Letters From A Tory

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My take on the local elections

May 2, 2008 · 6 Comments

Dear readers,

As I sit here at my laptop this morning, I just can’t decide which of these three things amuses me more:

(a) The local elections results being the worst for the Labour Party since the 1960’s

(b) The utter humiliation the Labour Party must be feeling after coming third to the Lib Dems

(c) These hilarious and desperate quotes from top members of the Labour Party over the last few hours:

“The results are not great” - Geoff Hoon

“There’s no crisis. This isn’t something that’s going to affect the fundamental stability of the government.” - also Geoff Hoon

“We will come back from this and we will win next general election.” - John Denham

“I don’t think the results are sending any one message.” - Andy Burnham

“What we hear tonight we will, of course, take extremely seriously” - Hazel Blears

“People are quite concerned about the financial background and the 10p tax ratre has not helped.” - Harriet Harman

(and my personal favourite…)

“Despite all the warnings from Labour MPs and Labour Party activists on the ground, New Labour’s policies have brought us close to a potentially irretrievable tipping point.” - John McDonnell

Oh, happy days. :)

UPDATE: here’s some more cracking quotes from the losers…

“I don’t think we need a dramatic change.” - John Denham

“Labour supporters are cross” - Ed Balls

“We have got to get a grip ” - David Blunkett

“My job is to listen and to lead” - Gordon Brown (better late than never!) 

Categories: Labour Party · Local government

6 responses so far ↓

  • asquith // May 2, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    All the usuals who said the Lib Dems were going to lose out would appear to be wrong :)

    I don’t think these results can be taken too seriously, though. Councils have very limited power, and it’s usual for an incumbent government to lose quite heavily in local elections, especially if they’ve been in for a long time. One thinks of the last Conservative government :)

  • Letters From A Tory // May 2, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    John Major suffered a heavy defeat in 2005 before being booted out in 2007 - is this round of council elections a sign of things to come?….

  • Tony Zimnoch // May 3, 2008 at 2:11 am

    Things Can Only Get Better!

  • Jonathon Smythe-Bowles // May 5, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    One main problem facing Gordon Brown was that he ducked out of calling an election in October 2007. Unfortunatly , I think the British voting public saw this as an act of arrogance, he remains an un-elected Prime Minister who promised change. The change is occurring by the public who see his image as a bit boring. Interesting times lay ahead in the polictical forum of british politics, can the spin of New Labour recover ??

  • Letters From A Tory // May 5, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    You are, of course, assming that ‘New Labour’ still exists…

  • Jonathon Smythe-Bowles // May 5, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    New Labour , same old spin. Mind you, it seems the dark clouds are moving over G Brown , once a few local MP’s realise their seat could fall they may release the old stalking horse……

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