‘It’s Not Over,’ Says Labor Candidate

Someone has to lose Britain’s national election today, the governing Conservatives or the pollsters.

Tony Blair’s Labor Party ended the campaign with a fat lead in the polls, while Prime Minister John Major gamely struggled to convince voters there was still hope for his Conservatives.

“I understand why some people find the argument for change attractive,” Major said Wednesday at the start of a last day of dogged campaigning. “Eighteen years is a long time … and it’s easy to overlook the achievements.”

Blair told a rally in Stockton-on-Tees: “The pundits may have written this election off and said it’s all over, the media may say that, the Tories may have given up, but I tell you, this election is not over until it is over …”

At six weeks, it was the longest British campaign in memory. Major’s calculation was that Labor would crack under the pressure, and that a growing, low-inflation economy would spread cheer among wavering voters.

Throughout the campaign, however, the polls have shown a strong tide running against a Conservative Party that has won the last four elections and dramatically changed the British political landscape since Margaret Thatcher’s first win in 1979.