In the British local elections yesterday, Labour was brutalized, capped by the defeat of “Red” Ken Livingstone, the appalling extreme-far-left mayor of London. Early results gave the Tories 44% of the vote, and Labour 24%. If it holds up, that would leave Labour in third place behind the socialist Liberal Democrats who were polling 25%.
Last September, Labour was riding high, and all expected that Prime Minister Brown would call a snap election. Then his poll numbers sagged and those plans were scrapped in favor of an election in Fall 2009. Now most expect that Brown will hold on until Spring 2010, the latest he could call an election. (ASIDE: How ridiculous is it for the party in power to decide when the election will be?)
We’ll conclude with Iain Dale’s quip:
A plane has been spotted at RAF Northolt ready and waiting to take Ken Livingstone into exile in Venezuela.
(Via ConservativeHome (via the Corner), which also posts an amusing picture of Tony Blair smiling last night.)
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