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Gordon Brown resigns
• Labour leader steps
down as prime minister and party head
• Queen to ask David Cameron
to form government
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 May 2010 20.09 BST
這段告別談話晚上聽了很多次, 感觸良多.....正如早上跟Max聊的, 在這最老牌democractic 國家, 聽他說是二戰以來最激烈的選舉,感受最深的是:electorate跟candidates對於過程與結果皆保持相當風度, 民主啊! 在意的不該是一時輸贏, 看重的是公民積極參與公共生活的意願, 在這, 民主是他們很自然的生活態度, 或者該說是人生哲學吧............
Gordon Brown has resigned as prime minister, clearing the way for David Cameron to form a new government with the Liberal DemocratsConservatives to power for the first time since 1997. that would return the
The Labour leader announced his immediate resignation as both prime minister and party leader in an emotional but dignified statement outside 10 Downing Street at 7.20pm, alongside his wife Sarah.
He said he had told the Queen's prvate secretary of his intention to tender his resignation.
"I wish the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future," he said. "Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities as well as its great capacity for good.
"I love the job, not for its prestige titles and ceremony – that, I do not love at all – but for its potential to make this country more fair, more green, more democratic."
He gave special stress to thanking the armed forcing, saying: "Our troops represent all that is best in our country." He said he would never forget "all those who have died".
His voice faltering, he thanked his wife "for her unwavering support as well as her love", and thanked his young sons, Fraser and John.
Brown said: "As I leave the second most important job I could ever hold, I cherish the first even more: as a husband and a father."
He ended with a simple "Thank you and goodbye" before leaving with his family for Buckingham Palace.
Brown's statement followed the breakdown of last-ditch talks between senior Labour figures and the Liberal Democrats aimed at forming a "progressive coalition" to keep Cameron out of Downing Street.
It also brought down the curtain on 13 years of Labour rule and followed four days of intense political wrangling between the three main parties after last week's general election delivered a hung parliament.
Immediately after his statement, Brown travelled the short distance to the palace in a motorcade.
The Queen is now expected to call on Cameron to visit the palace during the evening, when constitutional protocol requires her to ask the Conservative leader to form the next government. If a deal is ratified with the Lib Dems at a meeting of the party's MPs later this evening, it would be the first coalition in British political history since 1945.
Brown's resignation ended a day that had begun with hope among Labour supporters that, despite having come second at the polls, they might be able to continue in power. Senior Labour figures opened formal talks with the Liberal Democrats after Brown announced he would be willing to stand aside as party leader. But the talks foundered quickly, and senior Liberal Democrats then spent most of the day at the Cabinet Office locked in talks with the Conservative negotiating team; Cameron also met Clegg in private for an hour.
The day had begun with a serious-faced Cameron telling reporters outside his west London home: "It is now, I believe, decision time – decision time for the Liberal Democrats. And I hope they make the right decision to give this country the strong, stable government that it badly needs and it badly needs quickly."
Shortly afterwards, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, emerged from his house looking tired after talks with Lib Dem colleagues continued into the small hours.
"We will act, as ever, responsibly," he said. "We will act to try to do our bit to create a stable, good government that the British people deserve."
It is understood that the Lib Dem negotiators, David Laws, Chris Huhne, Danny Alexander and Andrew Stunnell, sensed a negative attitude towards a deal from elements of their Labour counterparts, notably Ed Balls and Ed Miliband. This was even though Ed Miliband told the BBC at lunchtime there had been "a good atmosphere" in discussions. There was also a fear that although Labour negotiators said they were in favour of voting reform, they might not have had the political strength to deliver it.
Shortly after 1.30pm, the balance of power seemed to shift towards the Tories once more when William Hague, who was part of the Conservatives' four-man negotiating team, announced that the Tories were about to return to the Cabinet Office to resume negotiations with the Liberal Democrats.
By mid-afternoon, the Tory leader was seen entering Portcullis House, the MPs' office block, with a smile on his face.
During the afternoon, the Labour health secretary, Andy Burnham, said that he was not in favour of a Lib-Lab deal amid unconfirmed reports that his fellow cabinet ministers Jack Straw, Bob Ainsworth, Liam Byrne and Siddique Khan were also opposed.
The former home secretary David Blunkett said earlier that joining a "coalition of the defeated" would spell electoral disaster for Labour.
Another former home secretary, John Reid, said: "Don't forget we have just had the biggest loss of seats in Labour's history. If we are perceived to be responding to that by ignoring it and by trying to cobble something together that patently isn't in the national interest, then we will face the same thing in the future."
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整個南部都是保守黨的票倉, 希望他別辜負這些選民的期待.............
David Cameron is new prime minister
David Cameron has entered 10
Downing Street as prime minister, returning the Conservative party to
power after 13 years.
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