Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister Thursday but his Labour Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority in apparent punishment for going to war in Iraq, according to projections based on exit polls.Like hell it's punishment over Iraq. If it was, then most people would have defected to the Liberal Democrats, and not to the Conservatives, who were the biggest winners and who supported the war (albiet in lukewarm terms). According to accounts I've seen by Britons, the big issue is whether or not Britain will drop the pound, embrace the Euro, and join the political side of the EU. Blair has aggressively pushed the Euro, and most of Britain despises him for it.
Especially given the horrible economic performance by the big Eurozone countries, and given the horrible regulations they have to work under, Blair's chances of getting Britain to fully join the EU are smaller than Yossi Beilin's to win the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The next few years are going to be interesting for the Liberal Party, methinks. Especially since most of the party is actually anti-war, and cannot stand Tony Blair. I must say, his domestic policies are rather disgusting, but when the chips are down he was willing to go all the way in Iraq over the objections of his own party, and I and a lot of people respect him for it. I'm glad he was reelected at least, so that nobody could crow that he was punished over Iraq—um, never mind. (Stupid journalists...)
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