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Category: Labour

2006 becomes the favourite for Blair’s departure

2006 becomes the favourite for Blair’s departure

Could the police inquiry really force him out? With Tony Blair spending the weekend at the G8 summit in St Petersburg this morning’s Sunday papers won’t make comfortable reading for Labour – particularly those close to the Prime Minister. For all the speculation is on how the loans/gifts for honours inquiry will impact on Number 10 and the Prime Minister himself. The Sunday Telegraph carries a report by Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite that friends of Lord Levy are saying…

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Should McDonnell’s challenge worry Gordon?

Should McDonnell’s challenge worry Gordon?

Will the move by the “Honour the IRA” MP open up the race? The last time that Labour left-winger John McDonnell got big headlines was three years ago when at an event to commemorate the IRA hunger striker, Bobby Sands he is reported to have said: “It’s about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating…

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Will Blair last the year?

Will Blair last the year?

Is now the time to bet on an early Blair departure? The pace of activity in the cash for questions inquiry has stepped up a gear with the dramatic news this afternoon that Labour’s chief fundraiser, Lord Levy has been arrested and then bailed. This followed the news this morning that Scotland Yard had contracted with California-based computer experts to try to track emails in Whitehall which had been deleted. Both David Davis for the Tories and Norman Baker for…

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Would Gordon’s first act be to abolish PMQs?

Would Gordon’s first act be to abolish PMQs?

Has he a plan to avoid the weekly grillings? One of Tony Blair’s first moves when he came to power in 1997 was to change Prime Minister’s Questions. For decades the PM had had to face the House twice a week – Blair changed it to once but doubled the time available. He was new in the job, there’d been a landslide and change was in the air. The plan was met with little resistance. Is it fanciful to think…

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Guest article: Is Labour’s century-long Party over?

Guest article: Is Labour’s century-long Party over?

A guest contribution from Tabman “The founding of the Labour Party owes more to Methodism than Marx. Discuss.” At the heart of this classic A-Level Politics question is an examination of the founding coalition of the Labour Party – the finding of common interest between the “Working Man”, in the form of the TUC, and the “Concerned Middle Class” represented by socialist intellectuals such as the Fabians. This founding coalition has changed shape and emphasis over the last 100 years,…

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The betting on Prescott’s successor

The betting on Prescott’s successor

Writers can be forgiven the occasional cliché when the situation they are trying to describe is an extreme one of its kind. So just as last Saturday Wayne Rooney was as sick as a parrot and Owen Hargreaves covered every blade of grass on the pitch, John Prescott is beleaguered. Having already got himself into a hole where Tony Blair seems to just about accept that his position within the Labour party entitles him to the pay and perks of…

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Will Iraq stick to Brown?

Will Iraq stick to Brown?

Focus shifts to the cost of the war Much of the political damage done to Labour by the Iraq war is personally associated with Tony Blair. Many in the Labour party — whatever they think of Blair, Brown or indeed anyone else in the Cabinet — will be relieved at this aspect of Blair’s resignation when it happens: at least, they assume, the successor will not have been tarnished by the war in the same way. Conversely, the other parties…

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Will Murdoch switch back?

Will Murdoch switch back?

Earlier in the week, Rupert Murdoch gave an interview to one of his own papers in Australia. Asked if there was a chance he would support the Conservatives in the next general election, he answered with a Majoresque “Oh yes”. The role of Murdoch’s papers in swinging British elections, particularly the Sun, has passed into political folklore. “It Was The Sun Wot Won It”, the paper itself proclaimed after Major’s victory in 1992. More recently, and particularly since Murdoch’s mid-1990s…

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