Teaching Comparative

Backgrounder on British Politics

The September 16 issue of The Economist arrived yesterday. There's a good article there about British politics, especially politics within the Labour Party (pp. 31-34). There are insights into the intra-party and leadership politics. If you have access, take a few minutes with this bit of journalistic analysis. It's probably better for your background than for students of comparative politics -- unless you have access to similar analyses from other countries.

The strange end of Tony Blair -- Who killed the British prime minister?

"The Labour Party is kicking out its most successful prime minister for at least 50 years. Gordon Brown is both the main beneficiary and a big loser from the affair

"IF THE old saw is true that elections are not won by oppositions but lost by governments, the events of the past fortnight must have made David Cameron, the leader of Britain's Conservatives, a happy man. In that time he has seen the most potent election-winner in Labour's history—someone senior Tories still admit they do not know how to beat—humiliatingly reduced to something close to irrelevance. He has also seen Tony Blair's probable successor stained with dishonour and a once-disciplined party suffer a collective nervous breakdown. If nothing else, when Mr Cameron greets his troops at their conference next month they will know they chose a very lucky general...

"For as long as Mr Blair was seen by his party as an indispensable electoral asset, he held sway over it. But these days many believe he has become an electoral liability...

"The sight of Mr Blair at the G8 meeting of rich-country leaders in July playing the fawning courtier to George Bush was too much for many Labour MPs...

"For a few, the deep embarrassment of a party-finance scandal has provided a further reason for Mr Blair's removal. In his long-running battle to reduce the influence of the unions, Labour's traditional paymasters, Mr Blair hoped that the subscriptions of ordinary party members and the donations of the rich, gratified by the government's pro-business stance, would reduce the party's dependence on organised workers. But as party membership fell (in part because of Iraq), the reliance on rich individuals increased. For most of the past year the police have been investigating the possibility that peerages have been offered in exchange for loans..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:47 AM