Labour mauled in UK local polls

[bemildred]

Source: Al Jazeera/Agencies

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has admitted that his party had suffered a "bad" blow in key local elections, as forecasts predicted the worst results for Labour since the 1960s.

As results poured in, Labour was set to finish in third place behind the opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

The ruling party could face another setback in the London mayoral race, which pitched the current mayor, Labour's Ken Livingstone, against the Conservatives' Boris Johnson.

"This has been a disappointing night, indeed a bad night for Labour... we have lessons to learn," Brown said on Friday.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2E61A17C-2A63-4DFE-A25B-489D079232D0.htm

[LynnTheDem]

1. Mission Accomplished for LINO bLiar.

Having a blatant war criminal as the recent party leader should hurt the party.

[T_i_B]

20. To be brutally honest...

...unlike 2006, this mauling had less to do with Blair and more to do with a bad economic policy, introduced by Gordon Brown just before he became PM. The policy in question is Brown's decision to abolish the bottom tax rate, thus shafting the people on the bottom rung of the ladder.

With food and fuel prices on the up this has not been a good move for the government, or the economy for that matter.

[saigon68]

21. Poodle Blair

[Doctor_J]

2. Third?!?

wow. Go LibDems! Did the Tories run an anti-war/Iraq is FUBAR/Labour is a friend of Smirk platform?

[Andrushka]

5. Yeah, good news

http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Results there. Good showing overall - if they can get their shit together a little more, I look very much forward to seeing what comes in the next general election!

Go LibDems! (from an Aussie Green of Brit parentage)

[billyoc]

3. They have some balls calling themselves Labour.

At least they spell it wrong. :rofl:

[pattmarty]

4. I don't think the Brits are ready for another Margaret "Reagan".

[legin]

6. I'm a little concerned about Boris Johnson

He may come across as a sort of 'witty bumbling clown' on TV, but I think this is just a standard british public school act.

The Spector, which he used to be editor of until 2005, had as a contributing journalist Mark Steyn while he was in charge.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/search/page_2/?whatToSearch=searchTheSpectator&search=steyn&x=33&y=5

The Spector currently has Irwin Stelzer and Michael Gove writting for them.

He once rushed over to Italy to interview Berlesconi.

Might need to keep a beady eye on him.

[bemildred]

7. It is a given that all politicians are scurrilious and corrupt.

Even if one allows an exception or two for persons one knows, the general rule ought to be kept in mind.

[jaybeat]

8. WTF? Like the Torries are gonna "fix" things??

Well, I'm sure "the fix is in" a la Karl Rove, but geez, folks. The lesser of two evils is still LESS EVIL!! Do you want a rerun of "Fun with Maggie"??

[LeftishBrit]

9. Agree with you

At least my city (Oxford) bucked the trend. We only had two Tory councillors to start with, and both lost!

If Boris gets to be Mayor of London, we shall have to call it London's 'Dan Quayle moment'. Ugh at the very thought of him.

[bikebloke]

10. I've been reading comments over at the Guardian.

Many are saying if they're going to have Tories, they might as well have the real thing, rather than New Labour Tories.

[enlightenment]

12. Unfortunately, I suspect many people who are too young

to remember the Thatcher years are the one's who voted for the Tories. They make all the right noises and manage to look like a reasonable alternative to people who are pissed off about taxes, crime, and general poor decision making by Labour. The Lib Dems are too much of a commitment for most of them.

Read some comment by a 26 year-old Londoner on the mayoral race - "Boris represents change and we need change."

umm. yeah. They may be surprised what sort of change they get.

silly gits.

[jaybeat]

13. Reagan was a change from Carter in the US

Ask us how THAT worked out!

The worst was watching him and Maggie self-congratulate each other:



:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[AndyTiedye]

15. And Meanwhile On This Side of the Pond, We're Getting Stuck With Another "Reagan"

Without even a single term of Democratic rule in between, so I guess we will see this scene re-played between McTheSame and Whoever the next Tory leader is gonna be.

[LeftishBrit]

17. McSame has been courting Cameron for quite a while now...

compared him with JFK, among other things. It was quite embarrassing, especially as McIdiot clearly has NO understanding of British, or other non-American, politics.

McSame is definitely old enough to be the father of Cameron, who could be described as our latest boy wonder, except that he isn't a wonder. Though at least cleverer and more liberal than McInsane, which isn't saying much.

[LeftishBrit]

16. Argh - that should have come with a warning!

I remember them all too well. Disastrous leaders, from whom we've never really recovered.

[T_i_B]

19. That and the fact that Johnson has the "maverick" status that Livingstone once had.

Trouble is that Boris Johnson has it for all the wrong reasons. Just find yourself a DVD of him presenting "Have I Got News for You" for proof of that.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Coming Soon: Another Dozen Years or so of Tory Rule in the UK

[depakid]

14. Forunately, elections won't be called until 2010

Question is: has Labour learned its lesson- and can it turn itself around in the next 18 months or so.

"Except in the case of the mayoral contest, the election results were more important for their symbolism than for their substance. Local councils have little actual power, but British voters tend to use local elections to express relative degrees of displeasure with the government in office.

In this case, the public expressed a high degree of displeasure — with the economy, with 11 years of Labor rule, and with Mr. Brown himself.

“It’s a real disaster,” said John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. “It is a comment on what has proven to be the failure of the Labor government to get itself out of the mess that Tony Blair left it in.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/world/europe/03britain.html?em&ex=1209873600&en=fcff5b5a3e8d9482&ei=5087%0A

[LeftishBrit]

18. I bloody hope not!

And doubt it. Even if the Tories do get in, I doubt that they'd last more than 4 or 5 years, which is of course 4 or 5 years too long! Anyway, we won't have elections for another 2 years, by which time a lot could happen. Boris rarely has his foot out of his mouth, and has no administrative skills, and I suspect he'll make such a mess as mayor of London that he'll harm Cameron's campaign.