Word: britain
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...responses as crisp as his shirt--and displaying a confidence as miraculously uncreased after months at the center of a storm over alleged corruption--Tony Blair on Feb. 6 submitted to a very public interrogation. He has twice answered police questions--as a witness, not as a suspect--in Britain's so-called cash-for-honors affair, becoming the first serving Prime Minister to be grilled by the cops. But this was his biannual appearance before a top parliamentary committee, a set-piece occasion that always provides insights into government policy. This time, as the chief witness genially pointed...
...Prime Minister has already given a general answer: soon. Back in September he promised to relinquish the keys to 10 Downing Street before this fall. He declared an intention more recently to carry the flag for Britain at the G-8 and European Union summits in June. That indicates a narrow summer timetable for the anticipated swift transition of power to his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. But as Blair looks forward to the 10th anniversary of his first election victory, on May 1, London's famous chattering classes are wondering if he'll make it that...
...personal diary of events (he denies it); Downing Street is said to have a second, secret e-mail system ("stuff and nonsense," says an aide). But the idea that there's no smoke without fire is deeply rooted in British public life, and a pall hangs over Downing Street. "Britain remains a very clean political system, but you have this public sense of something being up," says Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the Fabian Society, a left-of-center think tank. He speaks of a "corrosive lack of trust" that is undermining the credibility of the political system. There...
...Blair is determined not to stand down before the inquiry reaches a conclusion, believing this would be interpreted as an admission of guilt. But the longer the case goes on, the longer it encourages those who just can't stand Blair, and perhaps never could. Whether that does Britain much good is another matter. "This country's reputation for political leadership will suffer if we drag his reputation through the dirt," says the Downing Street aide. That may be true, but if anyone in London cares, they're keeping mighty quiet...
...statistics seem to support this bleak view. In 2001, 12 of the 20 biggest-dollar initial public offerings (IPOs) occurred in the U.S. In each of 2005 and 2006, only one did. IPOs totaled $55.2 billion in Britain last year and only $46.6 billion here. Since 2000, the number of foreign companies listed on NASDAQ fell...