THE HEADLINES in the papers slammed Tony Blair as he set off this week to the US, Japan and South Korea. They reflect a now near universal feeling that his days are numbered. Just this weekend you could read "We don't trust you: Tony Blair has lost the trust of the British people over war on Iraq" (Daily Mirror). "Lost on the Third Way to nowhere. He's run out of drive and so have his policies" (Sunday Times).
"GEORGE BUSH is coming to South Africa with his hands dripping with the fresh blood of Iraqi people. When they roll out the red carpet for him, it will be to hide the bloodstains." That's how Trevor Ngwane, the leading South African anti-privatisation activist, summed up what Bush's tour of Africa means.
THE BLAIR government lurched towards further confrontation with its own supporters over the health service this week. A bill which includes plans for foundation hospitals had its third reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday. The widespread opposition of Labour backbenchers has forced health secretary John Reid to make some cosmetic changes to the proposals.
"REFORM" USED to mean things would improve for the better. Under Tony Blair "reform" means things will get worse. New Labour fears its plan for the reform of the NHS through foundation hospitals could produce another rebellion inside its own ranks next week in parliament. That prospect saw the government attempt to soften up MPs this week. It scuppered its own bill over foxhunting. This has paved the way for a vote on an outright ban on hunting.
THE WHEELS have come off Tony Blair's bandwagon. Millions of people have rumbled his lies over the war. A television mock trial, which presented the anti-war case badly, still found Blair guilty of mass deception by a margin of two to one. The aftermath of the war and New Labour's ongoing attacks are producing immense political debate and questioning across Britain. It finds only the faintest echo in the cosseted world of official politics.
WHAT A debacle. Tony Blair's disastrous cabinet reshuffle was supposed to help strengthen his government's purpose and resolve. It has had the exact opposite effect. Now a number of key Blairites like Alan Milburn have joined the ever expanding ranks of ex-ministers on the back benches.
THE LIES told by Tony Blair to justify war on Iraq are coming back to haunt him. This week the conference of Britain's fourth biggest union, the GMB, called for a public inquiry into events leading up to the war. If Blair was found to have lied, said the motion, he should resign. The conference also supported the Stop the War Coalition and voted to review its links with Labour MPs.
GORDON Brown "yesterday set the government on course for another nine months of wrangling over the euro". That was the verdict of the Financial Times business paper on the government's euro announcement.
TONY BLAIR is facing his most profound crisis. Politicians have been caught lying and cheating many times before. Blair's lies over Iraq are of a different order. He lied so he could join in killing thousands of Iraqi people.
EVERYONE SHOULD smell a rat when Rupert Murdoch's Sun claims to care about mass sackings of workers. Billionaire Murdoch is responsible for massacring many thousands of jobs in the print industry here and abroad. But Tuesday's Sun had the nerve to play on fears of redundancy in order to whip up pro George Bush hysteria over Europe.
ANYONE WHO believes that the government's assault on asylum seekers leaves the most desperate "legitimate" refugees untouched, should look at Abas Amini's face. The Home Office is appealing against a decision to give him asylum in Britain. He is so desperate he has sewn up his own eyes, mouth and ears in protest.
THE £22 million payout for GlaxoSmithKline boss Jean Pierre Garnier has revealed the obscene scale of the wealth, opulence and luxury at the top of society. It shows that nothing has changed under New Labour. Bosses are still awarding themselves millions in salaries, bonuses, share options and "golden parachutes". In fact the fat cats are revelling in an even more grotesque way than they did in Margaret Thatcher's heyday.
