Has Brown led Labour to its worst results since 1968?
Fraser Nelson 3:15amSo, when was the last year Labour did so badly? “Since records began in 1973” say the Tories but surely they can do better than that. Michael Portillo, whom I was sitting beside for an hour as we waited to be called by the BBC, pointed out that there may not be equivalent national share calculated before then but other data must exist. We reckoned that the relatively late emergence of the LibDems as a third force must mean this was Labour’s worst showing since the war. But on the way out, Tony Travers told me he reckons it’s the worst since 1968. While the rest of the world was exploding in socialist riots and free love, the Tories took Hackney and Islington with 60% of the London vote – Labour had 28%. Still better than Labour’s projected 26%. So there is still a chance that Gordon Brown has just led his party to its worst showing in his lifetime.
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salieri
May 2nd, 2008 9:20amA hugely revealing snapshot on 'Today' of the dying regime's immutable mindset, and a follow-up to many (mostly unfair) recent threads about John Humphreys. First, the egregious Harman. Any remotely sensible politician, asked whether the public might reasonably feel that after 13 years it might be time for a change, would have said: fair enough, I can understand that, but.... Instead we got the usual dehumanised claptrap feigning human concern - what we need to focus on is this, the real issue is that, global upheavals etc etc ad nauseam. A rigid inability, to the bitter end, to address either the question or reality.
By contrast, 30 minutes later, Eric Pickles listened to the questions, answered them directly and succinctly, and conceded points graciously to Humphrys so often that there was really nothing to argue about. Common sense, decency and good humour - as well there might be after this sudden release from the NuLab gulag.
I look forward to seeing whom Mr. Curmudgeon is going to blame this time. He has achieved his ambition of going down in the history books, albeit not quite as he would have wished.
Good riddance to him and his whole army of midgets and robots.
salieri
May 2nd, 2008 2:52pmFraser, we hope you've had some sleep and appreciate the superb coverage last night - but have all the posts this morning really been that defamatory? I checked my own for libel and it wasn't.
Pete Hoskin
May 2nd, 2008 3:12pmsalieri: I've checked through our files, and I approved your comment this morning. It must have got stuck somewhere. I'll try approving it again and we'll see if that works...