Posted on 02/06/2005 10:38:58 AM PST by quidnunc
London – British leader Tony Blair today became the longest-serving Labour prime minister, holding down the top job for 2,838 days and with no intention of letting go just yet.
The record previously belonged to Harold Wilson, a giant of British post-war left-wing politics, who occupied Downing Street from 1964-70 and, after a Conservative interlude, from 1974-76.
Blair is expected to call a general election for May 5 – a day before his 52nd birthday – in hopes of winning an unprecedented third consecutive Labour mandate.
Opinion polls point to another Labour victory, although probably with a reduced parliamentary majority.
-snip-
He still has some way to go before he overtakes the 11 years and 209 days which Margaret Thatcher held sway as Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990.
Given the feeble state of the Tories today, however, and the absence of a credible alternative on the British political scene, political analysts think Blair stands a good chance of leaping that hurdle.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytelegraph.news.com.au ...
If I lived in Britain, I’d vote for Tony Blair’s Labour party. Yes, yes, I know he’s a nanny-state control-freak and you can hardly pull your pants on in the morning without filling in the form for the Public Trouser Usage Permit and undergoing inspection from the Gusset Regulatory Authority. But on the One Big Thing — the great issue of the age — he’s right, and he’s reliable. And, sad to say, the British Conservative party isn’t. Their leader, Michael Howard, has been a cheesy opportunist on the war, supporting it at the time, backtracking later, his constantly evolving position twisting itself into a knot of contortions even John Kerry might find over-nuanced. Most other Tory heavyweights — ex-Thatcher cabinet ministers like Lord Hurd and Sir Malcolm Rifkind — are more straightforward: They’re agin the war. They’d have no time for his frightful American clothes or his ghastly hamburger diet, but, social distaste aside, they’re Michael Moore Conservatives.
What has happened to the English? They used to be so militaristic and religious. Now they're a bunch of wusses.
I cannot understand it,the conservatives have so many issues to hit Labour with, yet they seem to be on the left of every issue.
Howard is a failure and the bench is empty.
I've come to the conclusion that the Tories haven't really really stood for anything since they kicked Margaret Thatcher out.
Labour can speak up and just say Britain was bad. But conservatives must speak up for some of the good Britain did...and they don't have the moral courage yet to do it.
pfft the brit leftist make american leftist look like weak knee'd moderates.
They haven't been religious for a very long time. The same is true of every Protestant country in Europe. Britain hasn't been particularly religious for at least 50, maybe even 100 years. The only religious Protestant country in the world, besides dirt-poor ones or newly converted ones, is America. And even America's mainline Protestant denominations have been suffering for most of the last 100 years.
This isn't to say that the Catholic Church is as robust as it could be. But it has generally proven more durable than the many Protestant churches.
Not to mention the 21 years Robert Walpole served. But I guess it's expecting too much for a reporter to be aware of anything that happened before the 20th century.
Steyn and I would then be in agreement about Blair.
As usual this American writer only likes Blair because of his support for the war.
Nothing else matters does it.
Mark Steyn is a Canadian who writes a weekly column for The Telegraph [UK] and a bi-weekly column for The Spectator.
Blair is single-handedly keeping the UK in the War on Terror.
If it was up to the Tories and the Labour back bench, the Brits would cut and run like yellow dogs.
Because of this, Blair deserves the gratitude and support of all clear-thinking red-state Americans.
As for the rest, The Princess Diana grief-fest, the irrational vendetta against fox hunting and decline of the Church of England into irrelevance tells us Americans pretty m uch everything we need to know about the state of British society.
you just hate Britain don't you quidnunc.
Go on, admit it fella, get it off your chest.
You hate us don't you.
Hate?
No I don't hate you.
But I do hold many of you in something approaching contempt.
How could the British of the Blitz and Dunkirk have degenerated into an emotionally unhinged society where anti-social behavior is rapidly becoming the norm?
Fie, sir, fie!
quidnunc,
Yes you do.
You resigned from Sterling Times because of a British backlash against you (and your habit of deleting any post that disagreed with you) and you post ceaseless anti-Brit rubbish on Angloshpear (which no one ever reads except you and Basti), and a good deal of what you post on here is the same.
Your new secretary of state was here last week and stated that "the USA has no better friend and allie than Britain"
You'd do well to listen to her quidnunc.
This country would have supported the USA on Iraq regardless of whichever party was in power, because it was the right thing to do and because we are allies. I don't know what your problem is with my country quidnunc but you should learn who your friends are.
Poppycock, piffle, nonsense!
Some would, of course, but not enough to overcome the largely-repressed but deep-seated anti-Americanism of the British leftists — which is most of you.
See quidnunc, once again you speak from a position of total ignorance.
The Tories overwealmingly supported military action in Iraq and still do.
The British people on the whole are not at all anti-American.
We have our vocal anti-war protesters of course and our lefties, but then, you have more than your share of those in the USA as well don't you?
You really should get your facts right before you start spouting all this anti-Brit drivel.
You don't actually believe that most American Freepers appreciate your constant ranting against their countries closest friend and allie do you?
Anyway, I'm logging off now quidnunc, so you can have the last word if you want.
No doubt it will be an anti-Brit one.
Democracy is a social disease and socialism is a symptom of it.. As Marx and Lenin said, democracy is pre-requisite to socialism.. They were correct.. No democracy ever exsisted that was not a socialist system.. ever..
Iraq is becoming a democracy.. Better they would form states and become a republic.. Even though a Banana republic (which is really a democracy) is not an advance. A real republic would be a better gov't for Iraq.. also for Britain, Germany and France too..
Socialism does not allow competeing parties well.. for good reason.. Socialism sucks..
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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.~Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams (1814)
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