英国工党连日“内讧”，首相布莱尔惨遭“逼宫”，他宣布离职的消息真能挽救人气下滑的工党？
BritishPrime Minister Tony Blair confirmed on
September 7 that he will resign within the next 12 months, but 
refused to name a precise date.
To
resign in the country’s interest
“I would have
preferred to do this in my own way,” Blair spoke to television cameras at a
north London school, as he said the party’s annual conference this month would
be his last.
Mr. Blair made it clear he would announce his departure
“at a future date”, and he “will do that in the interests of the
country.”
It was reported that Blair plans to leave office on May 4
next year, a day after regional elections in Scotland and Wales, and then allow
Gordon Brown, the current Chancellor of Exchequer, to take over as Labor Party
leader in June. If the party wins the 2007 elections, Brown is the expected
successor to prime minister, reports said.
Brown
to move into No. 10
Not long
after Tony Blair’s announcement of his resignation, the Treasury said that
Chancellor Brown will move his family into the flat above No. 10 Downing Street.
The flat has traditionally been occupied by the Prime Minister.
However, when Labor came to power in 1997, Tony Blair and his family moved into
the larger flat above No. 11, which had previously been the official home of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Brown has lived in his own small flat in
London. Now he finds his flat too crowded and would make the move.
Blair’s popularity sinks
Blair’s popularity began sinking when he sent troops
to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq three years ago. Blair has long been teased by
critics as the U.S. president’s “poodle.” He suffered a further blow at an
international meeting in July. An open microphone caught a chat in which he
seemed embarrassingly humble when Mr. Bush greeted him by shouting “Yo, Blair!”
Polls kept sliding and the Labor Party is anxious. Blair has been
pushed to tell when he will resign. This time he bowed to pressure in hopes of
ending days of public turmoil that is hurting
Labor.
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