Is the Labour Party finished?

The Tories survived Thatcher and it did no lasting damage to the party

"Following our harrowing defeat today in Glasgow East I believe we should listen to the voters and keep the wonderful Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, and did you know Asda have knocked 4p of the price of a litre of petrol"

Don't Governments almost always lose by-elections? Do they matter much?

Labour may well lose the next election. Whatever the problems of the current administration in terms of policies/personnel the I think that a) it will be punished for the economic downturn b) in general the electorate probably just wants a change after three terms.

I don't reckon sacking GB would alter any of that.

Bruce

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I don't reckon sacking GB would alter any of that.

If they sacked GB and brought back TB I think they would not only survive as a party, but could actually win another term in office.

Despite the Iraq war, (which is now under control - although GB hasn't managed to claim any kudos for that) most people still associate TB with charisma and a relatively long run of "good times".

Cheers

Don

They can't change Gordon Brown because there is no-one to replace him with. I'm sure they must be very afraid of ending up like the Tory party with a new leader every six months which essentially resulted in the destruction of their best ministers one by one. I can't even remember who they all were now.

Labour need to keep their heads down, stay as they are and accept the defeat that is coming. When the Tories are exposed for having no alternative policies, they'll go into battle amongst themselves again and Cameron will be thrown to the lions, David Davies will have a go, be stabbed in the back by The Vulcan (who always seems to be behind it) and that'll kick off a frenzy in the Lib Dems who will be frustrated that they are not making gains when it should be so easy. So all the parties will be fighting and chaotic, Peter Hain will step up and after 4 years give us a proper leader again. We'll get two terms of relative stability and high tax, most of us will leave and go to Spain, France or Australia, and the remaining poor will pick up the bill for the unemployed, which will be about 45% of the remaining population.

I won't care. I won't be here.

Dear Ewan,

You wag! I happen to agree with you!

ATB from George

Don't you guys realise that it doesn't matter who you vote for a Government always gets in.

ATB Rotf

Don't vote - it just encourages them.

Did anybody catch the apathetic party's broadcast on TV - I thought not; I couldn't be bothered either.

Look everything's gonna be all right (or is that all left) - we are going to regain the Ashes

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Originally posted by ROTF:
Look everything's gonna be all right (or is that all left) - we are going to regain the Ashes

Are we planning a midnight raid?

Oh wait, hang on. Don't we actually keep them regardless of who wins the cricket. Now that is bloody clever and explains why we don't actually bother normally.

Just enjoy a Pimms or two in the pavilion and hang the result - we win anyway!

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Originally posted by Chillkram:

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Originally posted by ROTF:
Look everything's gonna be all right (or is that all left) - we are going to regain the Ashes

Are we planning a midnight raid?

Plan is to sacrifice series against SA - we are going to pick lots of Australians in our team (Darren Pattinson was just the first), then they'll all be in ineligible for the next Ashes series.

This is simply a variation on what Labour did in 97 - they picked a load of Torries as candidates and the rest as they say is ......... (sly attempt there to keep this within the spirit of the title of the thread )

Whatever happened to the senior Civil Servants who were supposed to look out for us (and them)?

One can just imagine GB leaving the room after his last meeting with TB while still PM...

"I think he wants to run the country", says one

"Well stop him, Bernard...", says the other

I think it is possible that the Labour Party would be finished by now if it were not for the stupidity of the Liberals. They had a real opportunity to position themselves as being a centrist party, and were in the enviable position that both former Labour voters who would never vote Tory, and former Tory voters would never vote Labour would by and large both have been prospective Liberal voters. But Clegg has made it clear that they intend to remain sitting slightly to the left of Labour, picking up disillusioned socialists...

It's sad, I would have liked to have gone back to the good old days of Whigs and Tories!!!

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Originally posted by djftw:
It's sad, I would have liked to have gone back to the good old days of Whigs and Tories!!!

and presumably children in mines, votes only for wealthly male landowners and the peasants in their place

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and presumably children in mines, votes only for wealthly male landowners and the peasants in their place

And your point is..?

After barely 12 months as PM (a job he hankered after all his career) GB is finished whilst you'd think Barak Obama is already President from the press coverage!

Funny old world as they!

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Originally posted by djftw:
It's sad, I would have liked to have gone back to the good old days of Whigs and Tories!!!

Yep old style free market liberalism.

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But Clegg has made it clear that they intend to remain sitting

Wasn't Clegg the ghost in the Ghost and Mrs Muir - he was also IIRC Dr Syn: the Scarecrow and his phantom hoardes still haunt Romney Marsh.

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and presumably children in mines,

that won't happen because somebody closed all the mines

Where is Winston Churchill when you need him, eh?



(Yes yes I know, pushing up the daisies in Bladon churchyard...)

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and presumably children in mines, votes only for wealthly male landowners and the peasants in their place

Erm, which party gave women the vote?

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that won't happen because somebody closed all the mines

See, we're nice really, don't want anyone working in such conditions!!!

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Yep old style free market liberalism.

That was more what I was getting at!!!

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that won't happen because somebody closed all the mines

See, we're nice really, don't want anyone working in such conditions!!!

That reminded me of a friend last week who is boycotting supermarket clothes because of Chinese sweatshops. The same person that used to complain that we could buy clothes for a fraction of the price abroad - until of course, we finally get them. Then we can't touch them.
They're fine with a £40 Nike T-shirt though.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GFFJ:
Is the Labour Party finished?

Having just returned from a 2 week break in portugal, where I was immune from the faltering politics of the UK for two weeks - kept the tv turned off, this begs the question whether Labour ever got started in the first place?

Werent we all sucked in by the shi(t)ne of TB , now we have the also rans. Tories and Libs vying for the next most radical (green) based policy that is only popular with under 21s who believe what they are told. And my daft brother - sorry Tom. The greens being pushed ever leftwards and greener and more impractical as ever?

Second question - should we vote for anyone next time around as one lot seems as bankrupt of any ideas as the next. Rather like shuffling the deckchairs on a sinking ship. they dust off each others policies and tell us what we dont want to hear and didnt ask for, but we voted for it they say. "on page 3546 of our manifesto it definitley says that even if we didnt say it we are going to do it and there is nothing that you can do :-)"

No I think not voting is the best idea and to paraphase a monkees song (sorry) "they gave an election and nobody came".

Good I need a holiday already - wheres the cheapest flight out of here :-)

Henners

Never underestimate the ability of the conservative party to screw up, start squabbling among themselves, start banging on about issues that no-one's interested in and make themselves unelectable.

Perhaps the NEW Labour experiment is finished. Then from it's ashes will emerge a Socialist party that will possibly engage with the very people that the Labour party was founded to represent. Of course by that time it will be such a broad church as 80% of the population will finally be hacked off paying eronious amounts to keep themselves warm whilst being told it's all the fault of oil prices whilst the unnationalised utility companies keep hush on record profits year after year.
John McDonald for leader of the Labour Party, bring on Cameron and his 'New' policies and let's see if Socialism can work (well, we've never really given it a go have we)

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That reminded me of a friend last week who is boycotting supermarket clothes because of Chinese sweatshops.

Buy clothes in a supermarket - does anybody do that?

Milk from the milkman
Vegetables from the greengrocer
Meat from the butcher
Fish from the fishmonger
Bread from the bakers
Eggs from the farm along the road
Clothes from the tailor's shop

Takes too long to traipse around a supermarket with a silly trolly that never wants to turn the right way - OK M&S is not too bad and Waitrose OK, but not keen on the others.

It is easy to buy things not made in a Chinese sweatshop, if you shop around a bit.

ATB Rotf