Monday, May 09, 2005
reflections four days on
So Labour wins a historic third term with a working majority. A Majority of 66 is decent - it's not as great as the previous two elections but given how hostile the press has been to Blair in particular and Labour in general over the last few years, the divisiveness of the Iraq war and the timing of the leaking of the legal documents in the run up to the election (the question of who leaked remains unanswered for now) it's surprising in some ways that the vote held up so well.
Oliver Kamm makes a good point on the subject of the Iraq factor and the election.
The low point of the election night was undoubtedly seeing the Dundee Baathist, George Galloway, elected to represent Bethnal Green and Bow. In the 1930s that constituency showed a great deal of support for the British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosley, but they never went so far as to actually elect a fascist to parliament. Sadly, that is no longer the case. David Aaronovitch in yesterday's Observer summed it up rather well.
But I guess that's democracy - having to put up with people you don't like being elected, even those who seek to deprive others of the rights we take for granted.
Oliver Kamm makes a good point on the subject of the Iraq factor and the election.
Overall, I am afraid there is no escaping the conclusion that Tony Blair irrevocably damaged his political standing by committing troops to the Iraq war; had the war not taken place, we can reasonably assume that he would have enjoyed a substantial - and given its unprecedented character in Labour politics - triumphant third election victory. Many, probably almost all, Labour supporters would regard this as an indictment of the PM. I regard it as a measure of the man's political stature. Knowing that the character of the threats we face has changed since 9/11 - indeed since long before that - Blair chose to ally with a nominally conservative US administration in a war that needed to be fought, when the policy of containment of Saddam Hussein had manifestly failed, and the toleration of autocratic states in the region was an affront to our values and a gathering storm over our security.
The low point of the election night was undoubtedly seeing the Dundee Baathist, George Galloway, elected to represent Bethnal Green and Bow. In the 1930s that constituency showed a great deal of support for the British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosley, but they never went so far as to actually elect a fascist to parliament. Sadly, that is no longer the case. David Aaronovitch in yesterday's Observer summed it up rather well.
I look on with despair at a public culture that vilifies him for his actions following 11 September, but that simultaneously rewards Saddam's principal apologist in Britain. It won't be easy to explain that in Basra or Kurdistan.
But I guess that's democracy - having to put up with people you don't like being elected, even those who seek to deprive others of the rights we take for granted.
