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'Los Angeles Times' Reporter Discusses Expected Labour Win in English Elections

Aired June 07, 2001 - 11:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A landslide victory for Labour: That's what the experts are predicting when the polls close today in Britain's general election. Polls show Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour Party leading the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats by a wide margin. Right now, Mr. Blair's party has a 179-seat majority in the House of Commons, and it's expected to be even bigger after the elections. Under British law, the party that wins the majority in the House of Commons controls the prime minister's office.

Joining us now from London is Ron Brownstein, who's covering the elections for the "Los Angeles Times."

Ron, hello to you, and how does it look to you, so far, with the voting?

RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Hi, Donna.

Well, there are sort of mixed reports around the country. One of the big issues, as you suggest, is not really whether Labour is going to have a majority after this election -- they are going to have a majority. It may get a little smaller, may get a little bigger, but no matter what, it's going to be gargantuan. One of the questions, though, is how many people turn out to vote.

By American standards, turnout here is always very high always, but there's some concern that it has been lower. It has been shrinking lately, and it may be lower yet this year, which could be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm about the Labour government, even as the voters do return it to power. So people are watching that.

And the early returns are sort of sketchy. I talked to someone at Labour Party headquarters who said there was some evidence in some places it was up, others that it was down. Most people are expecting it to be down.

KELLEY: Not, as I said in an earlier interview, Ron, that we're trying to call the election, but if Blair stays the prime minister, as expected, what are the issues they'll talk about that will be big for Britain after the election?

BROWNSTEIN: It's funny to have this discussion on the day of the tax cut being signed into law by President Bush back in America because here the Labour Party has been able to marginalize the Conservative demand for tax cuts and really put them on the defensive. The issues here, Donna, are quality of the basic public services, especially the schools, the hospitals and health care, and transportation.

The second-term agenda for Blair is going to be putting more money and reform into those basic systems, because one thing he's been reminded of through a series of sometimes pointed campaign trail encounterers is that while voters are ready to give him another term, they want him to do better on these basic systems and services that everyone here depends on.

KELLEY: After this happens, what does this mean with the Bush administration, with the relationship there?

Brownstein: Good question. Blair, obviously, is to the left of Bush. Blair is in the school of third-way leaders, if you will, that tried to move the traditional liberal parties toward the center in the '90s. He's very much of a similar ideology of Bill Clinton and Gerhard Schroeder, in Germany, and Prodi, in Italy, and so forth.

But Blair has been very cautious about defining himself in opposition in Bush. He hasn't really come out against national missile defense, although most of his party thinks it's a bad idea. He has been cautious in his criticism of Bush on the Kyoto Treaty, especially compared to Schroeder. They seem to see themselves as playing a role of sort of the bridge between Europe, which is quite critical of Bush, and America.

So I think that a conservative party in governance, obviously, would be more sympathetic to many of the things Bush wants to do, but Blair isn't going...

KELLEY: We lost London there. I apologize for that. Some technical glitch, apparently -- but Ron Brownstein, I think, was just about to finish with his point covering the elections in Britain for the "Los Angeles Times."

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