Many were stunned at the magnitude of the Labour Party victory in the British national election May 1.
After 18 years in office the Conservatives were buried by a Labour onslaught that dramatically altered the political balance of power.
"So vast has been the earthquake that it will inevitably take time to adjust to the incredible changes it has wrought in our political landscape." So says Christopher Booker's controversial "Notebook" in The Sunday Telegraph. He continues: "But even now, as we peer through the fog into the future, it can be predicted that, in one sense, by the time of the next election that landscape may have changed even more fundamentally."
The results of this election portend major implications for Britain's participation in the European Union. Consider also a sound bite from The Daily Mail's preelection editorial: "Our very survival as an independent nation is at stake in this election. All other issues pale into insignificance."
The last massive majority the Labour Party had was just after the conclusion of World War II in Europe in 1945. The party promised much, but as The Daily Mail pointed out, "In less than two years the ‘New Jerusalem' had turned into a dismal, oppressive reality of huge housing lists, rationing more severe than in wartime, and the cramping of individual freedom by a state bureaucracy."
The new prime minister will get his opportunity to govern. His majority is incredible—nearly 180 seats (659 total). One pauses, however, to meditate on the experience factor. Few of the new Labour cabinet ministers will have any actual experience in governing. More than 200 new Labour Party members will enter Parliament for the first time. Such inexperience coupled with almost unlimited Labour power is a dangerous combination. Britain now has a government of novices—that could be a new beginning or matters could go badly awry. (Sources: The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Mail .)
