"Local UK elections may hold rebuke for coalition leaders" New York Times, May 04, 2012
NEW YORK - At a time of deepening austerity, social cutbacks, and political fallout from the long-running phone hacking scandal, Britons went to the polls Thursday in bellwether mayoral and local council votes expected to offer a midterm judgment - and most likely a rebuke - to the country’s first coalition government since World War II.
Please remember the austerity and cutbacks for later; by the way, you have a phone call.
Just two years after the national vote that brought Prime Minister David Cameron to power in an awkward alliance with the Liberal Democrats, voters were choosing mayors in London in the south and, in the northwest, Liverpool and Salford, along with 181 councils across mainland Britain.
In London, Mayor Boris Johnson, a flamboyant member of Cameron’s
Conservatives, ran for a second term against his Labor opposition
predecessor, Ken Livingstone.
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"Local elections batter British coalition" Washington Post, May 05, 2012
LONDON - Britain’s ruling coalition sustained punishing loses in local elections, with near-final results released Friday showing both the Conservatives and their partner Liberal Democrats giving up hundreds of seats in a stinging rebuke of the two-year-old government of Prime Minister David Cameron.
The results showed the opposition Labor Party gaining more than 650 seats in Thursday’s vote - and winning control of key cities including Birmingham and Cardiff - in what analysts saw as a protest vote against the Conservatives’ tough austerity drive, the flagging British economy, and recent missteps that have left voters questioning the competence of the Cameron government.
It's epidemic across Europe.
The Conservatives, however, won a major consolation prize
- the reelection of London’s eccentric mayor, Boris Johnson. The
mop-topped Conservative defeated his Labor challenger, Ken Livingstone,
who had formerly held the top job in Europe’s largest city.
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By George, I think they got the message!
"Britain to focus on boosting economy; Agenda also calls for overhaul of House of Lords" by David Stringer | Associated Press, May 10, 2012
LONDON - Wearing a crown studded with glittering jewels, Queen Elizabeth II set out Britain’s new legislative agenda in traditionally opulent style Wednesday, announcing a frugal program aimed at boosting economic growth.
And she is the ultimate welfare queen living off the the taxpayer dole.
In the annual pageant of power, pomp, and politics, the queen read aloud Britain’s new legislative package, which sets out the work of Parliament over the next 12 months and included streamlining the unelected House of Lords, a project that has been delayed for decades.
Hundreds of people lined the streets outside Parliament to see the
monarch’s horse-drawn carriage parade from Buckingham Palace in a lavish
ceremony featuring gleaming coaches, sparkling diamonds, and canon
fire....
Last month, Britain’s economy slumped back into recession for the first time since 2009 and critics say that was due to the government’s austerity program.
“The main obstacle remains the government’s mistaken policies of austerity that have sent the economy back into reverse,’’ said Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
Grass-roots Conservatives had urged Cameron to ditch plans to use the coming year to pursue a reform of the House of Lords - insisting his priority should be on the economy.
Peers have frequently opposed any changes to Britain’s unelected 700-year-old upper chamber, and a new attempt to force through an overhaul will require lengthy debates in Parliament. The chamber now has 782 members.
The queen confirmed that the government was seeking to introduce a smaller, mainly elected chamber which would offer its members fixed 15-year terms.
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