The relationship between George Bush and Tony Blair will not change despite the British Prime Minister’s announcement he will step down, the White House has said, reports BBC.
The US president’s spokesman Tony Snow insisted Mr Blair was “a valuable ally” and said the pair still had “a lot of work to do” on the world stage.
“He is somebody whose counsel the President much values,” Mr Snow added.
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced further pressure on Friday to quit sooner rather than later after he confirmed he would stand down within 12 months but refused to set a precise date for his departure, says Reuters.
“Blair, who has ruled for nearly a decade and steered his Labour Party to an unprecedented three consecutive election victories, said on Thursday he would resign within a year.
“But his failure to either go now or at least name a leaving date is unlikely to satisfy some Labour rebels, disillusioned by a spate of scandals and by Blair’s hawkish stance on Iraq and the recent war in Lebanon.
“An opinion poll in The Daily Telegraph newspaper suggested 58 percent of Britons now want Blair to resign before the end of the year and 44 percent as early as this month…..”
More from the BBC: “Tony Blair has faced a wave of resignations by junior members of his government over his refusal to name a date for resignation as Labour leader.
“He branded ex-junior minister Tom Watson, the most senior person to quit, ‘disloyal, discourteous and wrong’ for signing a letter urging him to go.
“The resignations came as Mr Blair faces growing pressure to name a departure date or even quit now.”
Who would replace Tony Blair? For an interesting light-hearted piece read here.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.