Friday, May 05, 2006

A Long Night's Aftermath

UK Politics

The UK local elections are over and Blair's party has suffered with many seats and council control going to other parties. As expected, Blair has reshuffled his cabinet.

Full election analysis is at the Independent link above. As I write, Jack Straw has been ousted as Foreign Secretary and Charles Clarke has gone as Home Secretary. Its a change for the two top jobs after Blair and Brown themselves. Margaret Beckett is the new Foriegn Secretary and John Reid is the new Home Secretary. The latter was recently the one found with Pot in his house, so its appropriate he will be the one to deal with the Medical Cannabis issue in a confrontation set for a week on Wednesday. (See previous blogs, or News Of Weed link at left)

Blair himself remains in place - unwelcome, but hardly surprising. Oddly, his loose-trousered deputy, John Prescott, has not been shifted - maybe it was simply a too weighty task for an inept administration. Although most election gains have been to the benefit of the Conservative Party, most analyists see it as a welcome trend towards health, public health and environmental issues. A shade of blue going very green, whilst Labour's red as becoming an ugly purple.

Here in London, the shift away from Labour is even more marked than elsewhere in the country. Several major inner-area councils have fallen. Sadly, some troubled areas have seen gains by the right-wing BMP who have capitalised on the discontent with draconian race and immigration policies that out-do Blair's own. Fortunately, these seats come nowhere close to being a majority required to implement any really unwelcome changes.

A long night with a good wake-up call. An equally long morning with government changes that seem very cosmetic. We'll see.

Later.

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