Well, by the time you eat breakfast tomorrow, TB could have announced what everyone already knows and be on his way out. No doubt there will be throungs of cheering crowds wishing him well and trying to persuade him not to go. Next there will be statues and and buildings named after him... or perhaps not.
http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6639945.stm
or alternatively
http//www.private-eye.co.uk/covers.php?showme=1183&
Looks like he was just waiting for Paisley and McGuinness to do the deed so that he had one real true startling success to his name.
Time to cash in on a nice memoirs deal methinks..got to pay those mortgages off somehow.
Looks like he was just waiting for Paisley and McGuinness to do the deed so that he had one real true startling success to his name.
Such cynicism, but you're probably right.
yea how long before some splinter group turns up calling its self the the real real IRA honest lol. Made up of a group of 3 people.
Hope it works out for the peace accord, this time. The folks there have put up with so much shit its not funny. Put its the people that have really driven this one. taken back their streets from both sides.
Were Wolfe at a time like this. A power to the people seems in order lol
Ah, the end of an era.
I stayed up most of election night in '97 (primarily because I was counting votes in Huntingdon) I also had worked at a polling station about 7 miles out from Huntingdon where we had 120 voters. We were out in an old barn and the guys had brought a barbecue grill and were doing bacon and sausage sandwiches on it.
I remember thinking how exciting it all was then. The stodgy old Tories were getting out. I was really young I suppose.
Can't really comment too well on TB's time in office as I was only in the UK for a further two years. However, every time I go back I see the changes and they're not necessarily for the better. Seems the Labour party really would tax your feet if you took a walk.
Looks like he was just waiting for Paisley and McGuinness to do the deed so that he had one real true startling success to his name.
I'm not sure how much this factored in, although it did to some degree.
Today's announcement was planned months ago apparently. A journalist frien of mine gave me the dates of his announcement and when he would stand down a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the media were informed so that they could ensure they had the appropriate resources in the right places (eg Trimdon).
I also guess that Brown wasn't too keen to take over before the local and regional elections were over - that way he can avoid some of the blame.
The thing to watch for is some big earth shattering announcement from Brown immediately after he takes over - akin to giving the Bank of England its independence in 1997.
Ah, the end of an era.
I stayed up most of election night in '97 (primarily because I was counting votes in Huntingdon) I also had worked at a polling station about 7 miles out from Huntingdon where we had 120 voters. We were out in an old barn and the guys had brought a barbecue grill and were doing bacon and sausage sandwiches on it.
I remember thinking how exciting it all was then. The stodgy old Tories were getting out. I was really young I suppose.
Can't really comment too well on TB's time in office as I was only in the UK for a further two years. However, every time I go back I see the changes and they're not necessarily for the better. Seems the Labour party really would tax your feet if you took a walk.
I worked 24/7 for the '97 election campaign in target seats across south London and spent election night observing the count in Lambeth. I was in downing street the morning after and didn't actually go to sleep until Saturday.
As an aside, by roomate at the time was an advertising exec who was loaned out to Tory Central Office for the duration, we had a pact that we wouldn't leak any information we picked up from one another. I lost touch with him shortly after because he married an American and disappeared. That is until 2005, when I was watching PMQs on CSPAN and low an behold, he's a Tory MP.
I'm waiting for him to be a minister (which is likely if the Tories are elected in 2008) 8) ....
Blair was very good on many issues but he will be over shadowed by iraq, just like clinton and his BJ lol.
Think he put the country back on course. But after 10 years you can guarenetee yea gonna piss some people off lol and that steadily grows. I would hate his job lol.
Now we are gonna have to deal with also rans that are complete screwups, just like john major.
Blair was very good on many issues but he will be over shadowed by iraq, just like clinton and his BJ lol.
Think he put the country back on course. But after 10 years you can guarenetee yea gonna piss some people off lol and that steadily grows. I would hate his job lol.
Now we are gonna have to deal with also rans that are complete screwups, just like john major.
OK, N Ireland. Tell me another of the many:!:
Blair was very good on many issues but he will be over shadowed by iraq, just like clinton and his BJ lol.
Think he put the country back on course. But after 10 years you can guarenetee yea gonna piss some people off lol and that steadily grows. I would hate his job lol.
Now we are gonna have to deal with also rans that are complete screwups, just like john major.
OK, N Ireland. Tell me another of the many:!:
It depends on your perspective, but for me:
Devolution
The Human Rights Act
Independent Bank of England
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Reform of the House of Lords (although his prevarication on this counts against him)
A number of, possibly obscure, amendments to local government law, particularly housing.
Social Exclusion (which has been less successful than I would have hoped for but is still more than would have happened under any Tory government).
I'm not saying that my list is comprehensive and it is entirely one sided - there are may things he either failed to do or were things he did that were bad - particulalrly the anti- terror legislation.
As I've said before, my feelings on balance are of a squandered opportunity and of a leader who was peculiarly timid, given his whopping great majorities.
Blair was very good on many issues but he will be over shadowed by iraq, just like clinton and his BJ lol.
Think he put the country back on course. But after 10 years you can guarenetee yea gonna piss some people off lol and that steadily grows. I would hate his job lol.
Now we are gonna have to deal with also rans that are complete screwups, just like john major.
OK, N Ireland. Tell me another of the many:!:
It depends on your perspective, but for me:
Devolution
The Human Rights Act
Independent Bank of England
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Reform of the House of Lords (although his prevarication on this counts against him)
A number of, possibly obscure, amendments to local government law, particularly housing.
Social Exclusion (which has been less successful than I would have hoped for but is still more than would have happened under any Tory government).
I'm not saying that my list is comprehensive and it is entirely one sided - there are may things he either failed to do or were things he did that were bad - particulalrly the anti- terror legislation.
As I've said before, my feelings on balance are of a squandered opportunity and of a leader who was peculiarly timid, given his whopping great majorities.
In truth, I haven't followed UK politics closely, but Devolution is incomplete because England doesn't have its own parliament, free of those foreigners from Ulster, Scotland and Wales, who do have their own.
I do follow one town in the midlands, and the changes to local government have had miserable effects on it. Tne town council has to work within rules so tight that it might as well not exist. The town has it's own council, but is rules by a small city, which spends money on beautifying itself and neglecting the rest of it's parish. They in turn are subservient to the county council. There is no room for local initiatives, it is not permitted. It is part of the move to becoming a "nanny state".
I rather liked the Lords in it's old form because it was free of the pressures of election, free of the need to be politcally correct. I didn't mind the addition of Life Peers, because they were not elected, they became free to express themselves with honesty, not just follow the party line. The Lords were the barrier to "the tyrany of the majority". When they are part of the political system, this protection disappears.
can also say strengh of the UK economie, lower unemployment have all been better than 90% of europe. Freeing a number of poor nations of debit, Bosnia. Ummm the list can go on really
As Tony Benn said, I'm still waiting for a Labour government to elected.