Yes we Khan
So Labour lost Battersea. Outgoing Labour MP Martin Linton planned to blame the Liberal Democrats but then thought it better not to. Had more Liberal Democrats cast a tactical ‘progressive vote’, then Labour just might have squeezed in, again. As it turned out the Lib Dem candidate Layla Moran- hugely underperformed in south London despite claims that this candidate had been identified by camp Clegg as one of his rising stars.
Linton was magnanimous in defeat, extending a hand of welcome to the Tory Jane Ellison while at the same time paying tribute to his own campaign volunteers who avoided a crushing defeat by knocking on thousands of doors and getting the core Labour supporter out to vote.
Linton’s civility contrasted with the rather graceless mood at Wandsworth Town Hall of some Tory activists, particularly when they realised that Labour’s Sadiq Khan had held on to his Tooting seat.
“That disgusting little man,” commented a pin-striped thirty something year old Tory, in his freshly pressed suit and greased back hair.
I couldn’t resist telling him that nothing was quiet as disgusting as he was.
To wake up this morning is to wake up to the possibility that these privileged. bold and brash Cameronites will now attempt to run not only Battersea but the country , in defence of their privileges and prejudices, while the defiant chant of the Tooting Labour activists still echoes in my ear, ‘Yes, We Khan’.
This was no great victory for Cameron. Just compare the Tory vote with how a majority of British subjects of all race, creed, and class voted for Tony Blair back in 1997. He has not swept the country as Blair did. It was no great victory for the media either. The combined magnum force and crude bigotry and bias of the pro-Tory newspapers failed to avert a hung parliament-a terrible term by the way which shoud be scrapped from the politics phrase book.
Hung suggests terminal indecision. But the national vote suggests a majority of voters have made up their minds that the national interest lies in constructive give-and-take around a genuinely progressive agenda of reform, regeneration, and redistribution. The government that fails to recognise that will be thrown out at the next election.
David writes from Bermuda: Labour’s refusal to address the issue of electoral reform during 13 years in Government and their success in bankrupting the country may have something to do with the fact that less than 30% of the electorate voted for them…..and the image of a Conservative party activist wearing a pin stripe suit and having slicked back hair is a little tired. What was Mr. Khan wearing?
Thank goodness we got rid of the unelected Gordon Brown.
For the record,Brown is still Prime-minister. Labour is prepared to accept electoral reform along the lines proposed by the Lib Dems-something which most Tory elected MP’s are against and, if you check your figures, the combined Labour and Lid Dm votes based on a common ground on several major other issues leaves the Conservative Party in a minority. Labour did not bankrupt the county, The greed of certain banks and their execs plunged the world into recession and Brown’s management of the crisis has succeeded where other countries have failed in stemming the negative trail left by capitalism. Khan was not, as you might suggest, wearning a Taliban headress. I consider him a very decent hard working MP,a friend, and a true comrade which is more than I can say for the bigoted Cameronites who couldn’t care a toss for anyone earning less than 50,000 a year, let alone a darker shade of pale. I know what country I live in, and what future I want for my children and it’s not Tory.
So 36% of the national vote achieved 47% of the seats, although it is clear that 64% of those who turned out to vote did not want the Conservatives in government.
Interestingly enough, the total vote echoed, more or less, what had been predicted in the opinion polls in the run-up to the elections. The Lib Dems were predicted 23% but only acquired 8-9% of the seats; likewise the Labour Party. But with the current electoral system, total votes do not indicate total percentage of seats. Time for a change. After all, some of us have been campaigning for PR for 25 years and more.
There will be interesting times ahead.