Why is he winning?

[RedStarOverChina]

umm...could some of the British comrades explain to me: why is this man winning the British election again???

I DONT GET IT!!!

[JazzRemington]

I don't really follow British politics, but from what I understand, the Labour party has a substantially reduced number of voters.

[Poum_1936]

Much like Bush won again in 2004. Lack of a real alternative.

The British people know full well that Blair lied about the war. Know about a few other vices attributed to the man. But the British people also remember the Torries and Mag Thatcher and how much worse things were back then.

[RedAnarchist]

A lot of seats are "safe" Labour seat - including the one i live in - and these are quite numerous. The majority has been slashed, and Blair wont be the Labour leader for the next elections (if he keeps his promise that he only wishes to have one last term) so i think in the next General Election (which should be about 2009/2010) Labour will have to try much harder if they wish to retain power.

[Funky Monk]

He won for a number of reasons:

First there was the lack of a reasonable political alternative, very few Labour defectors would vote Tory and the Lib Dems still find it hard to remove the political stigma of the third party.

Second, a lot of New Labours problems have been succesfully transferred to the leadership by regional MPs. Although there have been noteable exceptions where rebel back benchers have lost their seats, some MPs have minimised the impact of the failing support by in soem cases attacking New Labour policy. While this isnt enough to ensure that their support is stable it does minimise the fallout enough to enable them to retain the seat. I'm thinking most of Robin Cook and to a lesser extent Jack Straw.

Third, the rise of small parties. Parties like Veritas, the BNP and UKIP have managed to attract the vote of people who would generally vote Tory. In many cases if the Tories had secured all the votes cast for these parties they would have won more Labour seats. Of course LAbour has also suffered at the hands of small parties as was the case with "Georgie G" and they suffered even more at the hands of Independants (noteably ex-LAbour independants).

Fourth, despite the wat, despite the lies, the New Labour government has still overseen a decent level of economic prosperity compared to some previous governments. It's all very well for people to take a stand on priniciples like Truth, but a lot of it boils down to "knife and fork" issues like who is best positioned to provide an environment in which mysef and family can thrive.

Lastly (for now :P ) Labour still retained decent support from the Tabloids. Did anyone see the election articles in the Mirror? Almost ever election proves the importance of tabloid support to a potential leader and i imagine that their support alone managed to retain enough votes to maintain a couple of seats.

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

You're completely right about the media. Like in 1992, (It's The Sun Wot Won It") when the media announced itself as a massive vote grabber, 2005 has seen the media triumph again.

It's undeniable, like you said, that Blair's Labour has brought more economic prosperity and comfortable living to British people. Of course, in our individualist world, this will bring votes in. Gordon Brown has created a very strong economy and has continued to make small concessions to keep the working class sweet.

This coupled with the still-strong partisan alignment in Britain brought Labour the victory. The reasons why the majority has shrunk are clear and people have also been less afraid to protest vote in this election compared to previous General Elections. Local elections have usually been the place to protest, but it's apparently gone on more here this time.

[Intifada]

No choice.

Isn't that what Bourgeois "Democracy" is about?

[bolshevik butcher]

lack of meida attention for th alternatives doens't help either. And when it's blair against tory vote blair.

[viva le revolution]

New labour, tories what's the difference?

[bolshevik butcher]

Actually there is some difference, new labour is less open, and for a start., there nhs policies are better, and there asylum policies are slightly better. Also labour still has the trade union links, and could in theory boot blair out.

[Funky Monk]

Labour has some politicians who are worthy of respect. I was comparing the jobs held by the MPs who won on Thursday. Labour had a fair few ex union leaders whilst most of the Tory candidates seemed to be financial analysts and similar. You dont need to be a genius to work out which party offers (in theory) a fairer governance