Fight Club

HE SAID, HE SAID: Blair, right, is alleged to have gone back on a promise to stand down last fall to allow Brown to become Prime Minister

Tony Blair has faced down mutinies before, most recently when Britain — and his own Labour Party — was up in arms about his pro-war stance on Iraq. Yet even in the midst of that bitter, noisy battle, the British Prime Minister's smooth talk and skillful party management brought most of his rebellious backbenchers into line. But last Monday, at a meeting with around 200 angry Labour M.P.s and peers, Blair's magnetism finally proved unequal to the task. This time, the rebellion wasn't triggered by war and geopolitics. It was about a personal feud — but one that could do...

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