National politics are interesting. Take the US and Britain right now. In the US, the Democrats have just pulled off the amazing feat of winning a House of Representatives seat in a Mississippi district that has not voted Democratic for more than 15 years. The Republicans held the House and Senate from 1994 until 2006 when the Democrats took it back on an anti-war, anti-corruption campaign. The party that had been in power was crumbling due to an inept president and vast corruption allegations.
In Britain, the same is true but with opposite parties. Here Labour has been in power since 1997, but since the last general election in 2005 they have slowly begun to deteriorate. Again, the war in Iraq has certainly done them no favours. Then, two weeks ago today the Conservatives gained landslide victories throughout England and Wales gaining council seat after council seat and even gaining the London Mayoralty from Ken ‘I am London’ Livingstone. It was a dynamic victory for them and another nail in the coffin for Labour. Now today the constituency of Crewe and Nantwich will hold a by-election for their vacated Parliamentary seat. This too could prove another problem for Labour if the Conservatives pull off a win. Labour has the previous MP’s own daughter as their candidate. Like with the Republicans in the 15-year Mississippi strong-hold, if she can’t keep her mother’s seat, Labour has real problems.
Because these two countries are experiencing similar events, I think it is mostly down to people becoming fed up with the party in charge no matter their affiliation. The liberals are gaining ground in America from conservative mis-management while the conservatives are doing the same in Britain with the liberals. I don’t think you can say that America is turning liberal or Britain conservative; on the contrary, America is still as conservative as ever and Britain as liberal. I simply find it interesting that with differing parties on the winning and losing sides in each country, very similar events are unfolding.
I think the Republicans will face a heavy backlash come November (I certainly hope McCain gets nowhere near the White House) and I think that if and when Gordon Brown calls a general election he too will very possibly face the ax. It will be unfortunate that these two events cannot happen around the same time.