to our english/british members....a political question...

[thegelding]

is bush and iraq going to take blair down??

if so, what are your thoughts on that....

and what will replace him...somebody more liberal, less liberal, strongly conservative?

and for the conspiracy minded out there....what if blair loses but bush wins re-election...do you think the repubs were smart enough to find a way to take out a liberal british government leader??

g

[staph]

is bush and iraq going to take blair down??

if so, what are your thoughts on that....

and what will replace him...somebody more liberal, less liberal, strongly conservative?

and for the conspiracy minded out there....what if blair loses but bush wins re-election...do you think the repubs were smart enough to find a way to take out a liberal british government leader??

g

Blair is the most right-wing Labour Prime Minister Britain has ever had!

I'm not British, but my two cents is that he will go down kicking and screaming (or possibly die on the job)... but it seems to be increasingly likely that he will go. The debacle at the local government elections are a deeply bad sign for him.

The Conservatives in Britain are a joke, although they're making up lost ground. It might be interesting to see what happens to the Green and Liberal Democrat vote, however.

And for what it's worth, I think Blair himself was the cause of his downfall. He was always too slavishly pro-American in his foreign policy. It defied common political good-sense.

[Cybermonkey]

Well labour have just had a kick up the arse in the local elections and lost about 200 odd seats. I think the next election labour are going to loose mainly for Iraq but also on immigration and as always taxes. If the conservatives do get in the country will probably go down hill even more with howard at the helm, though bush will have a more willing partypal than ever with howard.

Personally, i think prince william should take the throne by force, re-take control over the country and behead all politicians for being nob-heads :D

[Cybermonkey]

Should point out they've now lost 464 seats :smokey:

Bring on the green party so we can all cycle to work and have heartattacks ;)

[thegelding]

ok, so i come from a two party system...so tell me about Britain's system...

basically three parties? or more?

what is the difference between liberal democrats and labor?

if you are worried about the conservative party, would the democrats and labor join or combine?

thanks

g

[Cybermonkey]

libs are middle of the scale as labour is left and conservatives are right. There are different parties like the green party, BNP (british national party=nazis) and some others. The lib dems have joined forces in the past with labour to have a say, i'm sure that was the case when blair got into power.

I guess the main difference between labour and the libs is labour is a party for the working people, or is supposed to be whereas the libs are more a neutral party if that makes any sense.

I think what could happen if people still look like there going to vote conservative by the general election is blair will step down and give the reins to gordon brown (chancellor) to try and save the party.

[Harald]

I was thinking about this!

Blair has said that he will 'resign if he thinks he has become a liability.' There's no doubt -- following the local elections -- that he his now, because the majority of people who voted for Labour consider Iraq a total fuck up. Not what they wanted, not what they voted for. Not what they want now.

And, you know what, he won't resign. Classic power- and history-hungry he won't go. And he can't go; he actually believes that Iraq was the right thing to do and there's this really weird thing with GWB, the most right-wing and extreme President anyone can remember and possibly ever. Resigning would hurt Dubya. GOK what that whole thing is about.

Will it scupper Labour at the next General Election? It could. It really could, but it's not certain; everything else is going pretty well in the UK. Local elections are often a forum to piss off the incumbent party, and votes come back home when the stakes are high. BUT the strength of this vote was huge ... Labour came 3rd.

Many people cannot vote for 'their' party -- Labour -- while Tony is in charge. Many. I'm one of them. I think they're going to lose. I think that the Conservatives could well form the next government and that the Liberals are going to do very well.

[stoo]

I guess the main difference between labour and the libs is labour is a party for the working people, or is supposed to be whereas the libs are more a neutral party if that makes any sense.

Labour rebranded themselves as "New Labour" around 1997, aiming at a wider audience. They won the 1997 general election by a landslide (and didn't need to form coalitions then due to their huge majority). Labour and Liberal Democrats do occassionally form coalitions, as happened in the Scottish parliament.

One thing splitting the European election vote is the presence of the strongly Euro-sceptical UK Independence Party, who have probably been drawing support from the (slightly less anti-Europe) Conservative party. However the Euro-sceptic vote is split, in general the British public aren't really keen on tighter European integration. Along with Iraq, this could really scupper Labour at the European elections. The results should be out on Monday.

While there are more than 2 parties, only the Conservatives (centre-right) and Labour (centre-left) really have a shot a forming a government. The next largest is the Liberal Democrat party. In Scotland we also have the SNP, who are probably centre-left and definitely not to be confused with the BNP.