Word: mps
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...while an orderly transition is obviously desirable for the Labour Party, it has fallen prey to the logic of personal ambition in a parliamentary system. A Prime Minister on his way out just doesn't have the juice: his threats of punishment and promises of advancement ring hollow. MPs start jockeying for the next guy's approval - and the bitter feud between Blair and Brown means no one wants to be the last to jump from the sinking S.S. Blair...
...recent bad news by playing on his reputation for strong leadership. He thoroughly reshuffled his Cabinet last week, even removing his longtime foreign minister Jack Straw, as if to say: I'm still in charge. At a Monday press conference, as well as at a gathering of Labour MPs, Blair declared he absolutely would not specify a timetable for departure...
...spate of interviews Tuesday, he said that Blair should fix a date precisely by telling a group of senior MPs when he's leaving. He even raised the historical precedent of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was chucked out of power after an unseemly brawl among Tory MPs...
...Blair's style of governing is also coming back to haunt him. He has often upraided his own party for being slow to modernize. That worked while he was a winner, but now that he's in decline, MPs who have built up years of resentment for being ignored and tightly managed by Downing St. apparatchiks have an opportunity for revenge. Many are focusing their anger on Blair's reforms...
...money under Labour, and many health indicators are improving. But lots of hospitals are having to lay off staff because they've overspent; many doctors and nurses say the NHS is badly run. Meanwhile, Blair is pushing to let state schools have greater autonomy, which traditional Labour MPs think will lead to sharply unequal quality and hurt those at the bottom of the social ladder...