Labour has lost at least 200 seats in the local elections in England and Wales — leaving it in its worst position since the days of Harold Wilson — and even before the results of the London mayoral contest are known, some political analysts are saying Gordon Brown will lose the next general election unless the economy improves.
But others say this was a vote against Labour rather than a vote for the Conservatives and that governments, especially those that have been in power for as long as Labour, always take a knock in local elections. Look at Tony Blair in 2004 just a year before he swept home again.
The next general election doesn’t have to be called until 2010 and even a week is a long time in politics, they point out.
Do you think the writing is on the wall for Brown, or can Labour win a fourth term in the next general election?
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44 comments so far
They’ve been in long enough.
- Posted by Anthony MillerAlternation keeps them honest.
Kick the rascals out!
The result is a poor reflection on the British electorate. After all the damage that this government has done:
- the country bankrupted;
- the best pensions system in Europe destroyed;
- the highest total tax take ever;
- the highest ever levels of personal debt;
- 5 wars, none of them in defence of British interests;
- 90% of the way to the breakup of the UK;
- control of the country’s affairs given away to Europe;
- the country flooded with unwanted immigrants;
- public services getting worse by the day.
But it is only when voters finally realise they are being hit in the pocket that they throw the wreckers out.
Shameful.
- Posted by Mike TGreat news! We have a prime minister that NO ONE ever voted for, he was imposed upon us and now even he will get the message that both himself and his party are unpopular and inept.There have been so many major mistakes by this government…its time for them to go
- Posted by Dave FletcherBrown has always been unelectable as Prime Minister.
- Posted by David Williams WynnThese results merely reinforce this view.
It’s not just the economy but the way Brown has taxed to the hilt, ordinary people with his constant ’stealth tax’s’. I’m sure that he wants us all to live like him, non drinker, non driver, don’t take holiday’s etc. in other words ‘don’t even think about enjoying your self’.
Just look at his dress sense, facial expressions-he smiles in all the wrong places and when he does it never appears sincere-he rarely answers a straightforward question. People just do not like him.
He continues to punish the driver, smoker, drinker with his Tax’s especially the level of Tax on fuel, almost 70% on each litre. Absolutly crazy. The sooner he is put out to pasture the better, how much longer can the ordinary working people put up with this tax and bleed them dry strategy PM.
- Posted by Malcolm DavisGet GORDON BROWN out we didnot vote him in . With him as leader, Labour will not get in next time. Labour party its self need to get rid of him and is side kick ALISTAIR DARLING
- Posted by Ian MathersSummed up nicely Mike T, they’ve destroyed the best economy we ever had in this country, the sooner these useless communists are out the better!
- the country bankrupted;
- the best pensions system in Europe destroyed;
- the highest total tax take ever;
- the highest ever levels of personal debt;
- 5 wars, none of them in defence of British interests;
- 90% of the way to the breakup of the UK;
- control of the country’s affairs given away to Europe;
- the country flooded with unwanted immigrants;
- public services getting worse by the day.
- Unemployment, forced onto ‘course’ rather than employed
- children leaving school unable to read or write
- Crime rates surging by the day
- Criminals released from prison early
- NHS crippled
- Fuel taxes increased to force inflation up
Labour done what they did in the 70’s, only this time they’ve done a LOT more damage, that will be hard to put right, Camerons’ gonna have a hard time putting things right. We probably don’t even know the full extent of the damage labour has done.
It really is like they’ve set out with the goal of destroying Britain, the things they’ve done simply can’t have ALL happened by accident, surely?
I predict a huge surge in strike action, to combat the low standard of living that we’re all being dragged into, the cost of living has surged way beyone what is viable. Wages can’t increase or UK businesses will disappear overnight, their cost of running has increased hugely also.
What can be done to fix this? Mass migration from Britain, I’d not be surprised if labour’s next step will be to massively tax our savings if we try this even.
When you’re running a country (or a business) so badly, surely you stand down before the damage is irrepairable, especially when you’re gonna continue getting paid regardless.
labour have nothing to lose, WE have EVERYTHING to lose.
- Posted by Steve AynsleyThis is what happens when an unelected leader starts acting like a dictator. Of course he\’s washed up. Always was. But will he go? No! Which makes the Tories\’ job much easier come the general election!
- Posted by John SpaderI agree with Mike T. Labour, through Gordon Brown, have been destroying our economy, our competitiveness and our future prosperity for years - but it is only when tax increases hit average incomes that the voters realise how useles Labour have been. Socialism can never deliver prosperity - it is a recipe for decay and failure
- Posted by Nick BI am surprised no-one has mentioned the rape of company pension schemes which Brown implemented. I suspect that the move away from final salary schemes, which has caused so much industial unrest, was triggerd by this thieving act.
Stangely I was quite pleased that Brown became Prime Miniser because I have always believed him to be un-electable. Roll on the General Election.
- Posted by Keith OWe should let Gordon get on with his job. There are still pensioners to rob and stealth taxes to push forward. Britain no loger has an autocar manufacturing sector so bring on the congestion charge to every shopping mall in the country. Who cares! Man Unt. will win in Europe anyway and Lewis Hamilton might win in F1. Also, East enders will keep on going. Long live Gordon….oh, he can keep Scotland and all.
- Posted by HenryDo you remember when Brown sold most of our Gold Reserves a few years ago? Billions of pounds worth? It has trebled in price since then! What a useless fraud he is! Out! Sooner the better!
- Posted by David BarkerKeith O
I think you are absolutely correct in saying that Gordon is the downfall of final salary pension schemes. When he first raided them the economy was sound as were stock markets and he believed no one would notice.
His raid has netted the Government £5bn a year ever since in additional income. Indirectly this, in order to maintain pension standards, has to come from somewhere - where I hear you ask? Well it isn’t the companies who pay it - it is the pension scheme members and the public in general either through having to buy their pension (many schemes were non contributory ones) or through higher factory gate prices to top up pensions of ALL workers.
He is now sitting pretty as, even though he is a failed Prime Minister, he can now command an annula income of around £1m per annum or more just as an adviser to Industry and through writing his memoires and after dinner speaking let alone any global appearances.
This government are power crazy, they want to micromanage our lives and they must be stopped. I suspect that one of them read George Orwell’s book 1984 and thought it was a blueprint of how to run the country, not a fictional volume warning of the dangers of over administration and control.
Also do any of them, wafting around in theri government provided car (paid for by you and me) realise just how hard things like the fuel duty escalator have hit the low paid and those who live in rural locations? Do they realise that it feeds through to just about everything we buy via transport costs and will they admit that inflation has been running at just over 4% for the last two years but they have rigged the figures.
- Posted by Richardnot only is Brown guilty of the £5bn rape and pillage of private sector pension funds, which means we all have to pay more or get less, but this government has also failed to do anything about the now unsustainable cost of public sector pensions which are hugely protected from the real world. We are heading towards financial catastrophe in the UK.
- Posted by dave evansGordon may not look flash enough for the cameras but he is hard working, clever and serving his country. David Cameroman will serve only him and his friend when in power.
- Posted by Saadet UcarThen of course there are HIPs. Before you can market a residential property you must provide a HIP at a cost of some £350.00. It contains useful information such as how many energy saving light bulbs there are in the property and the local search goes out of date after 3 months. It must make people think twice before they put their property up for sale, particularly in the present difficult market.
- Posted by Clive CherryBut the really iniquitous tax is SDLT. On a commercial lease you have to add VAT to the rent for the purpose of calculating the SDLT, even if there is no VAT actually payable on the rent. So you have to pay tax on tax that isn’t payable!
Clive C
The obscenity of Brown’s naked ambition to be crowned as unelected king by his odious toadies in the Labour party has been rightly punished by the electorate today. He deserves to be remembered for generations as the most unpopular Prime Minister in living memory, in charge of the worst UK government in living memory.
- Posted by MatthewGordon Brown should go before the country is so fragmented that meltdown is inevitable. No jobs no pride no happiness just grey misery spreading like a cancer without any hope of a cure!
- Posted by MaggieBrown can hang in until 2010 without calling an election. I hope he does because this deeply unpopular politician who has taxed us to the hilt with no noticeable improvement in services deserves to twist agonisingly in the wind buffeted by the weekly onslaughts at PMQ from an enrgetic and charismatic Tory leader. Then when he gets thrown out by an elctorate that will be even more upset than they are now, his sorry party will take a decade or more before they are given another chance.
- Posted by TimHaving been a lifelong labour suported, am deeply ashamed of the Labour Party over the Gulf War, crime, the gimmicks they have used, asbo’s, and the way criminals are treated compared with their victims. The borrowing, taxes on the motorists, the waste. If Gordon Brown really wanted to listen and take notice of the people in this country he should go now, taking all his cronies with him.
- Posted by M W Wingok,so we all agree about labour . And the next lot of robbers will be the conservatives. AGAIN!!
- Posted by p.odonnellmy 91 year old mother in law says they are all the same-
unfortunately she is right(maybe i was wrong about her)
The only way that the Labour party can win the next general election is to get rid of Brown (unelectable) and choose a new leader who can compete with Cameron. It is now imperative that the Labour back-benchers get a grip on their own futures and throw out the overbearing arrogant Brownites . Time is running out.
- Posted by RayYoung wife, young children, 10 years at the top of Government? Gordon should not have taken the job in July 07, he had everything going for him in a career out of Government. Now he should handover to a young gun who can either (a) win the next general election with a rocket up the backside of the party or (b) lose the next election credibly with a rocket up the backside of the party.
- Posted by William CarsonHe was never elected and should now resign.
- Posted by bobI dont think its too much Browns fault.We are living in the aftermath of ego Blair who could talk his way out of anything even if he wasnt telling the truth!! Having said that Browns advisers should have foreseen the current economic climate but realy they where enjoying watching the value of there homes go up as the credit was thrown around. Its now time for a change. History will judge Blair and his Human Rights lawyer wife for starting the real rot and downward spiral of the current government.
- Posted by S LeedhamLabour hyped a “clunking fist”; now we know it’s a “limp wrist”
- Posted by Christopher Durant“Summed up nicely Mike T, they’ve destroyed the best economy we ever had in this country, the sooner these useless communists are out the better!”
COMMUNISTS? COMMUNISTS? Labour are no different from the Tories and the Tories are no different from Labour, this country needs to be shown what left-wing means again if we’re going to fix the despicable state we’re in.
- Posted by ThorgrimmGordon Brown set about taxing us excessively years ago to finance a bloated administration made up of opportunist spongers and a war we were deceived into believing was justified. Apparently car tax is the next item set to become unaffordable and millions of innocent citizens’ cars are to become worth little more than their scrap value. Nobody wants to ruin the environment but mobility is one of the factors that sets us above the standards of medieval Britain. Transport costs impact every facet of our existence, the cost of food etc. I bought a diesel three years ago thinking I was being helpful. Now I can hardly bear to fill the tank up. Mr Brown’s chickens are coming home to roost and Teflon Tony has distanced himself nicely. Brown’s political career is coming to a nasty end and he deserves it. Regrettably I don’t have any real confidence that the Tories will be any better and they certainly won’t take the thieving banks and credit card companies on. Do you remember last time about 15 years ago when the banks dumped shed loads of money in South America and then claimed that the Tory government encouraged them to do it? The bitter taste of John Major shambling around is still with me. What a mess it all is. What we need is to have some proper businessmen running this country not jumped up lawyers who can’t understand the everyday issues of the common man - and I include the middle classes in that category - although obviously not the medical profession who have shown themselves to be better at extracting money out of the system than even Gordon Brown. And that’s just for starters!
- Posted by Rob TitherleyYesterdays election results are a true indication of the British publics feelings towards PM Brown and the Labour party and his cronies. I live in Bury which has now been won by the Conservatives, I have been a Labour voter since 18 and Im now 48 and I can promise you that I did not and will not vote for this group of bandits ever again. I cannot believe the damage that these people have caused during their ten years in power, if anyone had set out to deliberatley to destroy a country then they couldnt have done a better job than Blair and Brown!
The labour leadership should be classed as “IDIOTS”
Ignorant
Dithering
Indecisive
Out of touch
Taxing (to the hilt!)
Stupid (beyond belief, 24 hour alcohol sales, and each week we hear of members of the public who have been kicked to death by drink / drug fuelled thugs!)
Many people complain about the levels of immigration, but if this is the way our country is going then in my opinion we would all be better of moving abroad.
- Posted by Alan B2010 is when the worst of the new car tax (AKA VED / RFL) rates kick in. This is one tangible tax, like income tax, that might make people wake up and smell the coffee; when ordinary people realise they can’t afford to tax their ordinary Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Zafira (the list is endless), nor afford to p/x it in (as no one will want it due to the tax), nor afford a new car both due to the initial cost and the huge taxes levied on new vehicles, there shouldn’t be any chance of Labour getting back in, but’s it’s one hell of a mess to sort out and I don’t think we’ll get any rebate or reduction whoever gets in.
Everyone’s else comments are spot on - crime, immigration etc - GREAT Britain - don’t make me laugh.
- Posted by Colin WelchWe English have had to put up with ten years of a Scottish gang of EU sympathisers ruling the Labour Party, the last one and possibly two more to come led by an unelected Scottish dictator. Don’t expect too much too soon!
- Posted by William FowlerI think Brown is finished. He was a magnificent Chancellor but never a leader. Time to go or else Labour is finished.
- Posted by WesleyThe notion that Brown is politically correct in what he says and does is dispelled, in the main, and for the time being, by the result of the recent election South of the border, augmented by the accurate comments of previous correspondents both here and elsewhere which may, or may not, reflect the feeling of some sections of our society.
That a change of government in such circumstances is seen to be the way only way forward appears, over the years, to have been the normal response in such situations. Is this the only correct way forward, I wonder?
All governments in this country,of whatever colour can present their manifesto, and then, if elected, proceed thereafter unimpeded as though this manifesto had never existed.
Our electorate therefore appears to enjoy democracy for one day only, that being the day they go to the polls, after which the voted for party proceed to do as they wish without let or hindrance. Where are the checks and balances in such a democracy?
It does not seem to matter whether or not political actions thereafter invoke serious personal hurt, there is always an excuse. It,s called spin, and more often than not, we have no option in the matter of accepting it.
There is however some respite albeit small, that the press may pick up on it,their view wholly
dependant on their political persuasion.
In my view there ought to be a mechanism (given the view of recent historic events)where the voting populace can demonstrate their view, and with some immediacy on those political decisions which impact on the quality of their lives. This however cuts both ways, and here I return to checks and balances.
May I just add, that as a Scotsman with good National pride I disassociate myself from the comments of W. Fowler.
- Posted by Robert BrownA useless waster who has ruined this country. About time that people realised it.
- Posted by IanI think this will spell the end for Brown and Labour for a while, the amount of scrutiny he will come under for every issue will be immense from now on.
- Posted by OliverThere are three main problems with Brown now;
He has no mandate to rule, the voters wanted Blair,
He has been seen to dither on many issues inlcuding the Lisbon Treaty, arriving late and not attending the Photo Call,
and he is in the middle of a financial crisis after him being Chancellor for 10 years, the 10p tax debacle was the icing on the cake with the backbenchers on course to make his life harder over the next year or so.
It is always a shock to see the ignorance of British people in elections and comments reflect this. The British Constitution is such that we have never voted for a Prime Minister and if one goes another is chosen by their party. Brown is no different from many other Prime Ministers chosen like this. It is much better than the huge hype of presidential campaigns. OK if you don’t like Labour policies vote for another party - but just screaming rude words at someone who is working for the UK - is not going to encourage anyone to run a country. It is hard and complicated - and everyone is so SURE they have the right answer - it is never to do with how we behave.
- Posted by EllaI really hope Gordon stays in power until the next election. It will make it so much easier for the Conservatives if he does. No-one who has more sense than a house brick would vote for Gordon ‘liar’ Brown unless they are one of the benefit junkies bought about by Labours irresponsible attempts at social engineering
- Posted by IanLets hope not! There should be a law against parties being in power for more than three terms anyway, we just get bored with them and the politicians become complacent and corrupt after that.
- Posted by ianWhat’s with all your people who complain that Brown was never elected!
I think the people in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (who did elect him) would disagree. The PM role isn’t a presidency. There’s no popular UK election for any Prime Minister - you simply vote for your local candidate. Parliament is then called to select a Prime Minister from its ranks. This is usually the leader of the dominant party, but doesn’t have to be.
The issue we have in the UK is that local issues are equally important to us these days as national and domestic ones. Our system doesn’t allow us representation on both. We can vote thinking about the candidate who will represent our local interests and our neighbourhood or the candidate who represents the party who’s national and international agenda we agree with most. These may not align.
Unfortunately, local representation is just as important as international representation, so it’s about time we really and seriously sat down and looked at how we, the public, get a say in how our country is run at all levels and have the correct amount of input.
- Posted by Matt DayOn Channel 4 news, the spokeswomen for Labour, Yvette Cooper would only admit one reason why the govt. lost the local elections - the 10p tax.
She was asked again and again whether there were any other mistakes that Labour had made. It was obvious from listening to her that the govt. either do not have a clue as to what the electorate are thinking or they just dont want to listen.
I am so happy that we have taught them a lesson!
- Posted by SimonWhat Britain needs now is raid intervention from the UN. The government of the UK should listen to it’s people who so far in the only electoral event that has directly concerned G. Brown have not expressed any sympathy for the Labour party. I beg our neighbours (France, Ireland) to intervene for us in the EU parliament. The only alternative is a battalion of Zimbabwe paratroopers with UN berets to free us from our dictator
- Posted by HenryStrange how the government were prepared to let market forces take their course, but when things start to look dodgy they have to manipulate the so called free market, thats what happens when so many in power have a vested interest. Back to surfdom I’m afraid.
- Posted by MalcThis all proves what ordinary folk in the UK realised sometime ago, British politics is a circus. And now a clown is going to run the capital.
Brian
- Posted by Brian LovettBrown has lied and fudged his way through, like the rest of MPS they feed us information on what they think we want to hear not what they think is going on. BUT the truth…..we are not idiots and we what we have to contend with its about time they trned the cards on immigration especially, and stop treating us the ENGLISH like 2nd rate citizens start treating us, the pensioners, instead of handing all to the immigrants we deserve better than this, our father did not fight a 2nd world war for this. it is shameful.
- Posted by netts