New Labour's decline in popularity- is Gordon Brown to blame.

[sandybay]

The bye election results from Glasgow East have been a huge blow to Gordon Brown. Do you think he is to blame ? Has New Labour [as one corresondent put it] abandoned the working classes in favour of the middle classes ?

What do you think ?

[jazzactivist]

I am not surprised that the SNP have taken the Glasgow East seat, sandybay. In Scotland at the moment the SNP has the balance of power in the Parliament and are doing quite well in the popularity stakes, as they have reformed policies that mean a lot to people such as free care for the elderly and reduced prescription charges to £5. Whereas Labour politicians have quite a reputation here for being insincere and corrupt - the latest being Labour leader Wendy Alexander's secret campaign donations. People are willing to give the SNP a chance. I don't think that Gordon Brown really comes into it one way or another, as devolution has shifted people's focus away from Westminster to Holyrood.

Personally, I don't think that GB is a bad Prime Minister, just a bit of a ditherer. He seems more serious and trustworthy than Tony Blair was, and also has to deal with quite a lot that was 'just around the corner' when TB quit. It was inevitable that there would be a credit crunch following soaring property prices and the way that the USA and UK are dealing with the oil producing countries in the Middle East. Of course, in the face of threats from the West they are going to use the power that they have to hold us over a barrel, so to speak. Hence, ever increasing oil prices that affect almost every aspect of our lives. I think that no current prime minister would be able to deal with these difficult times more effectively, unless s/he is willing to boldly speak out against agggression towards the Middle East and to genuinely put people before profit, but what do other people think?

[souter girl]

I would personally vote for ANY party that put common sense on its manifesto - for instance did you read about the decorator fined for smoking a cigarette in his van? I hate smoking, but it seems to me it's nobody's business but his own. And the woman charged with racism because she told a crowd of rowdy students that they wouldn't behave like that at home! And that in some village householders are being told they have to wheel their wheelie bins about a mile to the nearest bigger village where the council are prepared to have them collected?The stories are endless and we point them out and laugh, but the truth is that these things are happening TO US and our power to resist is increasingly being taken away from us. Some people blame the EU, but none of my friends in Germany takes any notice of the more "lunatic" rules and regulations.Hands up for common sense!
Grrrrrrrrrr!!!! Grumpy old womenRus!!

[Healing Hands]

I feel that it is not GB fault the way the country is going as Jazz said it was all just around the corner when TB was PM. Don't forget the same thing happened in 1989-1990 when Maggie Thatcher was PM and that was far worst.

Gorden Brown seems a nice enough man and I do feel a bit sorry for him really with what the media keep throwing at him each day.

[Oola]

I think perhaps it's not Gordon Brown so much, it's the amount of bureacracy that Labour have hung themselves with. Too many broken promises (but let's face it, this happens to every political party at the end of their current 'reign'), targets, pandering approaches to things. I am pretty sure that the Tories will get in next term, and I can't say I'm sad about it. And you don't know how much that surprises me to see myself write that! I think David Cameron is much more personable, you feel like you know what his aims are and where he's coming from. I think it's genuine, obviously a little turned on for the media but I still think he cares passionately about what he says he cares about. And he's about putting the responsibility of broken homes, troubled teenagers etc. back with the family - I think that's a starting point that New Labour have totally overlooked, and perhaps why this culture of lack of respect and "I deserve everything I want" is so prominent.

[sandybay]

I know David Cameron can come across as Mr Nice Guy Oola but don't forget that his pre politics career was in PR and he uses every trick in the PR book.
In the Daily Telegraph which is a right wing paper, one of their correspondents admitted that when he was on the campaign trail with Cameron and his close cronies they sometimes treated grass roots Conservative party faithfuls with coldness bordering on contempt. The reporter commented that this was at odds with his public persona of someone to take home to tea with your grandma. The same reporter had been on the campaign trail with Tony Blair in the past and said that even though he disliked Tony Blair's politics the way he treated ordinary people away from the camera was very different from Cameron and George Osborne. An interesting observation and as I said, one from a newspaper not known to give succour to Labour ! Also I doubt that the Mr Nice Guy policies will stay if he is elected, the party will revert to type.

The current Labour party have made many mistakes but they cannot take the whole blame for the problems of society at present. Those older amongst us remember the
way that much of the country's manufacturing industries, and coal and steel towns were sacrificed to the altar of Thatcherism which led to appalling deprivation. Many of these places including South Wales have never recovered. That is where the legacy of jobless communities began and sadly Labour have not righted those wrongs.

The problems with serious lack of affordable and social housing began with the huge council house sell-offs under the Tories. The stock of low rent accessible housing was deliberately made part of the private housing market to satisfy political dogma and buy votes from those who benefited from purchasing their council houses.

And if the energy companies were still in the hands of the taxpayer and state owned rather than run for profit, controlling prices, particularly for vulnerable groups like pensioners would be easier. [Another of Thatcher's legacies]. Again Labour are standing by and allowing rampant profiteering which is not what you expect of left of centre government.

I agree with you though Oola that New Labour need to consider the traditional family more. But some of these problem teenagers were conceived and born before the Labour adminstration and many of their problem parents were born during the Torie's 'greed is good' years.

[lily]

I agree Sandybay, labour inherited policies and their results from the Tories, but did nothing to reverse things. I was listening to Any Answers at the weekend , a labour party activist rang in to say how she felt labour had strayed so far from their true policies and roots.
No, it's not all GB's fault, but the 10p debacle certainly is, and he seems incapable of apologising and reinstating it .I can't see who would replace him even if they were to oust him.

[sandybay]

What the activist said is true Lily, and it seems such a shame.
Gordon Brown is a decent man with genuine ideals but seems unable to cope with the day to day leadership demands. Maybe he's be better suited to a job with the United Nations dealing with third world poverty which is dear to his heart.