You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 2nd, 2008.
. . . all of London, often with bright-eyed children in hand, they walked briskly to polling places. Some drove — those fortunate enough to have some money to buy petrol, that is. Still others cycled.
However they got there, they were determined. It was written in the lines of their faces. The colour blue was all around, but not the blue of sadness. Blue for the Party. The Conservative party.
Hope filled the eyes, and the hearts, of these blue voters. Hope for a better tomorrow, if not necessarily for themselves, at least, then, maybe for, perhaps, the children. So out they came in their thousands . . . to vote for Boris.
So many voted for him that, according to the Evening Standard tonight, he’s now mayor.
…Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman admitted the results had been “disappointing”, but said that the elections had taken place against a background of rising economic concerns.
“We have got to reflect on it and listen to what people are saying,” she told BBC1’s Breakfast programme.
“People are concerned about rising food prices and the increase in fuel bills and there is a worry about the financial stability and we have got to recognise those concerns and do absolutely everything we can to make sure that people are protected from the economic problems that are out there.”
They still don’t get it. Or perhaps, that’s more the Castro-ist perspective. But in democracy, most adults don’t expect honestly to be “protected” from prices that fluctuate and some other ups and downs.
Rather, the first rule of government must always be “do no additional harm”. However, for years, almost anything Labour has touched policywise has turned to rust. Governing, it has rarely done little but “harm” in all of its endless parade of reviews, redirections, reorientations, relaunches, and, of course, new regulations, all of which are usually paid for with higher taxes. All that is what has made people’s lives unnecessarily more complicated and, therefore more difficult, and made for the major reason Labour got crushed on Thursday.
British Airways’ latest round of fuel surcharges has come into force, meaning higher fares for passengers travelling both across Britain and abroad…
Why is this news? As an airline, is BA immune to fuel costs, and therefore worth singling out? Aren’t there other airlines out there? (The Independent’s Robert Fisk knows of one.)
Notice also how no one is reporting on how everyone is pretty much using Terminal 5 without riots breaking out.
Local council results are coming in this morning, and (unsurprisingly, if one’s been watching polls for months) Labour is getting battered. The BBC tells us:
Labour is suffering a grim night in local elections in England and Wales, losing more than 140 seats so far.
BBC research suggests the party has fallen into third place nationally with 24% of the vote, beaten by the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%.
So far they are the worst local poll results for Labour in 40 years…
The BBC believes:
…if this result were to be repeated next time the country goes to the polls, Labour would be left with 169 MPs and the Tories would have a majority of 138…
British voters are slow to anger; but when they’ve finally had enough, they’ve had enough.
What’s left is London: Did “Red Ken” hold on? We’ll find out by tonight. If he managed successfully through his time in office to turn the British capital city into something of his own personal “Venezuela”, he may have survived. But if London followed the rest of the country, he lost also.
The Conservatives think he has.
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UPDATE: This overall result could also be dangerous, though. As the wife pointed out, one can see a desperate Mr Brown doing the media rounds in days to come, desperately promising “they’ve heard the message”, and desperate Labour MPs will come up with desperate suggestions, which will mean what will follow will be still more tinkering and abject nonsense, which will just make it all that much worse for us all . . . until the next general election finally arrives.
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UPDATE 2: We were a bit off just above. According to this Press Association piece published around 7 AM, the desperation won’t be starting to reveal itself in coming days:
Gordon Brown is facing pressure from Labour MPs for a change in direction after a nightmare at the polls which saw the party slump to its worst results for a generation…
Rather, it has started already. The plethora of new initiatives seem soon to follow. Everyone, hold on to (what might be left in) your wallets.
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UPDATE 3, 12:25 PM: The Telegraph is no longer merely asking if Boris Johnson has won. Or thinking he may have. They are starting to write as if he almost certainly has.
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