Crewe and Nantwich: it all comes out in the wash
Yes, yes, well done, Tories. Well done, well done. The thing is, I can beat my seven year-old daughter at chess with ease but to jump around the room in victory looks, well, a bit graceless. You know what I mean?
Any Tory who thinks they are winning rather than Labour losing needs to stop jumping around and take a bit of breather. The fact that so many people were so readily willing to switch their votes shows once again the molecule-thick divide between the political parties in this country.
This isn’t some massive ideological swing behind the ideas of the Tory party. It’s the political equivalent of the electorate switching to a new washing powder. The new brand isn’t much different from the old one, it’s just that All New Cameron smells a little fresher and produces a bit more froth.
Posted on May 23rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
[...] that’s enough triumphalism. Justin McKeating is right [...]
To ascribe the defeat entire to the growing disillusionment with Brown/Labour (as everyone everywhere seems to be doing) is also unfair – it ignores the central problem that the local Labour candidate was an arse. Based on every bit of footage I’ve seen of her, and every interview on the radio and in the papers, Dunwoody Jr isn’t even close to being a shadow of her late mum, and repeatedly came across as a lary, unpleasant cow throughout the whole process.
I’m also hoping this is the end to the pathetic Labour “we hate posh people, you hate posh people – come on, vote based on outmoded class antagonisms, petty misplaced jealousies and negatives, negatives, negatives, never positives” electoral strategy. They tried it in London with Boris, and it failed dismally; they’ve tried it in Crewe and it’s failed even more. Serves them right – replace “posh people” with “darkies” and all they’re doing is repackaging the BNP’s electoral strategy from the 70s/80s. Deeply unpleasant.
And yes, yes I do say this in part because by Labour’s standards I’d count as posh. They’re effectively saying “piss off, chum – we don’t want your vote”, and rather neglecting to realise that in the process they’re saying the same thing to all the New Labour-voting middle classes that switched en masse from blue to red in 97, giving them a decade in Number 10. The fucking idiots.
Nosemonkey’s latest blog post… Nosemonkey is not dead, honest
The triumphant celebrations at wins like this aren’t ever going to go away – look what happened the last time we had a massive swing like this – I remember the New Labour bus going past my window playing loud music and encouraging people to celebrate their win.
This was not appreciated at 9am in the middle of Student-ville in Southampton when most of us had stayed up late watching the election coverage (Election night armistice, anyone?)
Plus ca change… Did you dislike the triumphalism then?
Anyone seeing Hazel Blears’ display on QT last night, no matter what their own personal political colour, is just going to be ever-so-slightly triumphant today, simply at the thought of “her lot” getting a kicking.
I’m not entirely sure that’s a healthy way of thinking, although it is only human, after all. Unlike the afore-mentioned Ms B, who jerked and grimaced her way through the evening like T1000’s faulty auntie.
fatboyfat’s latest blog post… Let them eat cake
Do you know that your page load is defaulting to the brilliant Olberman piece below? It get annoying after a while!
gets