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Latest comment
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 | | Blair's new third way
May 8, Observer leader: Another term and genuine three-party politics should spell a radical change for the better under this Labour government.
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 | | The bittersweet victory
May 8, Andrew Rawnsley: Tony Blair is now liberated by not having to face the electorate again but much more constrained by his shrunken majority.
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 | | If the PM's really listening, he'll go
May 8, David Aaronovitch: Another move forward for Labour could be a step too far for the party leader.
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 | | One last chance to ensure world safety
May 8, Mary Riddell: How Tony Blair deals with Britain's nuclear future will indicate if he really is serious about listening more and being less aggressive.
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 | | Manifesto for a Conservative Britain
May 8, Malcolm Rifkind: The man who could be the next Tory leader says his party faces vital challenges if it is to rule again.
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 | | Of cults and conmen
May 8, Nick Cohen: Vanessa Redgrave's unblinking allegiance to a discredited leader offers a pointed and topical lesson.
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 | | What an unholy alliance
May 8, Richard Ingrams: An amalgam of a cowed BBC and a conniving Alastair Campbell has been truly unhealthy.
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 | | Blair must be an Attlee for a while
May 8, Tristam Hunt: It has always been part of the loftier, New Labour ambition to inaugurate a broader ideological realignment of British politics.
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| | Go for the power of 3
May 8, Sir Menzies Campbell: Across Britain on Friday, people woke up to the reality of three-party politics.
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 | | It's a bittersweet judgement
May 8, Will Hutton: Labour's reduced majority means it will need to practise co-operation and consensus. That is all to the good.
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| | Let the people choose a Tory chief
May 8, Stephan Shakespeare: Leaders who appeal to insiders don't appeal to voters.
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 | | Stand by for another regime change
May 8, William Keegan: In an ideal world, our Prime Minister would have recognised the folly of blindly following President Bush into Iraq on a false prospectus, and should have resigned before the election.
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Election fallout
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 | | No more dogma
May 7, Stephen Byers: Good Labour MPs have lost their seats and the majority has been reduced. Faced with this, it would be a big mistake to put up the "business as usual" sign.
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| | The problem for Gordon
May 7, Lynne Jones: This election has seen the loss of many Labour MPs of integrity. But as a result of our reduced majority, there will be much more opportunity for Labour backbenchers to exert influence over the government.
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 | | We must break with Thatcherism
May 7, Damian Green: The change of leadership is an ideal opportunity for us to take a deep breath, and consign Thatcherism to history. Her policy prescriptions were right for the 1980s, not the 21st century.
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| | We need to woo Tories too
May 7, Vincent Cable: We are now in a world of three-party politics. It is here to stay. To sustain the Lib Dem advance we must appeal to disillusioned and liberal-minded Conservatives.
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| | Anti-politics
May 7, Geoff Mulgan: The good news is that Labour won all the big arguments on domestic policy. The bad news is that antipolitics remains very strong. Modern electorates simply do not like governments.
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 | | How can 36% of the vote mean total power?
May 7, Jonathan Freedland: Blairite loyalists now fear a bonfire of New Labour plans.
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 | | Take a long hard look at yourself
May 7, Robin Cook: Tony Blair must listen to the voters and step down sooner rather than later.
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 | | Confusion and a father's unforgettable lament
May 7, Mark Lawson: It had been a tense night and, at 10.25am yesterday, Peter Snow finally lost control of his tenses.
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| | Listen and learn
May 7, Guardian leader: Mr Blair was very prudent to talk about listening to the people and learning from what they had said. It is the lasting tragedy of Mr Blair's career that he did not apply that principle earlier.
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| | Now for the hard part
May 7, Guardian leader: The Liberal Democrats have moved from a representative body for the celtic fringe and West Country to a national force almost as familiar in urban territory as rural areas.
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Simon Hoggart
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 | | We will listen. And focus. Relentlessly
May 7, Simon Hoggart: Tony Blair stood outside No 10 for the last time after an election victory (or is it really the last time? Has he now got five years to give Gordon Brown one final, magnificent shafting?)
06.05.05: When Margaret Thatcher came on board
05.05.05: Strange tales from the trail
04.05.05: Stan's the man
03.05.05: Bedside manners gladden the heart
02.05.05: Snarling polecat, Prince of Darkness
30.04.05: A hard shoulder to cry on
29.04.05: In the eye of the storm, it's blinking tricky
28.04.05: Working the magic in Kettering
27.04.05: Hague does the rounds again
26.04.05: Ken to the rescue
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The big decision
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| | Just 70
May 6, Joan Bakewell: On polling day I wanted to send a message to Blair. All I had to decide was who would be the postman ...
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| | A joyless victory
May 6, Guardian leader: As the results came in last night it became compellingly clear that enough voters were determined to switch from Labour to other parties.
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| | Pragmatism isn't easy
May 5, Jonathan Freedland: Usually it's wars that demand sacrifice - but elections make demands too.
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| | Make it happen
May 5, Timothy Garton Ash: If we vote intelligently today, we can assist the strange birth of liberal Britain.
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| | Use your vote today
May 5, Guardian leader: Not many of us will be sad to see the end of this joyless election campaign.
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 | | Our man in Blackburn
May 5, Craig Murray: I'm taken for an actor from Corrie and my canvasser is savaged by poodles. Thank heavens the big day has come.
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| | Wisdom's folly
May 5, Julian Baggini: Nor is the people's judgement always true, wrote John Dryden.
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| | Vote Draino
May 5, Terry Jones: There is only one party I could bring myself to support.
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Labour campaign
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 | | The magician who fell to earth
May 6, Jonathan Freedland: Lost among the long faces of Labour was this fact: a party which had never won two full terms in government yesterday won a third.
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 | | Tony Blair alone bears the blame
May 6, Polly Toynbee: The prime minister cannot long survive this election.
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 | | Not whether Brown takes over, but when
May 5, Jackie Ashley: Labour cannot afford to erode its base in the country any further.
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| | Ties that no longer bind
May 5, Faisal Bodi: A new generation of Muslims is breaking with Labour.
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| | Guardian leader: True grit
May 5, Guardian leader: The story that Tony Blair once claimed to have watched Jackie Milburn play football has been around for years - but it is a myth.
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 | | This is the work that drives us on
May 4, Gordon Brown: A third Conservative defeat will reshape Britain's ideological map.
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 | | Tony Blair's time is over
May 4, Polly Toynbee: The middle England magician has lost his touch and put the election at risk. He must go - and soon.
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| | Beyond the prism of race
May 4, Shamit Saggar and Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah: Labour cannot count on the votes of ethnic minorities this time.
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 | | No vote for a criminal
May 4, Roy Greenslade: I am not prepared to vote for the party that maintains as its leader a man who took us to war on what was the flimsiest of intelligence and the most equivocal of legal advice.
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 | | A relative defeat will strengthen Blairism
May 3, Martin Kettle: Loss of seats will not lead to the adoption of a more leftwing approach.
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| | It won't be the names that matter
May 3, Jonathan Freedland: How this Friday's reshuffle is managed will be just as important.
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 | | These are Blair's last days
May 3, George Galloway: Iraq is our greatest foreign policy calamity in modern history and the reckoning has only just begun.
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| | Impressive - so far
May 2, Guardian leader: As Labour enters the final days of its campaign, it can be quietly satisfied that its record for economic competence is intact, even though it has not dislodged Iraq as the key issue.
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 | | Playing the loyalty card
May 2, Gary Younge: Faced with defection over Iraq and a falling turnout, Labour blames the electorate rather than its own policies.
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| | Labour is the right choice
May 1, Observer leader: Iraq may have been divisive, but only one party is fully committed to social justice.
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| | Don't believe the lies about 'lies'
May 1, David Aaronovitch: The electorate might want to bloody Tony Blair's nose, but that would be to ignore the government's many achievements.
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| | Blair has reached his sell-by date
May 1, Henry Porter: Labour may offer the widest range of brands, but consumers should take their custom elsewhere.
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| | Don't take us for granted
April 29, Anas Altikriti: The Muslim vote could be decisive in 40 constituencies.
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 | | Where's Blair? Why, he's on Richard and Judy
April 29: Daytime TV is surely where voters can see Tony Blair at his Churchillian best, says Marina Hyde.
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| | On the bus to Damascus with Blair's greatest asset
April 28, Jackie Ashley: A guerrilla campaign is reminding women of Labour's real successes.
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 | | We don't care who's in your fan club, Tony
April 28, Catherine Bennett: Since it has only a few more days to run, may I recommend, to anyone who has yet to enjoy it, Mr Blair's online election diary?
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| | Don't hold your nose, follow it
April 28, Francis Beckett: I have been tribal Labour since the 1960s - but I can't vote for a party that has abandoned our core beliefs.
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| | Insider's outing
April 27, James Humphreys, a former Defra official and No 10 adviser, on how New Labour's failure to address the environmental agenda has prompted him to stand for the Greens on May 5.
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 | | How to win the school-gate vote
April 26: Labour should ditch the gimmicks if it really wants to win over those of us at the school gate, says Fiona Millar.
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| | Something for everyone
April 23, Jonathan Freedland: 'Hard-working families': three words that tick many boxes.
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| | My time in the engine room
April 23, Geoff Mulgan: Seven years inside No 10 teaches you a lot about the nature of power.
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| | Hands off the organic man
April 22, Mark Choueke: John Prescott called me an 'amateur' and told me to 'bugger off'. I think he's greatly improved my career prospects.
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Conservative campaign
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| | The Tories' Michael Foot
May 6, Max Hastings: The Conservatives entered this campaign as underdogs. They left it as an endangered species.
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 | | Laugh? I almost voted Tory
May 6, John O'Farrell: I agreed to help out the Labour campaign with a few jokes and ended up sharing a stage with Bill Clinton.
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| | Servile and deeply unpatriotic
May 5, Geoffrey Wheatcroft: The Tories need to rethink the US alliance and speak for England.
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| | This malignant appeal
May 4, Paul Keating: Howard is not fit to inherit Churchill's moral legacy.
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| | Better to back the Monster Raving Loonies
April 30, Edmond Warner: There can surely be few more unedifying sights than a business leader's signature at the bottom of a round robin letter in support of a political party.
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| | Humanity's core principle is not safe in their hands
April 30, Geoffrey Robertson: If elected, Michael Howard would tear up the refugee convention.
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| | The master of the dog whistle
April 27, Cheryl Kernot: Lynton Crosby's negative tactics for the Tory campaign represent a serious threat to British democracy.
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| | It is racist to target the bigot's vote
April 26, Herman Ouseley: Media and politicians have created a hysteria without regard for truth.
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| | Howard's one-way street
April 24, Nick Cohen: Race has always played a large part in Tory politics... but now it's the only item on the party's agenda
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| | It's Tory ideals that will win it
April 24, Sir Malcolm Rifkind: It's Tory ideals that will win it
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Ending apathy
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| | We dodged the real issue
May 6, Jeremy Seabrook: It is often claimed that electoral apathy in the western democracies comes from the absence of any big issue separating mainstream parties.
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Iraq
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| | Our military won't find itself guilty
May 6, Phil Shiner: Evidence of a British torture policy has been systematically ignored.
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| | What they'll say on May 6
April 30, Jonathan Freedland: Abroad, a Blair win will be seen as a thumbs-up for war, but not here.
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| | We know the war wouldn't stand up in court
April 29, Robin Cook: The cabinet must never again take a major decision without crucial advice.
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| | A creature of ego and self-righteousness
April 29, Henry Porter: Tony Blair has been contemptuous of parliament, and has no respect for procedure or consultation.
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| | Deceived into voting for invasion
April 29, William Goodhart: The attorney general must explain why his advice changed - or resign.
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| | Now there's no chance of moving on
April 28, Jonathan Freedland: The timing of the leaked legal advice couldn't be worse for Blair.
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| | Angry Labour voters don't care about social justice
April 27, Polly Toynbee: It is a kind of decadence to make the war in Iraq the deciding factor.
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| | This is our Guernica
April 27, Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail: Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality.
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| | Still Labour, despite Iraq
April 26, Richard Attenborough: I would ask those who might be thinking of voting for another party to reflect on who would suffer if Labour fails to win its third term.
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| | The prime minister is a war criminal
April 26, Richard Gott: Like Chamberlain in the 30s, Blair is an appeaser of a dangerous global power. He should be in prison, not standing for election.
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 | | Blair's evasions will catch up with him
April 25, Richard Norton-Taylor: We've had enough of the prime minister's half-truths on Iraq. Let us see his legal advice in full.
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Climax to the campaign
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| | Lest we forget
May 5: Tom Mitchelson on the highs and lows of the campaign, from Minghella's Tony and Gordon love story to Kilroy Silk getting lost.
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 | | The week the first ladies went mad
May 5: Hadley Freeman assesses the extraordinary recent antics of leaders' wives.
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| | Once more with feeling
May 3, Guardian leader: The 2005 general election campaign has been a defective democratic event in many ways. What to do on Thursday? Let's be honest: it is difficult.
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 | | Exploitation dressed up as compassion
May 2, Roy Hattersley: The dishonesty in this campaign shows a contempt for real politics.
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| | Bluffer's guide to winning
May 1: As the campaign pants to a bizarre climax, all the parties are talking themselves down and their opponents up, writes Andrew Rawnsley.
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 | | Lies, lawyers and shouting your head off
May 1, Peter Preston: In the final throes of democracy's great debate, philosophers and media consumers grappled with eternal questions.
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Nuclear arms
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| | Nuclear options
May 4, Guardian leader: With an estimated 30,000 weapons capable of destroying the planet several times over there is no room for complacency as the NPT review conference gets under way
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Climate change
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| | We seem to be forgetting the big issue
May 3, David Aaronovitch: The elephant in the room isn't Iraq, it's climate change. Why aren't we talking about it?
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 | | Unearthly silence
May 2, Caroline Lucas: Climate change poses a greater threat than terrorism, yet it has barely registered as an election issue.
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Public services
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 | | Social injustice awaits new government
May 4: Tomorrow's new government has much work still to do, says Malcolm Dean.
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 | | Electioneering damages debate
May 3, Ted Wragg marvels at the standard of public debate on education in the election campaign.
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| | Manifestos hint greater policy priority for FE
May 3, John Brennan sets out what colleges want in the next parliament - and what they can expect to get.
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Lib Dems campaign
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| | The Insider
May 4: Our team of experts who have run campaigns from the inside analyse the latest moves and battle plans. Today Olly Grender on Labour attacks on Lib Dems and the defection claims.
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 | | Kennedy can still exploit this perfect political storm
April 26, Martin Kettle: In 2009 the Liberal Democrats could even inherit the Blairite coalition.
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| | The Insider
April 20, Olly Grender: This is a tale of two elections. In one the Lib Dems have suffered a disastrous gaffe on manifesto launch day, overstretched a 'knackered' party leader and are flatlining in the polls.
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 | | Where is the sound of gunfire?
April 18, Peter Preston: Charlie Kennedy is not the man to make a historic breakthrough.
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 | | This edgy volatility will usher in a three-party era
April 4, Charles Kennedy: Iraq has dismayed voters, and two-party politics disgusts them
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Other comment
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| | Rooney beats Blunkett as a role model
May 5, Catherine Bennett: The search is on for a role model to replace Wayne Rooney, who is now considered too disreputable to appear as the star attraction at a schoolboy football tournament.
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Ask Aristotle
