Harlow - 2nd recount not until tomorrow.
Other than South Staffs which has been put of for a month due to the death of the Lib Dem candidate - and I’ll refrain from any gags on that for once - the last seat to be called looks to be Harlow, where a second recount was halted at 6am this morning and will not be taken now until tomorrow due to concerns by the Retunring Officer than election staff were becoming exhausted.
Bill Rammell must clearly be in trouble there and fighting for his political future.
Reg Keys - Last night’s speech
There’s no full transcript at present nor can I find any sign that any of the TV news channels are making video of the speech available so this reconstructed from various sources - mostly from outside the UK (make of that what you will) and missing the preamble. However it does contain the core of Key’s comments in full and in what I hope is close to the correct order.
If this war had been justified by international law I would have grieved and not campaigned. If weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq — again I would have grieved, not campaigned.
Tonight there are lessons to be learned. I hope in my heart that one day the prime minister may be able to say sorry. That one day he will say sorry to the families of the bereaved. And one day the prime minister may be able to visit wounded soldiers in hospital.
Then our campaign will not be in vain and all the people who have given me their vote tonight have sent a clear and resounding message about the Iraq war. Thank you for all the people that voted for me tonight.
I would like to thank my wife and my son, who have supported me tirelessly through this campaign. A remarkable campaign.
I do not claim to be a professional politician, fighting this campaign has not been an easy task for me but I had to do it for my son, Thomas Keys, royal military policeman, killed in Iraq four days short of his 21st birthday. Sent to war under extremely controversial circumstances.
—-
Best I can do for now, but If I find more or, better still, any video footage then I’ll repost.
In the mean time, please copy, quote and spread at will - consider this post to be entirely in the public domain and free from any copyright considerations as a factual account of an event which took place last night.
Pretty (Vacant) Polly
Back to William James - and repeating myself - but when Polly Toynbee claims that:
“The story of the night is the defection from Labour by those marching over to the Lib Dems - and some even to the Tories”
Then the only possible response is to quote James’ line that:
“As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use”
Although perhaps another bit of James…
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices.”
…may be equally apt.
The Lib Dems gained all of twelve seats from Labour - not so much a march and a slightly embarrassed hobble - and of those:
A couple in Scotland owed something to boundary changes which produced a tight contest,
Several went on protest votes - although interestingly mainly in areas with high student population where the promise to scrap top-up fees was probably more a factor than Iraq, and
A couple went over in what you’d think of as good Lib Dem territory anyway - Falmouth is an obvious one and Rochdale was, for donkey’s years, a safe Lib Dem seat under the larger-than-a-transit-van figure of Cyril Smith.
The real story of the night is that despite the decapitation of Blairites in the south as the natural Tories who bought into Blair in 97 and 2001 reverted to type, the Labour heartlands stood strong and delivered the victory - in Blaenau Gwent even against the Labour Party and its decision to take away from the seat which produced Nye Bevan and Michael Foot the right to have an MP of their own choice.
The real story is that the real Labour Party and not ‘New Labour’ delivered this third victory and will form the platform to push on to a fourth.
The work on that starts on Monday.
First news from the Midlands
Wolverhampton South East safely back with Labour…
Oh, and Gordon (the heir apparent) wins by a street - majority up by 2000 in case there are any doubts about where the future of the Labour Party lies.
First Lib Dem disappointment
Big swing in Newcastle Central but not the win they were hoping for - could be the Lib Dem’s ‘winning here’ campaign is clouding their judgement and leading them to overplay when trying to call some results
First Tory seat
Putney goes back to the Tories - no real surprise there.
Early thoughts…
Much as I expected so far - we’ve won the argument on the ecomony and public services but losing votes to the Lib Dems on Iraq, social justice and top-up fees.
Oh, and somebody needs to pull Charlie Falconer off the Beeb’s election coverage as he’s making a total prat of himself.
