David Cameron and his Conservatives get ready for their turn.
THE LABOUR PARTY’S CRUSHING defeat in last week’s local elections for England and Wales marks the beginning of the end for New Labour and the premiership of Gordon Brown. The opposition Conservatives inflicted their heaviest defeat on Labour in 40 years, securing 44 percent of the vote against the ruling party’s 24 percent. Even the Liberal Democrats bettered Labour, with a quarter of the vote. Translated into a parliamentary election, these figures would give the Conservatives a huge 138-seat majority. In London, the colorful Conservative candidate Boris Johnson was elected mayor of Europe’s biggest city after a close fought contest ousted the far-left incumbent Ken Livingstone, commonly known as ‘Red Ken’.