Airstrip One

Penny for the Byers

So why did Liar Byers hit the dust? Well he suggests that it was the City wot did it. And so it was. Byers was detested in the City because of his attempt to take over the Railtrack business without either compensation or a primary act of Parliament. In other words Byers had attempted theft.

Now the City were in the end compensated, almost to the full value of their holdings. Although this quieted the City’s fury towards the Government, they still had Byers in their sites as they wanted to make an example of him pour encourager les autres. The message they wanted to get across to any wannabe confiscatory minister was, only at the risk of your political life.

So why did Blair get rid of Byers after holding on to him for so long? Well it has to do with the Euro. Byers is very pro-Euro. As far as Blair sees it Byers is a trusted pro-European and not an opportunist like Peter Hain, and so was worth keeping to fight the Brownite tide. And then Brown started saying that perhaps the Euro wasn’t so bad after all.

So Blair started pushing forward a Euro referendum and has suddenly found an unexpected cooling amongst previously solid allies. Business is not too keen on the Euro all of a sudden, even the CBI says its 'not convinced', and without business support Blair has no chance. And what would please business more?

Bye bye Byers.