Complacency Could Cost us Election - UK's Blair

[struggle4progress]

Reuters
Saturday, February 12, 2005; 6:20 PM

By Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair will warn Labour Party supporters on Sunday that complacency could cost them a third term in power as he sends the strongest signal yet that he will call an election for May.

Polls point to a Labour victory, albeit with a reduced parliamentary majority, but Blair fears apathy and protest votes over the Iraq war could jumble the election arithmetic and let the opposition Conservative Party win by default. <snip>

Labour won a landslide in 1997, after 18 years in opposition to the Conservatives, and again in 2001. Blair must name the poll date, expected to be May 5, about a month in advance. <snip>

Blair will accept on Sunday that some voters still begrudge the Iraq war and feel he has neglected domestic issues such as schools and hospitals to focus on international diplomacy. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19551-2005Feb12.html

Labor might be better off without Tony ...

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. How can the Conservatives win?

:wtf:

Why would Britain want a party that will be beholded to Bushler? Labour is not controlled by Bush, just Blair.

[autorank]

4. Labour is controlled by Bush. We should support The Liberal Party

Labour is without intellectual integrity. They support Blair right through the whole charace, including the Labour position on global warming -- get used to it and, if you're on the coast, well, think about moving inland. What a bunch of cynics.

Labour is Bush's bitch!

[dave420]

19. The Conservatives dislike Bush

They really, really don't like him at all. You mustn't fall into the trap that "conservatives" around the world are anything like the "conservatives" in the US. Over here, the days of Maggie-esque pseudonazi conservatives is long gone. Oh, and I'm no right-leaning person either (I read lots of Chomsky ;))

The fact is, the Conservatives were against the war in Iraq. Why they were against it is up for grabs - it could be the "go against the Labour line" or it could be "this doesn't make any sense". I don't think we'll ever know. Indeed, their anti-Iraq stance meant the Bush admin snubbed requests of the Conservative party to meet the Le Grand Fromage himself.

Anyway, the tories are a different party these days, trying to be more caring. They're not religious nuts (indeed politicians in the UK realise they're politicians first, and religious followers second, which is very refreshing).

I want the lib dems to get in, personally. They seem to have a more level-headed approach to the country. Labour is essentially right-wing in many aspects of its policies, whereas the lib dems are keepin' it real, being more left of centre than the Labour party with many issues. Oh, and Charles Kennedy is a nice guy ;)

anyway, enough ramblin'.

dave out.

[w4rma]

21. Just like Thatcher, the Tories would fall right behind Bush.

It is their nature.

[dave420]

23. I'm not so sure

Because to do that would be to OK Blair's pro-Bush stance, something they are quite vocal about.

It's a strange situation - the left-leaning PM siding with Bush, while the centre-right-leaning Conservatives siding against Bush.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. The Conservative leadership was for the war

after it happened, they started criticising Blair a bit, for mishandling things and exaggerating the WMD evidence. But their criticism was never that strong, and it was only Tory rebels who voted against the initial invasion.

What criticism they have had of Blair has chilled the relations between them and Bush, but I don't think they dislike him permanently - more for the snubs (and they realise that in fact he's electoral poison for the floating voters in the UK at present).

[PROGRESSIVE1]

29. The Tories attacks about the false evidence is just a....

political ploy to hurt Labour. The Tories are worse than Blair anyday!

[autorank]

2. Blair goes down! Blair goes down! Blair goes down!

What a punk this guy is. I hope every Labour MP loses, which is a pipe dream. I do hope they get their butts kicked and the Liberals prevail.

[mitchum]

3. Labor would be far better off without Blair

He and the Third Way should hit the highway (or high road or whatever they call it over there :))

[Maple]

5. Blair is terrible

the 'third way' is fine.

Canada and many European countries use the 'third way'

Blair got way off-track with Iraq.

[Dirk39]

6. Understanding Europe...

Blair did to GB what even Thatcher couldn't do.
In Europe, we still have - or HAD - much stronger unions than in the USA.

If Thatcher would have done, what Blair did, the Unions and Labour - as an opposition party - would have stopped them.

Blair is the worst mix of Clinton's third way idiocy and Bush's "moral" fundamentalism, I could ever think off.
If the only kind of choice the people in GB have, is to decide between Blair and the Torries. Let the Torries win and throw Blair into the dustbin of history and then start to fight.

If only we have to listen to and watch a different asshole, it's worth it.
I cannot express how much I hate Blair.

Dirk

[Anarcho-Socialist]

13. As bad as Blair is, a Tory government would be a disaster

The Conservatives have purged their moderate wing since 1997, and are now mostly foaming-at-the-mouth xenophobes. They are also very pro-Bush, almost everyone of them is far more pro-Bush than what Tony Blair is.

[IndianaGreen]

14. There is no Tory threat, the real threat to Blair is the Liberal Democrats

Blair is engaging in the politics of fear to save his war criminal ass. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, is an alumnus of Indiana University.

Here is some info from their website:

"The majority of people in this country now see the Liberal Democrats as the Real Opposition. They don’t believe we should limit our ambitions. And I want to tell you that there is no limit to our ambitions. On so many issues it is the Liberal Democrats who have challenged this Government. We asked the critical questions, while the Conservatives have lined up with Labour. At the General Election, the public will have the opportunity to vote for the Real Opposition in Britain: the Liberal Democrats."

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy, launching the Liberal Democrat strategy for the general election expected for May

http://www.libdems.org.uk/

LABOUR CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH BRITAIN’S CIVIL LIBERTIES - KENNEDY
08/02/2005

The Liberal Democrats will today set out their proposals for safeguarding British civil liberties in the face of an increasingly unaccountable and presidential-style Labour Government.

Launching the 5-point plan for rights and civil liberties, Liberal Democrat Leader, Charles Kennedy MP, said:

"Today I am setting out a programme of measures designed to protect the civil liberties of British people, because this Labour government is proving that it can't be trusted with them.

"The Home Secretary is attempting to extend the Belmarsh concept of house arrest to any British citizen at the sole discretion of a Government minister. And he wants to bring in expensive compulsory Identity Cards, which will do little to prevent terrorism, benefit fraud or crime.

"These authoritarian measures demonstrate that the balance this government is seeking to achieve has tipped too far. The Liberal Democrats have opposed both.

"Under Labour, the process of Government has become more presidential, less transparent and less accountable to parliament and to the people. That has resulted in Labour rushing bad law through Parliament.

"Making sure Ministers, civil servants and the laws they produce are subject to robust democratic checks and balances is key to ensuring Britain's civil liberties.

"The Liberal Democrats are the real opposition to Labour on these issues, while the Conservatives have been uncertain and frequently divided.

"The Tories supported the Government on Belmarsh, Michael Howard supports ID cards and they want to end our long-term commitment to providing a safe haven for genuine refugees.

"Labour is actually building on Conservative foundations. It was a Conservative Government that abandoned the right to silence, that first tied the hands of judges in sentencing and began the process of criminalising protest.

"The Liberal Democrat approach to protecting our civil liberties and tough liberalism on crime offers a change in direction."

Mark Oaten MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, added:

"With eight weeks before the start of a General Election campaign the two old parties are in danger of setting aside the language of tolerance and liberty with ever increasing kneejerk policies.

"The Liberal Democrats believe the issues of security, Belmarsh and asylum can have sensible responses without undermining civil liberties.

"In this time of frenzied attacks on rights from Labour and the Tories, the Liberal Democrats are the only Party offering a voice of reason."

ENDS

http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.8175

[Anarcho-Socialist]

15. I like Charles Kennedy, I'm hoping the LibDems get a sizable

increase in seats, although getting into power in their own right is going to be a lot to ask for this time around. However they're laying groundwork for the future.

[Dirk39]

30. But isn't there a small chance...

when the Tory-Scum will win, that the labour party might get rid of the third-way-Blairists and start to fight again?

Just look at what did happen to Dean in the USA about a year ago. And look what's happening now!
Tell me about one situation in history, where going with the lesser evil did lead to anything good?

Blair was worse than Thatcher and no opposition left. We had to experience the same kind of "backlash" here in Germany with third-way Schroeder and the upper-middle-class Greens. The Unions as well as the remaining left is just in a state of agony. As Clinton did just do the groundwork for Bush in the USA.

To change the former pro-union and labour parties into pro-business whores, is much more clever than to support the Republicans or the Tories or the Christian Democrats (Germany).

And we should simply do not support this anymore, even if the right-wing parties win, let them win...
If I have to choose between being abused 2 times a day or one time a day, I reject to choose.
I don't wanna be abused, not one time a day and not two times a day.

Dirk

[dave420]

20. There's a third party, remember?

The lib dems! They seem pretty cool - a lefty like myself can gel with their policies.

oh, and they want to decriminalise the reefer. can't argue with that!

[KerryReallyWon]

7. Blair = Bush

period. he put forth his own media blackouts he is one of them.

[despairing optimist]

8. After complacency won so many, how did it become a losing strategy?

Did British voters wake up? Is there an alternative?

[Dirk39]

9. What Thatcher said...

T.I.N.A.

There Is No Alternative.
No reason to wake up. It's just another election about who's the best in highering the profit margins of corporations and worsening the conditions for LABOUR, if there isn't any labour left at all.

AFAIK there is still more opposition within the British Labour party as in many other former social-democratic or socialist parties in Europe, but I hardly doubt that they have any kind of chance to get rid of the Blairists.

Dirk

[Alizaryn]

10. What kind of voting machines do they have? He may not have

a thing to worry about (except for acting lessons).

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. No machines in national elections yet

(they've tried a few small experiments using the internet and mobile phones - probably even more insecure than the US voting machines), but the main area of concern is postal voting.

The government says there are very few prosecutions for electoral fraud, but the Guardian has established that criminal inquiries are under way in Reading, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire into allegations of theft of ballot papers, forged votes and personation, which involves filling in ballots in the absence of the voter.

Many inquiries involve allegations of organised vote-rigging on a huge scale during last June's local elections in areas where the government piloted all-postal ballots. Other cases involve traditional ballot box elections.

In Birmingham two trials which begin next month will challenge the integrity of the postal voting system - something which Labour has been keen to expand in the belief that it increases turnout. Critics argue that the increase in postal voting is undermining confidence in the electoral system because it makes fraud easier. The electoral commissioner sitting at Birmingham high court will hear evidence of organised electoral fraud in the Aston and Bordesley Green wards.

Across the city, postal voting soared from 24,000 in 2002 to 70,000. But the petitioners, who are calling for the results to be overturned, say they have evidence of mass applications for postal votes, intimidation of householders to vote one way, and ballot theft.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1401369,00.html

[Zhade]

11. Might be? Who WOULDN'T be better off without a war criminal PM?

Kick him to the curb, Brits!

[Orsino]

16. It cost us ours.

We let the money in, and Money has locked us out.

[jmatthan]

17. My advice to Charles Kennedy was

to run his campaign as an ABB Anybody But BLAIR) platform to accommodate the bulk of those who want to get Blair out of power.

If he runs as the Liberal Party, then Labour will slide in. The Tories have no hope and they are the same as New Labour on almost everything including the War in Iraq.

This way he will be able to accommodate people like Robin Cook and Clare Short in his promise to govern as ABB.

Jacob Matthan
http://jmatthan.blogspot.com
Oulu, Finland

[Zynx]

18. I would vote for the Lib Dems if I had a choice in the matter.

[Pithy Cherub]

24. Geez, if Poodle Blair wins, it will be Britain's turn to say sorry.

The Tories are as inspirational as neocons here.

[leesa]

25. Complacency?? Try illegally invading a disarmed nation, Mr Poodle.

[Vladimir]

26. Not very likely

because of the first-past-the-post system, its very unlikely indeed that the lib-dems could win. At the last election for example they got 52 seats, or around 8% of the parliament, but 18% of the votes cast. They would need a collosal swing of maybe >+25% to even begin to think of being the biggest party in parliament, much less having a majority. They are also hampered by the need to campaign for votes from both natural Tory and Labour areas, i.e. they have to appeal to both the left and the right and this makes it difficult for them to have a coherent programme. As for a tory victory, I doubt it also because they are in such disarray and also because they too need a 10% swing their way in the next two months to do it, so I do not think that is a realistic fear. The best one can hope for, IMO, is a hung parliament leading to a year or two of ineffectual government and infighting and Blair's resignation after the EU referendum - but even this seems to me a long shot.

[struggle4progress]

27. Perhaps I am guilty of wishful thinking. But I would love to see TB gone.

[Vladimir]

28. He might go if he gets a pasting, as seems likely,

in the EU refrendum. That is why it has been put off for so long.