I see that he's under attack from the Lib-Dems (expected) and many leftist Laborites (expected) over the failure to find WMDs and the allegations that the intel was cooked like the Sopranos' income tax filing. But in what is, to me, a surprising development, some Tories are attacking Blair. And there are a couple of investigations coming. And unlike the US, in Britain, the media actually do something other than repeat gvt. propaganda. My question is, how much trouble is he really in? What might be the process by which Britain gets a new PM? Internal revolt replaces him? Lib-Dems, Tories, and some disaffected Laborites pass a vote of no-confidence? Or is Blair, for all practical purposes, iron-clad safe until the next election?
I saw Wednesday evening that the House voted down a measure for a special investigation. Its good to have a super majority. Paging Matt Clark. Matt Clark, pick up the white courtesy phone.
Does that mean we get to hear yet again how Blair made the biggest blunder in the history of Great Britain, or at least since Anthony Eden?
Of course not. We've done that and we all know it's true. Sniff, lick, eat, enjoy. As to how much trouble he is in, depends on how many more semi-demented outbursts about "rogue MI6 agents" he allows himself to become associated with. Above and beyond that, the Lib Dems put up a motion in the House to have an independent Inquiry into the whole affair and it was defeated by just 98 votes, the lowest majority Blair has achieved in relation to any Iraq/WMD vote since this whole circus began. Significantly, the Tories are now also beginning to work the angles on a non-Parliamentary enquiry into the Intelligence gathering process and the exact extent to which Downing Street involved itself in that process. Equally significantly, you will now find all sorts of stories in the papers that throw up Alistair Campbell as the real mover and shaker in this deception. Sacrificial lamb would appear to be back on the menu. I wish I could find the link from last Saturday's Times that had a piece by their Parliamentary Reporter on the persecution complex that is beginning to build amongst Blair loyalists. The number of senior Labour figures who are openly condemning the whole pack of lies as just that is surprisingly large. The media has thus far only focused on Short (irrelevant) and Cook (anything but) but the likes of Kilfoyle, Morris, Smith, Jackson, Kaufmann ... all are on record as having called either the honesty or the credibility of the PM into question within the last two weeks or so. He remains in a strong position, mainly because the media will move on eventually (expect a HUGE Labour splash across all friendly media ahead of next week's announcement on our future course on the Euro to drown out this row) and he has until 2005 to make the electorate forget that he lied through his teeth and continues to do so.