LONDON -- British politics is now in a fluid state. The May 5 general election, which should have settled things, at least for four or five years, has unsettled everything in a very puzzling way.
On the winning Labour side, an obviously tired Tony Blair has seen his personal stance vilified by his own supporters -- on the grounds that he misleadingly exaggerated the case for invading Iraq alongside the Americans -- and his position as party leader and prime minister weakened by the growingly visible ambitions of his colleague, Finance Minister Gordon Brown, to replace him.
In more normal times, his comfortable parliamentary majority (67 over all other parties and 159 over his main rivals, the Conservatives) after Labour's first-ever third straight victory ought to have given him triumphant security in his post. He is young by political standards and could theoretically serve the country for years to come.