what the hell's this? Consensus?
I'll make another point too, an old cliche, if you like. Oppositions don't win elections. Governments lose them.
A very big slice of the votes that lost KB his seat were not pro-Lib-Dem, so much as anti-this government. A lot of people (me included) would have known relatively little of their policies , but perceived them as being more acceptable than Tories when registering a protest vote.
I was talking to a teacher last night and we were both reminiscing about the sense of elation we felt in 1997 when a viable labour government finally got elected, versus the sense of disillusionment now.
Like Thomas has shown, Labour has indeed done a lot of good things. So you should ask yourselves why you're losing the plot.
I can only speak for myself. For me it is a combination of the evil of taking our country to war under false pretences in support of an extreme rightwing US government (and you have to remember the protests of Vietnam to understand how violently my generation reacts to that) and the arrogance which permeates Tony Blair's inner circle vas they attempt to impose their vision of life on us as if they knew best and we are a bunch of kids.
Get rid of blair, stop being Bush's lapdog, discover some humility and humanity, and realise that the government is the people's servant, not its master, and you've cracked it.
