What Blair Threw Away 
Ross McKibbin
Labour has won its historic third term, by the majority (about 65) predicted by the much abused exit poll, and it has done so while receiving the lowest percentage of the vote ever won by a victorious party. The parliamentary majority is much reduced, as everyone has pointed out, but it is ‘much reduced’ only in comparison with Labour’s existing majority: previous Labour leaders would have regarded it as providential.
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Ross McKibbin is a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, and the author of Classes and Cultures: England 1918-51 and The Evolution of the Labour Party: 1910-24.
Other articles by this contributor:
Sleazy, Humiliated, Despised · Can Labour survive Blair?
Pure New Labour · Three Groans for Gordon
The Destruction of the Public Sphere · Brown v. Cameron
An Element of Unfairness · the Great Education Disaster
The Tax-and-Spend Vote · Ross McKibbin wonders whether the election will improve New Labour’s grasp on reality
The Reshuffle and After · Why Brown should Resign
Make enemies and influence people · Ross McKibbin tells Tony Blair what to do
Mondeo Man in the Driving Seat · Blair’s Government at Mid-Term (1999)
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