The End Of The World As We Know It
And Britain's Labor party does not feel fine. Gordon Brown's Labor party has suffered a stunning defeat in Britain. More importantly, Red Ken Livingstone is - or soon will be - gainfully unemployed. It has been a terrible day for Labor in local elections.
Boris Johnson capped a cataclysmic day for Labour by seizing power in London last night, and left Gordon Brown facing a desperate fight for survival.
The Old Etonian handed David Cameron a stunning political triumph by ousting veteran mayor Ken Livingstone.
Mr Johnson won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966 on a record turnout.
The new Mayor promised to make London "greater still" and finished his acceptance speech by saying: "Let's get cracking tomorrow - let's have a drink tonight."
Shortly after winning the Mayoral contest Mr Johnson announced he would be standing down as Conservative MP for Henley, triggering a by-election.
Mr Livingstone said he took full responsibility for his defeat and paid tribute to the Labour Party, including Gordon Brown, for the support he had been given.
Labor lost by something like 20 percent - an electoral disaster. In fact, it is a forty year low for Labor. Gordon Brown is now facing the stirrings of revolt in his own party as a result of this debacle.
World news | Gaius Friday, 2 May , 2008
By Anthony (Los Angeles), Friday, 2 May , 2008 @ 7:44 pm
And well he should. His term has seen a continuing stumble from one embarrassment to another, and the decision to break Labour’s promise to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty, which is really the EU constitution in disguise, was a wretched thing.
By Sam, Saturday, 3 May , 2008 @ 9:16 am
This is an interesting election, especially when you add it to the trend of Merkel, Sarkozy, and Berlusconi (sp?) on the continent. I have to admit that I don’t know much about the details of British politics, so I can’t comment on what this all means. Maybe I’ll pop on over to Samizdata and see what they are saying.
By Mockinbird, Saturday, 3 May , 2008 @ 3:45 pm
One thing I do know is, as Socialism slowly crumples, accountability slowly triumphs.