So what does it mean for liberty?

The election results in Britain are scarcely exciting. The Tories are spinning a success from a result which would have lost their leader his job throughout most of the Party's history. Labour has a majority which would have been a stunning success at any time in the 20th Century and only looks bad by comparison with the outrageous "landslides" of the last two elections. The LibDems are pretending that being used as a protest vote wherever the Tories had no chance makes them a credible alternative.

That Tony Blair should have done so well when he is the author of an unprecedented assault on the liberties of our people amazes me. Liberty was not even an issue. No-one seemed to care. Voters interviewed during election night coverage cited low mortgage rates as a reason to vote Labour. As if that had anything to do with the Government. Rates will be rising shortly and the Government will wring its hands and say it's not to blame. One wonders if the idiots who voted on that basis will get the point when they are funding their ludicrous mortgages at higher rates from diminishing after-tax income as Labour funds the "black hole" in its spending plans.

The war in Iraq was the media's favourite topic but the voters didn't seem to care about that either. Except Muslim voters in East London who used our democracy to signal how much they loved Saddam Hussein's tyrrany by voting for Saddam's old chum George Galloway. Non-Muslim voters did not seem to care that they had been misled into supporting the war; perhaps they found it flattering that Blair thought them worth lying to?

Andrew Marr, the BBC's political editor, speculates this morning that Blair may now lack the majority he needs to force through further "police state" measures such as compulsory ID cards. That is a heartening thought, but rebellions by Government MP's tend to vary with the size of the majority. Given a more "normal" majority, the "rebels" are likely to lose the courage of their convictions and fall into line behind their Party.

For those of us who care about freedom, the sight of the smile on David Blunkett's face as his voters re-elected him was enough to spoil the day. He is the deadliest enemy of freedom in Britain and he's soon to be back in office. It's hardly unexpected, but it sticks in the throat nonetheless.