BREAKING: Jack Straw to be replaced as Foreign Secretary (BBC)

[BooScout]

Just now breaking on BBC live. No link yet.

Straw is to be replaced. Showing on the latest feed to the BBC. Will update once the story is posted.

ETA to add link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4975938.stm
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Straw to be replaced in reshuffle

Jack Straw is to be replaced as Foreign Secretary in a Cabinet reshuffle as Tony Blair seeks to regain momentum after local election losses.
Details of the rejig are still emerging but Commons leader Geoff Hoon will be the new Europe minister.

Labour came third in the national share of the vote in Thursday's polls, losing more than 200 seats to the Tories.

[acmavm]

1. When do the British get a replacement for the real problem (Blair)?

[lvx35]

3. As soon as they get big enough Colberts to replace him. nt

[Kutjara]

5. When the opposition parties...

...pull their fingers out of their collective asses and come up with policies that people will vote for.

The lack of credible opposition to the government is becoming a serious problem. So much so that there is a worry that a significant number of voters may vote for the ultra-right British National Party as a protest (my brother in law is one such voter). Something is seriously wrong when folks are so pissed off they start voting for Nazis.

These are troubling times indeed.

[BooScout]

2. Update

They are saying on BBC News now that Straw is to be the Leader of the House of Commons.

[Kutjara]

4. He's being promoted to his...

...level of incompetence. Oh wait. That happened three jobs ago.

[maddezmom]

9. Charles Clarke leaving for the back benches

[BooScout]

6. Looks like a shake up for Labour

They lost 250 council seats in elections yesterday. People apparently voted on a national referendum rather than local. Tories gained a good bit.

[Kutjara]

7. What's truly grotesque...

...is that voters are faced with either a right-wing government (Labour) or a right-wing opposition (Tory). The centrist Liberal Democrats are always hovering on the fringes, lacking the credibility to be anything other than a possible junior coalition partner. And on the left? A great yawning vacuum.

It's like a race to see who can be more dispicable.

[BooScout]

8. Sad isn't it? n/t

[maddezmom]

10. Margaret Beckett to replace Straw

according to BBC

[Kutjara]

11. Same sh*t, different wrapper. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Maybe - she seem more human than most of them

but she hasn't much international experience, as far as I know; and she wasn't impressive during the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis. I worry that this means Blair will effectively be doing all the foreign stuff for the next year. And with Iran so visible, that's bad news. :scared:

[BooScout]

14. Perhaps Shaw's position on Iran didn't suit Tony.

That's a scary thought.

[Kutjara]

16. Deeply scary.

Maybe Tony caught the 'endtimes' bug from his coreligionist Dubyah. Whoops, Apocalypse!

[dipsydoodle]

24. No

far worse shit , different wrapper. She'll be our equivalent of Sleezy and may act just the same.

[allemand]

17. What is her position regarding Iran/the possibility of military action?

At least Jack Straw was "vehemently" opposed to any military action against Iran, according to Seymour Hersh:

"Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said last year that military action against Iran was “inconceivable.” Blair has been more circumspect, saying publicly that one should never take options off the table."
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

"for example, the British Foreign Officer, Jack Straw, is vehemently against any military action, of course also nuclear action, and so is the Foreign Office, as I said, but nobody knows what will happen if Bush calls Blair. Blair's the wild card in this."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/12/1359254

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Fairly unknown, since she hasn't had an 'external' ministry since 1998

when she was in charge of Trade and Industry. The best I can find so far is from Wikipedia: "In August 2002 she expressed reservations about the prospect of a war in Iraq, but supported the 2003 Iraq war when the time came." She's been around for quite some time, and was interim leader of the party for a few months after John Smith died, before they elected Blair; but she hasn't held one of the top government offices until now.

[allemand]

25. Thank you.

:)

[BooScout]

13. The press is going to go after Blair now.

They are going to say he should have sacked Clarke two weeks ago and Blair made a huge mistake in not doing it.

They are calling it a 'radical' reshuffle. Wonder how long Blair will hang on by his teeth?

[Kutjara]

15. Well, he's been saying he'll step down...

...before the next General Election, so he might just hand the whole shitstorm over to Gordo and bugger off to share a well earned retirement with his mate Silvio in Chiantishire.

I can dream, can't I?


EDIT: typo

[BooScout]

18. Glenda Jackson (actress & Labour MP) says it's time for Blair to go

Raise hell Glenda!

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Glenda for PM!

Seriously, if the Labour rebels choose her as a 'stalking horse', I think she'd get a fair amount of support from 'normal people'.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. Can you imagine the matchup between Glenda Jackson and *?

It would be such disadavantage to the latter with the former having a cool presentation of policy and British reserve while insulting the hell out of him, Rummy, Dick, and Condi.

I second your nomination.

[dipsydoodle]

26. I'll third that.

Yes I'm sure she wouldn't take any crap out of the current US Nazi Party aka Bushco.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Hilary Armstrong replaced as Chief Whip

by Jacqui Smith. No surprise that Armstrong went - she screwed up those votes Labour could have won.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

28. Apparently Hazel Blears is taking over as party chair

I can't imagine that will be a popular move, but then what is these days.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Ruth Kelly replaced at education by Alan Johnson

Buried in the BBC piece, about half way down.

On edit: "Ms Kelly will take over many of Mr Prescott's government responsibilities, covering communities and local government."

Council tax revaluations? A bed of nails.

[C_U_L8R]

27. The Last Straw ?

Hope Jack spills the beans on the entire axis of weasels.

[tanyev]

29. Guess his role as opening act in Condipalooza didn't help him any.

[meganmonkey]

30. Thank goodness

Now that lovely Grateful Dead tune won't be bastardized everytime I hear his name on the news :)

Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down,
And dug for him a shallow grave and laid his body down.
Half a mile from Tucson, by the morning light,
One man gone and another to go, my old buddy you're moving much too slow.

We can share the women, we can share the wine.

[Jack Rabbit]

31. Well, that's one of the British war criminals down

Tony still has to sack himself.

[Jack Rabbit]

32. BBC: Reshuffle at a glance

From the BBC Online
Dated Friday May 5

At-a-glance: Tony Blair reshuffle

Here are the details of Tony Blair's reshuffle of his Cabinet in the wake of big losses in Thursday's local elections.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
John Prescott remains as deputy prime minister and in his elected role as deputy leader of the Labour Party but is losing his portfolio - the 'super ministry' known as the ODPM. It covered housing, local government, regeneration, planning and urban and regional issues.

FOREIGN SECRETARY
Margaret Beckett leaves her job as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs to get one of the top jobs in government, becoming Britain's first ever woman foreign secretary.

HOME SECRETARY
John Reid leaves defence and takes over the home affairs brief following the sacking of Charles Clarke in the wake of the revelation that foreign prisoners including murderers and sex offenders were released and not deported.

Read more.

[TheWatcher]

33. Looks like our British neighbors are rearranging the Deck Chairs

On the Hindenburg as well. :)



Today has been an interesting day.

[Ghost Dog]

34. Reuters: Blair overhauls government after poll rout

Surprising, perhaps ominous move Another big wheel falls off the wagon.
Fri May 5, 2006 5:05 PM BST

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-05T163534Z_01_L04358582_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-BLAIR.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13

LONDON (Reuters) - Tony Blair overhauled his government on Friday after one of the worst local election results of his premiership in what analysts said was a bid to reassert his authority and signal he has no plans to step down.

The shake-up follows accusations of government sleaze and incompetence on top of the dismal results, which piled pressure on Blair to give his government new impetus or step aside. Blair axed Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary Charles Clarke and stripped his deputy John Prescott of his ministry after a sex scandal.

<snip>

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett, who earned an international profile in climate change talks, replaced Straw to become the country's first female foreign secretary.

<snip>

Blair's official spokesman declined to say why Straw had been demoted. Some analysts speculated that there may have been differences of emphasis on key policy issues, such as Iran. "Blair is reluctant to rule out (military action) in public whereas Straw has done it on more than one occasion," said John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University. "Straw is clearly not minded to repeat the Iraqi experience."

/more detail at link above...

Perhaps it was something Condi said...?

[Ghost Dog]

35. Plus, here's the latest BBC piece on this,

... eerily without comment on Jack Straw's ousting. "Leader of the Commons" was what previously became of Robin Cook, before he suddenly died, of course.

[doc03]

36. Just a thought, could he be involed in Fornigate?

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. No, he only has eyes for Condi

http://www.google.com/search?q=condoleeza+straw+%22love+in%22

13,700 hits for 'condoleeza straw "love in"'

[demgrrrll]

39. The security cost for her visit to Liverpool was a half million pounds.

I did not know that they had snipers on the roof. Apparently the citizens are up in arms about the costs and want the government to pay.

[rocktivity]

37. So he's rearragning deck chairs on the Hindenburg, too!

rocknation