Downing Street on Friday intervened over speculation about Tony Blair's resignation as prime minister by confirming that he would not announce his resignation before the May 3 Welsh, Scottish and local English elections.
The prime minister's official spokesman took the unusual step of dismissing claims he was planning a May 1 announcement -- the 10th anniversary of the 1997 victory -- as "wrong". Asked if he was saying that any suggestion Blair would make an announcement about his future before the elections this coming week was wrong, the spokesman said: "Correct."
At a press conference in Warsaw, where he held talks with Polish prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Blair said: "You know I never discuss these issues at all, but I wouldn't hold your breath on that particular story."
The remarks underlined the expectation in UK government circles that Blair will make his long-awaited statement on May 9 or May 10, once power-sharing in Northern Ireland is restored on May 8. Results from the local elections in England, and the devolved assemblies in Scotland and Wales, will still be coming in on May 4. May 5-6 is the weekend and May 7 is a national holiday.
Blair sent a letter and briefing on Thursday to members of Labour's parliamentary party outlining his achievements over 10 years. Yesterday the Opposition Conservatives retorted with one of their own, claiming failings in the UK's state funded National Health Service (NHS), crime, taxation, education, and welfare reform.
On BBC radio, Conservative leader David Cameron said Blair would be remembered "positively" for changing the Labour party but added: "I don't think as prime minister he has been a success because I don't think ... he had a clear enough idea about what he wanted to do."
Leftwing MPs John McDonnell and Michael Meacher, who are both standing for the Labour leadership, are closer to an agreement that one of them will withdraw to ensure the other gets on the ballot to challenge the most likely successor to Tony Blair as prime minister Gordon Brown.
Candidates need a minimum of 45 nominations from Labour MPs and both Meacher and McDonnell cannot get there on their own.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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