A new, more contrite Gordon Brown emerged this morning from the wreckage of Labour's worst local election results for 40 years. Less than a year after Brown took over from Tony Blair, Labour has come a humiliating third behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. It is the stuff of nightmares.
And there is (almost certainly) more bad news to come: Labour fears that Ken Livingstone will lose to the Tories' Boris Johnson when the London Mayor election result is announced tonight. The Brown camp had been desperately hoping for a 1-1 draw. It knew it would lose in the country but hoped that Red Ken would hang on. Now it looks like a 2-0 defeat.
Speaking in Downing Street, Brown promised to "listen and lead" and to learn the lesssons from what he called "bad" and "disappointing" council results. Inevitably, he spoke of the global economic problems. He tried hard not to be Mr Glum, saying in the next few months the Government would show people it was "preparing the economy for the upturn and for the prosperity to follow."
I'm not sure he was right to talk about prosperity just yet. And he didn't mention his decision to scrap the 10p income tax rate. A mea culpa on that would have been welcome.
Brown's tone was better than in some recent interviews: it's clear that his advisers have told him he has risked looking out of touch. He is trying to find a new language and show that he understands the pain being felt by ordinary people. But he's only halfway there and time is running out.
Gordon Brown's one solution to these ills is to focus on one problem. It doesn't matter what it is but get one problem sorted out and it will look like something is happening. Take it from there.
Posted by: Patrick Kelly | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 12:25 PM
I think it's run out, not running. Terrible results and as for London, maybe if he'd shown any kind of support for Ken over the last decade then this wouldn't have happened. If Boris does win, that's the first death knell for Brown's premiership.
Posted by: Jakers | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 12:30 PM
How can Brown be surprised?
With the cost of petrol and energy unchecked, motorist being ragged for every penny they have, scrapping 10p income tax, Northern Rock, energy and water costs, inflation beating council taxes rises and numerous other stealth taxes, he should have known a long time ago he was up the creek without a paddle.
Posted by: Barkers | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 12:48 PM
A fantastic day for Britain, the people have spoken loud and clear, we're fed up of labour's endless obsession with spin and their incompetent mismangement of our Economy. If a loonie like Boris can beat Ken in London then the depth of anger and annoyance that this country feels towards Labour will be conveyed in an acute and deafening manner.
Posted by: Michael | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 01:27 PM
For PFI.
For the pressures on childhood, both at school and from commerce.
For the crap decisions - Dome, Olympics, etc.
For the War - WMD's? Pull the other one!
For doing nothing to fix an education system still geared up to produce compliant drones for business rather than thinking citizens.
For impinging on our civil liberties in an unacceptable fashion.
For (up until very recently) being unable to admit to mistakes.
For all the petty lying.
For the champagne socialism.
For presiding over widespread house-price credit fraud and destroying the hopes of a generation.
For an inability to deal with the extortionate cost of public transport.
For a lack of ANY real commitment to difficult decisions required to amerliorate the incoming effects of climate change and peak oil.
For being Bush's lapdog.
For a lack of will to implement a progressive taxation system with a basic 'non-avoidance' premise for taxation system.
For widening of gulf between weathly and the rest of us.
For the 'knee-jerk,' focus-group-driven politicking
For essentially turning into the Tories.
All reasons why this trade unionist will not vote Labour.
Posted by: Paul, Exeter | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 01:59 PM
Listen to this Gordon: We are all been wrung dry for taxes, endless taxes. The poor, part-timers, women and pensioners have been ignored and overtaxed. The schools, transport system and hospitals endlessly interfered with but with no improvement. Freedoms infringed daily with cameras and torrents of laws. Greed at the top rampant, noses in troughs throughout government and business. Incompetence everywhere. Wars on two fronts to no apparent purpose. Continual gloss, evasion and spin. The list goes on and on......
Posted by: wethers | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 02:00 PM
The Labour party will be the last I believe,let alone Gordon Brown. They lied in their manifesto, they are killing the pubs and the British way of life. I agree with the majority of the comments so far. The doo gooders are running the Country anyway.
We have not had a voice on the Lisbon Treaty, it is not just a few who should be giving our Country away. Never have so few, spoken for so many. I voted because of the vindictive smoking ban, the fact we may not get a voice on the Treaty, the hundreds of laws being thrown at us, ect.
freedom2choose.info for tolerant non-smokers and smokers alike
Posted by: mandyv | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 02:46 PM
The Labour party have failed to deliver anything in their manifesto, they lied about giving us a vote on the treaty, they cannot face the people as it has been shown they will lose.
They have taxed us everyway they can.
By crippling us on Fuel duties they have increased the cost of everything in the land.They are leeting our haulage companies die whilst overseas hauliers do not have to pay the ridiculous fuel charges.
They have killed the british pub first by the no smoking ban (people and bars should have a choice)then by the hike of duty on the drink itself on the ficiticious premise that it would curb binge drinking. Everyone knows that binge drinkers are not the normal punters who drink socially in a supervised environment but those who can get cheap beer/spirits from the supermarkets.
In short Labour has taxed us to death, Failed on Education, failed on Health, failed on transport, failed on the economy and has taken away the basic rights of indiviuals by becoming a nanny state who always thinks it knows best when it is totally out of touch with real life. It should be the whole Government that resigns not just the buffon Brown
Posted by: CLiff Buckingham | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 03:02 PM
The Labour party have failed to deliver anything in their manifesto, they lied about giving us a vote on the treaty, they cannot face the people as it has been shown they will lose.
They have taxed us everyway they can.
By crippling us on Fuel duties they have increased the cost of everything in the land.They are leeting our haulage companies die whilst overseas hauliers do not have to pay the ridiculous fuel charges.
They have killed the british pub first by the no smoking ban (people and bars should have a choice)then by the hike of duty on the drink itself on the ficiticious premise that it would curb binge drinking. Everyone knows that binge drinkers are not the normal punters who drink socially in a supervised environment but those who can get cheap beer/spirits from the supermarkets.
In short Labour has taxed us to death, Failed on Education, failed on Health, failed on transport, failed on the economy and has taken away the basic rights of indiviuals by becoming a nanny state who always thinks it knows best when it is totally out of touch with real life. It should be the whole Government that resigns not just the buffon Brown
Posted by: CLiff Buckingham | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 03:03 PM
Why we were told by so many journalists that this buffoon Brown had a towering intellect?
Posted by: chrismo | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 03:41 PM
Uh, take a wild guess Chrismo: Because he does.
Posted by: The Gutter Sniper | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 05:07 PM
The warning signs have been there for months but Browns arrogance and failure to listen has finally made the usually tolerant British worm turn! He may say he will listen now but who could trust him. Along with Blair, Brown has eroded the fundamental structure of this country. He has failed our heritage, our children, our NHS, our elderly, the education system is nothing but an embarrassing mess. But the most damage done to our infrastructure is the total lack of thought regarding immigration. I predict that the normally liberal British citizen will vote for the henious BNP just to state the true feeling of disgust at the erosion of our country in its entirety.
Posted by: Betty | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 06:37 PM
I guess even gutless yankee bootlickers can have "towering intellects" then?? ROFL!!!
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 07:13 PM
It is not possible to deny the Tories the successes they notched up lastnight. They have done very well.
However a word of caution. We now have a large number of Right-wing councils across the country, and may even have a Right-wing Mayor of London. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this.
Tory councils have an obsession with low council tax, believing that 'Best Value' means driving down costs. This inevitably leads to a lack of provision of good quality public services. 'Best Value' means obtaining the highest quality service for the best possible price.
As for the Mayoralty of London, we must remind ourselves of what Boris Johnson has said about Gay marriage and Black children just to name a few. How can you maintain credability with his track record?
I rest my case
Posted by: James Thurston | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 07:17 PM
Brown has overtaxed us all. we struggling with higher costs of almost everything. Council tax,fuel duty. car duty.
If it moves he taxes it. If it doses not move he taxes it.
He has reached more than the top of the tax he can impose on us as individuals or business. He has run the country into debt having started with surplus
He sold our gold reserves at the bottom of the market. he taxed our pension funds mostly out of existence.
He taxed the lowest paid in our society
Get hi out of here!
Posted by: Charles Daniels | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 08:22 PM
Gordon a.k.a 'ditherer' Brown has had 10 years to 'listen and lead.' For one this a bit indulgent on the part of the Labour Spin machine. Brown cannot listen, his 10 years at the helm of the Treasury has shown this....he surrounded himself with nasty Yes Men such as Ed Balls. His obsession for detail and the austere may have worked at the Treasury but NOT at Number 10.
If he had listened to his party, the 10p rate would have stayed. If he had listened to the PLP he would have called an won a general election; for one his present government lacks legitimacy or a clear mandate to rule. Brown extols the virtues of democracy and a 'moral compass' yet cannot bring himself to be judged by the electorate, and thus had a 'Coronation' in June.
His cabinet are dour, tired and out of touch. If we look at Zapatero's youthful and glamorous all female cabinet or the sexy 'Sarkozettes' we wonder, why do the British people have to put up with Jacquie Smith and the rather masculine looking Ruth Kelly??.
If Gordon truly wants to listen he will step down and encourage David Miliband to take over. Only a youthful, english and talented leader can save the Labour party from itself..
Posted by: 54 | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 08:46 PM
I would like to remind everyone that under John Major's Conservative government we were very heavily taxed. Taxed by stealth! VAT up and so on.
One can make a diferentiation between the John Major premiership and that of Gordon Brown. Under John Major we had mass unemployment, high inflation, high interest rates, huge numbers in negative equity. The fundamentals of the economy were in a parlous state. We suffered another severe recession - yet again under a Conservative government.
However, under Gordon Brown, granted we are suffering from an increase in the costs of living, but the fundamentals of the economy are in good shape. For a start we have very low unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates. In fact the exact opposite of the situation under John Major. Whether that will allow us to withstand a recession, only time will tell.
Do we really want a return to 'Thatcherism' and to ruin the country's economy by throwing Labour out at the next election?
After all the Conservatives ruled Britain for 18 years and ruined our social fabric and economy to boot. By contrast, by the next General Election, Labour will only have ruled for 13 years.
Posted by: James Thurston | Friday, 02 May 2008 at 11:15 PM
No, no, NO to Miliband. Britain's problems with Nu Labour began with Blair, and we don't need a nother gutless pro-Zionist yankee BOOTLICKER like Miliband. This talentLess neocon TRASH must be kept out of power.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Saturday, 03 May 2008 at 02:43 AM
Good Day. Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
I am from Vatican and also am speaking English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Take this medication for the full prescribed length of time."
Regards :-D Paulette.
Posted by: Paulette | Monday, 22 June 2009 at 05:32 AM
Hello everyone. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
I am from Bolivia and now study English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Products that help in cat flea and tick control come in many forms including."
Regards 8-) Channing.
Posted by: Channing | Wednesday, 01 July 2009 at 06:29 PM
How are you. We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong.
I am from Emirates and too bad know English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Find dog flea and tick control products for your dog at petsmart."
With love 8-), Sol.
Posted by: Sol | Wednesday, 01 July 2009 at 09:43 PM