So the Tories have won the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. That’s not a huge surprise. What is suprising is the scale of their victory which suggests a Tory landslide at the next general election. I have very mixed opinions about this.

First of all, the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody was a great loss for British politics. She was one of the few senior members of the current Labour party for whom I had any respect. If Labour was going to lose an MP there were far more deserving candidates.

Obviously I’m glad Labour lost the seat. I don’t despise Brown the way I did Blair, overall he’s not doing a bad job. OK, the 10p tax thing was a stupid mistake. However most of his woes really aren’t his doing. Blair got out just as the global economy was about to collapse and left Brown hoding a bagful of returning chickens.

That said, I still want Brown out. Why? Because he’s failed to ditch the authoritarian policies of the Blair-Blunkett era. True, he’s not pushing them as enthusiastically as Blair. For example ID cards are now arriving on a slow train - but they’re still arriving. I couldn’t vote for any poliician or party who supports compulsory Identity Cards and a huge, intrusive National Identity Register. If Brown wants to win back my support for Labour then he needs to repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006 and stop trying to extend the period of pre-charge internment. Until he does that I’ll cheer every time Labour loses a vote.

What of the Tories? Unfortunately the prospect of a Conservative government hardly fills me with joy. Cameron remains a second-rate Blair clone and I don’t trust him an inch. For all the party’s talk of compassion there are still many within it who worship Thatcher. The old Tory attitudes remain just below the surface - David Davis (who’s done an excellent job opposing compulsory ID Cards) was recently proposing increased stop and search powers for the police. What was most worrying about this was the way he framed the idea with words like “liberalising” and “freedom”.

So overall I’m delighted that Labour lost - but not overly happy that the Tories won.

Image copyright © james steidl / iStockphoto

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