Prime Minister Tony Blair left his ruling Labour Party's annual convention yesterday with members still bitterly divided over the war in Iraq and restless over the government's domestic policies.
Blair's unflinching speech to the party, in which he defended sending troops to war and lauded the virtues of strong leadership, earned him fat applause from delegates this week.
But resentment over the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein and dissent over the government's plans to reform public services are simmering.
"The storm clouds are still around," said John Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde University. "The situation is not terminal for the prime minister, but it will be important for him to regain a clear and consistent lead in the opinion polls."
The five-day conference in Bournemouth, southern England, has been Blair's toughest since he became party leader in 1994 and led Labour to the first of two landslide election victories in 1997.
His popularity has slumped in recent polls and for the first time in his six-and-a-half year premiership, his position has seemed assailable. An poll published on Sunday found 64 percent of respondents questioned last week did not trust Blair and 48 percent thought he should resign. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The conference has been bruising for Blair. Opponents of the Iraq war lashed out at the government for taking Britain into war without a second UN resolution.
The prime minister suffered a defeat in a debate about health service reforms, which his critics see as a step toward privatization.
Trade unionists, a diminished but still potent force in the party, warned Blair not to stray any further from Labour's hallowed socialist traditions.
"Unless we put Labour back in the party, we risk putting the party on the opposition benches," said Tony Woodley, general secretary elect of the Transport and General Workers Union.
But for the mainstream of the party, Blair's vote-winning policies and natural charisma still make him the best choice for Labour leader and prime minister.
"I do not think the British public would appreciate a vacillating or weak-kneed government," said Labour member Valerie Shawcross. "The British public admire decisive leadership, and we do too."
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS