Will labour gain a fourth term?

Talks are already under way about labour winning a fourth term in power, probably with Gordon Brown at helm, but what are the chances of a labour government gaining a fourth term in power? to be honest, this question has been on my mind a lot laterly.

Labour only hold a small majority now, 66, parliament is going to get very interesting now. But the question is, can the tories pushing on to win the next election? i feel, if they are, they need a different leader in power, someone who can be prime minister material and who can lead the country. Thats why Blair won, he was the only person who could lead the country, as UK Wizard said, there is no one better then blair.

So who will win the 2009-2010 election? who knows, congrats on Blair winning this one, but if he screws up, it ain't my fault, i voted for the other guy

Oh come on. What is this 'small majority' nonsense?
A little dose of reality please.
66 is only small by comparison with the vast Labour majorities of 1997 and 2001.
By the normal post war British standards 66 is a landslide.

Bear in mind Thatcher's first gov of 1979 had a majority of 43 - and that lower figure was plenty sufficient to implement a program of radical gov.

Howard has just said he's going to step down and go - but only after the tory party has changed the rules about selecting their leader.

(ie reweighting the 'contest' to put most if not all of the power back in the hands of the tory Parliamentary party so less or no grass-roots tory instinct to elect an Alf Garnet/IDS/Howard type leader anymore)

Then they have to actually have their leadership blood-letting (er, I mean contest......they do this kind of thing so well, right?).

In the meantime Labour face a retiree on his way out in Parliament (for however long that takes) until the 5th tory leader Blair will have to face comes along.

Then the new leader has to pick his shadow cabinet and then they have to design policies which stand a chance of appealing to the UK public.

How long will that take?

Whilst people get excited about the drop in the number of the Labour majority or the lower size of the popular vote Labour got this time they really should be looking at the tory performance.

In 1997 the tories got 31% of the vote, in 2001 it was 32% and this time they upped their vote by 0.6% to approx 33%.
They didn't even hit their target to get 200 tory MP's.

(.......and next time in 2009/10 there'll be no Iraq war to be protesting and Blair will have stepped down.)

Originally posted by sminkeypinkey
Howard has just said he's going to step down and go - but only after the tory party has changed the rules about selecting their leader.

True, i can see this happening in a few months
Tories needs a new leader if they are going to win the next election.

Somebody get an ATSNN post up on the election. Blair won right?

By like nothing. 37% or something? Man, I'd hate to see minority wins like that in a multi-party America.

People think 49% of the people being pissed is bad.

the news story is up.
If there are any problems with it, feel free to edit it for me

Originally posted by infinite
Tories needs a new leader if they are going to win the next election.

Not only do they need a new leader they need to get off their arses and re-think what it is they represent.
They also need to have a good think about education, economy, and the EU.
The 3 E's if you will.

and health but it ruins my 3 E's concept

A good leader is what the Conservative Party needs, Mr Michael ''I'm coming to get you'' Howard was a bad choice in my opinion.

[edit on 6-5-2005 by UK Wizard]

this guy is 3/1 to become the next leader;

David Davis

David Davis
The right-wing former Europe minister ran as the "dark horse" candidate in the 2001 leadership contest.

But he failed to gather enough support from Tory MPs to make it through to the ballot of party members.

Party chairman under Iain Duncan Smith, he was sacked by phone while on holiday to be replaced by Theresa May. He was moved to shadow Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Mr Davis is thought to be popular with grassroots Tories. Bookmakers William Hill have put him at 3/1 favourite to succeed Mr Howard.

news.bbc.co.uk...