The previously ’safe’ New Labour seat of Crewe and Nantwich is now in the hands of the Conservatives in another sign from the electorate that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in some deep, deep trouble. He is, in effect, up that political creek without a mandate.
The new MP is Edward Timpson who secured a swing of 17.6% to wrest the seat from Labour by a formidable margin of 7,860 votes (Source: bbc.co.uk/news).
Tory candidate Edward Timpson won 7,860 more votes than his Labour rival – a 17.6% swing from the 2005 General Election.
This clearly does not bode well for the Brown government; indeed Conservative Leader David Cameron hailed the result as the end of New Labour. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that a General Election will be an uphill battle for a government that will be close to 13 years in office.
One need only compare this to the staleness apparent at the end of the Howard government in Australia after four terms in office totalling 11 years. The parallels are evident in many ways. Prior to Howard’s 2007 election defeat Australians had become reinvigorated by an Opposition Party that only a few short years ago was ‘un-electable’. John Howard blew what was (at one point described as) a ‘teflon’ Premiership with negative campaining, targeted financial hand-outs designed to soften up ‘middle-Australia (who gladly took the money with one hand, while at the same time crying foul about fiscal mismanagement) and back bench pressure for a series of ill-advised legislative moves such as Work Choices.
Sound at all familiar? Brown has blown the initial good-will he had obtained after taking over from Tony Blair with the failure to call a General Election soon after his ascension to the top job, a series of poor policy decisions and ‘backflips’ (10p Tax Threshold) and subsequent rumblings from his back bench.
First the London Mayoral and Local Elections on 1 May and now a ‘crushing’ by-election defeat. Keep an eye on how Brown manouvers in an attempt to regain support for his ailing government. It is certainly not game over for Brown, provided he can plug the policy gaps and re-assert his authority with the back bench and seize the public agenda for all the right reasons.
Thanks to the ABC for the picture (www.abc.net.au)
Mr Mithen
Filed under: Australian Politics, Domestic Politics (UK), General
im dreaming of a blue Christmas just like the ones we use to know.
Harry – I hope that you are feeling relieved after completing your Politics exam today. I trust that you went well and I look forward to hearing all about it after the half-term break!
Interesting, though there is still the chance for some cluster-mucks to occur, both for Cons and Lab. but Borris seems to be doing a good job so far, whether you would hate him or not.. though not really enough time has passed for that, and he seems to have elected “private” people for public jobs.
Any chance of some new news sir? The Abortion bill (and others) apart from that I havent got any new news at all. I have CITY AM which is a good free paper though.
Also, in the image of Our Great Leader above, it seems that he is indicating the percentage of the Nation that supports him…….
Hey Alex,
I’ve been out of the country for a few days hence the lack of updates. I visited Berlin which was wonderful and satisfied a 19 year fascination I’ve had with the Berlin Wall since I saw it come down at the age of 7. Of course, I didn’t quite know what was really happening at the time, but I knew it was very important! The Checkpoint Charlie Museum details some of the successful escapes from East to West. I also visited a Death Camp which was saddening.
In relation to the blog, there’s a brief update about Al Qada in Iraq which you should look at and feel free to leave any comments you may have!
Mr Mithen
No problem sir, there was no news, parliament was on holiday i found out!
glad you enjoyed berlin, I read an article about a woman who is in love with it, and even married it, but now she is in love with a fence aswell! its all true!