End of an era

The moral compass says it’s time for a new direction

Goodbye, Gordon

At just after 5pm Gordon Brown emerged from behind the Number 10 door to announce to the media that had been camped there since Friday morning that he has triggered the process to be replaced as leader of the Labour Party - a process that should be completed by the autumn. He will remain as Prime Minister until some kind of coalition is put together. The idea being that the coalition is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Although talks between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are still going on (positive, constructive, blah blah blah), Brown’s resignation removes one of the main obstacles to the Liberal Democrats switching to Labour, and “secret” talks have in fact already taken place. If we were in limbo this morning, it’s just gotten more, well, limbo-ey.

All of which means Prime Minister-in-waiting, David Cameron, is going to have to wait a little longer. But the longer he waits, the more he loses the moral high ground in the race to grab the keys to No.10. On the other hand, perhaps if he waits it out, the so-called progressive alliance could simply flounder into obscurity, and he could ride to the rescue. At time of writing, it is being reported that the Tories are have responded by making a “final offer” of a referendum on the alternative vote (AV) system. It’s not proportional representation (PR), in fact it’s potentially even further from it, but it could benefit the Lib Dems, so it could be tempting…

As for Gordon Brown, how will he be remembered? In so many ways this has been a tragedy. Having waited over a decade, he finally got his hands on the prize and at first it all seemed to be going so well - remember the Glasgow bombing? But then the dithering started and everything began to unravel. It’s like one of those Channel 4 “modern interpretations” of Julius Caesar.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

“As leader of my party I must accept that that is a judgement on me. I therefore intend to ask the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election. I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference. I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate.” – Gordon Brown

The election where everyone lost

It’s a sad day for British politics. Lembit Opik, we salute you!

We’ve all wasted our votes

So the British people have spoken. We have voted for change. And also for more of the same. Overwhelmingly for a new kind of politics, but also mainly for the old two-party system. For drastic and immediate public spending cuts to secure the recovery, but also for continued investment in public services to er, secure the recovery.

We have a hung parliament. We suffer from collective schizophrenia. We all wasted our votes – those of us who weren’t turned away from the polling stations, that is. What a sad day for British politics.

And it gets worse. Not only did a record 149 MPs stand down, resulting in a huge loss of expenses-fiddlers expertise in Parliament, but we have lost some of the nation’s most-admired politicians of recent times. No more Lembit Opik and his own particular brand of glamour (see photo above) haunting the corridors of power. No more Jacqui Smith, the country’s first ever female Home Secretary who earned plaudits during the Glasgow airport bombing episode but who will be forever remembered for pornographic films. No more Charles Clarke, hanging around the House of Commons tea-room trying to persuade everyone and anyone to overthrow Gordon Brown. Actually, he’ll probably keep trying that.

Anyway, with no winner, there can only be losers. The big losers are Cameron and Clegg, the former for failing to secure a majority and the latter for somehow managing to actually lose seats. Paradoxically, despite losing most, Labour are the least of the losers – it was only a few months ago everyone was predicting electoral obliteration, but they somehow remain in a pretty strong position.

Anyway, what happens now? We’ve had a hung parliament before, in 1974 you’ll remember, and Scotland and Wales have coalitions all the time. Gordon Brown remains PM while Cameron tries to tempt Clegg into a coalition, although this seems unlikely as Cameron can’t offer proportional representation. A Conservative minority government would not last long, while a Brown/Clegg coalition might still not have the numbers to last. Expect another election soon, and this time make your mind up!


QUOTE OF THE DAY

“So the election has left us in the middle section of a Jane Austen novel. Gruff Gordon and Dashing Dave are competing for the affections of Nubile Nick, a comely young thing, sadly living in somewhat reduced circumstances.”

– Robert Shrimsley, Managing Director of FT.com offers his analysis


THE END
Lab 258 (-91), Con 306 (+97), LibDem 57 (-5)

It’s all about tactics now

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest (Party) of them all?

The Mirror Crack’d

So we’re down into the home straight with the chequered flag in sight. The party leaders are certainly all putting on a last-gasp sprint to the finish but it’s now time for the tacticians to make their play. Indeed, taking a leaf out of the Steven ‘don’t-let-THEM-win’ Gerrard tactical handbook, Labour’s Ed Balls today urged the electorate to use their vote primarily to stop Manchester United the Tories, and vote Lib Dem where necessary. Even The Mirror, which prides itself on being a near Soviet-style slavish Labour propaganda outlet, splashed today with a helpful guide to anti-Conservative tactical voting.

With The Mirror having cracked, the question now is how many years of opposition are there in store for Labour, and who will lead them? Gordon Brown’s position will not have been helped by the Labour candidate for North West Norfolk, Manish Sood, describing Brown as “the worst prime minister we have had in this country”, and adding “At the end of the day if he can't do the job properly, he should give it to someone else…it is as simple as that.”

It came as no surprise that The Observer came out for the Liberal Democrats over the weekend, with The Guardian following suit yesterday. The boost is likely to have little impact so late in the day but, even though he has not been able to sustain the poll boost from the first television debate, it demonstrates that the Liberal Democrats have a serious role to play.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

“My son holds his own views but I'm very angry about this and very angry with him”

– Manish Sood’s mum, a Labour councillor in Leicester, is going to send him to bed without any dinner


THE GREASY POLLLab 28, Con 35, LibDem 27 (Channel4 News Poll of Polls)