Chastened after the absence of his vote made the difference between success and failure for the government in the recent Religious Hatred bill debate, the Prime Minister told the Commons last week it would be a good idea if he turned up for important divisions in future.

The Commons calls votes in the legislature "Divisions" because that's when the House of Commons divides into "Ayes" and "Noes" on a particular question under consideration.

This week is the first test of Blair's new resolution to cast his vote. There are important divisions today on the controversial plans to introduce National Identity Cards. On Wednesday it's the Terror Bill, when the government will try to persuade parliament that "glorification" of terrorism should be a crime. On Tuesday there is a "free vote" on an important national concern - should there be a total ban on smoking in all public places.

The Prime Minister tried, he really tried, to get back to parliament in time. He's spent the weekend in South Africa at a development conference - important work although some may question whether the photo-opportunity patting elephants was a good idea when the government is in crisis and Labour has just lost a safe seat in a by-election. But he cut short his trip to fly back last night.

Unfortunately his plane suffered an engine failure, complete with sparks, as it was trying to take off last night. According to the spokesman who was on the plane it was "very frightening", according to the Prime Minister's Official spokesman who is safely back in London it was "a minor incident". Either way it means Mr Blair can't get back by scheduled airline until tomorrow.

As it happens the Prime Minister was not travelling in the usual way on his South Africa visit. Normally he charters a BA commercial airliner and is accompanied by a plane load of officials, security officers and journalists. Of late he has sometimes preferred much smaller executive jets with no accompanying posse, provided by the RAF or private hire. In South Africa this choice let him down badly and may even have endangered his life. Inevitably this will further fuel the active debate on whether there should be an official "Blair Force One" plane available to the Prime Minister.

Anyway the Prime Minister will be back in good time to vote in the Terror debate on Wednesday. We don't know if he will go through the division lobbies on Tuesday. The Prime Minister is entitled to a "free vote" opinion (Margaret Thatcher, for example, used to regularly support the return of hanging) and we know what Mr Blair thinks about smoking (he says he agrees with the Chief Medical Officer who wants a complete ban). But this Prime Minister has often hung back from actually casting a free vote, most notoriously on the question of banning hunting. Presumably this is to avoid taking sides between feuding factions, and in the case of smoking, feuding ministers.

But as he finally flies home tonight Tony Blair will have only one thought on his mind: please, please not another government defeat by just one vote.

Comments

[kevin romford 21 Feb 2006 09:51:40]

the point Alexa, you are missing, is the MP's were whipped into voting, democracy your 'aving a laugh.

[Alexa - Lisbon 18 Feb 2006 14:41:53]

What BAD week? It was difficult yes, like so many in the premier´s job but labour did win the 3 bills... still Blair is mocked and criticised for no reason! If he had lost the votes he would be put to shame and given a sermon about leadership and diplomacy! So give the man some credit - MPs had their votes and there you have it! Complain to THEM about ID cards, smoking ban and anti-terrorism bills! As for the African trip the PM did face his fears: Plane-flights with tecnical problems LOL *welcome Home*

[kevin romford 17 Feb 2006 13:27:23]

Tony Blair after putting the glorification vote to bed. On your "rare after vote interview" in my opinion looked just what he is. Full of it, acting hard means more than taking your jacket off and saying the islamic marchers gave him the hump. Why doesn't he arrest them for incitment to murder, everything with Blair is about the future next time we can get them, well Mr Blair this time we can get them. And as for your acting hard interview I bet at least 10% of extremists have converted to Christianity in the wake of that.

[Maurice - Northumberland 15 Feb 2006 19:00:56]

Is that really what makes a good PM?
Tony 3 Country 0.
Stalin, Mao, Mugabwe, Hitler always won as well.

[saz, London 15 Feb 2006 15:43:15]

Like I said in a previous post, Tony is a fighter and a surviver, the government wins again - 3/3 for TONY!!

[Maurice - Northumberland 15 Feb 2006 15:04:15]

The sad fact is that if Blair and Co have a good week, the country has just another bad one to add to the many. Why anyone is able to support a proven liars so many times and on so many fronts, is beyond belief.

[David Cunnington, Bournemouth 15 Feb 2006 10:54:54]

I am becoming increasingly revolted at seeing how the present 'inheritors' of the Labour Party are dismissing its historic working class roots. Once again we witnessed Tony Blair at Blackpool waxing his words praising the early pioneers of the movement which was founded 100 yrs ago, and yesterday we were made aware of the power wielded by the uninspiring present day 'leaders' of the government team in their successful efforts to go beyond the 'no smoking' proposals made to us in their May manifesto. Pedalling their usual obsessions with Political Correctness and Health Police Nanny State' they took Draconian decisions to rule out some basic liberal acceptance for private clubs, working mens clubs, British Legion etc. What insolence to older people who have certainly endured the hardships of the past, whether in the Armed Services or through times of hardship and suffering down the years ! We have to watch these self-righteous and bossy women from the Health Ministry telling us how we should all accept their plans 'for our own good'. The shrill and bossy tone of Caroline Flint was particularly repulsive to watch. I am now one of the rapidly increasing former lifelong Labour voters who will most certainly not give them any consideration when voting in the future.

[saz. london 15 Feb 2006 09:53:21]

So far Tony Blair's had a good week, the ID cards, the smoking ban going his way and hopefully tonight the terror laws, people always say this is blair's worse week etc and how many times have people and the media said that he'll never survive, HE ALWAYS SURVIVES, I think the man's is a legend.

keep the faith...

[Bruce Hulmes / England 14 Feb 2006 19:05:06]

Blair brings on his own difficulties by his inability to tell the truth, his whole form of government has been based on telling complete lies. Blair promised a lot when first elected all lies, if you intend to be truthful why do you need the late Robert Maxwells chief liar Campbell on your team?.

[patricia ali 14 Feb 2006 13:26:09]

Bad..well let me think ... what a lovely plane Blair was travelling on i wouldn't call that bad, £170,000 worth of luxury paid for by taxpayers, ..no not bad at all..oh and some-one else doing his (Blair) job for him and he still getting paid, my! the taxpayer is definitely the best 'boss' to work for, and the bonus is, when things go wrong there's two people fingers can point at, and it makes no difference to one 'Blair' he's leaving anyway, might aswell enjoy all the benifits while he can.. no i dont think Blair is having a bad week at all..and even if history doesn't quite portray him as he would like...'saviour of planet earth and its inhabitants'...Blair and his wife have made enough money and influentual friends to continue in the lifestyle they have become accustomed to, plus a lifetime of security and a pension paid for by that brilliant 'boss' the taxpayer,... mmm not bad at all, and all Blair had to do was talk the talk because he certainly didn't walk the walk..I would say that's not bad but that it's definitely all good.
And can some one tell me how the I.D card will work with the internet, purchasing, banking etc? because I for the life of me cant see it, what I can see is everyone's information will be stored on one data base, am I right? so this WILL offer a gold mine to would be sellers and buyers of information, the temptation is massive for both.

[James Matthews, Warminster 14 Feb 2006 11:46:56]

So who caused the PM's plane to fail in South Africa? My suspicions look to three people when considering who crocked the PM's plane. First and foremost the suspicions must fall on Tony Blair who is seeking every possible way of dodging the effects of losing a vote. Being away from England would give the PM every chance to blame Gordon Brown if things were to go wrong - the classic "don't blame me, I wasn't there" line. Then the blame would be directed to Cherie Blair, a person who is naturally against the Governments line on ID cards and would love to see them fail in the Commons. Lastly Leo Blair, who maybe realises that if ID cards come in then he will be without the anonymity afforded to his siblings when they went out and about. Leo probably feels that if ID cards fail to materialize then he will enjoy his swinging teens relatively unmolested - unless he was silly enough to be arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

[Tony,Essex 14 Feb 2006 01:45:04]

Doesn't Mr Blair have a bad week every week! After all he's in a job he doesn't want & keeps on making decisions “we” dont like! I really thought I could understand the logic of some people but maybe not!
Mr Blair
1:Get our boys back ASAP,
2:Stop giving our money away,
3:Stop trying to rule the world it's not our job any more,
4:Start looking after your own people,
5:Use all the money & man power we save to build a better Britain.
That will do for a start ; )

[fluffy 13 Feb 2006 23:42:02]

I am starting a charity, 'The League of Judicial Sports'. The aim is to raise enough money to send Tony "God" Blair on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

Anyone interested in donating some cash...?

[John Edwards, Bracknell 13 Feb 2006 22:50:43]

The notion that the issue of ID cards will somehow reduce identity fraud and also reduce the threat of terrorism is tragically and dangerously naive!!

This is Big Brother being slipped in under the guise that it is for our own benefit. Absolute rubbish - more dishonesty from a government whose credibility is already in the gutter.

[Bruce Hulmes / England 13 Feb 2006 21:53:50]

If Mark from Torquay actually thinks Blair intends to make this country a safe place to live, then he must be in a minority of one
(besides Blair himself) who thinks so.
Give everybody an ID card and crime stops,why didn't somebody think of that years ago. It is through the likes of Blair and the so called liberal elite that we are in this mess, many years ago they discovered that there was a fortune to be made by breaking down the old values and creating racism, sexism, ageism then there are the phobias xenophobia, homophobia islamophobia and many more. If you think I am wrong consider this the House of Commons is packed with lawers including Mr Blair, he passes a law and his wife makes money (tax payers money)defending the isms and phobias against the law. How would you like to bet that if the ID cards become law Mrs Blair will be defending somebody who thinks carrying the card infringes his/her human rights.
If you want to make this country safer then you start with proper boarder controls number of foreigners in jail over 9'000 most of them illegals or asylum seekers.
Sack judges who seem to play a social workers that would be a start.

[Peter, Fife, Scotland 13 Feb 2006 20:07:29]

Re: Post by Mark, Torquay :13th Feb 2006
I tend to agree, how do we as a nation breed these self righteous individuals that rattle on about civil liberties as if they are the conscience of society, most often claiming to speak for the majority? In today’s modern society with all the differing types of crime being perpetuated against society and the individual is it not sensible to have a higher, more secure identity system. I have not claimed the system would be foolproof, foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools; it is more the ingenuity of criminals and terrorists that concern me. We all use forms of personal identity on a regular basis from the pensioner with a photographic travel pass, Inland Revenue records, bank and credit cards with PIN numbers to United Kingdom passports; are all these forms of identification alien to the protestors or is it the publicity associated with the newer forms of ID cards that is the attraction? This I feel is the oxygen that the political protestors seek as their reasons for objection; all those in political opposition should practice what David Cameron preaches but does not practice, reasoned opposition.
Twin Towers 9/11 and London 7/7 are the wake up calls that most people can identify with, but it is only those who have been victim of identity theft that are fully aware of the problems this causes.
I am sure the main protestors would be the loudest complainers if something happened to them, I am equally sure they would not associate their own actions and objections as culpable.

[Roger,Fleetwood 13 Feb 2006 18:49:10]

Sorry Mark from Torquay I have nothing to hide but I do not want ID cards.
I carry enough forms of ID round, driving licence, works ID card, car insurance forms etc. I will NOT pay extra just so HMG can supposedly look after my best interests.
The DVLA bless'em reckoned that close to a million cars had gone missing compared to what should be taxed. Cars have ID's that are held on a data base yet as Oscar Wilde might say to lose one record is unfortunate to lose hundreds of thousands looks like carelessness.
I object to giving money for something that will not stop terrorists, in fact a good forgery would work for a casual enquiry.
ID theft is being addressed by private companies, (e.g Chip & Pin) HMG should be sending more civil servants out to check benefit claimants rather than sending letters out. They are using the generic ID theft label to cover the minor costs of true benefit fraud.
The cost will grow out of control as EVERY Government scheme does do. Rather than looking at the German ID card system I suggest you look at the Australian experience. If you have £100 plus you want to give to them in Westminster good for you, I on the other hand have better things to spend money on like putting extra in my pension fund.
If anyone thinks this scheme will come in on time and on budget (unlike every other HMG computer system) and the costs will be affordable I have a tin of tartan paint you might want to buy.

[Ed Ward, Mooi Nooi, SA 13 Feb 2006 16:48:00]

Blair was interviewed on a South African documentary show (Carte Blanche) last night by a fairly 'punchy' reporter. His comments are well worth a look if you can get a copy because I'm sure he wouldn't have answered some of the questions he did the same way on a British channel!

I won't spoil the experience by telling you what went on.

Maybe it's the altitude (we're at +/- 6500 feet here)

Ta
Ed

[Mark, Torquay 13 Feb 2006 16:19:42]

ID CARDS!!
Is it not time that we got with the times and admit that crime is widespread, specially anti social behaviour. The Police do all they can but are held back because the law is on the side of the criminal. Civil liberty's I hear people shout! What about the victims liberty's when they become a victim of crime. Surely it should be time now when everyone has to have an ID card by law, like in Germany and would instantly allow the police to identify who that person was.
My hat goes off to Tony BLAIR and I only hope that common sense prevails so we can restore law and order to what should be a safe place to live. As I always say, 'Only those with something to hide will fight new weapons to combat crime'.

[Bernard West Grinstead 13 Feb 2006 15:14:26]

If Mr Blair is out of the country, one would have thought that Gordon Brown would be a happy man, but then there's such a man as Two Jags running the country, why should be in the least bit concerned.!

[Rosie, London 13 Feb 2006 14:18:17]

"Blair Force One" - I like that.

But yes, it seems like the luck isn't with the PM at the moment.

[Khal1d 13 Feb 2006 14:02:53]

Adam,Mr Blair' "animal instincts" bring back to mind that cute little elephant "Dumbo" for some reason? Can't recall this PM getting any thing wrong in which he has made intuititative decisions! First the Id Card and now plane trouble! Should have stuck to "BRITISH" AIRWAYS - the unblinkered airline of choice! Any way,Parliament as well as the public at large know that the PM has an extensive workload, and that major decisions require personal attendance! Sky do a daily voting spot on Sky News' Channel 501, whereby the viewer simply presses the red but on the digital remote control, follows the line instructions, and hey presto, vote registered, viewer happy, and Sky gather the public' view! Not a hard process do you think? Similar technology could assist the PM in casting major votes,save that Sky is available throughout the world, if only politicians would allow its citizens free choice! If the PM needs any spares for his plane, he can simply call Sky Customer Services (08705 800 874) who will be glad to help! or e-mail skydigital@sky.com