Thatcherism-Blairism-Brownism drives away even most loyal Labour voters

This video from CBC in Canada is called The Fifth Estate: The Lies That Led To [Iraq] War.

From the British Broadcasting Corporation:

The Scottish National Party has pulled off a stunning by-election victory by winning Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats by 365 votes.

The SNP overturned a Labour majority of 13,507 to win with a swing of 22.54%.

The SNP polled 11,277 votes in the contest, while the Tories came third with 1,639 and the Lib Dems, with 915 votes, came fourth.

The Thatcherite policies of privatization at home and war abroad by “New” Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have managed to drive away even the most loyal traditional Labour voters in this Scottish working class constituency. These working class voters now either stayed at home or voted for the Scottish Nationalists, perceived now as more to the Left than Labour after its “New” Labour flip-flop to the Right. Margaret Curran, the “New” Labour candidate in this by-election, was an Iraq war supporter, contrary to the SNP.

The BBC continues:

Voter turnout was 42.25%, down on the 48% figure at the last election, with 26,219 votes cast.

So, the turnout was a bit lower than at the general election, but less so than usually at British by-elections. So, one can hardly say: “This vote was by-election apathy. At the next general election, the mass of the voters will come back and vote Labour like they used to”. Because the apathy factor already worked at the last general election, when over half of the voters of Glasgow East already did not want to turn out to vote for Tony Blair’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and his anti worker cuts policies.

If this result would repeat itself at a general election, then Labour would be lucky to keep twenty seats out of the 646 seats in the British parliament. The Labour Party would become a marginal party, “thanks” to Blair, Brown, and their Thatcherism-Bushism.

A reaction to the vote:

Aye I’ll be waiting for the Labour Party to try and blame their defeat on Glasgow East voters being stupid and unable to read.

See also here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Talking about Thatcher: the Conservative Party in this election only managed to come a distant third with about 7% of the vote. At least in Scotland, people clearly do not see them as a desirable alternative to “New” Labour.

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