Wot? no by-election thread?

[landmarker]

Have I missed it.
What about Labour's rout?

I expect they will win it back at the general though, do you?

Was the fact that their candidate was eight months pregnant anything to do with the defeat?

If asked, I'd say yes.

[Rheghead]

By-elections are painfree protests at the Government, yes, a pregnant candidate may not have helped but I am confident of a Labour victory at the next General Election. Apart from the Iraq war, Blairism has stood for fair and decent politics that has held the centre ground, the economy has done well and it has brought in radical constitutional changes that have reduced the political power of the ruling classes.

[jjc]

Apart from the Iraq war, Blairism has stood for fair and decent politics that has held the centre ground Really? Trial without jury. ID cards. Detention without due legal process. Top-up fees. I could go on - but I think we both know that there's quite a list of New Labour policies which are not fair, are not decent and certainly don't hold the center ground.

[Rheghead]

Really? Trial without jury. ID cards. Detention without due legal process. Top-up fees. I could go on - but I think we both know that there's quite a list of New Labour policies which are not fair, are not decent and certainly don't hold the center ground.

Ah but most of those reactionary policies are a result of Blair's bad shoulder to shoulder stance with the US so I reiterate my view of Blairism. Would any other party that was in power have reacted in another way?

[JAWS]

How many times has Blair said he has realised that the voters are telling him that he has to start listening? How many times has he said he has heeded that warning and is going to listen in future?
On Friday he made a speech to the 'faithful' and the By-Election the previous day just completely slipped his mind. Apparently he was asked about it on many occasions and completely blanked the question.
The only conclusion I draw from that is that he is totally incapable of listening. His idea of listening is "I do the telling, you do the listening!"

I don't think that the Labour Candidate being pregnant made the slightest difference, in fact I hadn't heard it mentioned until Rheghead's post.
The voters I heard interviewed gave the impression that they were sending a loud and clear message that they were tired of being treated like cannon fodder, thee to vote Labour and then to be ignored until next time.

It is bad enough that Blair put the message completely out of his mind but then Prescott rubbed it in.
Just to be sure everybody knew the Government's attitude to the voters he said that they were simply going to ignore the loss and just carry on doing whatever they want to anyway!
Then, of course, the whisperers are there. It was Brown playing a big part in the Campaign that frightened the voters. Where’s the Blairite who can replace Blair?

Who needs an Opposition?