Blairism-Brownism drives Labour voters away

This video from Britain is called John McDonnell MP on the future of the Labour Party. Today, tomorrow and this Sunday, there are European parliament elections. Mosts of the results will become known only on Sunday night and later. An exception are the Dutch results (provisional results, as overseas votes have not been counted yet). In Britain, European election results are not known yet.

However, results from local elections, held jointly with the European elections, are known. And they prove that the rightist Thatcherite, pro war, and scandal ridden “new” Labour policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are driving away millions of previously loyal Labour voters.

Messrs Blair and Brown have managed to make Labour, from the first party in size, into the third party, behind the Conservatives, discredited by Thatcherism and the 1990s sleaze scandals; and the Liberal Democrats, which during most of the twentieth century had just a few MPs.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Abysmal Labour results prepare Brown for defeat

Friday 05 June 2009

by Paddy McGuffin

The omens of doom are writ large for Labour as the results of this week’s council elections go against them. By press time tonight, Labour had failed to take or retain control of a single council. The predicted voter backlash against the expenses scandal seemed to have hit Labour much harder than the Tories.

One veteran Labour activist said: “I’ve never fought an election on a more difficult ticket than this.” In Bristol, Labour suffered a massive defeat – losing eight of its 10 contested seats. The Liberal Democrats claimed majority rule of the city council when it gained four seats. The Tories also took four seats.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives won an emphatic majority in the newly formed Central Bedfordshire Council with Labour not taking a single seat. The Tories came within 12 seats of a monopoly with 54 of a potential 66 seats. It also gained control of Devon and Somerset county councils. The Lib Dems comfortably held Bristol with an increase of four seats from 32 to 36 with Labour being the main losers, shedding eight seats to the Lib Dems and Tories.

And the story of woe continued in Lincolnshire where Labour was close to being wiped out. Overall control remained with the ruling Tories, which took 60 of a possible 77 seats with Labour losing 15 from its previous 19 seats. A threatened strong polling by the BNP failed to materialise.

It was a different story in Lancashire however where the fascist party got a toe hold on the county council taking a seat in its stronghold of Burnley. In Carlisle, where the BNP and No2EU have gone head to head, the BNP vote was reported to be significantly down and this was apparently mirrored in the other north-west seats which No2EU contested.

However, the right made one significant gain, in Doncaster, where the anti-immigration English Democrat candidate Peter Davies was elected mayor with 25,344 votes. The British National Party picked up its first English county council seat in Lancashire, with Sharon Wilkinson defeating Labour’s Marcus Johnstone in the Padiham and Burnley West ward.

Local elections update: here.

MPs will face liquidation in a near-Labourless landscape: here.

Tony Blair’s 1983 anti capitalist maiden speech: here.

Related articles

• Former Lib Dem Minister Nick Harvey says Ed Miliband has ALREADY won the next election (mirror.co.uk)
• Lib Dems take Yorkshire seat from Labour (yorkshirepost.co.uk)
• Is Nick Harvey right that “Labour is on course to win the next election”? (libdemvoice.org)
• Lib Dem MP says Labour has “already won” – here’s why he’s probably right (newstatesman.com)
• Nightmare scenarios: what are the 2015 election results the Lib Dems, Tories and Labour most dread? (libdemvoice.org)
• A rather neglected group of voters (hopisen.com)
• Labour will win 2015 general election unless there’s a ‘game-changing event’, says leading Lib Dem (standard.co.uk)
• Labour takes aim at Tory marginals in ‘middle Britain’ vote drive (theguardian.com)