3 may 2007: judgement day for blair & brown

clansmanchrisFri 11/05/07 07:31

On 3 May the electorate of England, Scotland and Wales spoke in large numbers and, after judging New Labour's track record, told both outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair and his incoming successor Gordon Brown in no uncertain terms 'Catch Yerself On: You're Not Wanted: Go Away'!

In England, where almost 10,500 council seats were up for grabs, Labour lost 505 seats, the Liberal Democrats lost 246 seats, other parties and independents lost 1,012 seats, but the Conservatives gained 911 seats. In the Pembury Ward of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council which I unsuccessfully contested for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), June Crowhurst (the Conservative Candidate) came first with 955 votes, taking the seat from the Liberal Democrats who came second with 687 votes – despite Lorraine Braam (the Liberal Democrat candidate) being a Former Leader of the Council – followed by your's truly who came last with 118 votes (five votes short of tripling UKIP's vote from when my good friend Vic Webb first contested Pembury for UKIP in a borough council by-election on 30 June 2005), as Labour did not bother to field a candidate; the electoral turnout in Pembury was 39.7%.

In Scotland, where 129 Scottish Parliamentary seats and just over 1,200 council seats were being contested, Labour lost 4 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and 161 councillors, the Liberal Democrats lost 1 MSP and 9 councillors, the Conservatives lost 1 MSP but gained 21 councillors, other parties and independents (other than the Scottish National Party) lost 14 MSPs and 37 councillors respectively, as the Scottish National Party (SNP) simultaneously gained 20 MSPs and 182 councillors.

In Wales, where 60 Welsh Assembly seats but no local authority seats were being contested, Labour lost 4 Assembly Members (AMs) whilst Plaid Cmyru gained 3 AMs and the Conservatives gained one AM.

For the record, there were no elections in Northern Ireland either to elect local councillors or Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly otherwise known as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).

Of course, it is not uncommon for the electorate to vote differently in local government elections to that which they would vote in a general election, particularly halfway through the lifetime of a parliament, but the real blow to Blair and Brown – and primary cause for concern for those of us who cherish the maintenance of the Union of the United Kingdom – was in Scotland when, two days after the 300th Anniversary of the 1707 Treaty of Union coming into being and the tenth anniversary of Tony Blair first being returned as Prime Minister, the separatist SNP was narrowly returned as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, prompting renewed speculation as to how much longer the Union of the United Kingdom will remain intact.

Whilst it has to be said that, to quote Ian Wilson (Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland), 'the people of Scotland are looking for an alternative government at Holyrood not a ticket out of the United Kingdom, the vast majority of Scots are more concerned about the quality of government over bread-and-butter issues like education and health than with dreams of independence', there can be no grounds for complacency in the need to step up the fight to maintain the Union between England and Scotland to avert any further diminution of the ties between these two members of the Kingdom if the Union which joins all four component parts of the United Kingdom together is to be conserved for future generations.

That said, the sheer size of Labour's defeat – particularly in its traditional heartlands of Northern England, the English Metropolitan Boroughs, Scotland and Wales – should not be simply written off as a 'one-off ' protest vote at outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown, but growing disillusionment and genuine frustration right across the country with the whole direction which New Labour is taking the UK as a whole, on a wide range of issues from involvement in the war against Iraq to dissatisfaction with Labour's mismanagement of the economy at home.

Amidst post-election introspection by the leadership, officers and members of all political parties following the elections on 3 May, one urges one and all to be consider:-

(i). the impact of population change (particularly recent immigration into the United Kingdom and/or migration of indigenous voters within the UK) has on each party's share of the vote;

(ii). what changes (if any) need to be made to the voting system to return local councillors across the UK
and/or AMs, MLAs or MSPs – not least in view of the use of a form of proportional representation to elect AMs in Wales , MLAs in Northern Ireland and MSPs in Scotland, and councillors in Scotland and Northern Ireland, not currently used to elect members of local authorities in England and Wales – and the advantages/disadvantages of electing local authorities in thirds every fourth year in rotation (as is the case with several unitary authorities and some borough councils in England) or in their entirety on the same day every four years (which applies to the remainder of English borough councils and unitary authorities, English county councils and all local authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland);

(iii). the effect which the centralisation of local authority powers and responsibilities in the hands of civil servants, quango and Government Ministers have had on the ever-decreasing turnout of voters in many council elections over the past three or four decades;

(iv). the impact which the alternative methods of controlling local authorities (i.e., directly-elected mayors with executive powers, Cabinet-style administration by the largest party on a council and Committee-style administration wherein all parties share executive positions in proportion to their elected strengths within the council) has on electoral support for each party on a specific council and the overall turnout of electors;

(v). what changes (if any) need to be made to the
financing, powers and responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament/Welsh Assembly/Northern Ireland Assembly;

(vi). whether England now needs to have either its own parliament (with analogous powers to the Scottish Parliament) or elected regional assemblies (with similar powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly/Welsh Assembly) to redress the purported 'constitutional imbalance' within the United Kingdom;

(vii). what changes (if any) need to be made to the structure, financing, powers and responsibilities of local authorities; and

(viii). what else can be done to reverse electoral apathy and end the impotence of local authorities if accountable democracy is not to be permanently destroyed.

There can be little doubt in my mind of the need for the United Kingdom to (i). withdraw from the European Union; (ii). exercise stringent control over immigration into the United Kingdom; and (iii). secure greater independence from the Whitehall Mafia, by devolving greater powers and responsibilities to local authorities across the UK, to make government good and local.

chutzpahFri 11/05/07 07:37

Your last paragraph is a total non-sequitur compared to the rest of your posting.