Gordon Brown resigns as Labour leader [merged]

[hans kraay fan club]

If lib dems form an alliance with labour though I will more cross than when I heard the Calderon news. Very bad for the country.

Oh do f*** off. This is not NEARLY as big a deal as the Calderon news.

 

[The Wizard]

Same, I would be sacked on the spot or even murdered.

Are you in the mafia?

 

[clippedgull]

Tories will be sweating!

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

What the f***, the mod that merged this is an idiot... He hasn't resigned he is GOING to resign.

Well, as much as I like moderator abuse, as I beat you to posting this story by 10 seconds I feel I should defend my thread title.

Brown announced that he has instructed the Labour Party to prepare for a leadership election, and he would stay the leader until a new leader was chosen and ratified. That sounds like 'resigning' to me.

identical to what thatcher did in 1990, in fact

 

[Storer68]

Harriet Harman as interim PM anyone

 

[Hunting 784561]

Labour have offered the Lib Dems electoral reform almost straight away, in return for a deal with them.

The Tories are going to have to work hard to keep their own deal on track.

 

[Don Quixote]

Are you in the mafia?

Naaa, construction

I am a "union" deligate.

 

[BensGrandad]

The one good thing to come out of the election; probably the worst Prime Minister ever.

 

[drew]

Have you made up any other stories today as well?

Everyone knows he is going but he hasn't done so yet. It will part of the deal for the Lib Lab pact.

I take it back.

Can only assume that was the outcome of his 'one on one' meeting with Peter Mandelson this afternoon.

Mandelson "Gordon we all love you but apparently Nick doesn't and it's him we want to get into bed with"

 

[Gwylan]

Harriet Harman as interim PM anyone

I don't think Margaret Beckett was PM when Brown went through the election process - brief as it was. Blair stayed as PM until Brown took over.

 

[nwgull]

Another point on the 'unelected PM' discussion is that Tony Blair made it abundantly clear that he'd be standing down as PM within 2 years of the 2005 GE. It's hardly as if Labour made a secret of the fact the Brown would take over.

 

[drew]

Is this the nail in Camerons coffin? It's clear this was a condition for any pact between Labour and the Libdems. This was an election that the Tories should have walked and didn't. A lib-lab pact only needs another 11 MPs to support them and that will probably consist of the Greens (all one of them) Plaid Cymru, SNP and possibly the SDLP making 13. They bring in referendum on PR and then we go through the process all over again.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Another point on the 'unelected PM' discussion is that Tony Blair made it abundantly clear that he'd be standing down as PM within 2 years of the 2005 GE. It's hardly as if Labour made a secret of the fact the Brown would take over.

Absolutely not true.

"Tony Blair last night reshaped the landscape of British politics by announcing that he will fight the coming general election and, if re-elected, serve a full third term as prime minister, but stand down before the likely election of 2009."

The Guardian, Friday October 1st, 2004

 

[Gwylan]

I think the people who think that the BBC is a pro-Labour organisation would struggle to justify that after seeing Nick Robinson's scarcely-concealed Tory bias. He looks as sick as a dog

 

[Storer68]

I don't think Margaret Beckett was PM when Brown went through the election process - brief as it was. Blair stayed as PM until Brown took over.

She was Foreign Secretary at the time

 

[larus]

I think the people who think that the BBC is a pro-Labour organisation would struggle to justify that after seeing Nick Robinson's scarcely-concealed Tory bias. He looks as sick as a dog

Oh well, one slipped through the net I suppose.....

 

[Gwylan]

She was Foreign Secretary at the time

Ah..my memory's faulty on that, I thought she was deputy.

Was that still Prezza?

 

[strings]

I think Brown has done the right thing. Shame, clearly a very dedicated politician, but he made John Major look exciting.

This gives the new leader time enough to overturn current opinion polls before the next election, which is rumoured to be May 2013, should the Lib-Con coalition take control or should the Tories form a minority government with Lib Dem backing.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Is this the nail in Camerons coffin? It's clear this was a condition for any pact between Labour and the Libdems. This was an election that the Tories should have walked and didn't. A lib-lab pact only needs another 11 MPs to support them and that will probably consist of the Greens (all one of them) Plaid Cymru, SNP and possibly the SDLP making 13. They bring in referendum on PR and then we go through the process all over again.

Definitely the SDLP (take Labour whip), definitely the SNP (judging by Angus Robertson on the beeb just now). That makes 258+57+3+6 = 324, which, if Sinnfein don't vote, is a majority for a queens speech and budget. Damn flimsy one though. But Plaid's 3 will almost certainly join, as will Lucas and the Alliance on anything sensibly left of centre. But nothing even remotely radical will get through. The likes of Frank Field and Gisele Stuart will jump ranks at the earliest opportunity. The big question is if Labour can whip through a vote for some kind of PR, all the small parties will go for it, although I have no idea of the northern ireland situation, probably DUP will disagree and maybe even SinnFein might turn up to try and block it.

 

[Acker79]

We have a Parliamentary system, not a Presidential system. Therefore we NEVER elect the PM.

Why can't we create a system whereby we do elect a prime minister? Language isn't fixed in law, surely just because the person is elected doesn't mean we have to call them a president. We could call them the High Office Heffalump if we choose, can't we?

I ask because the idea of electing our prime minister is often met with "Oh, you want a president?"