| UK seeks to extend pre-charge detentions beyond 28 days | | Posted Friday, February 02, 2007 1:05:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | The British government is to make a fresh attempt to further extend the maximum period that terror suspects can be detained without charge, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman announced Thursday. The spokesman said that Home Secretary John Reid told ministers at the latest weekly cabinet meeting he would try again to find a cross- party consensus on a longer detention period. In 2005, the government gained parliamentary approval to double pre-charge detentions to 28 days after failing to win the backing of MPs to increase it to 90 days. Reid was said to have told the cabinet that since changes extending the maximum detention period from 14 to 28 days were introduced there had not yet been a case in which a longer period of questioning was needed.... | |
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| | | Blair urges backing for terror strategy | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:26:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | The government is hoping to secure parliamentary backing for a long-term counter-terrorist strategy in the face of what Tony Blair warned yesterday was a "very real" danger of Islamist terrorism in the UK lasting for at least a generation. Mr Blair said he fully supported an assessment by Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, the Security Service, that there were 30 plots at various stages of planning in the UK and 1,600 people identified as potential supporters of terrorists acts. .... | |
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| | | Blair admits that the health service is in deep trouble | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 7:00:27 AM by Blog57 Team | | The National Health Service is experiencing " real difficulties" as it faces up to changes in technology, Tony Blair told MPs yesterday. His admission came as doctors, nurses and other hospital workers arrived in uniform at Parliament to campaign against budget cuts, the speed of NHS reform and increased private sector involvement. David Cameron challenged Mr Blair at Prime Minister's Questions, saying the marchers were worried about deficits, cuts and low morale in the NHS. .... | |
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| | | Britain's Blair firm on Iraq commitment | | Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 3:07:29 PM by Blog57 Team | | LONDON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair assured Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih in London Monday Britain will not recall its forces in the near future. Meeting at Blair's London residence, the men discussed the insurgency that is hobbling Iraq's ability to police and secure itself. After the meeting, Salih said his government was aware the U.S. and British commitment was not open-ended, but was still necessary. "We do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run, the future of Iraq is vital to the future of the Middle East and the world order," Salih said. "At the end of the day, it is for the elected government of Iraq to make tough choices but for some time we need the support of the international community." Recently, British Defense Secretary Des Browne said Iraqi forces could be capable of taking full control in 12 months, but Blair's press office denied Blair would insist on that during the meeting, the BBC reported.... | |
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| | | Blair backs UK army chief on Iraq | | Posted Saturday, October 14, 2006 11:04:00 PM by Blog57 Team | | British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he is in full agreement with comments his army chief made in a newspaper interview about British troop deployments in Iraq. Gen. Richard Dannatt was quoted by London's Daily Mail as calling for a pullout of British troops from Iraq "sometime soon because our presence exacerbates security problems." Blair -- who said that he drew his conclusion about the interview after reading the full transcript of it -- said Friday some of Dannatt's remarks may have been taken out of context. "Now, in terms of what he (Dannatt) was saying about Britain coming out of Iraq, he was saying exactly the same as we've all said. I know you guys like to portray it as if our policy is to remain in Iraq forever, it isn't. It's to withdraw," Blair told a press conference.... | |
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| | | North Korean case different from India's, says Tony Blair | | Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:06:07 PM by Blog57 Team | | Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, right, sits beside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a session of an India-UK investment summit at Lancaster House in London on Tuesday. London: Condemning North Korea for conducting a nuclear test, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the further erosion of the non-proliferation regime was not in India's interests, and the country did not support the emergence of another nuclear weapon state. He was speaking at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street here shortly after wrapping up their third annual summit. Counter-terrorism, energy cooperation and investment promotion were the main issues tackled, though Monday's nuclear test by North Korea inevitably figured prominently. Support from Blair If the Indian side was anxious that the world should not club Pyongyang with New Delhi, it received a boost from Mr.... | |
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| | | Blair to talk trade and terrorism with Singh | | Posted Friday, October 06, 2006 3:05:44 AM by Blog57 Team | | Trade, the future of the Doha world trade negotiations and joint counter-terrorism work will be on the agenda when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Tony Blair in London next week. The two leaders' third annual summit has been timed to coincide with a UK-India investment conference being hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry on October 10, a senior foreign office official said. .... | |
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| | | Tony Blair's conference speech: a valedictory tear-jerker | | Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 7:10:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday made his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference in Manchester. It was certainly emotional, and got a long standing ovation. This is the full text of his speech: "I'd like to start by saying something very simple. Thank you. Thank you to you, our Party, our members, our supporters, the people who week in, week out do the work, take the flak but don't often get the credit. Thank you, the Labour Party for giving me the extraordinary privilege of leading you these past 12 years. I know I look a lot older. That's what being leader of the Labour Party does to you. Actually, looking round some of you look a lot older. That's what having me as leader of the Labour Party does to you. Nobody knows that better than John Prescott, my Deputy these last 10 years, author of "traditional values in a modern setting".... | |
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| | | Blair and Ahern to host Northern Irish talks | | Posted Monday, September 18, 2006 11:25:53 AM by Blog57 Team | | Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are to host talks with Northern Ireland's political parties next month ahead of a deadline for restoring the province's stalled power sharing government, it was confirmed on Monday. Blair and Ahern will meet the parties in Scotland from October 11-13, the Irish government said in a statement. "The meetings are to discuss the joint .... | |
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| | | Tony Blair 7/4 To Be Out By New Year's Day | | Posted Friday, September 08, 2006 5:16:26 PM by Blog57 Team | | William Hill make Tony Blair odds-on to cease to be Prime Minister in 2007, quoting odds of 2/5 for that to happen - but William Hill say that their customers are betting that Tony Blair will leave office on or before December 31, 2006 - and have slashed the odds about that happening from 5/1 to just 7/4. William Hill are offering 20/1 that Mr Blair will defy all of his critics and not be out of office until 2008 or later. "The pundits seem to believe that Mr Blair will go in 2007 but some very shrewd political punters are backing him not to make it to New Year's Day as Prime Minister" said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe. Gordon Brown is hot favourite at 1/5 to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister with William Hill who have promoted former postman Alan Johnson to 6/1 second favourite from 8/1, with John Reid now 8/1 third favourite.... | |
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