Let's have a flamewar on the OPUS thread.
Posted on 05/06/2005 5:36:10 AM PDT by MadIvan
Tony Blair may have secured a historic third term for the Labour Party last night but the reduction in the size of his majority will significantly change the way in which he is able to act.
His power and his position in the party have depended almost entirely on the perception since his landslide victory in 1997 that he is a winner. In many parts of the country that has now been undermined.
Last night's result could make it more difficult for the Prime Minister to stay in office for the whole of the next Parliament as he promised to do when he said last year that he intended to stand down.
Mr Blair's allies have been admitting privately for several weeks that he would almost certainly have to resign if the Labour majority fell below 60. In the view of many Blairites, 60 to 70 was a grey area which would leave the party leader severely weakened.
Yesterday, before the result was declared, some ministers close to the Labour leader said he would stay at Number 10 for as long as possible.
Other Blairites, though, have detected a change in the Prime Minister's mood during a difficult campaign.
"I think he'll go in about 18 months," said one loyal minister earlier in the week. "Whatever the outcome of the election, he's been badly damaged by the campaign."
Another Labour strategist admitted that Mr Blair's morale had been badly affected by the criticisms he had received from voters on the stump.
"Tony has been shocked by the level of hostility to him personally in the run-up to polling day. No one can know what effect that will have."
However long Mr Blair decides to stay in Downing Street, the reduction in the size of Labour's parliamentary majority will make it much more difficult for him to do what he wants.
The Government will struggle to get controversial legislation, such as proposals to introduce identity cards, on to the statute book now that the number of Labour MPs has been reduced.
Mr Blair may find it hard to implement "unremittingly New Labour" reforms of the public services with a smaller and potentially more rebellious parliamentary party. This month's Queen's Speech is expected to include around 40 Bills.
These will put forward proposals to increase the role of the private sector in the running of state services, plans to create a points system for immigration, and measures to give parents more power to close down failing schools.
Several of these pieces of proposed legislation will be controversial with Labour backbenchers, who are likely to feel emboldened.
Mr Blair may also find it harder to assert his authority on a number of big policy issues, not dealt with in the Labour manifesto, which are due to come to a head in the next six months.
Adair Turner's review of pensions and Sir Michael Lyons's review of local government funding, both due to report before the end of the year, will provoke wide-ranging discussions about the future of savings and the fate of the council tax.
This summer, Labour intends to initiate a public debate on energy policy, which will consider whether the role of nuclear power stations should be increased.
At the same time the Government will consult voters about proposals to replace the road tax with a road pricing system, which would see motorists charged according to the distance they drive.
Hanging over the whole Parliament, meanwhile, will be the question of whether Labour will have to raise taxes again to fund its plans for the public services. Nobody knows whether the love-in between Mr Blair and the Chancellor will continue once the common goal of victory has gone, but the election result is likely to strengthen Gordon Brown's hand.
Most insiders believe that an understanding has been reached between the two on the future of the Government and of their own careers.
In return for the Chancellor's support, Mr Blair has signalled his intention to endorse Mr Brown to succeed him as Labour leader. The handover may come more quickly now.
IVAN~! Stop it now... we love you here.
I wonder if JimRob could create a process by which certain posters achieve Professor emeritus status. You should certainly qualify. [This would allow you to boot off idiots at will.]
I for one love your country and am grateful for our alliance.
You have to understand that as this site grows there are more and more from the lower half of the bell curve AND more people out to get you- It is a mark of success.
Folks who think otherwise, have not succeeded in convincing many of us their opinion is correct.
You have many friends here, and so does your country.
The Bigots on FR are getting to you so your gonna leave? Are you sure your not French? (just kidding) America and Britian are sure friends and fast allies and always will be. I truly hate the whole opus thing and usually never bother to comment, but you really should reconsider.
LOL
I just found out about this thread. I too have greatly appreciated your numerous posts (usually when I'm up too late here in Arizona!). It is wonderful to get a steady and friendly perspective from across the pond. With whatever you decide: Godspeed, my friend and ally.
I agree 100 percent. Anytime I see someone mention "true conservative" or "closet Democrat", it indicates a closed mind more interested in stifling debate than engaging in such.
Cool! I hope you reconsider MadIvan,
I've found your posts to be extremely informative.
Be well, everyone!!
Sweet!
Just take a breather and come back in a while.
Ivan, you ARE the good of FR; I'm begging you, don't leave us bereft of your knowledge and sanity, not to mention that bloody wit of yours!
In other words we have no expectations of the french but we have VERY high expectations of the UK. Once you give your pound and aircraft carriers to the french and brussels, then it is over.
Made you laugh! Made you laugh! :-)
But you have perfectly demonstrated how hard it can be to "police your own ranks". You have been asked to stop. You refuse. There is now nothing that I can do.
Bully for you. Give things a few weeks to settle out to see if posters and the mods can bring the deliberate flamers in line.
On the other hand, as PhiKappaMom points out, the situation in Britain is complicated: Labour is really more comfortable with the likes of Clinton (I and II) than Bush, the Tories have become a bad joke, antisemitism is rampant in Britain, and yet Blair cajoled his party into supporting the War and the US, and has been pretty steadfast, if the more reluctant warrior. As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows.
American attitudes towards the Brits are complicated, once one leaves the now leftist anglophile elites on the coasts: there is both nostalgia for the monarchy and resentment at British snobbery, admiration for Anglo-Saxon institutions and suspicion of perfidious Albion (as the Frogs were wont to say). And that's just among Americans of British Isles descent! I suspect most 'ethnics' who don't come from the Western European backgrounds whence they have inherited various attitudes towards the British or the English find the whole special relationship and its contraditions baffling to the point of incomprehension.
Anyway, cheers and Godspeed, my friend!
I stopped emotionally investing in this forum years ago. It helps to not take the threads so seriously.
So what are you taking for it and can you send me some?
Glad to see you responding and re-considering please stay we may not agree on everything as is healthy but we both have a great love of our country and wish her to be great once more.
Baiting? Please elaborate. Just because you ask me to stop, if I persist because I think the topic should not be dropped, that is baiting?
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