UK: Tories Shining Brightly

It was a bad night for the Labour government of Gordon Brown. The Tories swept to victory in many traditional Labour strongholds, and the New Liberals made gains, as well. Worst of all, Tory Boris Johnson defeated Red Ken Livingstone to become the new mayor of London.

In a New York Times story on the election, the M word - - Malaise - - is actually trotted out to explain the losses, bringing to mind the 1980 US Presidential election in which Ronald Reagan trounced the hapless Jimmy Carter:

“This was the first big test of Gordon Brown and David Cameron,” said Stephan Shakespeare, a co-founder of YouGov, a polling company, speaking of the Conservative Party leader. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of debate and a lot of polling, and until this moment the general feeling of malaise that hung over this government hasn’t been made concrete or specific. Now it has. It shows that something has profoundly changed in British politics.”

Johnson, the new London mayor, was his usual goofy self during his victory speech:

“Tomorrow we’ll work like crazy,” said Mr. Johnson, who gave up alcohol during the campaign, “but tonight we’ll have a drink.”

Hilarious.

Maybe, just maybe, UK can start trying to seriously deal with its crime problem and other abuses of the British people that the Labour party has allowed for the last decade.