The scale of Labour's defeat

Anand

Could yesterdays events be the watershed moment that finally consigns Labour to the 3rd party in the Commons in a future GE?

Please let it be so. A Tory government kept on it's toes by a strong Lib Dem opposition would be the stuff of dreams.

And does the strong UKIP turnout force Cameron's hand in clearly outlining the Tory stance on Europe. I believe the majority of the VOTING public are anti Brussels and want out of the European Parliament. If Cameron makes the manifesto pledge, he gets ALL the UKIP vote in a GE, putting his vote share to well over 40% if we extrapolate from yesterdays combined UKIP and CON vote shares.

Draughtsman

Absolutely right James. Labour are kidding themselves if they believe that it was just the expenses row that has caused this historic defeat. Yes, people are appalled and disgusted by the piggery shown by MPs of all parties, but in my view it is Brown personally that that is dragging down Labour's support. His deeply unattractive personality, the smears and lies he allows his creatures to spread about any opposition, and the antics he is now engaging in to remain PM, mean that Labour will not start to heal themselves until he is gone, both as PM and as an MP.

Vulture

I know - its great, isn't it? This bitching, bullying old weirdo and the poisonous sac at his elbow are between them destroying the party we hate.

C Powell

It's not his leadership. It's Labour policies which are the reason behind these disastrous (for Labour) defeats. Not much point changing Gordon for Hattie or Alan if they continue with the same policies e.g. ID cards or a wasteful public sector etc etc.

Labour (and political commentators) are deluding themselves if they think a change of face at the top is all that's needed. Labour need to rethink what their purpose is - what are they for - and understand why people have turned their back on them and their policies and they need to do this rethinking in opposition.

Russell

Is it true that Labour now has more MPs than Councillors?

Ian C

Given how badly let down Purnell was by the wimps in the Cabinet and the scale of the defeats in Thursday's elections, he could now credibly stand as a the challenger. In fact it would enhance his reputation.

Johnson would then have to throw his hat into the ring having interviewed Bruin in No 10 along with the rest of the Cabinet to tell him that the game is up.

Purnell as leader would be bad news for the Tories but brilliant if he was defeated - probable....?

Tamara

Only the Labour Party could poison its own well.

It has taken the white working class many years to work it out en masse (mainly because of the Left's media manipulation) but they have in the last decade realised Labour's hatred for them and how it is only to happy to use them as statistics in its social engineering programmes.

Something truly has changed with these elections: RIP Labour.

Oor Wullie

Also, in Scotland Labour lost a European election (to the SNP) for the first time.

Frankp1

"Is it true that Labour now has more MPs than Councillors?"

Dunno, but they sure have more counsellors than they bargained for. Not much good to them when they are deaf and blind, though.

Mr Green

Labour's problems started in the 70's with its close ties with Communist Russia. The striking Unions happily accepted funding from Russia. The Unions, in turn, bank-rolled Labour. In return Labour's policies were fashioned to keep the Unions happy.
What we ended up with was not socialism nor social democracy, but an odd flavour of Marxism.

Labour needs to wither and die. In its place we need a centre-left party which simply believes in standing up for the little-man.

Dirty Euro

It was expenses we were know where near 16 % in opinion polls before expenses. It was the expenses time bomb. Plus Blears going on election day.

Jeremy

"...every day the (Labour) party accepts his (Brown's) continuing leadership it demonstrates how out of touch it is with public opinion."

The government is not merely out of touch with public opinion, it has also placed itself increasingly beyond the touch of either the voters or the Parliamentary Labour Party. How so? Well, according to Peter Oborne in today's Daily Mail, the Labour movement now has more unelected peers in its government than any administration since that of Lord Salisbury (Tory) at the end of the nineteenth century.

And this from a Prime Minister who tells us that he is going to make government more democratic and more accountable to ordinary people.

Ironic, or what?

John Moss

I have just confirmed the figures for borrowing under Chancellors Brown and Darling reached just over £250 billion at the end of March 2009.

Just over £200 billion was borrowed by Brown as Chancellor between the end of the 2001 FY and the end of the 2008 FY and this excludes Notwork Rail, Northern Wreck, PFI liabilities and increased pension liabilities.

Forecasts in the budget suggest another £500 billion will be added ot th enational debt in the next five years.

The Labour party's destruction of the public finances is staggering. Could it be criminal?

Aidan

James - Is it true that Mebyon Kernow got more votes than Labour in Cornwall? Is there anywhere on the web where we can see the breakdown of the votes at constituency level?

A. Upton-Ogood

What has Labour achieved in 12 years of government? - nothing to be proud of, but only to make the population oppressed; the middle-England workers over-taxed; and poorer people enforced state supplicants. Brown's notion of "fairness" is now a proven, repeated lie; and his Government despises the electorate.
There is no point in having more of the same - good God, 12 years is as long as two World War IIs back-to-back. Neither one more day nor another 12 months is going to make any difference, except to make us even angrier towards a failed and incompetent Government, now reliant on unelected and detested apparatchiks.
By the way, Blair was constantly wondering what his "legacy" would be. Now he can see it in the fullness of the economic, social and intellectual wasteland that we now live in.

dorothy wilson

Ian C

Purnell is not a leader. I have a good deal of experience of assessing people for jobs that suit them and would put Purnell in the salesman category. We had one of those in Blair and do not want another.

Also, I hope someone in the media takes up the point made by Mark Francois on Sky last night. Glenis Kinnock has been appointed Europe Minister with a seat in the Lords but cannot take that up because she is still an MEP until, apparently, July. The probability is that she is trying to hang on to her MEP status because of the pay-off and pension.

Surely, only Brown could appoint someone in circumstances like that. Surely, only Brown could appoint someone who came over as such a dreadful women when challenged about the daftness of it all.

George Laird

Dear All

In Scotland the Scottish National Party won 29.1% of the national vote.

Labour came second with 20.8% of the vote.

The SNP coming first in 22 of the 32 council areas.

In Glasgow South West the seat of Labour MP Ian 'the deerhuter' Davidson, the SNP made a 32% swing to close the gap to 8%.

500 votes was the margin between the SNP and Labour vote.

In the last General Election the Labour majority of Davidson was 13,896.

If the SNP work really hard they have a chance of taking this seat for the first time.

The SNP Candidate for Glasgow South West is Chris Stephens who works in local government and is active in the trade union movement.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University