:: Monday, February 13, 2006 ::

One Party Rule Crumbling?

Dunfermline West is my home constituency. Indeed I was a member of the local constituency Labour Party at one time.

It has been a one-party state for much longer than I have been alive. That party, of course, being Labour. So the defeat of the Labour candidate was a bit of an Alan Partridge moment. I am referring to his football commenting days (on the Day Today) when he watches a particularly impressive goal go in and screams "Shit! Did you see that?".

Voters certainly were upset with Labour and wanted to punish them. But why? For the usual reasons, sure...moving right, the war blah blah. Some local issues too. But I think it was when the McConnell/Brown spat happened that people got upset. The one party state was sorting out policy internally via party feuds.

Voters sent a message that they had had enough of the one party state and shouldn't be taken for granted. They lent their support to the lib-dems (which did no favours for the SNP, Tories or SSP) as the 'party most likely' to beat Labour. Grave news for Labour in Scotland despite the likelihood of this seat returning to them at the next election. New generations of voters (those that bother to vote that is, 60% didn't) don't necessarily share the tribal loyalties of their parents.


:: Alister | 11:15 am | save this page to del.icio.us Save This Page | permalink⊕ | |

2 Comments:

New generations of voters (those that bother to vote that is, 60% didn't) don't necessarily share the tribal loyalties of their parents.

My grandfather was a miner. My father got out and did OK, but he was rock-solid Labour all his life. I'm a socialist, and I stuck with the buggers until the mid-90s. My son is ten; he supports the Greens and hates Labour with a passion. His generation has no reason not to hate Labour. Give it a few years and the one-party rule will be crumbling all over. (But O for an EnglishSP worthy of the name...)

By Blogger Phil, at 10:02 pm  

I think that you are right about the next generation. The key thing is to have a party to the left of Labour that people will trust.

By Blogger Alister, at 9:21 am  

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