Just a little bit

I've been neglecting this blog, having nothing too exciting to write about. But obviously I cannot let the General Election pass without comment.

New Labour have limped home with a pathetically small share of the vote, just 37%. I remember how cheated we felt in 1987, when Thatcher won on 49%. How times have changed! Nowadays the Liberal Democrats are a much stronger party and the electorate are rather more cynical. Politicians on the centre-right keep harping on about "choice". Well, now we have got some in the field of politics, making it a lot less likely that they can get away with privatisation and illegal wars. Even Bliar in his acceptance speech acknowledged that Iraq was a factor in his party's performance. That's the closest we are going to get to an apology, for the moment. Let's see how the legal challenges go.

The Tories did better than expected. Their playing of the race card helped the British National Party double their vote in the midlands and the north. Thankfully neither bunch of reprobates is likely to form a government in the near future, especially if Gordon Brown takes over from Bliar.

The result of the night was George Galloway's victory for Respect, in Bethnal Green and Bow. Well done, George! The BBC website calls it a "shock". Only to them, I think! Also, their interviewer, Jeremy Paxman, tried to make some cheap racial point about the fact that his opponent was a black woman. Jezza, it's politics, not an effing beauty contest. Oona King was pro-war and George was anti. Therefore George won. Simple.

So the left now has at least one voice in Parliament, much missed since Tony Benn retired.

Seats at the time of posting
Labour -47
Conservative +33
Liberal Democrats +11
Scottish Nationalists +2
Plaid Cymru -1
Others +2

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/constituencies/default.stm