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Economy

Americans! Don't copy the British healthcare system! - Daniel Hannan

2009-04-07

It's difficult not to warm to John Prescott. As part of a Labour Government that lived from headline to headline, he added a dash of authenticity. He may have been oafish, but he was reassuringly human. Prescott is trying to fabricate a row out of my interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, in which I warned Americans against adopting a socialist healthcare system along British lines. You can watch the old bruiser here. (If you're an American who likes to imagine that the British are eloquent, please ignore that last hyperlink.) I wonder whether anyone still falls for this sort of stuff. For a long time, Labour politicians had two slogans which they would trot out whenever healthcare came up: "Envy Of The World" and "Free At The Point Of Use". These phrases were not intended to be arguments. Rather, they were ways of playing your trump, of closing down the debate. Prezza uses both (or, rather, a mangled version of each). The NHS, he says, is Britain's "greatest creation". Really? Greater than parliamentary democracy? Greater than penicillin? Greater than the discovery of DNA, or the abolition of slavery, or the common law? John, the NHS produces some of the worst health outcomes in the industrialised world. Britain is the Western state where you'd least want to have cancer or a stroke or heart disease. Ours is now a country where thousands of people are killed in hospitals for reasons unrelated to their original condition. If this is our "greatest creation", Heaven help us. As for the second slogan, which Prezza renders as "need and not ability to pay", there is no health system in Europe or North America that leaves the indigent untended. What is at issue is not whether we force poor people to pay, but whether we prevent wealthier people from doing so. The British system treats everyone equally, it's true: we queue equally, we wait weeks for operations equally, we are expected to be equally grateful for any attention we get. Outside Westminster, the old incantations are losing their magic. Envy Of The World is no longer a charm to ward off criticism. People can see for themselves that Britain has become a place where foreigners fear to fall ill. Yes, all three parties are committed to the NHS: I am a humble backbencher, and speak only for myself. But I wonder whether, as on tax and borrowing, public opinion hasn't overtaken the Westminster consensus. Let me put it like this. Imagine that, in 1945, we had created a National Food Service. Suppose that, in the name of "fairness" and "need and not ability to pay", sustenance had been rationed by the state. Conjecture that every citizen had been allocated one butcher, one baker, one café and so on. We all know where that would have led: to bureaucracy, to duplication, to surpluses in one field and scarcity in another, to racketeering, to hunger. No one, not even Prescott, is suggesting that we socialise food distribution - even though food is at least as basic human need as healthcare. As those Americans of whom you seem so contemptuous might put it, John, go figure.

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Britain

Foreign Office minister is ‘liability’, say his officials

2007-11-11

Foreign Office officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a “liability” for the government. Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him “Bollock-Brown” for his off-message views. The minister has clashed with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and caused embarrassment for Brown before the prime minister’s trip to Washington by saying that Britain and America would no longer be “joined at the hip”. Malloch-Brown is said to have been reprimanded by Miliband for suggesting the British government was about to open talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamic militant groups, and was forced to “clarify” his remarks in the House of Lords, which irritated Labour Friends of Israel, the campaign group. “Gordon won’t be brave enough to sack him. It would look like the whole thing’s been a mistake, but Malloch-Brown will probably resign in the end because he feels frustrated that he is not getting the recognition and the things done he wanted to,” said a Foreign Office official. Brown made great play of appointing Malloch-Brown, former chief of staff at the UN, in June as he brought outsiders into his government “of all the talents”. The appointment angered Washington which was aware of his opposition to the Iraq war and hostility towards the “neo-cons” around George W Bush. Malloch-Brown, who is paid £81,504 a year, has also upset colleagues by strolling into meetings with foreign dignitaries even though he has not been invited. A critique of the minister appeared last week in The Spectator magazine, questioning his continued use of a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall which was once used by John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister. Only two other members of the government — Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor — have grace-and-favour homes. The article quoted Brown as having confided to colleagues that if he “had known it would cause such a fuss, I wouldn’t have appointed him”. It added that Malloch-Brown is “viewed in Washington as viscerally anti-American”. Foreign Office officials and allies of Miliband thought the article “bang on”. From the comments section at link: Living among Americans as I do, I can say quite authoritatively that Lord Malloch-Brown [has] replaced George Galloway as Britain's greatest embarrassment among the Yanks! Talk about "bang on"! LOL

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Iraq

Saddam execution video is 'deplorable', says Prescott

2007-01-02

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, has described the manner of Saddam Hussein’s execution as "deplorable" and denounced leaked recordings of his final moments as "totally unacceptable". Mr Prescott's comments were the first by a British minister since the release of mobile phone footage of the former Iraqi dictator being set on fire and pushed into a wood-chipper tormented and insulted by guards and witnesses seconds before his death on Saturday morning. Asked about the execution on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Prescott said: "I think the manner was quite deplorable really. I don’t think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment. Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves." He refused to elaborate on whether the responsibility lay with the Iraqi Government, saying: "If they are responsible, I pass my comment and that’s where I stand. I am just making the point that, in fact, those circumstances of the hanging of Saddam... without doubt, to have those kinds of comments is unacceptable and whoever is responsible should be condemned for it." Asked whether the British Government had conveyed the sentiment to the authorities in Baghdad, Mr Prescott said: "I think we have made it clear what the Government’s position is on the death penalty and that has been communicated as Margaret Beckett has said." It is not known who filmed the amateur footage or whether its release was officially sanctioned. The Iraqi government has launched an investigation into the matter, describing the chanting and calling of slogans as "inappropriate". There are concerns that the images, which have caused outcry in the Arab world, will trigger further violence in Iraq. Stock Phrase #470 Tony Blair has been criticised by some of his own pussy MPs for refusing to make an official statement about the execution. Glenda Jackson branded his lack of public reaction "amazing" while Peter Kilfoyle said it was "yet another error in a long catalogue" on Iraq. The Prime Minister has previously underlined Britain’s opposition to the death penalty but stressed it was for the Iraqis to decide the fate of their ousted leader. Downing Street insisted that Ms Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, spoke on behalf of the whole Government in saying that Saddam had been "held to account", but adding: "We do not support the use of the death penalty ... we advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime."

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Britain

Salman Rushdie says Muslim veils 'suck'

2006-10-10

Who says modern writers aren't 'eloquent'? The row over Muslim women's dress codes reignited today after author Salman Rushdie declared that "veils suck". Rushdie, whose book The Satanic Verses triggered death threats from Islamic clerics, gave his full backing to Leader of the Commons Jack Straw for raising the issue. Rushdie was forced into hiding for 10 years after Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeini served a "fatwah" on him over his book's alleged slight on the prophet Mohammed. He had round-the-clock police protection costing nearly £1 million a year, although that has been downgraded in recent years after Iran indicated the death sentence no longer applied. But Rushdie has always insisted he was right to publish The Satanic Verses and today he risked fresh Muslim anger with a savage attack on the wearing of veils. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, held to mark the opening of a new joint exhibition with sculptor Amish Kapoor, he backed Mr Straw to the hilt. "Speaking as somebody with three sisters and a very largely female Muslim family, there's not a single woman I know in my family or in their friends who would have accepted wearing the veil. "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on [Straw's] side. "He was expressing an important opinion, which is that veils suck, which they do. I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women." Mr Straw triggered anger last week when he revealed he asked Muslim women visiting his constituency surgery to remove their veils. He said that seeing someone's face made it easier to communicate and felt the garment was a barrier to integration and good community relations. The publication of the Satanic Verses in 1989 triggered not just the fatwah from Iran but also riots in Pakistan, India and Turkey among Muslims who felt he had insulted the prophet. In the following decade, the book's Japanese translator was murdered and its Norwegian publisher and Italian translator seriously injured in separate attacks. Publisher Penguin received 5,000 abusive or threatening letters and 25 bomb threats. Rushdie is to open a joint exhibition with Kapoor at a London gallery, with a sculpture based on the story of Sheherazade, the Arabian woman who told stories to avoid a brutal death at the hands of a tyrant. Kapoor said today that he disagreed with Rushdie over the veils issue. He agreed, he said, with John Prescott, who said that he would find it rude to tell someone wearing sunglasses to remove them.

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Britain

Muslim MP: If you want sharia law, you should go and live in Saudi

2006-08-20

Scotland Yard described it as a plot “to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale”. John Reid concurred: “The terror threat to the public was unprecedented, the biggest that Britain had ever faced.” As it transpired, there was nothing melodramatic about these descriptions. It was to be a “terror spectacular” beyond our worst nightmares, involving blowing up a dozen aeroplanes in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean, with the wilful massacre of more than 1,000 innocent men, women and children. Last Tuesday, after a 90-minute meeting with John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, to discuss the challenges of extremism and foreign policy, I emerged and was immediately asked by the media whether I agreed that what British Muslims needed were Islamic holidays and sharia (Islamic law). I thought I had walked into some parallel universe. Sadly this was not a joke. These issues had apparently formed part of the discussion the day before between Prescott, Ruth Kelly, the communities minister, and a selection of “Muslim leaders”. I realised then that it wasn’t me and the media who were living in a parallel universe — although certain “Muslim leaders” might well be. Maybe some of these “leaders” believed that cabinet ministers were being alarmist, that the terror threat posed by British extremists was exaggerated. Maybe they thought that the entire plot and threat were the “mother of all smokescreens”, a bid to divert our attention from the killing fields of Lebanon. Or maybe it was another symptom of that epidemic that is afflicting far too many Muslims: denial. Out of touch with reality, frightened to propose any real solutions for fear of “selling out”, but always keen to exact a concession — a sad but too often true caricature of some so-called Muslim leaders. ouch Other members of the Muslim community I am sure would have cringed as I did when listening to Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary-general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Ireland, who explained his demand for sharia and more holidays: “If you give us religious rights we will be in a better position to convince young people that they are being treated equally along with other citizens.” He has done much good work over the years but this is clearly not one of his better moments. Who speaks for Muslims? The government has a near impossible task but I’m sure even it realises that we need to look beyond some of the usual suspects and, crucially, to find mechanisms directly to engage with young people, where many of our challenges lie. To me the plot seemed all too real: I flew back from the United States that very week; my sister, her husband and their two kids live in New York so we all regularly shuttle to and fro. If the alleged plot had been realised we could all have been “statistics”. As I have repeatedly said, in this world of indiscriminate terrorist bombings, where Muslims are just as likely to be the victims of terrorism as other British and US citizens, we Muslims have an equal stake in fighting extremism. Hundreds of Muslims died on 9/11 and 7/7. But more importantly, given that these acts are carried out in the name of our religion — Islam — we have a greater responsibility not merely to condemn but to confront the extremists. In addition to being the targets of terrorism, Muslims will inevitably be the targets of any backlash. Given this context, most Muslims will perhaps feel disappointed at some of the comments of those “leaders” who went in to bat on their behalf. Of course self- indulgent bad timing is not the sole preserve of Muslim leaders: David Cameron’s gross misjudgment of the national mood in his criticisms of how the government had failed to keep us safe and secure were just as crass. Cameron’s stance, in undermining the unity required from our leaders on such occasions of national unease,played into the extremists’ hands. So too, unfortunately, did the comments of some of the “Muslim leaders” who demanded sharia for British Muslims rather than the existing legal system. The call for special public holidays for Muslims was unnecessary, impracticable and divisive. Most employers already allow their staff to take such days out of their annual leave. And what about special holidays for Sikhs, Hindus, Jews? If we amended our laws to accommodate all such requests, then all the king’s horses and all the king’s men wouldn’t be able to put our workplaces and communities back together again. When it comes to sharia, Muhammad ibn Adam, the respected Islamic scholar, says: “It is necessary by sharia to abide by the laws of the country one lives in, regardless of the nature of the law, as long as the law doesn’t demand something that is against Islam.” It is narrated in the Koran that the prophet Muhammad (may his boils eventually heal) (peace be upon him) said: “It is necessary upon a Muslim to listen to and obey the ruler, as long as one is not ordered to carry out a sin.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no 2796 & Sunan Tirmidhi). In Britain there are no laws that force Muslims to do something against sharia and Muslims enjoy the freedom to worship and follow their religion, as do all other faiths. Compare Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, a sharia regime where women are forbidden to drive; or Turkey, a secular country where women are forbidden to wear the hijab; or Tunisia, where civil servants are forbidden to wear a beard. I believe that as a Muslim there is no better place to live than Britain. That doesn’t mean that all in the garden is rosy; often Islamophobia is palpable. But my message is: whether you are white, Asian, black, Muslim, Christian or Jew, if you don’t like where you’re living you have two choices: either you live elsewhere, or you engage in the political process, attempt to create change and ultimately respect the will of the majority. When Lord Ahmed, the Muslim Labour peer, heard my comments — I said essentially that if Muslims wanted sharia they should go and live somewhere where they have it — he accused me of doing the BNP’s work. He is entitled to his opinion. However, a little honesty, like mine, in this whole debate might just restore trust in politicians and ease the population’s anxieties. Since I made my remarks my office has been overwhelmed with support. I also know that some Muslims feel uncomfortable, not necessarily because they disagree but because they feel targeted. But what I want to say to my fellow British Muslims is that in this country we enjoy freedoms, rights and privileges of which Muslims elsewhere can only dream. We should appreciate that fact and have the confidence to fulfil the obligations and responsibilities as part of our contract with our country and as dictated by sharia law.

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Britain

Prescott denies anti-Bush remark

2006-08-17

John Prescott has denied a report he said the Bush administration had been "crap" on the Middle East road map. The Independent newspaper claimed the deputy prime minister made the remark during a private meeting on Tuesday with a number of Labour MPs. It also said he called the US President a "cowboy with his Stetson on". Mr Prescott issued a statement in which he said: "This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not my view."

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Britain

Bush is crap, says Deputy (Blair) PM Prescott

2006-08-16

John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a single word: crap. The Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon. The remark is said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott's Whitehall office on Tuesday with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs with constituencies representing large Muslim communities. Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with the Muslim communities. Some of the MPs present said yesterday they could not remember Mr Prescott making the remark. He has been at pains to avoid breaking ranks with Mr Blair in public although he is believed to have raised concern about the bombing of Lebanon at a private meeting of the Cabinet. But Harry Cohen, the MP whose constituency includes Walthamstow, scene of some of the police raids in the alleged "terror plot" investigation, said Mr Prescott had definitely used the word "crap" about the Bush administration. "He was talking in the context of the 'road map' in the Middle East. He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because they were promised the road map. But he said the Bush administration had been crap on that. We all laughed and he said to an official, 'Don't minute that'." Mr Cohen added: "We also had a laugh when he said old Bush is just a cowboy with his Stetson on. But then he said, 'I can hardly talk about that can I?' Told that others at the meeting could not recall the words, Mr Cohen said: " He did. I stand by that." The Deputy Prime Minister's office said last night that the meeting was private and would not confirm or deny his use of the word "crap". " These discussions are intended to be private and remain within the four walls," said one official. "They are private so that there may be frank discussions." Many Labour MPs have been infuriated by the spectacle of Mr Bush and Mr Blair jointly supporting the Israeli action. The Labour MPs went to see Mr Prescott to lodge their criticism of the Government's foreign policy and some said last night that they would be delighted if he did break ranks over the Bush administration following the outcry at the bombing of the Lebanon. In the private discussions with Mr Prescott, the Labour MPs representing large Muslim communities pulled no punches in their criticism of Mr Blair for giving his backing to Mr Bush. Another of those who was contacted about the conversations did not deny Mr Prescott's words, but laughed and said: " I can't discuss that." When asked whether he had heard Mr Prescott use the "C-word", he said: "I don't remember that." The Deputy Prime Minister is said to have made it clear he strongly backed the efforts by Mr Blair to persuade the Bush administration to revive the road map for Palestine and Israel. Mr Blair has given a commitment that he will give the peace process his priority when he returns from his holiday in the Caribbean. "There was a very robust exchange of views," said the MP. " We had a row about community relations. The Deputy Prime Minister was told in no uncertain terms that the Government was relying too much on the elders in the Muslim community who didn't have the credibility that was needed." Muslim Labour MPs also told Mr Prescott that they needed to retain their own credibility in their communities, which was one of the reasons why they had signed a controversial letter calling for a change in British foreign policy. They said it was not helpful for the Government to have attacked their letter. Mr Prescott has been accused in the past of making his feelings known about the Republican administration in the White House. He became friendly with Al Gore, the unsuccessful Democrat presidential candidate in 2000, during the negotiations on the Kyoto treaty and allegedly told Mr Gore after his defeat that he was sorry he lost the race to Mr Bush. Mr Prescott is also known to have used the word "crap" in relation to political events before. Earlier this month, he angrily rejected claims that he could resign over the row about his links to the bid by the tycoon Philip Anschutz for a super-casino at the Millennium Dome as "a load of crap". Mr Prescott was left in charge by Mr Blair when the Prime Minister went on his delayed holiday but has largely taken a back seat while John Reid, the Home Secretary, has led for the Government on security and the alleged terror plot to blow up planes across the Atlantic. Behind the scenes, Mr Prescott had to contend with growing backbench demands for Parliament to be recalled to debate the crisis in the Middle East. It remains an option, in spite of the ceasefire in the Lebanon. Campaigners claimed they had the signatures of more than 150 MPs from all parties for a recall. Significantly, they included Ann Keen, the parliamentary private secretary to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is on paternity leave following the birth of his second child. Jim Sheridan, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, resigned as the parliamentary private secretary to the defence ministers over the bombing of Lebanon. Mr Prescott has been keen to show Labour MPs that he is prepared to listen to their grievances but has insisted on party discipline to avoid splits. He will be furious at his alleged remarks being repeated, but the signs of dissent within the Cabinet are becoming greater. Straight-talker's way with words * Posing with a crab in a jar at the Millennium Dome, while Peter Mandelson was standing for election to Labour's ruling national executive committee, he said to cameramen: "You know what his name is? He's called Peter. Do you think you will get on the executive, Peter?" * When asked why a car was transporting him and his wife 200 yards to the Labour Party Conference in 1999: "Because of the security reasons for one thing and second, my wife doesn't like to have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?" * On the Millennium Dome: "If we can't make this work, we're not much of a government." * "The green belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean to build on it." (Radio interview, January 1998) * On the Tories at the 1996 Labour conference: "They are up to their necks in sleaze. The best slogan for their conference next week is " Life's better under the Tories" - sounds like one of Steven Norris's chat-up lines." * When asked by a journalist about Peter Law's decision to quit the Labour Party after 35 years: "Why are you asking me about this? I don't care, it's a Welsh situation, I'm a national politician."

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Britain

UK Muslims: Give us Sharia and the Violence Will Stop

2006-08-16

Friend of mine sent me and article about this from a conservative news source. I didn't believe him, so I checked the Independent (far left for those of you who are unfamiliar with it). Here's their article. Muslim leaders have urged Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities, to support Islamic family law in Britain to stop youths joining Islamic extremists. Following three hours of meeting with Muslim groups in Whitehall, Ms Kelly said: "There is a battle of hearts and minds to be won within the Muslim community, working with the Muslim community to take on the terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it, not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well." See, it's all so reasonable. It's just "family law." John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was also at the meeting, is today expected to meet Muslim Labour MPs who have demanded a change in Government foreign policy on the Middle East. Mr Prescott and Ms Kelly made it clear that the threat of terrorism could not be used to force a change of policy abroad. Ms Kelly said she did not accept that British foreign policy should be dictated by a small group of people. "What I do accept is that there is a lot of anger and frustration out there in the community that needs to be properly expressed and vented through the democratic process," she said. Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Ireland, said he had asked for holidays to mark Muslim festivals and Islamic laws to cover family affairs which would apply only to Muslims. Dr Pasha said he was not seeking sharia law for criminal offences but he said Muslim communities in Britain should be able to operate Islamic codes for marriage and family life. "In Scotland, they have a separate law. It doesn't mean they are not part of the UK. We are asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life. We are willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership. They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems." No, not criminal offenses. Not at first anyway. It's all so reasonable. Just like Scotland, really. The camels nose is under the tent flap. I hope that someone is ready to smack it hard!

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Britain

Phone ringing turns airplane back to UK; terror threat downgraded

2006-08-13

Delays continued to affect travellers at London's airports on Sunday The terror threat to the UK has been downgraded from critical to severe. The Home Office said the decision had been made because an attack was "highly likely" but no longer "imminent". The change in the threat level means the ban on taking hand luggage on to flights from the UK has been lifted although some restrictions remain. Meanwhile a British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York has been turned back because a mobile phone, which were banned at the time, was on board. The British Airways flight was turned back after a mobile phone was heard ringing at the back of the plane. No one on board admitted owning the phone so flight BA179 with 217 passengers on board returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure. A businessman who was among the passengers told BBC News 24: "When the plane took off a mobile phone started ringing. "One and a half hours later the captain made the decision, having spoken to his company, that we need to come back. He dumped fuel and we're now back at Heathrow." BA apologise for the inconvenience but said "safety is our number one priority and we will always err on the side of caution". Before the restrictions were changed, travellers had been told to expect more cancellations and delays at UK airports. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott visited Stansted airport to see how the security measures were being put into practice.

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Britain

Prescott hints at Blair quitting “very shortly”

2006-07-24

LONDON - Britain’s deputy prime minister hinted on Sunday that Tony Blair may “very shortly” step down as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, triggering a party election to replace him. John Prescott’s comment during an interview with BBC television is likely to add fuel to the burning political question -- ’when will Blair move aside?’. “I can still make an important contribution when the party has its means by which it makes decisions about that (the choosing of a new leader) and I think that will come very shortly,” Prescott said. “I think it will be a smooth transition .... therefore there will be a timetable that will be decided by Tony and the party,” he said. The deputy premier said he expected to play a role during any transition phase which he added ought to include a contest. Although Blair has said he will stand down as prime minister and Labour leader before the next election he has refused to name a date at which he intends to relinquish the reins of power. Chancellor Gordon Brown is widely tipped to replace Blair although there have been signs from senior Labour politicians over recent months that he may not have a totally clear run for the position.

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Britain

Chief Fundraiser For Prime Minister Blair's Party Arrested

2006-07-13

According to media reports, the chief fundraiser for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party, has been arrested by police probing allegations state awards had been given in return for cash. The "cash for favors" debacle has dented Blair's standing in opinion polls and the arrest of Lord Levy will make the prime minister's position even more precarious. The Labor Party came under pressure after some businessmen were nominated for seats in Britain's unelected upper house of parliament after lending about $26 million. However, that goes against a 1925 law that made selling seats in the upper chamber, known as the House of Lords, illegal. David Davis of the opposing Conservative Party told Sky News said, "The issue here is one of corruption. Has cash or money been paid over in exchange for some sort of benefit? I think it must be pretty worrying for the top ranks of the Labor Party." With the latest arrest and with the investigation of Blair's deputy, there have been calls for him to step down as prime minister sooner than later. John Prescott, Blair's deputy, is under investigation for his links to an American billionaire hoping to open a London casino.

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Britain

British Labour plot to oust Blair's deputy

2006-05-29

LONDON: Members of Britain's governing Labour Party are plotting to oust Prime Minister Tony Blair's deputy John Prescott who has lost favor since a sex scandal hit him last month, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Times, citing documents circulating among lawmakers, said Blair will be told by senior Labour figures that Prescott has lost the support of many MPs and should consider stepping down amid sex and other scandals. The Mail on Sunday ran photos of Prescott playing croquet while it said he should have been standing in for Blair who was flying to Washington on Thursday and claimed that Prescott's office "went to great lengths to conceal" it. Prescott has also been criticised for clinging to his 133,000 pound salary (247,000 dollars, 193,000 euros) and his "grace and favor" homes after losing key duties in a May cabinet reshuffle linked to revelations of his extramarital affair.

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