The F Word: Winners and Losers in the UK Election

For all his faults, I was struck by outgoing British Prime Minster Gordon Brown's resignation speech. It wasn't the pomp of the job he loved, he said, it was the chance to make his country a fairer place.

Brown's out, but it may he may not be the only loser here. After the 2008 crash it was Brown who led the way when it came to stimulus spending and bank regulating (even Barack Obama acknowledged that this week.) Now the accepted wisdom seems to be that all that lead to his defeat. There's a potentially dangerous lesson there, and it may be the wrong lesson at that.

In Britain, the Conservatives are back in power in coalition with centrist Liberal Democrats. For all their differences, both are deficit-obsessed. Tory leader David Cameron's already called for a more "responsible society - where entitlements are not center stage. So what comes next? Two and a half million Britains are already officially unemployed - a rate of over 8 %. Laying government workers off will push that number up and bring consumer spending down. As speculators thrive, any progress to fairness will be on the skids.

I haven't seen exit polls or polled people myself, but isn't it just possible that after 18 years of rule, the Labor Party took a beating because Brown is a downer of a guy -- and more importantly, because of his predecessor Tony Blair's lies leading his country into war? The UK has been racked by conflict over coal, policing, collaboration with US torturers - and did I mention WAR -- in Afghanistan and Iraq. British casualties are up. And it may not be Brown, but those casualties politicians ought to be thinking about. When it comes to Brown's defeat I'd say the verdicts not as clear -- or as convenient -- as some might like.

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.

 

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Comments

[ECJLA]

05:41 AM on 05/14/2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8677933.stm
From the full text of the Conservative/LibDem coalition agreement:
"10. The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government. ..."

This civil liberties plank of the coalition platform alone would outweigh any economic policy error (of insufficient Keynesianism) that may inhere in the LibDem-Conservative pact. Public spending can be increased if and when the data justifies a course correction from so-called "Hoover economics". Meanwhile, the coalition's pact also (admirably) reads: "4. Banking Reform. The parties agree that reform to the banking system is essential to avoid a repeat of Labour's financial crisis, ..."

There are also planks for increasing social fairness, making taxation more progressive, reforming the electoral system, advancing environmentalism and helping the EU redress "global warming and global poverty". This is a stunning achievement (on paper -- the devil being in the details and implementation). It is an agenda that reflects the will of Britain's progressive majority electorate.

Now, if the coalition can also distance Britain from Bush, Obama and New Labour's infernal misbegotten Af/Pak war, this new government may earn the real "glittering prizes" -- not of power, glory or prestige but of gratitude from current and future generations to whom they would bequeath a fairer, freer, more diverse and peaceable world.

Well done, LibDems!

Eric C. Jacobson
Public Interest Lawyer
Culver City, California
http://www.libdems.us/

[jhNY]

02:33 PM on 05/13/2010

The Labor Party under Blair's direction had built a foundation for itself on the remains of Thatcher's policies, at home and abroad. The New Labor shunned overcloseness with labor unions and workers, but courted the good opinions of the middle class, and most of all, the City of London. And the middle class and the City of London have repaid the party in abandonment. Brown, by working closely with Blair for far too long, managed to leave his basic decency at home a few too many times in the process, and of course, like John Major before him, managed to reap the whirlwind of voter fatigue once the glittering media star he had succeeeded no longer lit him with the golden light of his proximity. In fact it was precisely that proximity that Brown felt he had to avoid in order to have a chance at keeping his job, Blair being a national embarrassment and all.

[Macready]

06:29 AM on 05/14/2010

well said jhNY . . . Gordon Brown is basically a decent man the same could not be said of tony bliar who sold the UK down the river to get in with georgie bush . . . I am not sure how long this coalition will last . .. very doubtful

there were more people who voted against the tories than for them . . . and Labour's loss was not as bad as feared and cameron did not prove the "golden boy" that pre-debate polls indicated . . . a lot of people I think were actively voting against the tories . . .