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Going, going.....

PM Tony Blair is on the way out - in more ways than one!

As Michael White comments in the Guardian Unlimited:

"All that huffing and puffing for nothing? All that blood on the Labour carpet for Tony Blair to say in public what most people thought would be the case, that his speech to Labour's annual conference, in Manchester on September 24, will be his last as party leader?

Not quite for nothing. Mr Blair's position has been further weakened by the battle. He still refused to offer a precise date for his departure, but it is clearly wrong to liken his remarks outside a north London primary school to Margaret Thatcher's ''we fight on'' pledge, made shortly before she was removed from office by her own MPs in November 1990. The great survivor is staying for now under supervision, a kind of political Asbo."

Read the complete piece here. Meanwhile, does John Howard face any challenges if things start going against him? Seemingly not with a backbench mainly made up of lap-dogs or poodles content to apparently accept all Howard's policies - good, bad or indifferent!.

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