Blair will stand down on 27 June
Tony Blair has announced he will stand down as prime minister on 27 June.
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He will remain prime minister until the Labour Party elects a new leader – expected to be Gordon Brown.
The Washington Post has details on the news,
Blair was under no legal obligation to leave office; he won reelection in 2005 and could have served until the next national election, which must be held no later than 2010. But even before the last election, in September 2004, Blair made a surprise announcement that he would not run for a fourth term. The speculation that followed came to dominate political discourse in Britain. Finally, in September 2006, battered by fading approval ratings and the resignation of eight junior members of his government who said the prime minister had lost the party’s confidence, Blair announced that he would leave office by September 2007 “in the interests of the country.”
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I had dinner with Judith Weiss, Mary Madigan, and their friend Steve two nights ago in Tel Aviv. Today I got an email from Judith pointing me to her latest posts, including links to your podcast.
Small world: my LA cousin works for blogtalkradio.com