Ministers' anger derails Blair bid to relaunch government

Tonly Blair's relaunch of his beleaguered government was thrown off course last night after it was revealed that one senior minister had quit over controversial NHS reforms - and that a second came close to resigning.

Jane Kennedy, a long-standing loyalist who was thought to have been sacked from the government in Friday's dramatic reshuffle, disclosed that she left the Department of Health on grounds of conscience following fears about the impact on children's hospitals of changes to NHS finances.

And it emerged that Geoff Hoon, the former Leader of the Commons, threatened to resign after discovering the job he believed he had been promised in the reshuffle had been downgraded. He accepted the post of Europe Minister only late yesterday, more than 24 hours after the reshuffle began.

The Chancellor is now expected to open discussions with the Prime Minister on how to recover from the crisis engulfing the government, talks thought to include the explosive issue of a handover of power. Despite insistence in Downing Street that conversations between the two are purely routine, it is understood Blair is prepared to discuss the transition in what will be seen as an attempt to calm rebel MPs, who have given Blair a week to publish a timetable for his departure.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1769377,00.html?gusrc=rss

His seat in the Carlyle Group board room is waiting for his sorry ass.

The rest of the pack can smell the blood of a wounded dog. They're just working out which leg to rip off first.

But if you're referring to the British political party, you put the "U" back in Labour :P

:blush:

we have not got an Aluminium party as well. The USA dropped the second "i" in the twenties presumably to make life easier for school children learning how to spell. Curious really they didn't bother with calcium, sodium, potassium........zzzzzzzzzzzzz.:)

Here is another related story:

Brown's challenge to battered Blair: Name the day

Unprecedented attack by Chancellor, calling on PM to 'set down' timetable for exit. Secret letter leaked to 'IoS' reveals plan by rebel Labour MPs to 'ambush' leader

By Marie Woolf and Francis Elliott
Published: 07 May 2006

Gordon Brown will today urge Tony Blair to stand aside as Prime Minister, challenging his embattled rival to "set down" a clear timetable for a handover of power.

In a carefully timed intervention, Mr Brown will tell Mr Blair that he cannot ignore the "warning signal" from voters at last week's local elections, saying that Labour must "do what we have got to do" . He will tell Mr Blair that "there is going to be a transition to a new leader" and that "the important thing is that we set down how we are going to bring about that".

Allies of Gordon Brown yesterday stepped up calls for Mr Blair to name a date, as backbench Labour MPs prepared to sign a letter calling on him to set out "a clear timetable" for succession. The letter, obtained by The Independent on Sunday, is expected to gain the backing of up to 50 Labour MPs. Rebels said yesterday that they wanted Mr Blair to tell MPs, by the summer, when he will go.

Mr Brown's remarks, in a GMTV interview broadcast today,were foreshadowed yesterday by supporters, including Andrew Smith, the former Cabinet minister, who called on the Prime Minister to name the day he will leave Downing Street.

Mr Brown's intervention will be interpreted at Westminster as a direct challenge to Mr Blair. Issuing a clear call to the Prime Minister to name his departure date, Mr Brown will also say that the Labour Party now has to " do what we have got to do... to deal with those challenges ahead".

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article362539.ece

:nuke:
He booted Straw for saying that nuking Iran would be batshit crazy.

I think that says it all.
About what is going to happen in the next few months,
and that Bliar is still totally under **'s control
and will try to hang onto power long enough to try to
keep the UK from going apeshit when ** nukes Iran.

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

and that is why Straw got the boot and Hoon was further demoted.

The Private Finance Initiative is an accounting dodge that allows costly capital projects, like building new schools and hospitals, to not show up as government debt, but as private assets which the government then leases. But this comes at a cost:



PFI deals are Gordon Brown's favourite way of making government liabilities appear smaller than they are. Unfortunately, the opposition, both Conservatives and Lib Dems, don't condemn PFI - because they'd be just as keen to use this accounting trick if they ever got into power. It's hidden debt, on very bad terms, built into the way the NHS is now financed.