What in the world is going on with this country? Why are people not realizing the consequences of voting for a Tory? As an American(living in England), I was appalled to see Boris win over London and in the same week Tories winning all around, why does this have to continue. Do people realize how good they had it here before switching over to the conservative side. Eventually by sticking with tories, you will lose the NHS(as crap as some thing it is, it is better than what we get) among other things. I know everyone thinks they need a change, but going over to the dark side is not the option they should be choosing.
http://www.theidaexpress.com

The American correspondent asks why people in the UK are turning to the Tories. The answer is simple, without a real democracy and only having an outdated 19th century electoral system, designed for times when only a small minority had the franchise (which continues to ensure that a small minority decide who governs), the majority of people who feel totally ignored and out of touch with the Government can only make their feelings known by rejecting the party in Government. I detect no real liking or stomach for the Tories, but a feeling that people wish to punish the Labour politicians - for various reasons, the two most obvious being Iraq and Afghanistan. We in the UK have Governments that can be (and this one was) elected on just 27 percent of the vote, and they somehow manage to grossly distort that minority vote into a Parliamentary majority. We urgently need Proportional Representation which will give us a Parliament based on the way we vote, and not a system which suits politicians. Oh yes, ...I forgot to mention our unelected Head of State who has a job for life regardless of his/her intelligence and capability (or lack of).

@IdaExpress

"Why are people not realizing the consequences of voting for a Tory? As an American(living in England), I was appalled to see Boris win over London and in the same week Tories winning all around, why does this have to continue."

Your knowledge of England could perhaps do with some work, then :P
New Labour is about as popular in Britain as the current Administration is in the US - with two differences:
1. Labour has been in power three years longer.
2. Gordon Brown is too insignificant to register as a global laughing-stock, though he plays the joker quite admirably in these islands.

p.s. Boris read Classics at Balliol (as did many of the administrators of the British Empire). Governing London should be easy...

As another American living in the UK for the past 30 years, and holding a UK passport, I came here at a time when America was a dark place indeed with the unwinding of the Nixon legacy.

The country I came to, and came to love, has abandonned its democratic principles under Labour which wants to erode them yet further with the proposals for 42 day detention. That, more than anything else, is what is driving some of us towards the alternatives, including the conservatives. We had a London mayor openly embracing homophobic prelates for no apparent good reason and defending his dubious associates. That's another reason people voted him out.As for the NHS, the picture is more than mixed.

I voted Labour, but no longer. They do not deserve the votes of people who care about democracy, nor, after the recent by election shenanigans, decency. The amount of money firehosed at services which were left unreformed (or disastrously reformed) is pitiful and has left the country in a terrible financial position and ill placed to face the very hard economic times ahead.

Under the circumstances, it is lucky people are not rioting in the streets

Ida,

What makes you think you have any idea of the consequences of voting Tory?

As a 27 year old American you were probably safely roasting summores over a campfire as a 16 year old when the Tories were last in power and were only a twinkle in Mom & Pop's eyes when Margaret Thatcher was first elected.

There is absolutley zero chance that the NHS will disappear under the Tories. Even if they wanted to get rid of it (and they don't) it would be electoral suicide even to suggest it.

Anyone who believes otherwise has naively swallowed new Labour propoganda hook line and sinker.

The serious question here is Democracy, The UK has a prime minister whose only mandate to run a country (countries) with 65 million residents is a mandate of 24,000 voters in an obscure Scottish town which most UK citizens have never heard of.
It is time for the UK's prime minister to be directly elected from the entire electorate simultaneously with the election of their MP. It is not acceptable that political parties can impose their will on the electorate this is what happens in places like North Korea.
It is patently obvious that Brown is not up to the job, this must never be allowed to happen again.

one of the many reasons that labour is about to get the boot is the voting tax payer has been mugged off once too many {bring it on }

spot on paul , they are a gang of chancers who inherited a well oiled machine & then couldnt be bothered to maintain it , now its about to seize up & shut down

Come and join our campaign against the Tory toff. We're all meeting up tomorrow at Moyra's country estate in the morning, then riding cross country to Crewe for some leafleting before returning to the Pembrokeshire National Park for a spot of game shooting. All New Labour supporters welcome. Pip pip!

To the writer above who suggested that voters want to punish Labour, mainly for Iraq and Afghanistan, I would suggest that these two issues don't even register on the radar of most voters, even though they are of great importance to the relatively small number of people who read The Independent.
Most people are fed up with interfering local & national government, high taxes and charges for everything deriving from Government (passports, driving licences, prescriptions, council tax, petrol), excessive immigration and the perceived hostility of Labour to the indigenous British working & middle class citizens. They are also getting mightily tired of the green message being thrust at them, and the apparent glee of the hair-shirt brigade in devising methods to limit their lifestyles in the name of sustainability, no matter how worthy the cause.

One has to feel sorry for the Labour party, with their competence now so low that they can't even manage an effective smear campaign against their rival.

I see that Tamsin Dunwood herself is looking for sympathy, asking to be elected because she is a single mother of five desperate for a job. However, voters will be looking for someone with ability, and integrity.

Ida the American has to understand that the Labour Party was founded by the working class to represent its interests. Tony Blair worked out that in the late 90's you also needed the middle class on board to get a Parliamentary majority. So, the Party pandered to the middle class and was elected. But, the Party has now pandered the middle class so long and so hard that it has forgotten who it was initially supposed to represent. So much so, that at the last Budget the Party took from the poor to give to the relative rich . (You've heard of Robin Hood, well, its the same thing but in reverse).

Well, the peasants feel like they've been ripped off by these sham politicians with their very big expensive houses and book deals. Which is why they have decided to give the Tories their support. Not because they think that Cameron is the best thing since sliced bread, or that he's more likely to save the whale. They are (include me please) voting Tory to ensure that Labour gets the maximum possible stuffing at the next election. The Liberals are in third place in too many seats and this isn't the time for gambling. So, rather than take a risk that Labour might sneak it has to be the Tories.

To triedandtwistedl, when I was 16 I was not roasting anything by a campfire, but in the hospital with hydrocephalus. I had many brain surgeries due to my arachnoid cyst and meningitis. All in Philadelphia, so the free loader comment is not valid.

I find it somewhat hilarious that because I mentioned I was an American, everyone on here is judging me. I have been living here for the past 8 years, not free loading! So, thanks to everyone who just insulted me because of where I grew up--that says a lot, you are no better than the idiot Americans who call chips 'freedom fries'. To answer some more of your questions, I am a photographer and not a "he". So what of my age? I have been through more tragedy and illness than most people, and I do not appreciate being put down because of where I come from or my age!

I actually live in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency and, unlike many of your contributors, have some idea of what is going on here. This is a by-election, not a parliamentary election, and all sorts of things have been happening from all parties. People with a long political memory will remember how such elections have been fought in the past. The task is to get your share of the vote out. For those with an environmental background, the mailshots particularly from the Tories and the Lib Dems have hit double figures! Every time I turn around there is a Tory newspaper on the doormat!The inescapable truth is that the election of a Tory MP to this constituency would mean misery for large numbers of people. The current local Tory council have ground large-scale regeneration projects to a halt and made it clear that investment is not on their agenda. We will be dragged into the new Cheshire East unitary authority with a huge inbuilt Tory majority. Can you really blame Labour for trying to get representation in the area? As to the crocodile tears about the Toff campaign, the Tory party has held the most ruthless and best-financed party machine for a very long time. Go and cry in your Bollinger.

Looks like I've just proved my point about the Tories!
Thanks Chris Smith

I hope on Friday Mr Cameron you will be crying in your pint of mild washing down a nice bowl of peanuts
How appropiate
PS Tories prefer Krug to Bolly

Ida, Ignore the trolls. They ALWAYS voted Tory and always will. Their racism and xenophobia should tell you that! They just see their moment to pounce has arrived. Fact is that the ordinary level headed folks in this country have enjoyed an unprecedented prosperity and now that international factors are pushing up inflation and causing problems in the housing market some of us are feeling the pinch. To blame Gordon Brown for the US loans crisis or rising rice, wheat and oil prices is irrational.
What NuLabour HAS done is insulted just about every social group in the country. By caving into the right wing press they are demonising 2 million of our Muslim fellow citizens. They aren't fools. They can see who the 42 days detention is aimed at. The unions too, have had their financial and political support kicked in their faces. 'We don't need your money now. We've got a new pal, Lord Levy.' and so on.
I'm a lifelong Labour supporter and activist. I've seen scores of like minded members walk away from the Party because it no longer represents them or their aspirations.
While government spends months mulling over the 42 days, and billions on identity cards, they should instead turn their mind to the unfair council tax, the outrageous rail fares and the cost of fuel. They also need to find a way out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Pronto. That's what people on the doorstep talk about.

That's the problem when you let little children use the computers without proper supervision. Never mind Chris and Lush, Nanny will soon be taking you out in the park for your morning walk. Next Tory clone, please.

The blame for Crewe is fairly and squarely at Tony Blair and Gordon Browns door.

It is true that Brown obviously missed his charm school briefings and has had a personality lobotomy but it is his, and his party's policies and incompetence that have got us here.

Since this government took office we have seen everything worthwhile in Britain destroyed.

We have nothing to look up to or aspire to and many leave school barely literate or numerate.
Our great industries are no more,(jaguar and Landrover now belong to India),all our utilities are foreign owned, and our sovereignty now belongs almost wholly to Brussels.

Our grossly underfunded armies fight wars against countries that do not pose a threat, huge amounts of our taxes are sent to fill dictators bank accounts in Africa and the streets are full of foreigners.

Parts of Britain rarely hear the English language and our leaders and leaders of the EU feather their nests at our expense.
Our Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be more interested in the Koran than in the Bible,and the courts favour the criminal over the victims.
The feckless are given a life of ease while those who make the effort to get up and work are taxed to the hilt.

This is Labours legacy to a once proud nation.

Blair was to blame for most of this but it was Brown who sold our gold. It was Brown who stole our pensions, who can't make a decision, and who shafted us all over the EU referendum.
It is his policies that leave our military with broken housing, not enough equipment and who treat the Gurkhas and our wounded with contempt.
It was Labours decision to run the bloody sunday enquiry and prosecute soldiers for war crimes and it is under his watch that we read daily of soft judges letting criminals go on golfing holidays.

This is why the Labour Party and GB are finished.

We are surely lions led by donkeys and Brown is the biggest ass of them all

George Monbiot (in today's Guardian) labels the Brown administration as the most right-wing since WW2:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/20/labour.guardiancolumnists

The second post by Neil is absolutely spot on. I have been advocating for some time that we do not have a true democracy and we are about to get rid of Labour and put another self serving bunch in their place. We do not have any real choices but if more and more of us demand common sense in politics then we might see a difference.

right on dean , bottler & co are finished , at last

"Anyone else watch Newsnight last night?
See how the Tory boy chickened out of a live debate with Jeremy Paxman. That's what the Toff stuff is all about, this is a man who cant stand the real rough and tumble of politics."

Wow - that's so much worse than Gordon Brown chickening out of an ELECTION before either party or country! Thank God he's not a toff - who knows what he might have done!

hi Peter , bet you are not happy with the Crewe result , oh well