Posted on 05/05/2006 6:16:14 PM PDT by Murtyo
Tony Blair has suffered a bad night in England's local elections with Labour losing more than 300 councillors. The main winners were the Tories, who had their best results since 1992. The Lib Dems failed to make much headway. Elsewhere the BNP doubled its councillors, including winning 11 seats from Labour in Barking. The Greens and Respect also made gains. The prime minister has reshuffled his Cabinet to try to regain momentum after days of bad headlines.
The projected vote share if the polls were held nationwide shows the Tories on 40%, Lib Dems 27% and Labour 26%. Turnout is estimated at 36% - down three points from 2004.
The result is one of the worst on record for Labour at a local election - and its worst share of the vote in an election since the early 1980s. The party said the poll did not produce the "meltdown" some had predicted.
Nevertheless it did lose 319 councillors and control of a string of key councils including Camden in London, which it has controlled for 35 years. The borough went to no overall control and the Liberal Democrats are now the largest party there.
There were a series of calls for a change of leadership from within the party. Ex-health secretary Frank Dobson said there should be a "new management".
The Conservatives gained 317 councillors and took control of councils across London and the South-East, but failed to make hoped-for gains in Northern cities such as Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester.
Labour has faced widespread criticism in recent weeks. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's personal life hit the headlines, while Charles Clarke - who was sacked as home secretary following the elections - was attacked because over revelations of foreign criminals living in the UK.
The Labour leader of the city council in Stoke-on-Trent fired a parting shot after losing his seat.
Mick Salih said leading party figures were "arrogant" and that Labour had become "the Conservatives in disguise".
Chancellor Gordon Brown said the results were a "warning shot" for the government and that the party had to "renew" itself to deal with the challenges of the future.
He indicated he would be talking to the prime minister at the weekend about the way forward. "We have got to show we are listening to people's concerns and we are going to respond to them," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He said the government had suffered a bad two weeks leading up to the poll and there were problems that had to be sorted out "immediately". "We have now got to renew ourselves as a party to deal with the challenges ahead," said Mr Brown. But he denied any knowledge of a supposed petition by backbenchers calling for Mr Blair to step down immediately, pledging a "unified and orderly" transition of power.
Following the election results, the prime minister moved forward a Cabinet reshuffle originally planned for Monday. Among the major changes, Margaret Beckett replaced Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary, while Charles Clarke was sacked as Home Secretary, to be replaced by John Reid.
Conservative leader David Cameron said that overall the results were "very pleasing" and "far beyond what we expected", although he acknowledged they had work to do in cities like Manchester and Newcastle. "There's plenty more to do, and plenty more change to be made and work to be done, but I think this is a very important step forward," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
Labour lost overall control of 18 councils, including Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire and Bury in Greater Manchester, and Lewisham, Merton and Camden in London. It has gained Lambeth. The Conservatives have gained Crawley, Ealing, Bexley and Hammersmith and Fulham from Labour, as well as winning Croydon, Bassetlaw and Mole Valley but they lost West Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire and Gosport in Hampshire.
There was a mixed night for the Lib Dems, who won Richmond, South Lakeland and St Albans, but lost control of Islington and Milton Keynes. Party leader Sir Menzies Campbell said he was not down-hearted adding: "This wasn't a test for me, it was a test for the party after the difficulties of the earlier part of this year. I think we have come through this test."
Among the smaller parties, the Greens gained 20 seats, with particular success in Norwich. The UK Independence Party has won a seat in Hartlepool. George Galloway's anti-war Respect won 11 seats in Tower Hamlets, up from just one.
In addition to winning 11 seats in Barking, the BNP took three in Sandwell, three in Epping Forest and one in Pendle. In total the party gained 27 more councillors
Is this the man who repudidated Thatcherism? What is the British equivalent of RINO?
I can't believe we've come to the point were Labour might be the lesser evil.
See #2.
Am I totally off base here?
Dunno. I do know that Tony Blair seems better than most Republicans. From what little I know.
Nah, Blair is like Christopher Hitchens, great on the war but socially way left.
Actually, Tony Blair is a bit to the right of the average Briton. The Conversatives don't have a hope of being elected on the basis of economic and social policy. They're far to the right of the average Brit. Labour and Blair are somewhat socially liberal, but in terms of economic policy, they are pretty much free markeeters, especially in the arena of international trade.
Any more I think someone needs to strike up "The World Turned Upside Down" again. It's getting very strange indeed.
You're way overcooking it. Cameron has moved the party's presentation of itself to the centre - the same Thatcherites are still there.
The Tories are definitely not to the left of Labour - the victory in Hammersmith and Fulham proved it - the leader of the Tories there said, "We campaigned as tax cutting Conservatives, are are going to govern as tax cutting Conservatives."
Regards, Ivan
What about the Tory's rather loud anti-Iraq war stance? Or is that just the few looking for headlines in the world press?
I never thought that I'd be hoping for a strengthening of the Labour base, but here we are.
World turned upside down indeed. The "world's best" rapper is a white boy, the world's best golfer is a black/Tahitian American, and the tallest dude in the NBA is Chinese!
As you can see, any talk of a premature withdrawal is severely criticised.
Regards, Ivan
"Actually, Tony Blair is a bit to the right of the average Briton. The Conversatives don't have a hope of being elected on the basis of economic and social policy. They're far to the right of the average Brit."
What on earth are you talking about? The Conservatives held power for the majority of the last century and it didn't seem a problem then. The 'average Brit' now is certainly to the right of the 'average Brit' in the 1980's (witness the Labour Party's journey away from their hard left roots in that time) and, I don't know if you noticed, but the we had Conservative government throughout the 1980's.
I'm wondering how much of this is due to anti-immigration backlash...particularly muslim backlash.
It's a lot more to do with frustration at a government that seems to have grown very complacent after too long in power. Gains for the BNP were thankfully not that large and, outside of a few specific areas, they are a non-factor.
It appears as tho the Tories have embraced the religion of Multiculturalism and Diversity with the same amount of fervor that Labour has.
Maybe that's why the BNP did so well?
The West is encouraging its own demise, and to point it out brings criminal charges of racism and xenophobia.
Labor won't be a stupid as the Tories were when they forced Margaret Thatcher out. The Left is always smarter about these situations than the Right. Richard Nixon had to leave office, but Bill Clinton did not. Republicans pass a rule that no one who is indicted (no matter how bogus the indictment) can hold a leadership position, but the Democrats have no such rule. The Left knows nothing trumps holding on to that position of power, period....because in a couple of months, the voters will have forgotten all about whatever made them mad.
i think on economics the average briton is to the right of where they were anytime since before WW2.
But on social policy, multi-culturalism especially, the average briton has never been further to the left.
The Conservatives being in power for the majority of the last century or even in the 1980s is irrelevant. A week is a long time in politics and public opinion can change quite susbstantially over the course of a decade or so. The majority of Brits are to the left of the Conservatives on most social issues and are certainly to the left of both the Labour Party and the Conservatives on the issue of the war in Iraq. On the other hand, while Thatcherism is dead, it did manage to shift ideology about economics to the right and essentially marginalized traditional democratic socialism. In short, the average Brit is a social liberal who more or less embaces the free market, but certainly not to the extent that Thatcher did. When I was in Britain last year, I remember reading poll results which showed that the average Brit is to the left of Blair and way to the left of the Conservatives. Moreover, the Conservatives have shifted to the left since Thatcher. On the ideological scale, they're to the left of the US Democratic Party on several issues. Lastly, the neoconservativism which we have in the US only exists on the political margins in the UK.
I think maybe your rigid application of 'left' and 'right' is the key here. You say "The majority of Brits are to the....left of both the Labour Party and the Conservatives on the issue of the war in Iraq". That statement means nothing. The issue of whether or not you think a war is in the national interest is rarely a matter of political ideology and it certainly wasn't in that case. I happened to think that it was a bad idea and that British forces should not have been involved, for reasons that have pretty much been vindicated by subsequent events, as did a number (though by no means a majority) of Conservative MPs. That was for no reasons for do with 'right' or 'left' though.
"Moreover, the Conservatives have shifted to the left since Thatcher"
I'm not sure that's particularly supportable. The Labour Party has certainly shifted to the right which tends to lessen the contrast.
I think it is supportable. Conservatives have definitely eschewed Thatcherism's harder edges. I agree with you that Labor has moved to the right in terms of economic policy. That shift, coupled with the Conservatives abandoning the harder edges of Thatcherism, does tend to blur the contrast between the two parties - somewhat. That being said, polling data that I read while I was in the UK does show that the average Brit is a bit to the left of Tony Blair and does not identify with the main ideological planks of the Conversative Party.
donno, maybe it's just that people think the conservatives offer better governance?? I may be wrong , but may stereotypically view of an english labour councillor is not a high minded public servant, rather a union/left wing type. The Conservatives are generally small business people and large business people and that's often who other turn to to make sure the garbage gets collected and the streets get cleaned, etc. Plus local govt in the UK has some (maybe a Brit Freeper can enlighten us) role in policing, so being typically tougher on crime, the conservatives have an advantage with voters.
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