Wow! This just doesn't happen, as evidenced by the fact that the woman was able to get close enough to mask her hand in the DPM's face--no security, only party supporters to protect him.

BBC Wednesday, 16 May, 2001, 19:14 GMT

Election turns ugly

John Prescott was attacked in Wales

Labour's election manifesto launch has been overshadowed by an attack on the deputy prime minister.

John Prescott was manhandled by demonstrators at a Labour Party rally in North Wales.

The Prime MinisterTony Blair also came under fire hours after launching his party's manifesto in Birmingham.

Mr Blair was confronted by an angry cancer patient's partner who challenged him to defend the party's record on health spending.

And police officers gave Home Secretary Jack Straw a slow handclap during a speech to the Police Federation conference, in Blackpool, where he claimed Labour had maintained standards.

The Conservatives put the campaign spotlight on crime and the Liberal Democrats focused on health.

Eggs were thrown at Mr Prescott as he arrived at the Little Theatre, in Rhyl, North Wales, on Wednesday night to address a Labour Party rally.

Trapped

He was trapped against a wall as party supporters freed him from the protesters.

With egg splattered on his jacket, Mr Prescott was led by police to safety in the theatre.

Protesters, with placards in support of farmers and hunting, had earlier gathered outside the theatre.

A convoy of demonstrators led by last year's fuel protest leader, Brynle Williams, later drove past the Rhyl Theatre where the Labour Party rally was taking place.

The North Wales farmer's Range Rover was followed by about 100 lorries, cars and tractors hooting their horns.

Angry tirade

Meanwhile in Birmingham Mr Blair was lambasted by an angry cancer patient's partner.

Tony Blair launched Labour's election manifesto with a pledge to deliver "real and radical change".

Labour's manifesto - Ambitions for Britain - set out the party's goals until 2010 promising changes to public services but no rise in the basic or higher rates of income tax.

But Mr Blair faced the wrath of a cancer patient's distraught partner at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the city.

Sharron Storer, 38, was outraged that no bed had been available on Monday in the hospital's bone marrow unit for her partner, who has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of lymphatic cancer.

"Would you like to tell me what you are going to do to give these people better facilities?," she asked the prime minister.

The prime minister said afterwards that more investment was being put into the health service but that change took time.

'Full of spin'

The party's election manifesto came under attack from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

The Tories dismissed the manifesto as "full of spin" while the Lib Dems called it "timid".

The manifesto renewed Labour's pledge to reform the NHS, promised to give more freedom to headteachers and "radically improve" secondary schools.

It also commited Labour to a referendum on joining the euro when the economic climate is right and giving MPs a free vote on banning foxhunting.

But Conservative leader William Hague said Labour was soft on crime and the Tories would increase police numbers and end the government's special early release scheme in an effort to "win the war".

Mr Blair said: "I know we have a great deal more still to do. We have made a start."

He added: "This is a manifesto that takes the next steps to building a strong society, strong economy and strong Britain."

"This manifesto is not a recipe for a quiet life."

Policies under fire

But shadow chancellor Michael Portillo said Mr Blair could not be believed.

"The fact is he has been given four years and he has failed to deliver."

Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said: "They have a healthy economy, a big parliamentary majority, they could be doing so much more."

His comments came as it emerged that the Liberal Democrats had withdrawn from the fight for a marginal seat in Wyre Forest, Worcestershire.

Independent candidate Dr Richard Taylor is standing as part of a campaign against cut backs at a local hospital.

Lord Razzall, Lib Dem campaign director said the decision had been taken in view of the local circumstances and reflected the party's commitment to health issues.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

Answers

AndrewSullivan.com

THE THIRD WAY CRUMBLES: The most effective poster of the current British election campaign is a Tory one about Tony Blair. It shows a hugely pregnant Blair (you can do anything with computers and photographs these days) above the slogan, "Four years of Labour and he still hasn't delivered." The voters seem happy to give Blair another chance but his abject failure to do anything to improve the dismal public services in Britain is a sign of something. Simply put, shoveling money into failed government bureaucracies solves nothing and wastes a lot of resources. New Labour, like the New Democrats, were supposed to forge a Third Way in which they believed in government but were somehow able to reinvent it along more effective lines. They couldn't. So now, according to the liberal Guardian, a secret report from Tony Blair's private think-tank is proposing radical privatization of many parts of public services, including hospitals, schools, and local government. Four years of the Third Way and Blair is resorting to Thatcherism to get any kind of results. He'll probably win anyway - but he knows deep down that he has failed. The Third Way was a public relations campaign to persuade the middle classes to vote for the left again. It lasted eight years in America - buried by Gore's populist campaign. I give it eight years in Britain - max.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

[The BBC report has been updated to show that Prescott threw a punch at the person who egged him.]

ISSUE 2183 Thursday 17 May 2001

Prescott punches a protester
By George Jones, Political Editor, and Benedict Brogan

LABOUR'S carefully stage-managed election campaign was in disarray last night after John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, punched an egg-throwing protester.

The launch of its manifesto was overshadowed by public displays of dissatisfaction over its record in power: Mr Prescott was manhandled by an angry crowd, Tony Blair was harangued by a woman about the NHS and Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, was slow-handclapped by police officers.

Television pictures clearly showed Mr Prescott lashing out after being hit on the face by the egg when he arrived at a theatre in Rhyl, north Wales, to address a party rally. He was then involved in a scuffle with the protester and fell back over a wall before being led to safety by police.

A 29-year-old man was led away in handcuffs. Later his girlfriend, who claimed to be too frightened to disclose her name, identified him as Craig Evans. She said: "He is a countryside contractor from Denbigh, a placid lad who has never been in trouble.

"Craig threw an egg at Mr Prescott, who was walking past after getting off the battle bus. Then Mr Prescott grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and thumped him." A party spokesman said that Mr Prescott "defended himself from the attack, as anybody would in the circumstances".

Later Mr Prescott said: "I was attacked by an individual. In the melee that followed I clearly defended myself. "I believe that someone is now being questioned by the police and it would be quite improper and quite wrong to add any further comment."

But the incident was deeply embarrassing and could end Mr Prescott's ministerial career. He had earlier been challenged by an angry ex-shipworker during a campaign visit to Merseyside. Labour bore the brunt of the public's barracking, but William Hague and his wife Ffion also encountered a crowd of angry hecklers during a visit to Wolverhampton.

The launch of Labour's manifesto in Birmingham was marred when Mr Blair was confronted by Sharron Storer, the friend of a cancer patient. She said that Labour had failed the NHS. A photo-opportunity had been laid on at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston to highlight the Prime Minister's commitment to improving the service.

But, outside, Ms Storer lectured him for five minutes in front of the cameras. Mr Blair, who had earlier told the country not to expect a "quiet life" if Labour were re-elected, looked flustered.

He tried to persuade her to discuss her concerns with him in private. But she insisted on berating him for the poor treatment received by her friend, Keith Sedgwick.

It was Mr Blair's first unscripted encounter of the campaign with a member of the public. Instead of carefully posed photos of the Prime Minister meeting nurses and doctors, the television bulletins were dominated by images of him being put on the spot on one of Labour's core issues.

The difficulties Labour will face in persuading the public sector to accept radical reform were highlighted when Mr Straw was heckled and jeered as he addressed the Police Federation annual conference in Blackpool. At one point he was forced to stop speaking as the delegates started to slow handclap him.

Labour's wobbly Wednesday ended with Peter Mandelson walking out of an interview on BBC TV's Newsnight. He objected to a question about Gordon Brown's handling of the campaign, but returned to complete the interview.

The party was elected in 1997 on a promise to "save" the NHS and improve other public services. However, Mr Blair acknowleged yesterday that he had only "just begun" to fulfil many of the ambitious promises made four years ago.

He said Labour needed a second term to complete the job, although the manifesto, Ambitions for Britain, set 10-year targets for most key objectives. At the top of Labour's list of priorities for a second term is radical reform of public services.

In 1997 Mr Blair, anxious to reassure voters that he would not embark on an irresponsible spending spree, said money was not the answer to every problem. But yesterday he cast caution aside and unveiled a host of extra spending commitments on health, schools, transport and crime fighting.

Over the next three years spending on education will be increased by more than five per cent a year, health spending by six per cent and transport by 20 per cent.

Mr Blair served notice that the higher spending was conditional on reform. Services would remain universal and publicly funded - but the future could be delivered by private contractors rather than the traditional public sector organisations.

He said that Labour planned to create a new type of hospital - specially built surgical units to carry out routine operations and "managed by the NHS or the private sector" - to guarantee shorter waiting times. Mr Blair signalled his readiness to take on the public sector unions and force through change. "There should be no barriers, no dogma, no vested interests that stand in the way of delivering the best services for our people."

The manifesto repeated the 1997 pledge not to raise the basic or top rate of income tax and ruled out any extension of VAT to food, children's clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares.

But it made no promise to reduce the overall tax burden and left scope for more stealth taxes. On the euro, the manifesto stuck firmly to the formula that there would be a referendum if the next Labour government decided "early in the next Parliament" that economic conditions had been met.

The manifesto fudged the issue of whether a Labour government would ban foxhunting. It pledged that the new House of Commons would be given an early opportunity to express a view and enable Parliament "to reach a conclusion on this issue". But it did not commit Labour to using the Parliament Act to overcome opposition if legislation were blocked by the Lords.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001