What happens when Blair stands down?

[Duke Malcolm]

So, what do you think shall happen when the First Lord of the Treasury hands in his resignation to Her Majesty the Queen?

a) Will there be cut-throat competition in the Cabinet to become the Premier?
b) Will Gordon Brown be promoted from Second Lord to First Lord immediately?
c) Will HM the Queen appoint an interim Prime Minister until a new leader or government is elected?
d) Will Blair stay on until a new leader is elected?

Just pondering, what with all this fuss of Blair's resignation now.

[professorspatula]

I'm hoping there's a big playground fight between the labour ministers, and the winner gets to become the new Prime Minister.

Really they just act like a bunch of over-grown school children when they debate anyway. It would seem quite fitting in a way.

[Andres]

I wanted to vote GAH, but it ain't an option.

[ZombieFriedNuts]

He’s not going to go voluntarily were going to have to pry him from the job

[ShadesWolf]

you will catch me dancing in the streets

[Blodrast]

everybody will get drunk ?

[InsaneApache]

Perhaps England will get it's long overdue independence from our Scottish overlords.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Perhaps England will get it's long overdue independence from our Scottish overlords.

Yeah, right. Next you'll be fibbing about the Brits winning the battle of Culloden or some such....

[Masy]

Blair will maintain his sweaty grip on power for as long as possible. But has Our Beloved Leader and His Party actually changed ANYTHING for the better in this country?

[Silver Rusher]

you will catch me dancing in the streets

...to my songs of happiness.

[Duke Malcolm]

Yeah, right. Next you'll be fibbing about the Brits winning the battle of Culloden or some such....

They did. They also lost. The British were on both sides. Except Bonnie Prince Charlie was technically French or somesuch thing.

[lancelot]

you will catch me dancing in the streets

I'll be right beside you good sir.

Then I'll cry when I realise whoever replaces him will probably be as bad if not worse... But I think I could suffer someone worse because I want to punch that smarmy insincere joker-esque face every time I see it.

Perhaps England will get it's long overdue independence from our Scottish overlords.

That would be nice.

But has Our Beloved Leader and His Party actually changed ANYTHING for the better in this country?

Nope.

Unless you consider screwing students, wrapping even the slightest thing in 4 miles of red tape (believe me- you would think my brother was trying to sell toxic waste in his shop!) and charging right through the nose for the privilege, awarding themselves pay rises (who voted for that I wonder), fighting in war the public overwhelmingly supports... , being soft on immigration (as quoted by someone I know who works as an immigration officer), failing to intervene in the frankly ridiculous housing situation and failing to rectify the huge problems in law making so it stops favouring the criminal; a good thing...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

All hell with break loose. Then Dave will pick up the pieces.

Blair promised Gorden that one day he would get the top job. That kept the Brownites inline, until recently. what does Brown have to offer the Blairites?

[mystic brew]

The rules say there has to be an election.

But at the moment there's no other candidate who has a prayer of getting elected. So unless the Blair-ites manage to find a realistic candidate in the next year, it's going to be a good, one-man-one-vote, democratic coronation.

[BDC]

The rules say there has to be an election.

But at the moment there's no other candidate who has a prayer of getting elected. So unless the Blair-ites manage to find a realistic candidate in the next year, it's going to be a good, one-man-one-vote, democratic coronation.

Labour will lose the next election then.

And then we'll get Blair Mk. II, aka David Cameron.

[The_Doctor]

And then we'll get Blair Mk. II, aka David Cameron.

I call him Tory Blair.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Labour will lose the next election then.

And then we'll get Blair Mk. II, aka David Cameron.

We'll see. I'm hoping Cameron is slightly more honest than Blair. Remember Blair was all unbending and patriotic before he got elected. Cameron may turn out to be smarmy opposition and a great True Blue PM.

[Banquo's Ghost]

The current situation appears to be getting sillier. Blair looks as if he will announce a resignation date for the middle of next year, before the party conference.

Just shows he's not thinking straight. His best revenge here would be to resign very soon and give Brown what he appears to want. Blair has nothing to lose but a whole year of powerlessness, irrelevance and sniping. Brown however, would then be in charge when the local government elections and the devolved assembly elections come up. Since the mid-term elections are almost certain to be disastrous for Labour (all mid-terms are, the voters like handing out a punishment beating or two in meaningless elections, and GB won't have time to address most of the running sores Tony will have bequeathed - even assuming he has the will) which means Brown is ruined as a leader in his first six months.

As was noted above, the Blairites need nothing from Brown save his dismal failure, which would be duly served up. GB has all the charisma of a housebrick, so it's pretty certain that he would lose the general election and the Blairites can get their man (Miliband? Johnson?) positioned and elected.

Blair meanwhile, will be swanning about the lecture circuit earning fortunes and formulating grand visions that will never happen - which is broadly what he has been doing as PM for the last five years only without the option to get involved in useless wars.

Common sense, but I doubt if Tony will do anything more than hang on until his party eats itself in an orgy of self-destruction. After all, that was what his heroine, Mrs Thatcher achieved.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh, and of course not one of them will give a tinker's cuss about the people of the United Kingdom during all this.

[Quid]

Perhaps England will get it's long overdue independence from our Scottish overlords.

Scottish Overlords? Without knowing you have secretly been led by the Welsh all this time. They are the Over-Overlords (or Überlords - if you want to sound silly). I tell ya, it's the Welsh you have to be a afraid of...I tell ya...

Quid

+1 meaningless post...

[The_Doctor]

Blair has confirmed he will quit within a year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5322094.stm

I think he will be gone in a few weeks.

[InsaneApache]

Well it's time to move on pour moi....

Now that git Gordon 'gottapickapocketortwo' Brown looks like a shoein for PM...I shall be honing my skills and awaiting his first misdemeanor.

Watch it Gordy baby, IA's on your tail.

[ShadesWolf]

In comes Gordon... Welcome back OLD LABOUR...

Tax, Tax ,Tax...
Wait a minute, hasnt that been the last nine years

[InsaneApache]

Wait until Shrub has to deal with ol' Gordy baby......

For the information of our more exotic posters, the UK has been run by a cabal of Scottish government ministers for nearly a decade. Hence my statement.

Now then lads; is it permissable for a Scottish MP, who is a Scot, to be the First Lord of the Treasury, seeing as the Scots have their own Parliament? Surely the PM of the English, should not only be English but hold an English seat. After all the laws he would propose would only affect England. Not Scotland and Wales.

I got my beady eye on you Gordy baby.

[Duke Malcolm]

Surely the PM of the English, should not only be English but hold an English seat. After all the laws he would propose would only affect England. Not Scotland and Wales.

Well, I must point out he is PM of the Britons, not just the English. Also, laws habitually affect Scotland aswell. The Higher Education Act and its top-up fees resulted in a greater number of English people applying here, making it somewhat more tricky for me to get my free university place... Of course, that is amongst others. And that is not to say England is not affected most by laws, just that the laws affect other parts of the UK, thus assuming the PM must come from England is somewhat erroneous...

[InsaneApache]

So, you agree, that a Scot should under no circumstances be the PM of England?

You now have your own Parliaments, leave the English to govern England and cease this 400 year old suppression of the English.

[lancelot]

thus assuming the PM must come from England is somewhat erroneous...

If Scots-British can be PM, then why on earth do Scots need their own parliament?...This has gotta be the biggest job-inventing scam going...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

This is why devolution is such a mess. A Scottish PM can pass laws that effect England but not himself or his constituants. A Scottish MP can vote on laws which do the same.

The whole thing is a mess. England needs her own Parliament.

[Andres]

As a comedian, he should stand-up, not down...

Besides, if he's standing up, it is easier for me to hit him with rotten tomatoes.

[Idaho]

I find it so strange that you all so enamoured of Cameron and yet hate Blair. They are pretty much the same except whereas Blair is slightly insane, Cameron is just bent like all tories.

[The_Doctor]

I find it so strange that you all so enamoured of Cameron and yet hate Blair. They are pretty much the same except whereas Blair is slightly insane, Cameron is just bent like all tories.

I don't like Cameron either, but he is not in power.