On the morning of the 2nd May 1997, I wondered how I would feel when the newly elected Labour government had run its course. They all do, sooner or later. The Tories, despite the wipe out would re-emerge eventually, much as I hated the thought at the time. So, in those euphoric early hours as I watched the likes of Michael Portillo humbled – and, let’s not beat about the bush here – thoroughly enjoying every moment of it; I wondered. How would it feel when Labour suffered a similar defeat at some point in the future?
Well, it looks as if I may be about to find out:
Gordon Brown is set to lead Labour into an election bloodbath so crushing it could take his party a decade to recover, according to the largest ever poll of marginal seats which predicts a landslide victory for David Cameron.
Eight cabinet ministers, including the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary, would be swept away in the rout as the Tories marched into Downing Street with a majority of 146, says the poll, conducted for PoliticsHome.com and exclusively revealed to The Observer. Seats that have been Labour since the First World War would fall.
The sheer scale of the humiliation is almost as bad as that endured by the Tories in 1997, suggesting it could take Labour a similar time to claw its way back to power. The party would be virtually extinguished in southern England and left with only its hardcore redoubts in northern England, the Welsh valleys and deprived inner-city areas.
My thoughts? Thank Christ for that! Oh, my, how times change. How the scales fall from our eyes.
“Michael Portillo humbled”
I enjoyed that too, and I was a Conservative voter.
haddocks last blog post..Not as things seem.
There’s a splendid map at Unenlightened Commentary that shows it in all its glory:
http://fountain.blogspot.com/2008/09/image-of-day.html
🙂
JuliaMs last blog post..Left Wing Self-Loathing…
To be honest I hope they never recover.
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Having squandered what was won in 1997, they certainly don’t deserve to. There are those who will say that we should have known better, perhaps they are right. Lesson learned.
As Hilaire Belloc presciently wrote of the Liberal landslide in 1906:
“The accursed power which stands on Privilege
(And goes with Women, and Champagne and Bridge)
Broke – and Democracy resumed her reign:
(Which goes with Bridge, and Women and Champagne).”
Labour squandered what was handed to them on a plate, the Tories had made themselves unelectable (although I still voted for them as I did not like what I saw, or didn’t see, when I looked at Blair) so all Labour had to do was turn up. They squandered it because they were devoid of principles. Blair’s guiding principle was “me for Prime Minister” and he was backed by people who believed being in power was enough. The UK (me, since 2002, thankfully from afar) has seen the dreadful consequences of having a government making it up as they go along, not having a clue about the big things, health, education, energy, etc., so concentrating on the minutiae of people’s lives. I fear however that Cameron is cut from the same cloth as Blair. There will be some populist bones, hopefully including the scrapping of ID cards, but he will flounder as anyone must who does not have the rock of underlying priciples on which to formulate policy.
It’s even worse than that with ZanuLabour. As is apparent from their witless pronouncements from Brown downwards, they are quite convinced they still Know Best, and always have, even while lamenting that they have momentarily lost the plot.
Time to bring in the Men in White Coats and cart the whole lot off to Broadmoor.
The moment he used sentences, Blair, without subjects and objects, I knew Britain was gone. Ditto Obama now in the US.
jameshighams last blog post..[britain] atmospheric beauty