Results are finally in for Operation Four-Letter Word

The challenge was to get the word out into your local community and/or get/keep Iraq on the agenda in the days leading up to the election.

1st Prize of £250 cash and a giant 3x6 metre 'No Alternative' poster goes to CuriousHamster for an immediate, prolonged, and well-documented campaign:

http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word.html
http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word-continues.html
http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word-continues.html
http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word-continues.html
http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word-continues.html
http://bsscworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/operation-four-letter-word-continues.html

2nd Prize of £100 cash and a 'No Alternative' t-shirt goes to Poons. Erm, and Max. We may have to dig up an extra t-shirt so the boys don't fight:

http://howlingspoons.blogspot.com/2005/05/operation-four-letter-word.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84258631@N00/

3rd Prize of £50 cash and a case of chardonnay goes to Michael Howard. He reached an extraordinary number of people with the I-word and the L-word, and would have taken out the top prize had he not lost a great many points for lack of credibility

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4478473.stm

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to everyone who took part.

There were two highlights to the election coverage; one was Galloway and Paxman making total arses of themselves... the other was the speech in Sedgefield by Reg Keys. (Link: Election 2005: Most memorable moments)

There's a transcript on the front page on keysforsedgefield.org.uk, but if this ever moves, TalkPolitics also has a copy.

But this is someone you want to see, not read:

Reg Keys' Election Night Speech at Sedgefield (3.5Mb wmv)

You'll want to watch Blair's shaky-poker-face when Keys talks about questions surrounding the Iraq conflict.

You'll want to watch Blair's shaky-poker-face when Keys says; "one day (Blair) will find himself able to visit in hospital the soldiers who have been wounded by it."

You'll want to watch Blair's shaky-poker-face when Keys says; "and I am aware that some people do not know how many it is who have been killed."

Daily Mail - 2nd May 2005: Asked how many British soldiers have died in Iraq, the Prime Minister replied: "Well you know the figures for that. It's, um, 70 to 80 people that have died, um." In fact 87 members of our forces have given their lives in this misbegotten war. An 88th was killed shortly after Mr Blair's lapse of memory.

What a shame that all Blair seemed to take away from this moment was a couple of words for later soundbite abuse: 'lessons' and 'learned'.

See also: Interview with Derek Cattell from the Reg Keys Campaign

Now that Labour have been re-elected with a substantially reduced majority, Tony Blair will face an interesting set of challenges as he tries to push through some of the more controversial policies.

Anti-terror legislation will undoubtedly continue to cause problems, as the sunset clause ensures that the powers will be reviewed. And when that time comes, Blair can expect trouble from the following 16 Labour MPs:

Jeremy Corbyn
John McDonnell
Lynne Jones
Alan Simpson
Kelvin Hopkins
Kate Hoey
Diane Abbott
Barbara Follett
Clare Short
Mark Fisher
Peter Kilfoyle
Gwyneth Dunwoody
Glenda Jackson
Jim Cousins
Mike Wood
Ian Gibson
Robert Marshall-Andrews


Then, when Parliament discusses ID Cards, Blair can expect to receive a rough ride from the following 20 Labour MPs:

David Winnick
Michael Clapham
Gwyneth Dunwoody
Neil Gerrard
Ian Gibson
Kate Hoey
Clare Short
Dennis Skinner
David Taylor
Alan Simspon
Mike Wood
Diane Abbott
Lynne Jones
Austin Mitchell
Albert Owen
Kelvin Hopkins
Julie Morgan
Robert Marshall-Andrews


And that's just two policy areas to start with. When you start to consider other areas such as reforming the House of Lords or further extending PFI then Blair has a truly massive headache. One has to question why Blair would want to continue leading a party and a country when both have expressed (and continue to) grave doubts regarding his suitability for the job.

A full list of the contentious issues and likely rebels will be published later today. If your MP is on one (or more) of these lists, then give them your support and encouragement to continue their opposition.

By now you should all know the shape of the next parliament.

Labour's majority has in all likelihood been reduced from 167 to 66, a number of more traditional Labour candidates have retained their seats. All this with only 36% of the vote.

The Conservatives increased their representation without significantly improving their share of the vote. Michael Howard will be stepping down before the next election.

The LibDems had probably the best of the night, at least superficially. Largest number of MPs since 1923, though their traditional heartland constituencies appear to have been exchanged for a less concentrated area of representation.

A full statement summing up the campaign will be issued after tonight's Backing Blair London meeting.

Isn't it funny that the poster at the heart of our campaign says 'No Alternative' and that's exactly what the last push from the Blairites says here? We never thought they'd be so bold...

OK, aside from voting yourself on Thursday, you have one final task to perform - and this is probably the most important and yet the easiest thing you'll have been able to do during the entire campaign.

We need to counter Blair's lies, and get the message out that it is safe to vote against Labour - that there is no risk of a Tory government being formed after the election. We also need to remind people of why they should do this.

So your task for today is this - using some or all of the material below, send a series of emails to your friends and family (the more the better). As they are your friends and family and not ours, you're best placed to know what approach stands the best chance of influencing their vote, so we urge you to tailor your emails appropriately (if you know what constituency they are in, even better). However, if you're busy, cut and pasting from below and sending it to everyone at once is better than doing nothing.

It's official: Votes for Lib Dems will not let in Tories

http://www.perfect.co.uk/2005/04/its-official-votes-for-lib-dems-will-not-let-in-tories

Labour's attempts to warn its wavering supporters that a vote for the Liberal Democrats could allow Michael Howard into No. 10 "by the back door" was undermined yesterday in a detailed study carried out for The Independent. The study found that a swing of 11.5 per cent from Labour voters to the Liberal Democrats could deprive Mr Blair of his overall Commons majority but it would be virtually impossible for such defections - at even twice that rate - to let in the Conservatives to form a government.

more of the same:
http://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/quote.jsp?id=145

the latest polls:
http://pollingreport.co.uk/voteALL.html

Boundaries mean a close race will still leave Tories trailing:
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/12/nelec312.xml

Labour under the present system could win an overall parliamentary majority with a mere 29 per cent of the popular vote. The Conservatives would need at least 41 per cent of the vote, probably more, to win a similar majority.

Confused about how you're going to vote? Read this:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1059-1586733,00.html

Blair: It wasn't me (this is very funny, but surprisingly accuarate):
http://www.gbjab.com/

Iraq: Drawing the line (this is very upsetting, but needs to be watched):
http://www.backingblair.co.uk/the_line/

Yesterday we told you that the latest 'save us from the Tories' push was actually an attempt to boost Blair's majority. We also urged you to use the forbidden word.

Independent - Labour: Revealed - Labour's strategy to block influence of left-wing MPs: Labour is warning supporters that Michael Howard could become prime minister in an attempt to neuter the influence of left-wing MPs by winning a big majority in the general election.... One candidate and former minister said: "Iraq is hurting us. It's doing a lot of damage. The media coverage has reminded people about the war. A lot of them are saying they can't vote for Tony Blair."

Use the word. Today. Get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible and blog your progress (if possible).

And rest assured that if you vote for Labour in order to preserve a government of the 'left', then you will only succeed in pushing it yet further to the right.

PS - Well done, Poons.

CuriousHamster is a front-runner in our £500 competition to get our posters and/or the word 'Iraq' in front of as many people as possible.

You only have a day or so left in which to make your mark, folks. Get busy.

From the latest Labour spam: We're placing our final newspaper ads on Wednesday. We want to highlight the message that if only 1 in 10 Labour voters don't vote, or vote for another party, the Tories win.

Blair isn't chasing victory or evading defeat, he's desperately trying to boost his margin, and he's using fear to do it. Let's face it, it's not the first time the Blair government has overstated a threat in order to get its way.

You can't say we didn't see this coming.

Someone else who's ahead of the game is Nick Barlow, who crunched the numbers and debunked the 'vote Lib-Dem get the Tories' lie nearly a month ago. Debunking of this lie and other 'vote Labour or else' lies has followed in The Independent, Channel 4, the Telegraph and the ever-cautious BBC. The latter acknowledges some level of risk when you play the 'one in ten' scenario in marginal seats, but that's not what the poster says, now is it?



When the subject turns to Iraq, Blair may take the time to rattle out the latest defence, but mostly we will be assured that Iraq is a non-issue and the other parties only focus on it because they're reliant on negative campaigning and have nothing positive to offer.

But this last desperate plea for votes from Blair is negative and vacuous in the extreme.

Vote for us or the boogeyman will get you, basically.

Blair needs a strong margin just to survive. He needs a very strong margin to get the cabinet he wants.

And that's what this latest round of fear-mongering is about. It's not about assuring a Labour win (that's already in the bag); it's about the continuation of Blair's leadership.

Only the Labour party have the power to remove Blair and only now do you have a say in that.

Our target is a margin of 70 seats or less. The people who put their money where their mouth is suggest that we're right on target:

Independent - Punters defy polls to predict Labour crash: Punters are betting that Labour's majority will be as low as 60 seats. Few punters are backing a majority of more than 80 seats.

Remember how difficult it was to argue that the WMD threat was a phantom one? The potential consequences were so great that you probably feared speaking out just in case you were wrong. But you were right (and now the misgivings you held all along are dismissed as coming with the benefit of hindsight).

One thing you can look forward to after the election is the continued pursuit of Blair's resignation and many voices raised in protest saying that the majority voted for him, so please shut the fuck up. Until now Blair has desperately tried to minimise the protest vote and insist that this election is not a referendum on Iraq. However, with the polls giving Labour a significant lead, Blair is now preparing the ground for asserting his authority in his next term of government...

Tony Blair: "I've had this election campaign where there have been some pretty fearsome attacks on my character and I'm not going to stand here and beg for my own character. People can make up their minds whether they trust me or not and that's their decision on May 5."

So a large Labour majority on the 5th May will be used by Blair as justification. Justification for Iraq, the anti-terror laws, ID cards and all the other Blairite policy excesses. And a large majority will see Gordon Brown cast aside within 12 - 18 months, as Blair uses his final term in an attempt to permanently place Blairite values at the heart of the Labour Party.

If you do not trust Tony Blair then you should not vote Labour. If you do not share Tony Blair's vision for Labour's future, then you should not vote Labour.

And you should follow this up by letting your local candidate know why they lost your vote.

Stay on target. Use your protest vote without fear.