An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right

« North Korea Back On Terror List ?

Ode to the Liberators of France: America’s GIs – Le Figaro, France »

Labour Loses Wales For First Time Since WW1

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in Politics.
Jun 7th, 2009 | Comments

Yesterday I posted about the British Labour party losing badly in local elections and today things have gone from bad to worse as results of elections to the European Parliament come in. The exact numbers are still being hashed out but it looks like Labour has lost (and the Conservatives have won) a vote in Wales for the first time since 1918.

In 2004 Labour had won two of the four seats in 2004 with 32% of the vote. But five years on Labour has seen its vote fall to just 20%.

The Tories edged ahead of Labour, and were up 2% to 21%, while Plaid improved its share by 1% to 19%.

Liberal Democrats again suffered European disappointment. They have never had a Welsh MEP, and were pushed into fifth place, with their vote stuck on 11%.

I’ll post more results as they come in but things do not look good for the left in Europe.

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Don Quijote

I’ll post more results as they come in but things do not look good for the left in Europe.

What leads you to believe that?

It may not look good for Labor, but that 's not a surprise: if a you spend eight years with your head up Bush's ass don't be surprised if you get your ass handed to you at election time.

If the Left in Europe has a problem, it's the fact that it is extremely fragmented, it is none the less a sizable majority in most European Countries.

And the Right in most of these countries would be right at home in the Democratic Party as it currently exists.

Patrick E

What led me to believe it are the myriad news reports (including the one I linked to) that said the left is being punished. That doesn't sound good to me.

Rudi

The governing parties lost the election, both Left and Right. This from the WSJ:
...
Italy: A nearly complete count showed the conservative party of scandal-plagued Premier Silvio Berlusconi lost support, while his anti-immigrant ally made gains in European Parliament voting. With some 97% of vote counted, Mr. Berlusconi's Freedom Party had 34.9%, down from 37.4% in the last European vote in 2004.
...
Greece: The governing conservatives suffered a defeat in the wake of corruption scandals and with a sharply slowing economy. The main opposition Socialists -- winning their first election battle in nine years -- renewed calls for early general elections.

Also seems coruption or incompetence loss also.

casualobserver

Rudi, you left out Luxembourg results in your deflection quote. I believe that bellweather population remained left as well.

blog comments powered by Disqus