Althouse: "The cause of the Labour downfall is simple enough. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, proves to be a hard-line Leftist..."

May 8, 2015

"The cause of the Labour downfall is simple enough. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, proves to be a hard-line Leftist..."

"... believing that the state should control the individual and the individual should have no control over the state. Resenting capitalism, he wants to control markets and punish through taxation everyone who has benefitted from markets. He reminds me of Mikhael Gorbachev whose policy of perestroika was supposed to have the edge over reality. One look at him has been enough for the people of England. The Scottish National Party has captured an almost clean sweep of the Scottish seats, thus smashing beyond repair the previous Labour monopoly of those seats. A twenty-year-old student, in one startling instance, has trounced a former experienced cabinet minister. Culturally distinct from the English, the people of Scotland are wandering away into another imaginary landscape of socialism and nationalism. Now where have we had examples of this combination, and has any good ever come of it?"

Writes David Pryce-Jones in "Westminster Election Diary" at The New Criterion.

38 comments:

Quaestor said...: Doesn't bode well for Hill/Bill or Fauxcahontas.

I'm glad to see the LibDems and Labour have both been drubbed but good. Disappointed the UKIP didn't pick up a few more seats,Brussels needs a good scare.

Scotland hasn't been politically astute since... well, Robert the Bruce. Let the SNP stomp around like bunch of tartan stormtroopers, who cares?

Galloway got the boot. Hurrah!; 5/8/15, 6:14 AM
Xmas said...: I like what happened in Scotland. Labour party leaders promised the world to the Scots during the separation vote then failed to deliver. So the Scots went and voted for the next group of folks who promise the world.

Forward thinking folks. No wonder why my ancestors left.; 5/8/15, 6:15 AM
Quaestor said...: Another interesting point... the polling was totally whacked. For weeks we've been told Britain was headed for a constitution crisis -- an unbreakably tight Right/Left deadlock, then out of the "blue" comes a Tory government with a ruling majority!

Pollsters on both aides of the pond use the same methods and models. Maybe the rarified polls that have until recently shown Hillary so damned predestined are whacked as well?; 5/8/15, 6:22 AM
Anonymous said...: If you are a Scot, why vote for a Leftist English Party when you can vote for a Leftist Scot Party?; 5/8/15, 6:24 AM
Quaestor said...: And another interesting point... some Islamic dude in Birmingham (or was it Brixton?) was boasting that his sharia batshit party was going to hold the reins of power today.

Nope. That's almost as satisfying as those two morons getting their brains ventilated in Texas,; 5/8/15, 6:28 AM
Quaestor said...: If you are a Scot, why vote for a Leftist English Party when you can vote for a Leftist Scot Party?

As I have noted earlier, the Scots aren't exactly the most astute macaroons in the political cookie jar. The SNP have been around for decades, and yet it has taken the yellow dog Labourite Scots the better part of a century to figure out they could have their very own Mussolini.; 5/8/15, 6:36 AM
rhhardin said...: Nationalist conservative UKIP beat SNP 2 to 1 but got only one seat instead of their 56.

It's the magic of gerrymandering.

The "had enough" constituency is spread out all over and never pulls a majority in a district. But totals are huge.

Belmont Club; 5/8/15, 6:37 AM
Quaestor said...: Please forgive my occasionally clumsy syntax... still very sleepy...; 5/8/15, 6:38 AM
Anonymous said...: As I have noted earlier, the Scots aren't exactly the most astute macaroons in the political cookie jar.

While I agree that Scots over the centuries have favored romantic, but homeless causes, it seems to me that have a solid block of 59 votes under one banner is better than being 50 isolated votes in a big, yet minority Labor meeting.

PS: I am not in favor of Independence for Scotland.; 5/8/15, 6:42 AM
Quaestor said...: The "had enough" constituency is spread out all over and never pulls a majority in a district.

If they could just sweep a council by-election it was be a huge win for sanity.; 5/8/15, 6:44 AM
Quaestor said...: If they could just sweep a council by-election it was be a huge win for sanity.

Wrong.

Should read: If they could just sweep a council by-election it would be a huge win for sanity.

Like I said, sleepy... I've been following the election returns all morning. I'll need to top off my caffeine fuel cells pretty soon if I'm to work today.; 5/8/15, 6:51 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Leftwing ideology is poison. Once people get past the false promises, and are forced to taste it, they spit it out.; 5/8/15, 7:01 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: AprilApple said...
Leftwing ideology is poison. Once people get past the false promises, and are forced to taste it, they spit it out.

I guess this explains why Clinton and Obama were two term presidents.; 5/8/15, 7:24 AM
Quaestor said...: Reading the pathetic bleats erupting from the Mirror and the Guardian like flatulence from a pig farm has been delish, I must say.; 5/8/15, 7:28 AM
Anonymous said...: hopeless not homeless; 5/8/15, 7:44 AM
Drago said...: ARMeltdown: "I guess this explains why Clinton and Obama were two term presidents"

Obama has been quite diligent indeed in ensuring that the taste of his left-wing obambi-care has been diluted by slowballing the rollout of the programs that will "bite" and hiding them behind the firewalls of future elections.

How many obama admin "executive delays" have been pronounced as we've approached the deadlines for enactment of this "We Can't Wait for All the Gooey Goodness of This Obamacare!!!"?; 5/8/15, 7:47 AM
MadisonMan said...: Reading the pathetic bleats erupting from the Mirror and the Guardian like flatulence from a pig farm has been delish, I must say.

I like that this comes right after

I guess this explains why Clinton and Obama were two term presidents.; 5/8/15, 7:49 AM
Michael said...: ARM

Baltimore: 50 years of uninterrupted Democrat rule.

Baltimore.; 5/8/15, 7:59 AM
Phil 314 said...: ARM,
Its a parliamentary system. Better to refer to House and Senate results than Presidential elections for comparison.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the American Tory party holds majorities in both chambers.; 5/8/15, 8:05 AM
Sebastian said...: Scotland needs to get out of the Union pronto.

Once again Old World passes New on the right.

Cameron = UK Jeb.

The world wonders, how are the Undercommoners going to take it?; 5/8/15, 8:27 AM
Gahrie said...: A pity Farage didn't make it.; 5/8/15, 9:52 AM
Jaq said...: Remember when Democrats held a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and a huge majority in the House?

Wasn't that long ago, ARM, right up until the left rammed through Obamacare.; 5/8/15, 10:36 AM
Mitch H. said...: Scotland hasn't been politically astute since... well, Robert the Bruce.

I just finished reading a new biography of Edward I. The Bruces spent most of Edward's reign as English lickspittles, generally fighting on Edward's side, until the younger Bruce, his elders all having passed away leaving him the family's (rather tenuous) claim on the Scottish throne, murdered the most prominent supporter of a rival claimant in a church, broke the peace he had sworn to uphold, and rose up in eventually successful rebellion against the English. Say what you will of William Wallace, he never swore oaths of allegiance and loyalty to the English crown.; 5/8/15, 10:40 AM
Jaq said...: Oh yeah, Clinton earned himself a Republican Congress after two years as well. That was the first Republican House in decades, wasn't it?

But I am sure ARM knew all of these things, but considered them of no importance.

He is a strong believer in collectivist ideologies like Fascism and Communism and so they don't believe in bourgeoisie concepts like "objective truth."; 5/8/15, 10:45 AM
Jaq said...: I am waiting for ARM to start sputtering and ask several times why places where Jews make up less than 1/2 of 1% of the population don't push them to the front of the line as there representatives in Congress.

Also, I am pretty sure that the Nazis didn't end unions, they just brought them under control of the The Party, like the Communists did, oddly enough, and like the Democrats have in so many places.

It seems like only liberal democracies are willing to suffer unions with any real power.; 5/8/15, 11:07 AM
Jaq said...: And when I use the term 'liberal,' I do not refer to those control freaks who have usurped the name.; 5/8/15, 11:08 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: As usual you guys are in deep denial about what the electorate actually does at election time.; 5/8/15, 11:09 AM
Jaq said...: I love how lefties like ARM take on the best arguments of their opponents and take them apart brick by brick with trenchant criticism, deep insight, and carefully considered evidence, topped off at the end with faultless logic.

For example: As usual you guys are in deep denial about what the electorate actually does at election time.

It is an interesting opening. It would be interesting to hear not only the logic he uses to arrive at this conclusion, but the premises from which he reasons. But the beauty is that he doesn't need to do that! It is true because he wants it to be true! Clearly!; 5/8/15, 11:48 AM
Marty Keller said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/8/15, 12:36 PM
Marty Keller said...: Far be it from me to agree with ARM, but I think it more accurate to note that the trend of election results in America since the end of the Cold War has indicated a deeply split nation still trying to figure out the best way into the future. However, it does appear that something is up in the Anglosphere. Starting with Harper's victory in Canada in 2011, Tony Abbott's victory in Australia, the New Zealand National Party's re-election, Modi's sweep in India, along with the GOP congressional and state-level sweep--all last year--we can certainly see a trend. Perhaps Cameron's win is more evidence of the Anglosphere slowly deciding to return to classical liberal approached to governance.; 5/8/15, 12:39 PM
Drago said...: Marty, its pretty clear to everyone paying attention that something is "afoot" in the anglosphere.

Which is why the left is proceeding at breakneck speed to replace our electorate with a brand spanking new third world electorate.

And, lets face it, we are probably well past the long term tipping point.

We may win a few defensive skirmishes and holding battles here and there, but in the end the endless parade of uneducated and undereducated "free stuff seeking" legions will overwhelm us.

Our tremendous economic mass and inertia itself will carry us along for awhile longer but this experiment in republican govt is already basically over.; 5/8/15, 1:12 PM
Jaq said...: Marty, the problem with your comment is that you first laid out your point, then supported it.

Clearly the finer form of argument is to reject the opponent's argument first, then ask a rhetorical question. Just look to ARM for tips on persuasive writing.; 5/8/15, 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: yeah, ARM either disregards any attempt to engage in a fact-based, reasoned debate or he just disappears.

Sometimes I think he gets put into 'time out' by our hosting dominatrix. Perhaps she finds his support for fascism distasteful.; 5/8/15, 2:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Hitler absorbed all the trade unions into a national organization called the DAF. He did indeed target and eliminate trade union leaders that were communist or anti-Nazi...as most were.
Workers received a generous pay increase initially, paid vacations (accommodations and travel!), health care, representation on corporate boards and in the government. Profit-sharing had always been part of the Nazi platform.
The DAF members were however, just as in the soviet collectives,
not allowed to strike.

maybe ARM should read a fucking book.; 5/8/15, 2:47 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: He reminds me of Bernie Sanders, Warren and Clitnon.; 5/8/15, 7:10 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Drago - Yep. It's the slow drip IV approach.; 5/8/15, 7:16 PM
MrCharlie2 said...: it mat be the drambuie talking, but I wish the Scots had voted themselves out.

The highlands are such a pleasure, and would it would be so fine to go back to an independent Ft William.; 5/8/15, 7:59 PM
Known Unknown said...: Cameron and company aren't much in the conservative or classic liberal department. They're basically Labour Light, and offer slightly less government control of your life.; 5/8/15, 9:47 PM