British Politics.

[poliphilo]

I voted in the European elections. There were a lot of fringe parties putting up candidates- and the voting slip was the longest I'd ever handled.

I say "I" not "we" because Ailz gets a postal vote and cast it weeks ago.

I voted for the Lib Dems. It was more a vote against than a vote for.

On the way down to Stratford we had the car radio on for the political news.  Jack Straw was being asked- repeatedly- why he hadn't tendered his resignation over the case of the French students who were murdered by a guy who should have been in prison but wasn't.  He talked about  his "duty". Straw is- all proportions kept-  Nu Labour's Talleyrand. As we were driving home after the play it was reported  that a third Cabinet Minister- James Purnell- had resigned from the government- and while the others- Smith and Blears-  went muttering courtesies, this one has said straight out that Brown is electoral poison and should go.

This morning the election results that are coming in are- as expected-  bad for Labour, Brown is reshuffling his cabinet and the Guardian's Martin Kettle predicts he'll be forced out in days.

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I recall someone - I think it may have been Robert Harris - describing the 1997 election results as "a posthumous verdict on Thatcherism". I suspect the same will be true next time round, on Blairism (if you can attribute such an ideology-free premiership with an -ism).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The wheel turns. Governments only have so much life in them- and the Blair-Brown project is all washed up.