Friday, August 15, 2008
Nothing Seems Likely to Save Labour from a Second Byelection Defeat in Scotland
After Glasgow East comes Glenrothes. Oh Lor! poor Gordon: the punishment seems to go on and on. To win this seat the SNP need only a 14.5% swing: kid's stuff compared to the 22.6% in the last disaster. Today Martin Kettle debates whether Brown should opt for an early or a late date for the by-election. He went early with Glasgow in an effort to catch the voters off guard as the summer hoiday season started, on the assumption that a low poll would help Labour. Well, it didn't. Kettle suggests a late poll, and it could be as late as December, might interfere with or subvert his relaunch. He thinks an early date- 11th September is the earliest possible- would get the pain over quickly and leave him free to try his reshuffle and whatever else. It's significant that Kettle thinks there is no way Gordon can win the contest, whenever it is held. I'm sure he's right on this.
But if he can reduce the losing swing to below Glasgow East's he might be able to argue a recovery of sorts is not only possible but actually in progress. One has to say that such a strategy summons up words like 'drowning man', 'straws' and 'isn't it time you stood down in favour of someone who has a genuine chance of limiting the damage?'.
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Your headline reminds me of the old advertising slogan "Nothing acts faster than Anadin" to which my response was - next time I have a headache, I'll try nothing then.
Ha ha...
Ha ha...
# posted by 
: 12:05 pm
: 12:05 pm
I can't imagine Labour winning this either, and I'm sure that (post-Glasgow East) everyone will be writing the byelection off already.
Given that, there's very little scope for the loss to do much political damage.
Given that, there's very little scope for the loss to do much political damage.
Labour has a real problem, infact England has a real issue to deal with. The Scots get a larger slice of the economic pie than is popularly thought representative. However, we as English people should think on this for a second. Perhaps they deserve this, after all they do infact run the whole show...perhaps they deserve a larger share..? Labour seems to becoming less and less able to relie on their Scottish "auld guard". Perhaps labour should cut their losses, reflect on the fact that the union has served its purpose. Lets move on, shake and say good luck. The Scots have a nice little country there, lets concentrate on our own social and economic clean up - they'll manage just fine, we're the ones up the creek with only a tartan paddle to keep us afloat. Perhaps Brown and his cronies from the bowling club should go "hame"? Thanks but its time we struck out for ourselves....I mean we still have NI and Wales as an empire.
# posted by : 8:56 pm
: 8:56 pm
Labour has a real problem, infact England has a real issue to deal with. The Scots get a larger slice of the economic pie than is popularly thought representative. However, we as English people should think on this for a second. Perhaps they deserve this, after all they do infact run the whole show...perhaps they deserve a larger share..? Labour seems to becoming less and less able to relie on their Scottish "auld guard". Perhaps labour should cut their losses, reflect on the fact that the union has served its purpose. Lets move on, shake and say good luck. The Scots have a nice little country there, lets concentrate on our own social and economic clean up - they'll manage just fine, we're the ones up the creek with only a tartan paddle to keep us afloat. Perhaps Brown and his cronies from the bowling club should go "hame"? Thanks but its time we struck out for ourselves....I mean we still have NI and Wales as an empire.
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# posted by : 8:56 pm
: 8:56 pm << Home
