UK re-elects Blair

Voting’s only just started, but the result isn’t in doubt: despite Iraq, despite the lies, despite the taxes, Blair will be returned to power tomorrow. All due to the ineptitude of his opponents.
I mean, the Conservative manifesto was simply a laundry list of populist issues – cleaning hospitals more regularly? Cutting taxes by a tiny £4bn? It was a campaign of hot buttons and shallow appeal – the sign of a panicked party, not a coherent vision for Britain.
Where were the big ideas, from any party? Just as importantly, where were the actual issues – education, pensions, and the elephant in the room that’ll start trumpetting any day now, Britain’s aging nuclear capacity?
Blair will win. He will never be punished over Iraq, will never pay the price for kicking Britain into its death spiral of massive taxes, public sector bloat, and reduced competitiveness. I head for the polling station to cast my useless vote, in a constituency with a huge Labour majority. And something inside me just… gives up.
At least Blair will win because people actually voted for him. Which is marginally better than outright voter fraud – as Dubya’s now done twice. (The big story in 2004 wasn’t Ohio: it was Florida again, Republicans flipping a hundred thousand ballots in their favour in smaller counties where no TV cameras went.) But it’s still nothing to be proud of when actual turnout probably means less than one in six voters cast their ballot for you. Never before have I felt such a lack of choice.
Never mind, there’s always invading Iran to look forward to.