Will Prescott lose his job before next week?

[Lord Bracknell]

It's not a difficult scenario to work out.

Blair loses the vote on top up fees and gets criticised by the Hutton Report.

Blair resigns.

Gordon Brown takes over, and decides to replace Prescott as Deputy Prime Minister.


Then what?

 

[Trigger]

Another 6 years?

 

[Safeway]

Blair won't resign.

 

[Soton Seagull]

Ivor Caplin or Des Turner Dep PM?

In the bag!

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

If Blair quits, Prezza will probably take charge while there's a leadership contest, in which Brown will beat someone like Milburn and possibly Blunkett.

In any case, Lord B, isn't it you that keeps saying that Prescott's civil servants, not the man himself, will make the Falmer decision in reality? They don't change jobs with the politicians, so presumably they'll just stick the papers in the red box and hand them over to the new DPM.

Ivor Caplin would love to be deputy PM. He's well up Blair's arse!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

In any case, Lord B, isn't it you that keeps saying that Prescott's civil servants, not the man himself, will make the Falmer decision in reality? They don't change jobs with the politicians, so presumably they'll just stick the papers in the red box and hand them over to the new DPM.

The Civil Servants are incredibly important when it comes to planning decisions. They will certainly make a recommendation.

But the minister can have real input into the process.

One possibility is that the Civil Servants could say that the Stadium can be justified (on the grounds that, despite it being in the AONB, it is in the national interest and there is no other available site) and that planning permission can therefore be safely granted. But the minister should be aware of two other factors - the importance of the green lobby and the level of support that the stadium has in Sussex.

That's when the minister brings his own thinking into the decision making process. If he's more concerned about Labour losing seats in Brighton, he'll back the stadium. If he thinks that David Lepper and Des Turner are a pair of shits for not supporting the government on tuition fees, he might take a different view.

It ain't over until the fat man sings.

 

[The Large One]

Blair's not resigning - he isn't in the direct firing line re Hutton. Campbell was, and he's gone.

Besides - if he did resign, Prescott becomes Prime Minister temporarily until the Labour Party elects a new leader. It works differently to the Tory Party. When Labour has an election for a new leader, the have one for deputy leader at the same time. Brown may not win (though he probably would), and he cannot 'appoint' his deputy anyway. That's a choice for the Party.

At the end of all that, Prescott might retain the post of Deputy Prime Minister if he wants to stand for re-election.

 

[fatbadger]

Blair won't go. Lord Hutton was very carefully chosen - an Establishment man through and through. And Blair will win the tuition fees vote for the simple reason that Labour backbenchers are, by and large, a bunch of invertebrates.

 

[desprateseagull]

can the pm be impeached?

lying about Iraq WMD's to get us into a bloody, expensive
war that i dont feel anyone in uk expected, nor wanted..
(i mean, if saddam had been terrorising his people for 10
years or more, why didnt they act earlier, or finish off the
first gulf war like they should have done, when they had the
chance..)

 

[Gwylan]

So that theory's blown. I didn't think for one instant that Blair would lose the vote/be criticised by Hutton.

And Fatbadger's spot on. Governments don't choose awkward people to hold enquiries - they choose people with a good supply of whitewash.

 

[Gwylan]

So that theory's blown. I didn't think for one instant that Blair would lose the vote/be criticised by Hutton.

And Fatbadger's spot on. Governments don't choose awkward people to hold enquiries - they choose people with a good supply of whitewash.