Word: mps
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...parliament. As Mugabe tried to deliver a keynote speech opening a new session of parliament, opposition members - who now form a majority in the assembly and reject Mugabe's authority to call them together - broke out in whistles, shouts and even song. From the opposition benches, where the MPs refused to stand, a chorus of "Zanu Yaora" rang out, meaning 'Zanu is rotten.' (Zanu is the shortened acronym for Mugabe's party, the Zanu-PF or Zimbabwean African Union-Patriotic Front.) Mugabe tried to ignore the noise and continued to speak but many of his words were lost...
...consider to be political capriciousness. The government abandoned a much-needed overhaul of the country's constitution - a problematic document drafted by generals after the 1980 military coup - on which a broad coalition of academics and NGOs had been working. Instead, led by fiery Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, MPs pushed through just a single constitutional amendment: one that would lift the ban on headscarves in universities...
...Party insiders also tip Jack Straw, now Justice Minister, a Labour veteran who has served as Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, to play a key role. Labour rules make it tough to oust a Prime Minister. That's why some Labour MPs hope that Straw will persuade Brown to stand down voluntarily...
...Much of that pressure is building in Labour's own ranks. The party's coffers are empty, making it more reliant than ever on contributions from trade unions, which are using this leverage to try to push the party further to the left. Increasing numbers of moderate Labour MPs suspect that the only way to attract new donors and ultimately to avoid a swingeing defeat at the next general election is to replace Brown. Among the putative successors regularly mentioned are a clutch of Labour cabinet ministers: David Miliband, Alan Johnson, James Purnell and Ed Balls...
...desperation, they've been talking through different scenarios for an ouster and how Brown's departure could be explained to the electorate. On a rare sunny day this month, just before parliament rose for its long summer recess, MPs and party activists occupied every table at the riverside terrace bar of the House of Commons. The breeze was gentle, but their conversation was brutal. "Prime Ministers have been known to suffer health problems," mused one plotter...