For Beleaguered W. and Gordo, a Merry Old Time

Labour sources drop bomb ahead of Blair memoir

(NEWSER) - Tony Blair and George Bush plotted to have Blair stay on as prime minister because Bush wasn't sold on Gordon Brown, claims the Sunday Telegraph . Labour Party sources tell the Telegraph that Bush's team expressed doubts about Brown after he "harangued" Condi Rice in a private meeting. Rice subsequently “complained to the White House about the way he behaved," an unnamed source says. The revelation comes ahead of Blair's hotly anticipated memoir, A Journey, which is out this week. More»

Miliband eases Bush-Brown chill, backs Rice's Iran approach

(NEWSER) - The British foreign secretary arrived in Washington last night, and David Miliband now faces the unenviable task of mending a deepening rift between the Bush administration and Gordon Brown. The speed of the UK's pullback in Basra—not to mention the PM's coolness toward President Bush—has irked a White House accustomed to Bush-Blair coziness, the Telegraph reports. More»

And I hated Gordon Brown

(NEWSER) - Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey, has just hit stores, and it’s loaded with juicy revelations that have Britain talking. Among them:

• Blair says he used alcohol as “a prop,” with his daily intake “definitely at the outer limit” of what was acceptable. “By the standards of days gone by I was not even remotely a topper,” he protests, adding that his intake was “not excessively excessive. I had a limit.”
• Much of the headlines have been dominated by his always-rumored but until now denied feud with Gordon Brown . Blair says he knew Brown would be a “disastrous” prime minister, and blames him for the party’s recent losses

Tory-Liberal Dem coalition talks continue

(NEWSER) - Gordon Brown stepped down as prime minister and resigned as head of the Labour Party today, as it became clear that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are on the verge of forming a coalition government. David Cameron, the head of the Tories, is expected to visit Buckingham Palace today to accept the queen's formal invitation to form a government, the BBC reports . More»

UK PM maintains that going to war was the right decision

(NEWSER) - Gordon Brown says he still believes that going to war in Iraq was “the right decision made for the right reasons,” but he doesn’t think the aftermath was well handled, he told the Chilcot war inquiry today. “It was one of my regrets that I wasn't able to be more successful in pushing the Americans on this issue—that the planning for reconstruction was essential, just the same as planning for the war,” he said. More»