Gordon Brown's Labour Party crushed in election
By John Amato Sunday Jun 07, 2009 5:00pmGordon Brown and his Labour Party are getting crushed in the latest elections in the UK.
Labour suffered humiliation in the local elections tonight after the party lost its four remaining county councils to the Tories. Nottinghamshire was the last to fall as the Conservatives took control gaining nine seats while Labour – which had held the council since 1981 – lost 22.
Earlier Derbyshire fell after 28 years of rule, while Labour was also beaten by the Conservatives in Lancashire and Staffordshire. Overall, Labour appeared to be heading for total losses of around 300 seats while the Conservatives picked up more than 200.
--Mr Brown said yesterday's elections had been "a painful defeat for Labour".
He told reporters in Downing Street: "I am here to be totally candid, to accept my responsibilities and to set out what I intend to do.
"The elections yesterday were a painful defeat for Labour. Too many good people doing so much good for their communities and their constituencies have lost through no fault of their own."
And Brown is looking at being ousted from power too:
Hours before the crucial Euro results were due to be announced, the prime minister's hopes of survival suffered a further setback when the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer became the most senior figure yet to call for a leadership contest. The peer – once Tony Blair's flatmate – warned that potential candidates were waiting in the wings, ready to mount a challenge, if Brown was not prepared to stand down as prime minister.
Meanwhile, Tessa Jowell became the first member of the cabinet to speculate openly that Brown could be prepared to step aside if he believed he had become an "obstacle" to Labour winning the next general election.
If Labor comes in third-- or even fourth-- in the EU Assembly elections, Prime Minister Gordon Brown could be facing more than a headache. There has been talk about an attempt by backbenchers to oust him as party leader. Monday Brown will be meeting with Labor parliamentarians who see the election results as a Sword of Damocles hanging over all their heads.
As Howie states, the ruling parties are all getting killed throughout the EU elections.
It hasn't helped that Silvio Berlusconi is embroiled in a sex scandal with girls young enough to be his grand daughters. (He's 72 and his latest mistress and pimp is 18-- and he used a government plane to ferry her and his friends to his villa in Sardinia.) Yesterday the biggest newspaper in Spain published pictures of Berlusconi cavorting around naked with the topless girls and he called in "an invasion of privacy" and is now suing the paper.
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ps, the power was out here for a few hours this afternoon ... 'tis good to be on-line again ... :)
The lesson for progressive parties is that if your focus is simply on marking time and spinning the news cycle long enough to get you to the next election, it will eventually come back to bite you.
'Don't just do something, stand there' is what you expect from Tories and their ilk. The same strategy doesn't wash for progressive parties.
Welcome to the future.
something.
n/t
The BBC analysts are reporting that it's mostly the left-wing parties being hammered Europe-wide, in what may be a reflection of the state of the European-wide economy or other national tensions. While current disgust over the expenses row in the UK no doubt had an effect in keeping the core Labour vote at home, the free-fall state of the economy must have also had an impact.
The frustration that a lot of UK residents will have is that many pundits and Party Reps. are saying how the results represent a protest vote against Labour. This is only partially true, and serves to mask a greater discontent with politics and especially Europe as a whole. Unfortunately a truly grown-up debate seems to be beyond the concerns of politicians and opinion-mongers who would much rather keep the conversation simple and brief.
Of course, the biggest story with these elections should be the turn-out. 43% Europe-wide is a new low, and it's probably much lower in the UK. This IMO shows just how disenfranchised the public feel the current national and supra-national political systems in place.
"New Labour" lesson: Aping Margaret Thatcher's Tories doesn't pay.
The British voter's dilemma: a choice between war-mongering Conservatives and war-mongering New Labour.
Not unlike the US voter's dilemma: a choice between war-mongering Republicans and war-mongering Democrats.
Good luck.
Great point, just like Clinton's "New Democrats" policies (which were warmed over GOP economics) helped us get in the current messes we're in.
that corruption scandal involving misuse of the public's funds can hardly help any party. corruption like that should have consequences.
Not on par with any of the corruption that happened in the USA. The allowances and expenses were legal, therefore could not be misused. The situation stank like 3 day old fish, but certain segments of the media whipped it up and now we have 2 facists in Europe.
Why is the guy bothering with this politics stuff anyway? He's a rich old man who enjoys the company of beautiful young women. Wow, never heard of that before! Hell, between the young women and the politicians, I know which I'd rather be spending my time with.
Not just the rich ones. That's just the way it is in Italy. Old men are in charge and Italians have jobs for life. The old goats don't retire until death.
Sweedish Pirate Party achieves 7% of national vote, gains 2 European Parliament Seats.
I didn't even know the Pirate Party existed!
Argh Matey!
Wikipedia: Pirate Party
So basically young people love ripping off copyright material off the internet? This is an interesting platform for a party...
It's not about whether 'piracy' should be illegal or not. It's about the fact that the ongoing efforts of media companies to extend copyright periods, to encroach on Fair Use rights, to enact draconian legislation that bans anything which could in any way enable copyright infringement, which in turn tramples Free Speech rights, and many other issues.
They also advocate net neutrality, strong privacy protections on the internet, etc.
From the main post:
It wasn't just "pictures of Berlusconi naked with topless girls" -
From: Berlusconi's naked Czech friend becomes the butt of jokes
The pix were on the front page of El Pais yesterday.
And all he's wearing is the wristband gift from GW !!
And he's most definitely fully aroused !!
OMG!!
Silvio looks pretty good for 72 ...
Nothing like a good sex scandal every now and again!
I certainly dont begrudge him his fun!
I just think it's particularly hilarious that the "eccentric former Czech prime minister" got busted on account of the "white rubber wristband - a sign of support for the anti-Castro movement in Cuba - given to Topolanek by George W Bush."
Right-winger busted in a sex scandal - where have we heard this before?
And particularly sweet - it's all GW's fault !!!
HaHaHa !!
Here are the Pix !!
That makes it double-delish. Sweet!
...when you look at the picture it appear that he's not naked - he's still wearing a thong, but with his pecker pulled out. Pretty creepy.
That's what all of Italian politics is. I used to vote in Italy but I no longer bother.
To this story.
It can happen here too.
Obama should dance with the lady he came to the ball with instead of kissing up to the other party.
Despite all the economic travails in Europe (which have fueled the right wing, no doubt) Brown's - and Labour's - biggest problem was the recent MP's expense scandal.
MP's have been "self-regulating" the expenses they could all claim as part of their job.
I think cleaning the moat at one of their estates was the most hilarious.
But several MP's were paying rent - out of govt funds - for relative's apartments. One was even charging the govt for monthly payments on a family member's house - long after the house had actually been paid for !!!
The voters have been PISSED for a month or two. Numerous MP's "stood down" - withdrew their names from the next election (now, btw) - and several Cabinet members resigned.
That scandal - in the face of the banking scandal and the crashing housing market and the tanking economy - that longstanding arrogant THEFT from the Treasury by the MPs is what above all else has brought Labour down.
MPs' expenses
have a look into your future.
this is what's going to happen to obama if he continues to spend his country into bankruptcy, as gordon brown did before him.
I had a quick look at your posting history, and it doesn't look like you're anything but a whiny, negative prick with nothing good to say about anything. Worse, you're one of those who think using the shift key is beneath them.
Aside from the British results, where Labour was going to get hammered anyway, I wouldn't read a whole lot into them. I lived in Europe for a couple of years and quickly found out that no one cares about the elections for MEPs, so the ones who get elected tend to be from the whacko parties - and ironically, they're usually the most anti-EU. A lot of them have little or no representation in the national parliaments.
It may be a delayed Bush/Blair backlash, along with the money scandal.Too bad! Also... The trolls are having a field day on this one over at Huff Po.
as proof that the repukes can and will make a big comeback in 2010, and win back the wh in 2012
oh happy day
European Conservatives would be US Democrats, and not the Blue Dog variety, either. American Republicans, at least the ones in charge now, have more in common with the French Nationalist Party. Or the Very Silly Party from Monty Python.
The chickens are coming home to roost in the UK.
Blair and his comatose party of assholes led the Brits into the disastrous war in Iraq - lying through his tooths.
Now, his party, along with his overstuffed, bloated, pompous and self-important successor are experiencing the will of the British people to fumigate the joint.
Did anyone notice Brown's behavior at the D Day ceremonies? He was absolutely beside himself and totally pre-occupied with worry and it really showed. A body language expert certainly wasn't needed to pick up what was going on with Brown.
New Labour lost because they have been following lockstep with every anti-democratic, fear- and war mongering illegality of Bushco and have taken the UK one step closer to a total surveilleance society and evil nanny state.
These New Labour people aren't progressive at all. They are corporatist using social programs to control and mislead the public just as much as Bushco ever did. Brown and Blair are simply puppets for international corporations and control-freak neocons.
Yes, those interests do get their will nomatter what party is in control. Like Obama's wobbling path of following and expanding every stealthy anti-democratic policy of Bush shows.
Those interests OWN the establishment, simply because we in the west have become spoiled, naive, careless, superficial, and are selling our hearts and minds to the dark side every day.
"Britain leads world in police state survey"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/01/snoop...
Of course, none of these parties are truly "right" or "left". That's the paradigm that we are manipulated though. Our corporate and money masters and antidemocratic Neocon fearmongers are smart enough to not put all their eggs in one basket. Just as they put many of their eggs in the Democratic basket in the US, as well as the Republican one. Nomatter who wins, they will have tools to push their agenda, although the tactic might change slightly.
I still wonder how gullible affiliated Democrats in the US are to now be hyping the threat of terrorists every day. Seems C&L is falling right into that trap. So when the establishment want to continue the Patriot Act and treat everyone as potential criminals, it will seem justified to a whole lot of "liberals" and "progressives".
Why don't we have a labor party......
our two party (really one big corporate party) system has failed the American people, because it does not represent the American WORKER!*
* see Obama's pitiful piece of shit healthcare plan!!
Who wants to join the AWPP?
The American Workers Priorities Party
According to this piece, about 40% of the electorate bothers to cast a vote in EU elections, and even less in the UK itself.
news.sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/abc/world/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CBC-WORLD-V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=eu-elections
Gordon Brown is simply a victim, as is all of Labor, of the grievous war crimes and worldwide mass murder and disaster set into motion by his remorseless predecessor, the infamous poodle Tony Blair.
Likewise, decent people I am sure look to see the day when all the primary collaborators of the Bushco criminal gang- Messrs. Berlusconi, Aznar, Howard and Blair are brought to justice by the ICC for the terrible death and destruction they have heaped upon innocent human beings. Remember that Harold Pinter gave the address of one of the war criminals as 10 Downing Street in his Nobel address. That speech was truly historic.
Simply losing political power is not, remotely, sufficient in serving justice and accountability to these gangsters for their crimes against humanity. Note how Berlusconi the mobster came back to power after being thrown out once during the reign of the Bushco terrorists.
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