[Kosh]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7372860.stm



Why did they lose so badly?

[achtung]

General turnout looks like it will be about 35%, similar to last year

That's the expected voter turnout?

[Flipside]

When the vote is 'Who do you want to treat you like insignificant ****e this term?' , voters lose enthusiasm.

I'm not surprised by the result, Labour has been losing popularity fast.

[karajorma]

Why did they lose so badly?

I quite like the way George Galloway put it once. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are two cheeks of the same arse.

Brown quite simply hasn't done anything to distinguish himself from being Tony Blair mk II so as a result the fact that everyone was completely sick of Blair is spilling over onto him.

I just hope that this doesn't spill over to the mayoral election in London cause I wouldn't trust Boris Johnson to find his own arse with both hands, sat nav and a guide dog specially trained in finding stupid politicians arses.

[Mobius]

Reminds what happened here more than two weeks ago. This looks like one year of political changes.

Brown quite simply hasn't done anything to distinguish himself from being Tony Blair mk II so as a result the fact that everyone was completely sick of Blair is spilling over onto him.

That's what I thought. Although my knowledge of UK politics is very, very low I found Gordon Brown an invisible politician. "Either he's doing nothing or what he's doing isn't significant enough", that's what I thought in the past months...news rarely mentioned him here...

[karajorma]

You aren't wrong. When the news says "The Prime Minister said..." I think of Tony Blair and then remember he isn't prime minister any more a second later.

[Roanoke]

It's been a disaster for Brownie since he took over. The aborted General Election, Northern Rock, The Credit Crunch etc and now the 10p tax cut - basically they removed a tax break for the lowest earners, traditionally Labour support has been from working class, salt of the earth low earners.

Did Boris get the London Mayorship BTW ? 

[Mobius]

You aren't wrong. When the news says "The Prime Minister said..." I think of Tony Blair and then remember he isn't prime minister any more a second later.

Pretty much like Ratzinger, a mere shadow of JP II. Things here were like "Gordon Brown said...", not "Gordon Brown did...", I read an interesting article about his government and expected a lot from it. Meh.

Did Boris get the London Mayorship BTW ? 

Yes, he did. I know nothing of him, however. He must have no international importance. Is BJ a good person?

[NGTM-1R]

Pretty much like Ratzinger, a mere shadow of JP II. Things here were like "Gordon Brown said...", not "Gordon Brown did...", I read an interesting article about his government and expected a lot from it. Meh.

I'd argue much the reverse. Ratzinger has done a lot for the more recent crisises of the Catholic Church that JP II wasn't able to, he was one of the driving forces at Vatican 2, if there's a book on Catholic theology or doctrine that's any good Ratzinger probably wrote it. In a sense, electing him Pope was the only logical decision; nobody else who was a canidate even comes close to his degree of experience or to the effect he has had on Catholicism as we know it today.

This is one of the reasons the whole Nazi pope thing was so hilarous to me. He's already done so much to change the Catholic Church that it was far too late to protest by the time he was elected.

[Mobius]

He might have done a lot but he needs time to match JP II's celebrity and popularity. I remember people saying "JP II is still the Pope for me, full stop!" MANY months after his death.

No doubt he is a very valid person, the problem with him is that he came just after JP II.

[Roanoke]

Did Boris get the London Mayorship BTW ? 

Yes, he did. I know nothing of him, however. He must have no international importance. Is BJ a good person?

Yeah, he's awesome. I can easily say that as 1) I don't live in London and 2) Have no plans to move there.

[Mobius]

But he's like Berlusconi...the dark right side...