Local elections

14 May 2008

I would say that this year's local elections were very important for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it would show the present government, the wealth of feeling against their policies, particularly the dropping of the 10p tax rate, Iraq, fuel prices etc.,
Secondly, it would show just what the following actually is of the BNP, will they make the breakthrough and start the revolution some of their supporters predict? Or will they remain a non entity.
Thirdly, how will the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats fare from the election. Will people tactically vote?
As a student of politics, and a former election agent for a particular party, I always love the local elections. This one was no exception.
In my own locality there were three candidates, my next door neighbour who is a long standing Labour councillor, a liberal democrat and a conservative. In this particular ward the conservatives will get about 200 votes at the most, it will be a clear run between Labour and Lib Dem. However on the other side of town, we have a Lib Dem councillor of long standing, standing for re election, against her are an unknown labour person and a conservative. The conservatives will fare better here than in my half of town.
The result was as predicted, my next door neighbour was re elected on a smaller majority, and in the East, the lib dem councillor was re elected on a bigger majority. The breakthrough the lib dems needed to take over the council didn't happen. They lost a seat to labour. The BNP got more votes than the tory and lib dem in one ward, and more votes than the tories in another ward. Though they did not get the breakthrough they were wanting. Sensible people here in St Helens. Our council remains hung, with 21 labour, 19 lib dems and 4 tories. The lib dems and tories have run it for past two years. I also had an interest in Liverpool's results, which were disappointing for the liberal democrats, who lost control of the council, but remain the largest party. I hope they will get their act together and take this as a warning from Liverpudlians that they were not happy with the way they have run things, but thankfully it didn't go back to Labour. I would not wish on the good people of Liverpool, the labour council of Derek Hatton, that ruined a wonderful city, way back in the 80's. Knowsley, is and always will be labour, for years there was no opposition, but now a couple of lib dems have made a breakthrough onto the labour majority council. Warrington, another nearby town, remains no overall control, but it is good to see that once a labour stronghold, now has some lib dem influence, with a couple more years work, that council like St Helens could change hands. Wigan, too, we see a change from a labour stronghold, with a few liberal democrats now in opposition. Rochdale remained lib dem, and Bury, home of the black pudding, went tory.
It was basically a good night for the conservatives in many areas - which to my mind was inevitable. Labour are in mid term, and usually whoever is in government in mid term is unpopular. But many are writing labour off - i would say don't count your chickens. I think this has been a humbling experience for them. They have to listen to what people want, and this is only my opinion, they will remedy the things they have got wrong, and possibly win a general election, but not with the landslide of 1997.
People, again only in my opinion, particularly in my part of the world are very way of tories. Here we remember the closing of three collieries - parkside, bold and sutton manor, and the devastation that caused to our town. We are still, all these years later, trying to pick up the pieces from that. To be fair, the unions did play a part in the demise of the pits, but largely a meglomaniacal tory pm wanted to prove a point, and towns like ours suffered.
I don't think, well not in my lifetime, a tory would ever get elected here.
It was a mixed night for the liberal democrats, considering hardly anyone knows who their leader is, and all the unrest in that party since Charles Kennedy and then Menzies Campbell were ousted as leader, they didn't score too badly. They made some gains and retained many of their councils. This is a party which has come on leaps and bounds since the 1980's when they had no councils, few MP's and were never considered as serious contenders.
The BNP nationally did not make the inroads that many of their followers were predicting. The revolution was to begin on May 2nd - it didn't happen, which personally I didn't think it would. This has proved that people want to vote for the mainstream parties because they can rely upon them. However, those who voted bnp for whatever reason, may serve to give the government the wake up call it needs.
As someone who has taken part in elections, as a committee room agent, an election agent for a candidate, or as a candidate, I do know about elections, count, election offences etc., and I found it most amusing that the BNP, are saying that their votes were tampered with.
When voting is over the boxes are sealed and taken under escort to the count - in our case St Helens Town Hall. These boxes are opened there under the watchful eye of the returning officer, police officers, plus the people from the parties i.e. election agent, candidate and other party workers. These people do NOT touch the boxes or have any dealings with the counting, except to watch the count.
As these boxes are under police/security guard, how can they have been tampered with, and my question is, why only bnp votes tampered with. As no one knows who you vote for and all votes go into the same box, how could they be tampered with. And why did the candidate in the GLA election, not say to the returning officer in his speech that this had occured, but indeed thanked him and his staff for an efficient count. IMO it is sour grapes on the part of this party as they didn't gain their landslide. If they want to be taken seriously they should learn to abide by the rules.
I must have been very tired this year, or i'm getting old, but by 2a.m. i was asleep and for the first time in over 20 years did not stay to the end of the election night on the tv.
If, this election did nothing else, it certainly has made Labour sit up and listen. There was no massive revolution, the tories gained, labour lost. IMO the results were to be expected, the government now have to get together and see how they can improve, and certainly see how they can win the general election.

Comment from dannyjmu 15/05/08 22:23
New Labour actually bucked the national trend in my area. They performed quite well, mainly due to the widespread dissatisfaction of the Liberal Democrat Council, which was voted the worst performing council in some key policy areas. As it was, the Lib Dems held onto the Council after convincing an independent to join their ranks, giving them a majority of one.I believe New Labour would almost certainly have scored an even bigger victory if it had not been for the ridiculous and quite sickening decision taken by New Labour to replace the 10p tax rate with the single 20p rate, meaning poorer people were generally worse off. That helped the Liberal Democrats immensely.As for the Liberal Democrats, it was quite a bad night for them, losing a few seats. Personally I dont think they have been quite as bad as some people have made out, you have to remember my city was a mess when the Lib Dems came to power with massive debts and a poor infrastructure.The BNP actually performed moderately well, gaining a few thousand votes and a couple of second place finishes. I personally found this slightly worrying as my city has long been a bastion of leftist or left-leaning politics. It was probably more down to protest votes than outright support but nevertheless left me feeling slightly bewildered.All in all, New Labour certainly needs to buck its ideas up if it is to stand a chance in the forthcoming General Election. They need to reclaim their core support, alienated by the neo-liberal positions being taken up by the so-called party of the people. If not, I cannot see anything but a Conservative victory.