British Prime Minister Tony Blair's hopes of calming the row about the timing of his departure suffered a blow on Tuesday when another party loyalist warned that without a change in the style of leadership, the Labour Party could lose the next election.
John Denham, a former Home Office minister, said in an interview that the party "needs a change in leadership style that brings more people into judgments about what policy direction we should take."
Denham said the parliamentary Labour Party was pleased to have been told by Blair on Monday that there would be a stable and orderly transition, but said "people now want to see some evidence of it."
He predicted that without any change, there would be another year of "drift and division" which would probably make Labour unelectable.
Like many mainstream Labour members of parliament, Denham was concerned by the "very dangerous polarization" between the pro- and anti-Blair camps on the weekend.
He accused Home Secretary John Reid of "quite outrageously claiming that everyone who is critical is against change."
But he also said that attempts by the pressure group Compass to organize letters demanding the Blair's resignation sounded "very much like the 1980s," when Labour was terribly divided.
In a sign that unease with Blair's leadership revolves around policies as much as personalities, Denham said the prime minister's agenda, which focuses on antisocial behavior and public service reform, looked dated. He said issues such as housing, the environment, managing working lives and working out the challenges caused by migration had shot up the public agenda, but had not shot up the government's agenda.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese