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Pastimes : The Hot Button Questions:- Money, Banks, & the Economy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (517)	1/12/2004 5:25:01 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1417

Tony has enough on his plate with the Hutton enquiry. The university "top up fees" is also a big issue for the labour party. There are 20 year hard core party players going over to the rebels. GB's actions have not been kind to Tony Blair on a number of occasions.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (517)	1/12/2004 6:05:27 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1417

Hi LL, this the "Hot Button" question in the UK at the moment... ================================================= Fee rebels betraying the nation, says Blair By Philip Webster and Tom Baldwin timesonline.co.uk LABOUR’S tuition fee rebels were told yesterday that they were betraying their country. Tony Blair, embarking on a campaign to avoid the growing prospect of a Commons defeat on education, told them: “We need to win this. It’s extremely important to the whole authority of the Government that we do win it, but more important it is very important for the country that we win it.” With ministers privately accepting that the votes are currently against him, and some suggesting privately that he should withdraw the Higher Education Bill, a defiant Prime Minister said that he had not contemplated defeat and did not intend to. Mr Blair did not attempt to conceal the difficulties he is facing. He admitted in an interview on Breakfast with Frost on BBC One that he was showing fatigue, adding that it was hardly surprising when “a thousand people are kicking your backside morning, noon and night”. A survey by The Times over the weekend suggested that few MPs have been dissuaded from revolt on tuition fees by the package of help for poorer students from Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary. Nick Brown, the former Chief Whip who is leading the revolt, today blames Mr Blair’s advisers for imposing the policy on the party without proper consultation. He tells The Times: “I think that at the heart of Government the argument for the American market-based system was favoured from the beginning. I assume it is the advisers in Downing Street who came up with this. “ It’s not the sort of idea you would expect to emerge from the heart of the Labour Party, it goes against the grain in a fundamental way. If you have a marketplace in higher education, it will one day be money driven and if it is money driven then it will disadvantage those who don’t have money.” Mr Blair has not said that he will resign in the event of defeat on education, but when David Frost put it to him that he would lose, he said: “Let’s wait and see because I am going to be out there fighting for this all the way in the next few weeks.” Then, at least acknowledging the possibility of defeat, he went on: “If in the end Parliament defeats this because of misunderstanding on my own side or the complete opportunism of the Conservative Party . . . it would be a complete betrayal of the proper interests of the country.” Mr Blair said of the Government’s package: “It is a good deal for universities who are going to get a substantial extra increase in funding. It is a good deal for poorer students, who are going to get £3,000 worth of help every year through university. “And it is a good deal for middle-class students and parents because they will not pay anything up front.” In his interview Mr Brown attacks suggestions that he is motivated by bitterness over his sacking in last summer’s reshuffle or any desire see Gordon Brown taking over as Prime Minister. He says the Chancellor, of whom he is a close ally, has repeatedly urged him to come back into line. However, he confirms that his relationship with Mr Blair, a man he once regarded as a friend, has deteriorated. “I once thought I knew him, I’m now not so sure I did. I think he has become detached from the rest of us,” he says. Although he insists the Prime Minister can remain in office until the next election and beyond, Mr Brown urges him not to raise the stakes by making the top-up fees vote an issue of confidence in the Government.