GALLOWAY WINS?

This could be the most depressing result so far. Labour has suffered two big defeats in safe Labour seats from rebels in their ranks. One in Wales where the national Labour party insisted on an all-woman list of candidates. A local male candidate ran as an independent Labour candidate and won an astonishing victory. Galloway also seems to have knocked off a key Labour candidate. As a supporter of the war, I’m not going to join Glenn Reynolds in blaming media bias for the analysis that the war hurt Blair. Of course it hurt Blair; and it’s Glenn’s bias to deny it. Or rather, it was the sense that the government wasn’t honest with the people about its rationale that hurt Blair. Blair’s dubious honesty and reliability were key factors in this defeat, and those factors involved domestic policy as well. But the war brought those worries to the fore. I cannot see how he can recover from this personal indictment from the people of Britain.