Posted by: Captain Haddock May 10, 2007
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Source: - http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/10/news/britain.php
Blair names the day he'll step down: June 27
By Alan Cowell
Published: May 10, 2007
LONDON: After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Thursday that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.
With stirring oratory cast as a personal testament, he declared: "I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call.
"But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country.
"I have been prime minister of the country for just over 10 years," he said. "In this job, in the world today, I think that is long enough for me, but more especially for the country.
"Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down."
he announcement at Blair's Sedgefield district constituency in northeastern England was part of a closely choreographed and protracted farewell that is not quite over yet. Between now and his final departure Blair plans to attend major European Union and international summit meetings in June.
The prime minister's aides have sought to detail his agenda between now and his resignation to counter taunts from the opposition Conservatives that he is leading a lame duck administration.
According to British media reports, Blair has also scheduled trips to France, Africa and the United States and will seek to press laws through Parliament before handing over to a successor - almost certainly Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer.
"It's difficult in a way to know how to make this speech," Blair said Thursday. "1997 was a moment for a new beginning. Expectations were high, too high," he said referring to the landslide election victory that brought him to power and praising Labour's record.
"There is only one government since 1945 that can say all of the following," he continued, detailing what he depicted as Labour's record in cutting employment and crime while improving public services.
"Britain is not a follower today. Britain is a leader," he proclaimed. "It is a country at home in the 21st century."
Blair stood before 250 cheering supporters in a local Labour Party club-house, his words relayed by banks of television satellite vans drawn up outside. His tone was personal and partly elegiac.
His wife, Cherie Booth, the source of much controversy during the Blair era, was in the audience as he spoke and he paid tribute to her.
In marked contrast to the youthful exuberance with which he led Labour to office in 1997 after 18 years in opposition, Blair these days is more careworn and far less popular, his party trailing in the polls behind the Conservatives.
Only last week, Labour was forced into retreat in regional elections across Britain. Yet, in national elections, Blair has been one of the most successful and most charismatic campaigners, winning three consecutive victories for the first time in party history.
After announcing last September that he would leave office within a year, Blair - one of the closest allies of the White House - refused to be pinned down on a precise date as he strove in vain to erase two big stains on his legacy: British mistrust of his actions in going to war in Iraq and a lingering scandal over campaign financing.
The timetable announced Thursday gives the Labour Party roughly seven weeks to go through the motions of a leadership contest - Brown faces no serious challengers - and through a less-predictable battle for the deputy leadership to replace John Prescott, who plans to quit along with Blair.
The prime minister traveled to the tiny Trimdon village Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency, the symbolic font of his political power, after talking to his cabinet ministers in London at a 15-minute meeting.
According to his spokesman, who spoke in return for anonymity under civil service rules, Blair did not disclose the date of his planned departure to the cabinet, apparently eager to forestall a leak and characteristically keen to dominate the stagecraft of the occasion.
At the cabinet meeting, Brown offered Blair a "fulsome tribute," the spokesman said.
The choreography reflected a belief among analysts that Blair does not want his departure to evoke humiliating comparisons with Margaret Thatcher's ouster by her Conservative Party in 1990. When he announced last year that he would step down, he was widely seen as being under overwhelming pressure to quit from supporters of Brown.
His loyalists hailed his announcement in glowing terms.
"Tony Blair has been the most successful leader ever in our 100-year history," said Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland minister, who has been a close Blair supporter. "Britain is a much fairer, much more tolerant, more democratic place than it was 10 years ago."
Hain praised Blair's record on provoking debate on climate change and on relieving poverty in Africa. He called the installation this week of a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, formally drawing a line under four decades of conflict and animosity, "an inescapable achievement."
The Conservatives acknowledged Blair's stature as an election winner, but assailed both his record on public services and his credibility.
"There has been so much spin in that the word of government is less believed than at any other time," said William Hague, the Conservative foreign affairs spokesman. "We will be glad to see the back of him."
Blair names the day he'll step down: June 27
By Alan Cowell
Published: May 10, 2007
LONDON: After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Thursday that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.
With stirring oratory cast as a personal testament, he declared: "I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call.
"But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country.
"I have been prime minister of the country for just over 10 years," he said. "In this job, in the world today, I think that is long enough for me, but more especially for the country.
"Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down."
he announcement at Blair's Sedgefield district constituency in northeastern England was part of a closely choreographed and protracted farewell that is not quite over yet. Between now and his final departure Blair plans to attend major European Union and international summit meetings in June.
The prime minister's aides have sought to detail his agenda between now and his resignation to counter taunts from the opposition Conservatives that he is leading a lame duck administration.
According to British media reports, Blair has also scheduled trips to France, Africa and the United States and will seek to press laws through Parliament before handing over to a successor - almost certainly Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer.
"It's difficult in a way to know how to make this speech," Blair said Thursday. "1997 was a moment for a new beginning. Expectations were high, too high," he said referring to the landslide election victory that brought him to power and praising Labour's record.
"There is only one government since 1945 that can say all of the following," he continued, detailing what he depicted as Labour's record in cutting employment and crime while improving public services.
"Britain is not a follower today. Britain is a leader," he proclaimed. "It is a country at home in the 21st century."
Blair stood before 250 cheering supporters in a local Labour Party club-house, his words relayed by banks of television satellite vans drawn up outside. His tone was personal and partly elegiac.
His wife, Cherie Booth, the source of much controversy during the Blair era, was in the audience as he spoke and he paid tribute to her.
In marked contrast to the youthful exuberance with which he led Labour to office in 1997 after 18 years in opposition, Blair these days is more careworn and far less popular, his party trailing in the polls behind the Conservatives.
Only last week, Labour was forced into retreat in regional elections across Britain. Yet, in national elections, Blair has been one of the most successful and most charismatic campaigners, winning three consecutive victories for the first time in party history.
After announcing last September that he would leave office within a year, Blair - one of the closest allies of the White House - refused to be pinned down on a precise date as he strove in vain to erase two big stains on his legacy: British mistrust of his actions in going to war in Iraq and a lingering scandal over campaign financing.
The timetable announced Thursday gives the Labour Party roughly seven weeks to go through the motions of a leadership contest - Brown faces no serious challengers - and through a less-predictable battle for the deputy leadership to replace John Prescott, who plans to quit along with Blair.
The prime minister traveled to the tiny Trimdon village Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency, the symbolic font of his political power, after talking to his cabinet ministers in London at a 15-minute meeting.
According to his spokesman, who spoke in return for anonymity under civil service rules, Blair did not disclose the date of his planned departure to the cabinet, apparently eager to forestall a leak and characteristically keen to dominate the stagecraft of the occasion.
At the cabinet meeting, Brown offered Blair a "fulsome tribute," the spokesman said.
The choreography reflected a belief among analysts that Blair does not want his departure to evoke humiliating comparisons with Margaret Thatcher's ouster by her Conservative Party in 1990. When he announced last year that he would step down, he was widely seen as being under overwhelming pressure to quit from supporters of Brown.
His loyalists hailed his announcement in glowing terms.
"Tony Blair has been the most successful leader ever in our 100-year history," said Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland minister, who has been a close Blair supporter. "Britain is a much fairer, much more tolerant, more democratic place than it was 10 years ago."
Hain praised Blair's record on provoking debate on climate change and on relieving poverty in Africa. He called the installation this week of a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, formally drawing a line under four decades of conflict and animosity, "an inescapable achievement."
The Conservatives acknowledged Blair's stature as an election winner, but assailed both his record on public services and his credibility.
"There has been so much spin in that the word of government is less believed than at any other time," said William Hague, the Conservative foreign affairs spokesman. "We will be glad to see the back of him."