Absolutely Sassylad

What a night! As we watched the result pile up in Crewe & Nantwich it was pretty much expected that it would be a poor night for Labour, but in an area that's been as loyal to Labour over the years as Crewe, and with the strength of a known name, albeit the daughter of, there was the possibility that a sympathy groundswell might rock the boat.

By god, the boat rocked - fortunately to the tune of common sense as the good people of Crewe & Nantwich took their votes and voted for a better future, leaving the incompetence and cronyism of the 'new' labour project floundering in their wake; so what was the tipping point? Well listening to the people voting it's clear that this wasn't just a protest vote, this was a multi-faceted vote of utter disillusionment, people are clearly fed up with Brown (personally), New Labour (generally) and had real concerns about swingeing tax rises, the 10p debacle, the hyper-speed acceleration of living costs and the general feeling that the country is not performing the way it should; everyone has an opinion, whether it's crime, hospitals, MRSA, the NHS, the CSA, immigration, human rights, CCTV, they're all things that people genuinely believe to be problems that this government has a direct hand in, and they're really fed up.

Of course, throughout the night and indeed this morning various figures have popped up all over the media reminding us that it's a mid-term wobble, it's only a protest vote, and that Thatcher lost by-elections and still won, but the bitter tang of panic is clear – spin it how you like – last night they lost, and they lost big time, the people of Crewe & Nantwich could have easily gifted a big win to the Lib Dems candidate (ex-candidate as the poor dear's wiki entry is up for speedy deletion!), but they didn't - these people weren't protesting, they were voting for real change.

So where does it leave us? Well unfortunately not at an immediate general election, but with the unpleasant thought of at least another year and a bit of Broon's 'car crash in slow motion' style of government, rumour is rife of a leadership challenge, but it does seem unlikely, not only would someone have to garner 70 votes to challenge Brown, but they'd also need to field someone with a chance of actually winning... and that's unlikely; the heavyweight hitters are invariably linked with Blair, and would probably fair no better than Brown (although they'd perhaps do it with more charisma), so that leaves three options, field an unknown, field a loony or field a young candidate.

An unknown just wouldn't happen in the Labour party, it doesn't work like that; a loony is far more likely and could perhaps garner enough support to look serious with the party already dangerously sitting on a tipping point between a lurch to the left and a gentle slide towards being a 'new' labour opposition on a significantly reduced number of seats, and then finally the young candidate; all of whom seem to have the sense to see that they're better off keeping their heads down and saving what's left of their political careers in the short term.

It'll be interesting to watch from the sidelines to see if this flat spin is recoverable, I doubt it, but there will be ministers who will fight to the bitter end – perhaps not at their own advantage – to try to save what's left of Blair's vision for the new labour project. I'm of course delighted by all of this; a strong socially aware conservative party for the future is what I think we need, it's just a shame that we've got to wait through a damaging couple of years for the country before we're going to get one.