May 06, 2005
Blair loses
That's what the media is trying to tell me, anyway...
Robert Barr, AP: "Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister Thursday, but his Labor Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority in apparent punishment for going to war in Iraq, according to projections based on exit polls. ...Such an outcome, if confirmed by the actual vote count, could set the stage for Blair to be replaced in midterm by a party rival such as Gordon Brown."
Reuters: "Britain's Tony Blair survived opposition to the Iraq war to win a historic third straight term in power on Friday -- but saw his authority weakened by a drastically reduced majority in parliament. ...That could hinder his legislative program and hasten a handover to his powerful finance minister and assumed heir apparent Gordon Brown, analysts said."
AFP: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair has clinched a historic third straight term, but with a significantly reduced majority for his Labour Party as voters angered by the Iraq war dealt him "a bloody nose". ...The outcome of the general election called into question Mr Blair's stated intention to serve a full term before handing over the reins of power, most probably to his ambitious finance minister Gordon Brown."
The Independent: "Tony Blair saw his majority cut sharply today as Labour was hit by a Tory revival and a protest vote over the Iraq war. The party was still heading for a third successive general election victory for the first time in its history, but suffered a string of surprise defeats. ...The early results showed that many people who voted Labour in 1997 and 2001 had deserted the party to give Mr Blair a "bloody nose" over the Iraq war, which became the dominant issue in the second half of the election campaign."
A key point from the Reuters story, which may explain the mainstream media's spin: "Of the main global allies in Iraq -- Blair, President Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar -- only Aznar lost his country's top office in postwar elections."
Meanwhile, a genuinely disturbing result came in the London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, where Ba'athist demagogue George Galloway beat Labour MP Oona King:
The Respect Party's George Galloway has taken the Labour safe seat of Bethnal Green & Bow in east London.
Oona King was deposed as the MP after former Labour MP Mr Galloway forced a 26.2% swing in his favour, following a bitterly fought campaign.
Mr Galloway, who attacked Tony Blair in his acceptance speech, fought on an anti-Iraq war manifesto which appealed to the large local Muslim population.
[...]
Taking to the podium after his victory was announced, Mr Galloway said: "Mr Blair, this defeat is for Iraq and the other defeats that New Labour has received this evening are for Iraq.
"All the people you have killed and all the loss of life have come back to haunt you and the best thing that the Labour Party can do is sack you tomorrow morning."
He then attacked returning officer Christine Gilbert saying she had presided over a "shambles of an election which would disgrace a banana republic".
Tower Hamlets council electoral office was also criticised for publishing an electoral roll "so shot through with errors and anomalies... as to be almost meaningless".
That may explain why Galloway won. Mark Steyn, meanwhile, live-blogged the election results:
Making a big song and dance about the reduced majority - around 60-65 seats - is ridiculous. By comparison with anything other than the last two Labour landslides, that's a huge majority. And, given that there's a half-dozen Sinn Feiners who won't take their seats and the rest of the opposition is fractured between Tories, Liberal Democrats, the Scots, Ulster and Welsh parties, in practical terms it's an unassailable majority of between 75-80.
[...]
The word is that George Galloway is ahead in Bethnal and Bow Green. The defeat of Oona King, a black Jewish pro-war Labour MP, will mark an ominous development in British politics. I think there's no doubt that, under cover of "anti-Zionism", there's now an explicit anti-Jewish component to the political scene. And, disreputable as it is, Labour nominating committees will be thinking very carefully about whether they want to run Jewish candidates.