What's going on with Tony Blair situation
- Thread starter m4a1
- Start date
Our Tony's due to retire and there's a lot of speculation about the date he will hand over to Gordon Brown. Some in his own party are getting restless because Tony won't say when, and to whom he will hand over the reins. Indeed some want an open contest for leadership when he retires. Just British politics and not anything to be concerned about.
Election has to be held anytime upto 5 years since the last one. He said he wouldn't go "on and on" as Thatcher had said and would step down before the next election. Brown's supporters, who will probably pull troops out of Iraq, and wouldn't have gone in in the first place, have made Blair bring forward his departure.
what do you mean he's due to retire? isn't there a specific number of years that a prime minister needs to serve before the next election?
and what do you mean he will hand over the reins? don't you have to elect the prime minister? wasn't there an election a couple of years ago and blair got re-elected (after bush got re-elected)?
and what do you mean he will hand over the reins? don't you have to elect the prime minister? wasn't there an election a couple of years ago and blair got re-elected (after bush got re-elected)?
tony is toast for being brown nose with chimp boy. Finally the Britons realized what he got them into when he had his nose up the chimp's butt. 
The electorate in UK don't vote for a Prime Minister. They vote for a Member of Parliament for their district. The head of the political party, that has a majority of MP's in parliament, then becomes Prime Minister. In theory, it is the Queen who selects the Prime Minister, but convention dictates that she automatically select the head of the majority party.
The majority party (in this case the Labour Party) may decide who is going to be the successor as the head of their party, and will therefor by default, become Prime Minister, when the current PM retires/steps down. The politcal party can also change the head of their party (and therefor PM) through a no confidence vote.
A parliamentary election has to be held 'at least' once every 5 years, but the PM is free to declare an election any time within that time period. This can be especially useful if they have a surge of popularity mid term, as they can declare a quick election to ensure at least another 5 years of power.