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Re: Britain's Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister
LONDON (AP) '” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Monday he will resign by September in a dramatic move that eases the way for his Labour Party to stay in power in a possible coalition government with the third-place Liberal Democrats.
Brown said the Labour Party, which came a distant second to the Conservatives in Thursday's national election, would begin a leadership contest to replace him while he focused on talks aimed at breaking Britain's election deadlock.
"As leader of my party I must accept that as a judgment on me," Brown said, referring to Labour's poor showing in the election.
Brown's startling news conference came as the Conservatives, who won the most seats in the election but not a majority in Parliament, were already holding talks with the Liberal Democrats. Lawmakers had said those talks stalled over differences on key issues, including reform of the voting system, a Liberal Democrat demand.
In a statement outside his office at 10 Downing Street, Brown said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had asked to begin formal coalition talks with the Labour Party and the two could form a center-left alliance.
Clegg had previously said Brown's departure would likely be a condition of any deal with Labour.
"There is a progressive majority in Britain, and I believe it could be in the interests of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government," Brown said.
Cameron's center-right Conservatives won 306 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, 20 short of a majority. Brown's center-left Labour won 258 and the center-left Liberal Democrats took 57 seats. Other smaller parties took the rest.
Brown said he hoped a new Labour leader would be appointed at the party's annual convention in September. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Education Secretary Ed Balls will likely be leading contenders to succeed Brown as party leader.
The pound fell nearly 1.5 cents against the dollar after Brown's statement, trading at $1.4866 late Monday, reflecting some fear of Labour's continued presence in the government.
Britain has a record 153 billion-pound ($236 billion) deficit that the Conservatives have pledged to tackle faster than Labour.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Re: Britain's Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister
Taking over Downing Street is political suicide. No way anyone will manage to save UK in a glorious way. It's gonna be baaaad.
Good news for me though. I can fly to England and spend money like I was in a third world country! Compared to Norwegian NOK, I'd say we're looking at the Sterling hitting the 5 or 6 soon, like the Dollar did a couple of years back. (Pound usually on 10 or more) I think the Dollar was down to almost 4 at one point, making my old man go on a American Car Ebay shopping spree, buying a Corvette, a Cadillac or two for half the price.
- julia (babydolls)
- Rep: 6
Re: Britain's Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister
well... its a hot potato here. we can all see what Greece is going through and its unravelling more and more across Europe. Other countries are as close eg Spain, Portugal and indeed UK. We are in bad way socially and economically and I dont believe being so entrenched in the Eu has helped . I believe the trade movement between the Euro countries should absolutely continue and be strengthened, but as for the actual EU - I think we need to seriously re-evaluate what we put in and what we get out. There are benefits of course, but Britain has punched way above its weight as a country for too long and lamentable decisions by Labour like not staggering the amount of Eu workers that could come and work here on an annual basis (example being new member countries eg poland), has fucked us quicker than most. I welcome anyone and everyone to this country that wants to be here or have had to escape here from their own countries wars - but the basic fucking logic is that Britain is fucking tiny land mass wise - esp compared to US (!) - but even compared to France, Germany etc - so why on earth wouldnt you want to ensure that as much preparation as possible was done before literally hundreds of thousands of people come here to re-settle? What we have now is severe lack of affordable housing, massive strain on public services, huge welfare dependant society, community tension, a lot of our court rulings are overturned by Brussles (deporting criminals etc - against their Human rights dont cha know.) We were signed into the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum (which was promised in an election manifesto - ah ha ha, and look what happened when the Irish got one, and then another til they voted "correctly...") and we have been forced into becoming part of a super state that has and will continue to drastcally alter what Britain is and how its run. Remains to be seen what our new government will do - but I'm personally glad Labour are out.
Re: Britain's Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister
btw... It was 1 Pound for... 2 Dollars not so long ago.
Your an idiot if you think the country gonna crash and burn.
- julia (babydolls)
- Rep: 6
Re: Britain's Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister
That was 3 years ago, a lot of shit has hit the fan since. I dont think Britain will crash and burn as a country alone if thats what you mean, but there is some way to go. How that is going to come about with our new Con/Lib Dem coalition government here will soon be apparent i guess. The EU and our part in it will be interesting (?if that's the word?!) under a government other than Labour.
