2May
We really are going to have to take Polly Toynbee out and beat her about the head. Hard. In her latest party election broadcast for the Labour party, she says:
Few ever hear how unlike Cameron speeches real Conservatives in action are. Tories are promising tax and spending cuts up and down the country if they win... In some places voting Lib Dem is the best anti-Tory tactic - but then from Birmingham to Redcar, Camden to Cumbria, the promiscuous Lib Dems keep Tories in power, so check out what kind of Lib Dems you vote for.
Thank you for mentioning Birmingham, the single best example of why ejecting Labour does actually work. After twenty years of one-party rule, Labour was turfed out here in 2004. The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition represents the majority of the voters (something Labour could never claim in its two decades), and is handling the few matters still devolved to local government with a finesse and a dexterity that the squabbling red party could never manage.
Will a Labour wipeout make the next Labour regime turn left, or frighten them into caution? New Labour was born out of fear of the voter, seeing any setback as rejection of the left. What else are they to think if Labour keeps losing to the right?
Read our lips. Gordon Brown is a loser. L-O-S-E-R. His policies will be a mere footnote when historians draw breath from the constitutional turmoil created by the Badly Hung Parliaments of 2010, 2011, and 2013. What he thinks is a mere irritation; it's the multiplicity of smaller parties and special interest groups that will rise up under proportional representation that will feel the hand of history. Still, Polly's lack of perspective is only to be expected from an intellectual pygmy.
A mighty Labour thumping will only foster fears that there is indeed some ineluctable rightward tide.
Only amongst those who want to believe that there are bogey monsters under every bed, and that behind every silver lining is a dark cloud just waiting to get out. A group that includes Aunt Polly Toynbee, and that includes Gordon Broon. The old miseryguts is his own worst nightmare.
For a more sensible view, we turn to Rachel Sylvester in the Torygraph.
As Prime Minister, Mr Blair has made some monumental misjudgments - the war in Iraq, and the decision that political donations should, before the last election, be secretly turned into loans are two. His Government has, by his own admission, failed to live up to its over-inflated promises to transform the public services. He has faffed around with trivia - a ban on hunting and a house-seller's pack (first promised in 1996 and still not implemented) - rather than pressing ahead with things that affect people's everyday lives.
But, love him or loathe him, Mr Blair has one big achievement that cannot be denied: he has shifted the centre of gravity in British politics. There is now support across the political spectrum for the minimum wage, a publicly funded NHS, civil partnerships, House of Lords reform, childcare improvements and environmental reforms.
We suspect that Mr. Blair's much-vaunted legacy will be the squandered mandate. He had backing from the country to Do Something Different. Not only did he not Do Something Different, but he did The Same Thing, Only Without Any Common Sense.
