gee_tim_uk's blog

So its the day after the shit hit the fan for Blair and his missfits.

Yesterday was the local elections in 176 of 388 regions and Labour lost 255 of the 1,768 seats it was defending while a resurgent opposition Conservative party under new leader David Cameron gained 250.

Talk is now afoot within the labour camp to oust Blair out of office during the summer. This has hit Blair hard and has caused a panic reshuffle of his cabinet as follows:

Charles Clark - Home Secretary.... SACKED for being so incompetant, is now replaced by John Reid

Jack Straw no longer Foriegn Secretary (thank god, he was useless and scared the life out of me when he was negotiating on our contries behalf) and is replaced by Margeret Beckett which is even more of a disaster, she was on Question Time last night and I have to say she is a dreadfull woman, she is going to do more harm than good in this position. Foriegn trade links will suffer because of this...this is the end of labour.

Jack Straw will become the leader of the House of Commons, which somewhat puts him out of the way.

John Prescott was spared the chop after his affairs and other mistake, he has however lost one of his departments, this is obviously the slap on the wrist from Blair.

Gordon Brown remains Chancellor and has said on national radio: "We have got to show in the next few days, not just the next few weeks, that we have sorted these problems out," Brown told BBC radio on Friday morning. "I will be talking to Tony Blair about these issues over the weekend." This sounds like someone who knows the end is near.

This is just patching up a wound and delaying the inevitable, Blair has to go. I dont think he should just step aside and let someone else like Brown become Prime Minister, Labour need to decide on a new leader then take it to the country and let us decide who should lead out country.

Tim

Well over the last couple of days both President Bush (just for you RJ..lol) and Blair have been trying to justify their actions to their respective nations.

Blair especially has been bringing Afganistan back into the frame with what looks like some backtracking.

We all recall the invaision of Afganistan and how once they had taken it the US and UK military might was just moved on to Iraq leaving the Afgan folk to sort themselves out, well this hasnt been going to well of late so we are now having to move more troops back to Afganistan to try and sort things out there.

Can out leaders get ANYTHING right?

The only thing they seem to do is make a mess of things, with continued sleaze coming to the fore in the British press about Blairs political party (Labour). Firstly Tessa Jowell's husband (she's the culture minister in Blairs cabinet) being linked to a fraud case involving the Italian Prime Minister, then how he nearly lost the vote on the Education Bill as so many of his own party voted against it, now we have a Loans enquiry being carried out by the police, whats going to be next.

I know we can all sit here and pick holes and slate any political leader, but you all have to admit things have been run very badly both sides of the Atlantic.

It's going to take a brave leader to stand up and admit mistakes have been made and things need to change drastically, otherwise things are just going to get worse. I just wonder if both are leaders are praying for another terrorist attack on home soil to justify further actions against the countries they already occupy or to give them another fictious reason to invade more, such as Iran.

I believe this series of 3 speeches Blair is giving on the UK Foreign Policy are his swansong. He is laying it out how he see's things with Afganistan, Iraq and Iran and will sometime in the very near future give his notice of stepping down as he has always indicated he will do before the end of his term and hand the reigns over to Gordon Brown. Somehow I think the train of thought that Blair has is also been implanted into Brown's head and things will not change.

Looks like Iraq, Afganistan and Iran will rumble on for years to come as many press reports have indicated. The scarey thing is, how far will all sides go. There is going to be a lot more blood spilt in the months, years to come!

Tim

Now before I start I know this story might touch a raw nerve for some people. When the picture was first published in the Morning Star newspaper on September 10th there was an outcry of disgust and complaints. I do not wish to offend people, so anyone who might be, please do not read on.

The reasons for me doing this article is that in the UK last night there was a documentary programme on national TV which told the story of 'The Falling man' and Tom Junod's story of trying to find the identity of who he was. The events of that day were terrible, we all hope nothing like that ever happens again. The documentary was made by the British TV company who aired it and it was fascinating, it was touching, in was done in a kind and sympathetic way to all those affected by that fatefull day.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she was confident the United Nations would take appropriate action on Iran, which she called the "central banker of terrorism."

The UK will be hit by strike action by some 1.5 million people on March 26th. The action will take place by Council / Local Authority Staff. This is the biggest strike in the UK since 1926. The strike could have another twist is teachers also decide to join in with the planned action.

It is over Pension Plans and that there is a major shortfall in the governments funds to pay people their pensions. The government has been trying to get people to work until they are much older which in turn would postpone the pension payments.

Tony Blair has one the 2nd vote on the prgramme motion by 10 votes.

Even though he has won the vote his days are numbered as leader. He has indicated for a while that he will step down before the end of his term, the votes tonight will make this sooner rather than later.

1 in 5 members of the government have voted against, that means some serious questions have to be asked!

Tony Blair has won the vote for the second reading of the new Education Bill, 51 of his own MP's voted against it which is not good, therefore it was only with the help of the opposition that it was passed.

We now await the vote on the progrmme motion which everyone is saying will not pass, this will be a major shot in the shot for Blair.

At around 7pm (GMT) today there will be a vote on a new education bill in the House of Commons which could decide how much longer Tony Blair stays in power.

The bill itself is fairly important to the future of education over here but I won't go into details as it does not effect most of the readers on this blog.

However, it looks like many members of Blairs political party will vote against the bill but the opposition (Conservetives) will be voting for the bill so it will get passed through for the next stage. With one of Blairs bills being passed due to the opposition, this will cause major damage to Blairs authority and popularity. Many backbench MP's are already wanting him to step down.

I'll keep posting as the news breaks, so for those who want to know, keep checking back!

Its about time:

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will announce on Monday that it is withdrawing about 800 troops from Iraq, roughly 10 percent of its force, BBC television reported.

Secretary of Defence John Reid is due to make a statement to parliament at 3:30 p.m. British time. His ministry declined to comment on the BBC report or the nature of Reid's planned remarks.

London, like Washington, has long said it hopes to withdraw troops from Iraq as local security forces improve their capabilities.

British forces operate in the south, where the population is mainly Shi'ite and have therefore not had to fight a Sunni insurgency like that in U.S.-patrolled areas in the north.

But British commanders have nevertheless complained about a worsening security situation since the middle of last year because of Shi'ite sectarian militia employing deadlier roadside bombs and infiltrating local police forces.

Leaked documents from mid-2005 had discussed the possibility that most troops could be home by the middle of 2006, but no formal announcement of cuts was made and that timeline appears to have slipped.

The scale of Britain's military commitment in Iraq has been the focus of new attention in the past month after Reid announced an ambitious new three-year mission in southern Afghanistan, set to peak at 5,700 troops in mid 2006.

Some critics worry that operating two large-scale missions at once could put too much strain on forces.

 Source: Reuters

Oh it's such a good news day.

Over the previous few days Tony Blair has been giving his support to Tessa Jowell over allegations of fraud that her husband is being investigated for in Italy along with the italian Prime Minister (see previous post for details).

I think everyone but the PM believes Tessa Jowell when she says she was unaware of the 350,000 GBP ($600,000 dollars) payment her husband recieved from the Italian prime Minister. It's such crap, of coarse she knew, she just did not have her name linked to it in case there was a problem...which there now is. Tell me this, if your partner recieved over half a million dallars..woulf you know about it?

Anyways, the prosecuters in Italy have asked a judge to call the Italian Prime Minister and David Mills (Tessa Jowells husband) to court to answer charges of fraud.. heres the latest article from Reutures:

MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors asked a judge on Friday to order Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to stand trial on corruption charges, judicial sources said.

The prosecutors have accused Berlusconi of paying tax lawyer David Mills, Jowell's recently estranged husband, a kickback of $600,000 (345,000 pounds) for not revealing compromising details of the prime minister's media empire when he testified in two court cases.

Rest of article here

Now wouldn't this be interesting:

Today Dubai Ports World announced it would "transfer fully the U.S. operations...to a United States entity." This evening on the PBS News Hour, AEI scholar Norm Ornstein said that DP World was considering selling its U.S. operations to Halliburton:
Hat tip to ThinkProgress for this.

You have to watch this: http://www.channel4.com/guantanamo

I've been sitting here for the past two hours watching a documentry/film about the 3 british Guys who were detained at Guantanamo for months.

It tells the story of their capture, why they were there, how they were captured and above all the relentless abuse and torture they suffered at the hands of the US Troops.

It's disgusting, it's shocking, the Bush administration must be held accountable for the actions of the troops in Guantanamo. What is shown breaks every rule in the Geneva Convention, no food, no water and torture.

No wonder no one has access to what goes on there, if there was, Bush would be out of office and up in court on charges.

Now I know some of you will sit there and agree with what goes on there, but just try and remember back to the days of Dessert Storm, remember your troops that were captured and tortured, remember the outcry, the protests, the White House press conferences condemming what was going on. Well blow me..if the Bush administration isn't doing the same now....EXCEPT this time it's OK because I'm the President of the USA and I can do whatever I fucking please.

Ahhhh..that feels better for airing my thoughts

take a look here: http://www.channel4.com/guantanamo

Source: Yahoo News

The notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is to close and its prisoners housed elsewhere, according to US military sources.

The US military are expected to close Abu Ghraib prison within three months.

They plan to transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said.

The prison in western Baghdad was a torture centre under Saddam Hussein before photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqis there in 2003 gave it a new notoriety.

NANTES, France (Reuters) - An unemployed teacher armed with a gun took 20 pupils and three adults hostage at a school in western France on Thursday, demanding to talk to the media about his job problems, local officials said.Police surrounded the secondary school in the town of Sable-sur-Sarthe where the 33-year-old man barricaded the pupils aged 17 to 18, a teacher and two other adults into a classroom.
The hostage-taker was a supply teacher who had worked at the Colbert de Torcy school but had been unable to find a job for the past two years, the town authorities said.
Other pupils were evacuated and a telephone hotline was set up for anxious parents in Sable-sur-Sarthe, 220 km southwest of Paris and 100 km east of the city of Nantes.

Special forces trained in negotiations with hostage-takers were on their way to the scene.<!--nextpage-->

"The man wants to talk to the press about his job problems," said Dominique Dezecot, an official at the prefecture, the headquarters of the town authorities.

"We are hopeful (it will end well) but we are worried," Bernadette Mercier, a school employee, told LCI television.

Officials initially put the number of hostages at 18 pupils and two adults, but later raised the number.

"All the day pupils have gone home," Marie, a boarder at the school, told France Info radio shortly after the hostages were seized on Thursday afternoon.

"They took all the boarders out via the toilets by a door where they couldn't see us. We went around the buildings to get to a door behind the gym and now everyone is in the gym. At the moment they are doing a roll call to see who is there and who isn't there."

The drama comes at a sensitive time for conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who is under pressure over an unpopular youth job creation plan.

Aides said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was monitoring the situation during a visit to the French Antilles Islands but he announced no plans to cut short his trip.

Sarkozy was mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly when a man took children hostage at a local school in May 1993.

Sarkozy helped negotiate with the hostage-taker before crack police broke into a classroom, killed the man and freed the remaining hostages. The other hostages had been gradually released as a result of the negotiations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is the No. 1 challenge to the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday after the Islamic republic's leadership vowed no compromise with the West in a standoff over its nuclear programs.