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To: macavity who wrote (45028)	1/20/2004 8:08:17 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 74559

I suppose the advantage of paper votes and a manual count is that it's still fairly easy to ensure the vote is secret. Not so easy when you have electronics, fingerprints and things. One has to trust the computer programmers and technicians. However, I think it was Stalin who said "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." The communists have the worst human rights record, equivalent to many Irans and Iraqs combined. 15 million “class enemies” genocidewatch.org I guess real democracy is an acquired habit over time. I think there could possibly be an Iraq related upset. No Tony B as prime minister. An outside chance at least. Tony B has survived many narrow scrapes. We will see how he does with these ones.. ====================================================== iol.co.za Tony Blair to face his toughest week January 20 2004 at 02:33AM By Mike Peacock London - Britain's Tony Blair said on Monday he was confident he would survive what could be the toughest week of his premiership. In eight days' time, Blair may suffer the first major parliamentary defeat since he became prime minister in 1997, over controversial plans to make students pay more for higher education. The next day, senior judge Lord Hutton will deliver his long-awaited report on the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly, which could rock the government to its core. 'I believe I will survive it, yes' "I believe I will survive it, yes," Blair told BBC's Newsnight, at the end of a programme in which he faced vociferous critics of his education plans. Clips of Blair's appearance on the programme were released ahead of the broadcast. More than 100 parliamentarians (MPs) in Blair's Labour Party have pledged to vote against his Higher Education Bill although others have been won over by a late government concession to give poorer students grants of up to 3 000 pounds a year. Blair met Labour MPs in private late on Monday to try and sway them. His aides hope that many will balk at voting against their prime minister a day before the Hutton report could inflict even more serious damage on him. Blair said he knew it would be tough to win the argument but added: "That's part of the job. You have got to do what you think is right." 'That's part of the job. You have got to do what you think is right' If his followers do rebel in large enough numbers to wipe out his massive parliamentary majority, the prime minister's authority will be shattered and he may even be forced to call a confidence vote in his premiership. He would win that handsomely, but even to call one would be highly damaging and if that was not bad enough, Hutton is poised to pass judgment. Kelly slashed his wrist in a deserted copse last July after being exposed as the source for a BBC reporter's claim that Blair's team inflated the threat posed by Iraq, to justify war. The government helped make Kelly's name public and is likely to be criticised. The key question is whether Blair comes under personal fire. If he loses the parliamentary vote and is then personally criticised by Hutton, his Conservative opponents, rejuvenated under combative leader Michael Howard, will pounce. "I can't tell you what the Hutton report is going to say," Blair admitted. The Conservatives believe they can implicate Blair, although Hutton may not mention him at all. On the last day of the inquiry, Sir Kevin Tebbit, top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, said Blair had chaired a meeting where it was decided to make a statement clarifying the government's position - a move which led to Kelly's exposure. Days after Kelly's death, Blair emphatically denied authorising the leaking of the scientist's name to the media.