Blair to Win...Barely

Wow, if those exits are right on the money (unlikely, they're exit polls), then Blair and New Labour will win a 3rd term running Great Britain, but their numbers in Parliament have been greatly diminished.

BBC and ITV projected a 66-seat majority for Labour - down from 161 in the previous Parliament. If the number is confirmed by results, it could call into question whether Blair himself would continue for long as head of the government or be replaced by another Labour leader such as Treasury chief Gordon Brown.

Counting in 645 Parliamentary districts was continuing through the night, and the winner would not be officially confirmed at least until Friday morning. A third term would be a triumph for Blair, whose campaign for re-election was dominated by a furious debate about his credibility
in the wake of the divisive Iraq war.

The real question now is with a smaller Labour majority, will Blair have the power to do that which he wishes. Or, as the article suggests, will his own party remove him as leader like the Tories did to Thatcher in the 1990s?