Saturday 3rd May 2008
7.45pm PlayPolitical: Boris Johnson acts the clown as he becomes London Mayor
6pm ToryDiary: Thursday night's other winners and losers
4.15pm PlayPolitical: What do the Tories need to do to satisfy Michael Portillo?
3.45pm Dr Crippen on CentreRight: "I would cast Boris as the Fool in King Lear. Lovers of King Lear are not deceived by the Fool’s antics. Full of wit and insight, he is the most intellectually talented character in the play. Boris Johnson may well be the most intellectually talented member of the Conservative hierarchy. Whether or not you agree with that, he is now without doubt the most powerful Conservative in the country. He is David Cameron’s Fool. King Lear could not control his Fool. We shall see whether Cameron can control his."
1pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight: Guess who first suggested that Boris run for Mayor?
11.15am ToryDiary: When was the last time the Tories had such a good night?
ToryDiary: Boris wins the mayoralty
Platform: Paul Goodman MP says that in defeating Ken Livingstone Boris Johnson also defeated Islamic extremists
PlayPolitical: Watch David Cameron leap for joy as Boris' victory is announced
Over at CentreRight, Hamish Marshall notes how the international media are already biased against Mayor Boris
> And now let's win Crewe and Nantwich
Labour's dusk
"On Thursday the voters told Labour to - well, let us say “push off”. By their votes and abstentions they indicated that they don't like the Government any more. They said they've gone off the new Prime Minister in a big way. They didn't mention anything about being ready to change their minds and I don't for a moment believe they are disposed to. It's over." - Matthew Parris in the Times
"No prime minister has ever recovered from as bad a set of local election results as Labour had on Thursday and won the subsequent general election. Gordon Brown has very few options, apart from waiting, and hoping, unless he wants to undermine his hard-won reputation for prudence and long-term stability." - Peter Riddell in the Times
"We suggested on Thursday morning that the voters of England and Wales might wish to give Gordon Brown a punch on the nose. In the event, they delivered a right hook. Whether it presages a knock-out blow depends on what the Prime Minister does in the two years he has left before he must hold a general election. But it is impossible to escape the impression that he is mortally wounded, about to be overwhelmed by forces he can no longer control." - Telegraph leader
On May 2 2008 it was a wake at City Hall, witnessing a defeat that seemed to confirm what a day of results had already suggested: that after an era of dominance that has endured since the mid-1990s, Labour is about to enter the twilight. It threatens to be a slow death, as Labour decays steadily towards defeat in 2010. That, at least, is what plenty in the party fear after a horror show of a performance in local elections across England and Wales." - Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian
New Labour is dead - John McDonnell in the Guardian
Stephen Carter's diary of the week - Hugo Rifkind in the Times
David Cameron's "Tony Blair moment"
"David Cameron's local
election victory has been hailed as a "Tony Blair" moment, as the
party's triumph at the ballot box appeared to echo the wins ahead of
the 1997 Labour landslide. The
Conservative leader yesterday embarked on a celebratory tour across
England and Wales, after his party secured a massive 44 per cent of the
vote, against Labour's 24 per cent." - Scotsman
"David Cameron hailed a string of victories in the North of England yesterday as he celebrated a stunning electoral breakthrough." - Times
No election next year
"Gordon Brown, on the ropes as never before, will play for time as he struggles to save his party’s skin and prevent himself becoming the first Prime Minister since James Callaghan never to win a general election." - Times
"[The results] are genuinely seismic in their implication. If Gordon Brown is eventually defeated in his bid to take Labour to a fourth term, then this is the moment which historians will determine marked the beginning of the end of his spell as Prime Minister. These local elections also mean that the ultimate battle is unlikely to occur before May 6, 2010." - Times leader
Labour control same number of councils in Wales as Tories
"Labour was humiliated in the local elections, keeping overall
control of just two councils in Wales – no more than the Conservatives. Neath
Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taf are all that remain of the Welsh
Labour heartland that used to be considered impregnable. Even
bracing themselves for a bad night, party activists were shocked to see
authorities like Newport, Torfaen and Flintshire unexpectedly fall from
their clutches." - Western Mail
Brown must go to save Labour
"I'm sure Labour would give anything to be offered the chance that the Tories were in 1995: a referendum, two years before a general election, on the leadership of a man who has plainly proved he is not up to it, and who is regarded as incapable even by his own core supporters. I doubt, as they recall the fate of the Tories, that they would be quite so kind to Gordon Brown." - Simon Heffer in the Telegraph
"The answer that stares these MPs in the face is that, echoing Cromwell, they should tell him: "In the name of God, go." Brown has not rescued Labour from its post-Iraq decline under Tony Blair. He has made it decisively worse." - Martin Kettle in the Guardian
Brown's former allies infighting and plotting behind the scenes - Toby Helm in the Telegraph
Unfavourable comparisons with Major
"Unlike Mr Brown, Mr Major came
to power as the result of a contest, and as soon as he did so, his
appeal for a country "at ease with itself" was both authentic in
relation to his own personality and a widely welcomed change from the
strenuous demands of Mrs Thatcher. It is a very
odd thing about a man who has spent more than 20 years in the front
line of democratic politics, but Gordon Brown is someone who has gone
to enormous lengths to avoid exposing himself to the bracing winds of
political competition. It shows." - Charles Moore in the Telegraph
Boris's style of governance
"London's mayor, unlike New York's, does not control the police. But like New York's, he could bypass the police and give the citizens more information. All of us should know what the crime levels are in our street, our area, and how the police plan to tackle it. All of us should know how the mayor spends his budget. The Assembly is too weak to hold the mayor to account, so Londoners should have the information." - Camilla Cavendish in the Times
Boris and Cameron's relationship, from Eton to now - Francis Elliott in the Times
Well done, Stuart Wheeler
"Stuart Wheeler is a patriot of the best and most unassuming kind.
Having made a tidy sum of money by popularising spread-betting in the
United Kingdom, he has given much of it away to good causes, including
anti-torture groups and Euro-sceptic campaigners. Most
recently, he has gone to court to challenge Labour's cancellation of
the referendum on the European Constitution that it promised in its
manifesto. Few gave him a chance, but Mr Wheeler knows a thing or two
about odds." - Telegraph leader
> Wheeler wins first stage of legal battle
Full EU embassies discussed for the first time
"The "Embassies of the Union" would be controlled by a new EU diplomatic service created by the Lisbon Treaty. The Daily Telegraph has seen a high-level Brussels document discussing plans for a "European External Action Service" (EEAS) which was proposed under the new EU Treaty, currently being ratified in Westminster." - Telegraph
The most influential political pundits in the US - Telegraph
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