reforms despite a first parliamentary defeat that raised doubts about his ability to govern.

Forty-nine Labour MPs rebelled on Wednesday against government plans to let police hold terrorist suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

Commentators said the shock vote marked a turning point for a once-invincible leader who has seen his authority wane since the 2003 Iraq war, despite winning a third term in May. -Read more here

In the North-East four MPs voted against the government and a further two abstained, one of whom was a "teller" Hexham MP Peter Atkinson . South Shields MP and Cabinet Minister David Miliband showed his loyalty by backing the Prime Minister's plans. - read more here

You can view a full list of how MPs voted - here

For those interested in following the rest of this (or any other Parliamentary debate) you can watch live on your pc - here

Oh no, I've just noticed.....Jimmy has his picture in again!

# posted by Curly : 5:23 pm

Comments:

Perhaps Tony Blair would have recieved greater support for this legislation had we not already seen the present law being implemented completely unnecessarily at the Labour Party conference against Mr Wolfgang. I'm all in favour of holding terrorists for as log as is required, but we simply cannot trust the authorities with this sort of power - it is too open to abuse.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:13 pm