Labor sweeps U.K. elections
LABOR from page 1
servatives were battered by divisions
over Britain’s future role in Europe
and a widespread sense they had sim
ply been around too long.
Blair and his party fought a disci
plined, slick six-week campaign from
the political center after dumping a
raft of socialist policies and adopting
the Conservatives’ pro-business and
low-tax policies.
“We’ve got to get these Tories
(Conservatives) out,” said publisher
Ian Walden, who voted in the com
fortable market town of Saffron
Walden, 35 miles from London.
Police searched Britain’s 45,000
polling stations following bomb
hoaxes and small explosions by the
Irish Republican Army during the
campaign. Armed officers stood by as
Blair voted near his home in Trimdon,
235 miles from London.
He smiled broadly, saying, “It de
pends on the people.”
In Northern Ireland, which will
have 18 seats in the Commons, a se
ries of bomb threats — believed to
come from pro-British paramilitaries
— closed roads and disrupted traffic
in Belfast.
Across Britain, voters turned out
steadily in brilliant sunshine, and of
ficials predicted a traditionally heavy
turnout. In 1992, the turnout was 78
percent.
Nearly 44 million people were eli
gible to vote, and more than 3,700
candidates ran. A party needs 330
seats for a parliamentary majority to
form the next government.
With most official results due early
today, Major, 54, could be out of his
official Downing Street residence by
the end of the day.
Blair would be the youngest prime
minister since the 42-year-old Lord
Liverpool in 1812. Blair and his wife
Cherie, a lawyer, have three children.
The new Parliament convenes
Wednesday, and the government will
lay out its program a week later in a
speech read by Queen Elizabeth II.
Labor started dumping a raft of
socialist policies in 1983. And, since
Blair became leader in 1994, no La
bor tenet has been sacred. He has
adopted the Tories’ pro-business and
low-tax policies, and its wait-and-see
line on joining a single European cur
rency.
Blair concentrated on reassuring
the key voters — middle-class and
skilled blue-collar waverers — that
Labor has dropped its old high-tax
ways.
For Major, trailing in polls for
nearly three years, things got worse.
Conservative divisions over closer
European integration erupted with
more than 200 Tory candidates flatly
rejecting a single European currency.
And many Britons refused to credit
the Conservatives with Britain’s good
economic performance—remember
ing instead two recessions since 1979
and broken tax pledges by Major.
Despite Labor promises to keep
Conservative spending plans for two
years, most voters believed health and
education services will improve under
Blair.
Major made Labor’s plan for a
Scottish parliament a big issue, say
ing it will shatter the United Kingdom.
But English voters, the majority, ap
peared largely indifferent.
Graduation speakers announced
By Amy Keller
Staff Reporter
By graduation day, seniors may
think they’ve gained all the wisdom
possible from their undergraduate in
structors, but this year’s graduates will
have one last chance to hear from a
professor.
On May 10 at 9:30 a.m., Harvard
Professor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer
Professor of Christian Morals and
minister of the Memorial Church at
Harvard University, will give the key
note speech to about 1,800 graduat
ing students at the UNL commence
ment ceremony.
Gomes, an American Baptist min
ister, has been asked to speak at events
across the nation. He teaches on sub
jects like worship, church music, the
ancient Christian church’s history and
history of the black American experi
ence.
Author of “The Good Book: Read
ing the Bible with Mind and Heart,”
Gomes is also an advisory editor for
“Pulpit Digest” and a member of the
advisory board for “The Living Pul
pit.”
Gomes also has written and pub
lished a number of articles and papers
and presented speeches throughout the
United States and England.
Herb Howe, associate to the chan
cellor, said that having Gomes speak
will be “a wonderful opportunity for
the campus to hear one of the great
social thinkers of our day.”
Also at the May 10 commence
ment, Henry Munger, professor emeri
tus of plant breeding at Cornell Uni
versity, will receive an honorary doc
tor of science degree.
Munger is one of the major veg
etable breeders of the century and he
has produced more than 70 varieties
of vegetables and breeding lines in
nine crops.
Brawl breaks out at party
on West Virginia campus
End-of-year celebration
tumed-fight results in at
least three injuries.
MONTGOMERY, W.Va. (AP) — An end
of-the-school-year party turned into a brawl that
injured at least three people early today near
West Virginia University Tech’s campus, po
lice said. Several citations were issued.
The fight began about 11 p.m. and it took
police several hours to clear the area, said James
F. Higgins Jr., the city’s mayor and acting po
lice chief.
Higgins said about 25 students at a frater
nity party and up to 20 young townspeople
across the street exchanged insults, and fights
broke out.
“Most of it was words. When we got enough
officers, they shut it down and sent everybody
inside and that was the end of it,” Higgins said.
Police from at least seven communities were
summoned, a police spokesman said.
Two people were treated for minor injuries
at Montgomery General Hospital and released.
A third, a student, was held for observation
Thursday. A hospital spokesman said he did
not know the extent of the student’s injuries.
Higgins said several people were cited for
disorderly conduct, public intoxication and
underage drinking. No arrests were made, he
said.
Officers planned to meet with Fayette
County prosecutors to discuss whether addi
tional charges would be brought, Higgins said.
Warner fund to support
Dolitical sciences at NU
M.
WARNER from page 1
each year. Some conferences require travel to
foreign countries, he said, which can cost a lot.
Current funding from the department and the
university are not adequate, he said, but the
travel is important.
“It’s something you need to do to keep up
with your field,” Forsythe said.
Theresa Klein, director of communications
at the NU Foundation, said the original amount
of $10,845 was given to the foundation from
the Warner Family Fund.
Because the donation is in an endowed fund,
Klein said, the money will be invested, and part
of it will be available to political science de
partments at UNL, the University of Nebraska
at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at
Kearney next spring.
Klein said the fimd is still growing as more
donations are collected. At Warner’s funeral,
his family asked that donations in Warner’s
name be given to the NU Foundation. As of
April 25, the Warner Family Fund had $11,430,
Klein said, and the amount was still growing.
“There’s probably still a significant amount
coming in,” Klein said. “Senator Warner
touched a lot of people.”
Klein said the committee of chairmen of
political science will determine who receives
the money once the foundation has determined
the amount to be taken from the fund.
Bill Swanson, longtime friend and associ
ate of Warner, served as treasurer of Warner’s
1996 re-election campaign. He oversaw the left
over campaign money that Warner donated.
State statutes allowed Warner to give the
money to a good cause, Swanson said, and
Warner felt the^NU Foundation was a good
place for the money to go.
“He had a great love for the University of
Nebraska,” Swanson said.
280
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