Blairism-Brownism makes British Labour fifth party

This video is called Blair, Iraq and Britain (Blair lies for Bush).

Hurrah for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, with their Iraq war, their Afghanistan war, their slavishness to George W. Bush, their privatizations, their corrupt administrations, their neo-conservatism … NOT!!

They have made the British Labour party into a fringe party.

From British daily The Guardian:

Humiliation for Labour in Henley poll

* Patrick Wintour, political editor

* Friday June 27, 2008

Gordon Brown suffered a scathing first anniversary verdict on his premiership early this morning when Labour not only lost its deposit in the Henley byelection, winning less than 5% of the vote, but was pushed into fifth place behind the Greens and the British National party.

In an excellent night for David Cameron, the Conservatives easily held the leafy Oxfordshire seat, beating back the Liberal Democrat challenge. The Conservative candidate, John Howell, a local businessman, won with a majority of 10,116, a 4% increase on his share of the vote at the general election. The turnout was just over 50%, relatively high for a byelection.

Labour had been bracing itself for the loss of its deposit, but had never expected to collapse in to fifth place. The last time one of the major parties finished fifth in an English byelection was when the Liberals contested Walsall North in 1976.

Howell secured 19,796 votes, 56.95%, and a 3.46% increase on the Conservatives’ general election share in 2005. Stephen Kearney, the Liberal Democrat candidate, won 9,680, a 27.85%, share and a 1.84% increase on the Liberal Democrats’ 1997 result. The Greens came third with 1,321 votes, (3.80%) and the BNP fourth with 1,243 (3.58%).

Labour was consigned to fifth place with 1,066, securing just 3.07%, down from 14.7% on its 1997 share. It only narrowly avoided coming sixth behind Ukip.

The byelection was caused by the resignation of Boris Johnson following his election as mayor of London in May.

Alexander quits as Scottish Labour leader: here.

Gordon Brown faces a new crisis in Scotland: here. And here.

Glasgow East by-election: here. And here. And here.

Brown and trade unions: here.