Quote:
Originally Posted by JCB
The result will be a morale booster to Labour whose share of the vote is back to the 1997 landslide result .
There was a collapse in the Conservative vote , down from 26% to 12% . I think this is unusual in a bye-election so close to a General Election . They were down by more than 7000 votes , so they can't say that Conservative voters switched to the Liberal Democrats . If that was the case the Liberal Democrats would have won , but instead they were more than 3500 votes behind Labour . And remember that the Liberal Democrat boast used to be how well they did in bye-elections .
I think that the Coalition's mantra about the mess that Labour left behind is beginning to wear a bit thin . When people look at the USA , Ireland , Greece , Portugal , Spain , etc. they are reminded that the mess was a result of an international , global financial crisis .
Without doubt the Labour government made mistakes just like the Coalition is making , but in no way can it be made to share the full blame of what was a disaster for global capitalism .
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I agree with the "global financial crisis" thing ... so obvious it's a no-brainer. As an aside, I would like to point out that Canada, with its resource-based economy, and its controled banks and financial sector survived the crisis almost unscathed ... in fact, it looks like we will make a profit on the Chrysler bail out ... and we did all this with a minority government.
I also happen to believe from what I have observed and studied from a distance, that the coalition's economic moves have more to do with tory ideology than they have with economics.