By Freddy Gray on 5.5.08 @ 12:07AM
With the Tory victories last week, Gordon Brown is in for the fight of his life.
British Conservatives are smiling again. Last week's council
election results were Labour's worst humiliation for more than 40
years.
Labour lost 331 council seats in England and Wales. Their share
of the vote dropped to 24 percent, putting them third, behind the
Liberal Democrats. Gordon Brown, Britain's staggeringly unpopular
Prime Minister, admitted that he was "hurt" by the defeat. That's
about as close as he gets to candor.
The Conservative party, led by David Cameron, obtained 44 per
cent of the vote. Impressively, they made gains in the north -- the
heartland of the British Left -- winning in places where they have
been out of power for a generation, or longer.
Nobody is sure exactly what this means, just yet. Local
elections are not necessarily reliable indicators of significant
political shifts. If last week's results were reflected in a
general election, Conservatives would win by 126 seats. But in
2004, New Labour was also trounced in the local elections, only to
win easily when it really mattered in 2005.
THIS YEAR, HOWEVER, Labour's humiliation has been compounded by the
loss of the London mayoralty. In a high-profile contest that drew
international attention, former London Spectator editor
Boris Johnson, widely and idiotically dismissed as a "clown,"
defeated the incumbent Ken Livingstone.
Johnson's victory is encouraging to conservatives of all
stripes, even more so because it is widely acknowledged that
Livingstone -- a popular maverick -- lost because he ran as a
Labour candidate, rather than as an independent.
With Mayor Johnson, the Tories have someone in a position of
real power for the first time since 1997. The symbolic importance
of regaining influence in the capital should not be
underestimated.
Gordon Brown, in contrast to Boris Johnson, has never won a
serious election. Last week's results suggest that democracy is
catching up with him. Today, it is hard to imagine the Prime
Minister winning anything.
Brown is increasingly distrusted and despised. In last year's
budget, he scrapped the ten pence tax-rate band that helped medium
to low income earners. This widely denounced move, along with
countless other "stealth taxes" and administrative blunders, has
created the impression that Labour is inflicting the harshest
fiscal burden on the poor.
Labour leaders talk about the toughness of the current economic
climate, but their problems are far deeper. Their Party is in
crisis. Tony Blair's infectious optimism has gone and, without him,
Brown can't keep the movement alive. He promises a new Britain, a
new politics, even a new international world order. No one believes
him.
After 11 years in government, New Labour can't claim to be new
anymore.
WHAT THEN DOES David Cameron offer instead? For conservatives --
small c -- the answer is not much. Cameron is rightly dubbed "the
heir to Blair," a moniker he has conspicuously sought.
He offers little hope that the size of government will be
reduced. His party is afraid to talk about tax cuts. He has
embraced environmentalism, and his administration would impose
taxes to stop people from polluting. All this is very distressing
for old-fashioned Tories. New Conservatism, in the mold of New
Labour, may be the only way to power, but that doesn't mean
conservatives like it.
Nevertheless, victory is a great unifier. Even Cameron's most
vociferous critics on the Right, would have rejoiced at the sight
of Labour ministers fumbling through interviews, hopelessly trying
to explain away their unpopularity.
Over the weekend, the right-wing British press offered hints
that Cameron may yet be embraced as a savior. The hope remains
that, once in office, the party will return to a more authentic
conservatism.
Troubled right-wingers, meanwhile, can take solace in the
reassuringly rotund figure of London's new Mayor, who in his
brilliant career as a journalist, has consistently stood up for
conservative -- big C, little c, all sorts of c -- values.
And he is a winner, which is actually what the Tory party has
always been about. Indeed, the exceptionally intelligent Boris
Johnson, who was born in New York, may have the right combination
of style, charisma, and ambition to revive conservatism far beyond
the British capital.
topics:
Taxes, Environment, Conservatism
