Thanks Tony, over to you Gordon

Today it is ”Over to you, Mr Brown”, as the title of the book I am reading (by Anthony Giddens) is also suggesting. I have been watching Sky News for an hour and for a political anglophile, these are interesting days. Blair was really in good form today as he participated in the Prime Minister’s questions for the very last time (watch it here), and Sky has been running clips and debates for most of the evening. And Guardian has loads of articles as well.

I have written a longer essay on Tony Blair’s legacy, and you can read it in Swedish here. I will try to translate it soon, and also write more about Giddens very interesting book (and thus the future challenges facing Gordon Brown).

And don’t miss that a high-profile Tory defected and joined Labour today. Harsh words about Cameron the chameleon, read his letter of explanation here.

Labour’s defeat

Just a quick one on what happened in the UK: Obviously Labour took a beating, but I feared it would be even worse. And before you say ”Labour is no longer the biggest party in Scotland”, you have to have more than only one mid-term election to refer to. And the pattern after the election is really mixed.

One rather sound analysis I read was this one in The Telegraph. And don’t miss The Economist’s special on Gordon Brown.

[Photo of Gordon Brown and Pär Nuder, taken in Almedalen 2005, AiBild]

Elections coming up in Britain

Labour will face tough elections on May 3rd (Local government elections in England; Parliamentary and local government elections in Scotland; Assembly election in Wales). Therefore I was glad to read (in The Guardian) that cool Labour is still mixing politics and music:

Dave Rowntree may be better known as the bespectacled one from Blur, but the drummer has gone from Blurite to Blairite after announcing he will be standing as a Labour party candidate in a council by-election this May.

Spurred on by a "sense of dissatisfaction" among Westminster residents, the long-term Labour supporter has decided to stand as councillor for the Marylebone High Street ward where he lives, despite it being a traditionally Tory stronghold.

"I'm a Westminster resident, and my experience of living here is that it all looks lovely, there are hanging baskets everywhere, but you only have to scratch the surface to see that actually there's a lot of deprivation and inequality". [...]

Standing on a redistributive platform, he'll put people "ahead of big business and ahead of property developers". "We [Westminster] are a very, very rich area, one of the richest in the country, and yet nine of our wards are amongst the poorest in the country. I think someone needs to do something about that, take some action." [...]

So, remember Westminster residents with a copy of Parklife: vote Dave Rowntree on Thursday 3rd May.

More about the elections here, and don't miss Labour-TV! And if you have forgotten about Blur, this is how it once began.

Miliband or Brown after Blair?

The succession race in the British Labour party seems to be toughening up: Miliband can still challenge and win over Brown, according to some news reports this weekend. The Guardian has an excellent website with all the latest.
[Thanks Niklas]