Balls denies leaked papers show plot to oust Blair

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/10/uk-britain-labour-idUKTRE7594VY20110610

(Reuters) - Labour Party heavyweight Ed Balls denied on Friday he was involved in a plot to oust former Prime Minister Tony Blair after a newspaper published documents it said were evidence of an anti-Blair conspiracy.

The Daily Telegraph obtained a trove of documents it said provided evidence of manoeuvring among Labour Party rivals to oust Blair, the party's most successful leader.

Blair stepped down mid-way through his third term in 2007, allowing long-time chancellor Gordon Brown to take over as prime minister for three years until he lost an election last year.

The bitter feuding between Blair and Brown is well-known but the newspaper said memos written by the two men showed the extent of the rift and revealed that Brown regarded Blair as a "muddled" lightweight.

Seriously, we should have term limits for PMs like you do for presidents; then Blair wouldn't have been able to stay as long and do as much harm to his party and the country.

The Telegraph, always the 'Torygraph' but at least formerly respectable, has become a seriously sleazy right-wing rag in the last few years. They have an utter hatred for the Labour Party in general, and for Gordon Brown and Ed Balls in particular. The real scandal may be how they got hold of these documents.

Tell more?

But there's something that smells fishy.

What I *do* know about Torygraph tactics is that a few months ago, people employed by the Torygraph posed as constituents visiting the surgeries of a few LibDem MPs, notably Vince Cable; steered the conversations so that the MPs started criticizing aspects of the government/ Tories; and then published the criticisms to show how disloyal the LibDems are. In the case of Cable, he said some negative things about Rupert Murdoch and as a result the PM removed him from any role in decision-making about Murdoch's bid to take over BSkyB, giving the role to known Murdoch fan Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary. Cable should have had the self-respect to resign at that point IMO - or better still the LibDems should never have joined the coalition in the first place; but it's all pretty nasty. Apart from anything else, it is likely to make MPs more suspicious of constituents wishing to meet them (part of an MP's job after all); and this was done not to expose a real scandal, but just to promote the Tories and whip up party issues.

very breitbart like.

bollocks!

Not so much for his policies, I just like his name.

:rofl:

But his father had lopped - castrated? - the name, so he was only John Major. Pity. He did make a few Major Balls-ups.

Well, I guess that's better than Harry.

:rofl: