Faraway Countries Of Which We Know Nothing
Oh, I almost forgot. Looks like Blair’s back. Not sure if I voted for him or not, but I think this probably the least bad outcome.
UPDATE: This post contains the text of a letter to Blair from Iraqi President Talibani. On the other hand, this Reason piece is somewhat optimistic about the Lib Dems, for whom I think I may actually have cast my ballot.
DOUBLE UPDATE: Impossible to say for sure, but I am told I voted for the local Lib Dem candidate. I would have liked to cast a farewell vote for Blair (call it a “reverse protest vote”) but where I come from Labo(u)r is pretty much dead in the water.
England, nice place I sister live long time there. Blair is good hero, but lie very bad go to Iraq, why say he go war Iraq? Myself move America, sometime, I invitate people go to my country!
No man’s land? You are being far too modest. (I’ll miss Hoggart’s campaign trail pieces. They have no exact cognate over here.)
The only way the Tories will get back in is if they have “Thatcher redux”. Y’need another “Iron Skirt” to take over things, even if it is a scotsman (then it’d be “The Iron Kilt”.)
See, I’m in no-man’s land politically speaking here: the Tories have chosen to nail their flag to the moralistic/anti-europe/hanging-and-flogging remit, with very little on any sensible economic policy – what little of it I’ve seen is actually insane: entirely random tax-cuts with a notion to try and spend their way out of the pensions rumble.
LibDems aren’t really campaigning on a strong libertarian/civil liberties platform either: the only gestures they make in being lefty in that sense is muttering darkly about the war: when they’ve had a clear chance to make an impact (they could’ve sunk the ID card bill for instance) – they’ve shied away fearing to alienate some of the voter base they’ve built. And the LibDems are also promising a (admittedly pie-in-the-sky as they weren’t thinking about getting into power) rather silly Tax&Spend economic regime. Also, the LibDems seem to be equally besotted with PFI and PPP projects which IMO are the worst possible combination of big business and big government.
So, if the Cons can do the right thing in terms of a leader (pleasepleaseplease Ken Clarke), I’ll be cautiously interested in what they have to say. Failing that, Brown’s unstoppable ascendancy now wouldn’t be a bad thing either: nothing wrong with a steady ship.
Actually the “up and comers” in the Tory party are quite staggeringly mediocre, but look for them all to try and make a splash now. Failing that, William Hague part II would at least guarantee that whoever the PM is, they’ll get a regular skewering at PMQs every week.
PS: It’s five in eight years: Major, Hague, IDS, Howard and (new boy).
Oh, Christ. Gorgeous George. I don’t believe it.
I’m intrigued by the notion of the Lib Dems repositioning themselves as a pro-market civil-libertarian party, although I’d like to see them sustain the act for a while before I turn into an outright cheerleader. There was a period of about thirty seconds post-IDS where the Tories flirted with that imagery, but then it became apparent that New Portillo was insufficiently heterosexual for the grandees and back into the wilderness they went.
(Someone should really tell the Conservative Party that having eleventy-hundred leaders in five years, or however many it has been, doesn’t really send the most convincing message of party unity. Stan, you’re closest.)
Well, postal voting adds that element of randomness that I find so satisfying in an election.
Go look at the BBC footage of the election night. Lots of George Galloway being an unmitigated prick – the Paxman interview and his “acceptance” speech being particular low-lights.
Boris was fun and it made me sad watching Ken Clarke as it made me sad to realise that he could’ve been one of the best Tory leaders – hell, best Prime Minister’s we’ve had in a while, except for the fact that the Tories were intent on shooting themselves in the foot.