Friday, September 8 2006 14:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: An uneasy truce prevails in the Labour party even though Prime Minister Tony Blair has climbed down from his earlier stand that he would complete his third term and has announced that he would ride into the political sunset within the next 12 months.

As experts peered over the national and international ramifications of having a lame duck prime minister for the foreseeable future, many in the Labour party were unsure of the direction a post-Blair Britain would take.

Political analysts were beginning to write Blair's political obituary on Thursday, but not a few were saddened at the way he was sought to be hounded out of office by his own party men - this, after leading the party to a record three election wins in a row.

Since Monday, Sep 4, the week has veritably proved to be a long time in politics for Blair. That day, nearly 17 of his aides set the ball rolling with a letter asking him to resign in the interests of the party.

Nobody quite knew then how much political moss subsequent events would gather. The fact is that even by Thursday evening nobody knew if Blair's restating the known position that he would be gone in the next 12 months was enough to satisfy recalcitrant Labour MPs.

Privately, many of them used the 'F word' after learning that in announcing he would go within 12 months Blair refused to set a date. Not a few Labour MPs are uneasy over the prospect of facing a restive British public in future local and general elections.

Indeed, according to BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson, there was still a lot of 'poison' emanating from Labour MPs and allies of Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown were continuing to fight behind the scenes.

Blair's critics - read Brown and his allies - hope that he will ride into the political sunset way before the 12-month deadline. The consensus seems to be that Blair will quit in May 2007, after he completes 10 years as prime minister, but party MPs want him to vanish earlier than that.

In May 2007, elections are scheduled to local English councils and to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. The consensus within large sections of the Labour party is that it will be routed in the elections due to the unpopular policies on Iraq, Lebanon and Blair's support to the US in the 'war on terror'. Several angry Asian Labour party members have defected to the Liberal Democrats over the government's policies.

After Blair made his '12-months' statement on Thursday at a London school in the backdrop of placards by anti-war demonstrators that simply said "Go", European Union trade commissioner and key Blair ally Peter Mandelson said: "I think that Labour has had its moment of madness this week and I hope it will now move on and that the plotting and the shenanigans will be put behind them once and for all. They've got to concentrate on the needs of the country, not themselves."

He said he always thought Mr Blair would step down after 10 years in office, as it was as much as someone could do that job for.