More good news for my friend Lorraine Fullbrook the candidate in South Ribble - one of our must win seats in the North West. Last year she managed the campaign that recorded 25 gains and left Labour with just 4 Councillors. The bad news for Labour appears to be continuing. Last week the Conservatives held a seat on Penwortham Town Council with 51.3% of the vote - against 25% for Labour - despite Labour calling the byelection! Now today I hear that with only 5 Wards up in the seat this May, the Conservatives have already had one Councillor returned unopposed because Labour couldn't find a candidate. Now if Labour can't find just 5 candidates to stand in a key Labour held marginal one has to ask just what a state they are in on the ground. I'm told this state of affairs is being repeated all over the country, especially in the North.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Labour Struggle to Find Council Candidates
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17 comments:
Penwortham TC is effectively a parish council, albeit a large one, but your point still stands. South Ribble has "all out" elections, so there will be none across the borough itself for 4 years...But Penwortham is not some Tory bastion, it has its share of social housing and working class strongholds.
The fact that SR is close to so many other safe Labour areas - Chorley, Preston - suggests change could be coming...
Meanwhile the Tories failed to put up candidates in TWO seats in Wareham Town and gave the Lib Dems control in a walkover. (LDV)
But more interesting to me is where Dr Vince Cable got the squaddie wages figures he has been spouting as they are completely and utterly wrong.
Strangely commenters at LDV are trying to change the subject on that one. Don't panic, don't panic.
If Dave does not sack the leader of Poole council for his attitude condoning the abuse of terrorist legislation, then Dave might find that he'll have trouble getting decent Conservatives to be candidates. After all, who wants to be associated with enforcing Labour's Stasi state?
The route to power is little by little and inch by inch. Every Labour councillor lost is one less activist to fight the Parliamentary seat for Labour and a smaller power base from which to do it,
The "Jewel in the Crown" will be London but the basis for the return of a Conservative Government to Westminster is built on gaining local councillors.
It also has the added bonus of causing dissent within the ranks of Labour and further de-moralises them. Once they lose faith in their ability to win the next General Election the dissent and re-criminations will increase. We've already seen some of it in the suggestions that "Senior Labour Backbenchers" will invite Brown to resign if the results are dire. All nonsense of course and let's face it we want him to remain.
They are already in financial straits and if people think they are going to lose the funds will dry up even more making it harder to fight an election particularly in the "marginals" that we need to win and where we are doing well.
Some confusion here because there are no elections to South Ribble Borough Council in May. The statement refers to the Penwortham Town Council, which is the almost powerless body which looks over the civil parish of Penwortham.
In 2007, when there were elections to the Borough council from Penwortham wards, Labour did not contest three of them - Howick and Priory, Broad Oak and Whitefield wards. In the 2003 borough elections, there were also no Labour candidates in either of these wards. There was not a full slate of Labour candidates in South Ribble in 1999 either.
This is perhaps not surprising as Penwortham is a wealthy suburb of Preston where Labour has never performed well in local elections.
After all they have to do is turn up - its not like they are going to get elected or anything ....
Labour are contesting more council seats than the Tories.
Preston is on the north bank of the Ribble and is case-hardened Labour. South Ribble - which takes in Leyland and some rural areas - is the definitive swing state. It is working class - but amongst the older people 1950s-style, deeply respectable working class.
It swung Tory in the Maggie years and is an area where the older voters don't like politically-correct, metropolitan policies.
Blair was OK for a while after the Tories blew-up, but the ramp-up in broken families, general bad behaviour and rising taxes has gone down like a lead balloon. They are also starting to think that the global warming panic is a tax-raising scam.
This coming election will split the country between the hard-working who are trying to the right thing, and everybody else.
That's why Balls' faith schools rant was so very wrong for regions like South Ribble. It may have played well with the editorial page of the Guardian, but it otherwise looked like removing one of the few hopes of social mobility for ordinary families trying to improve their children's future.
Mmmm, so this is little more than a residents' association in a wealthy suburb. What about Wareham Town Iain?
It is not within the power of the Leader of a Party to 'sack' a Council Leader.
So which Government introduced these vile snooper powers?
How about changing the headline to just Labour struggle?
Any thoughts that Labour lead councils are any better or worse than Tory lead councils or Lib Deb for that matter is an illusion anyway..They ALL behave like dictatorships once elected and ride roughshed over local views in any event.. This is from money making parking schemes to rubbish collection..
The total reform of local councils is long overdue and the national party that committs to it will get my vote.
This uncontested ward is Hesketh with Becconsall in the West Lancashire District area. More a reflection on West Lancs than South Ribble organisation, and probably a result of recent events there.
Where can I find an analysis (ideally by Council) of who is fighting what? I've trawled the Conservative Party web-site (which I must say is VERY unfriendly), I've tried Google ... Help!
According to the ST, Cyclops is stuffed.
Con: 44%
Lab: 28%
LD: nobody cares
It's time to start shoring the evil bastard up a bit so the useless tosser does indeed lead his rabble of spiteful yobs to defeat.
Then again, who else have they got apart from Snotgobbler?
I must stop reading the comments on Guido before posting here. The iterary style is catching.
Why should anyone if you're at risk of being stitched up by the Lib Dems and handed a criminal conviction? I was considering becoming a councillor last year before but talking to people in the party know about the Grell case has put me right off....
I think that this is quite accurate, but I don't think it to be a slight on Labour, I think it is a condemnation of politics as a whole.
I get accused of a war in Iraq,closing a post office, China, Shannon Mathews,parking tickets,closing a school (not opening up brand new one's) the state of the NHS (huh?), Tony Blair etc etc..
I am responsible for none of the above.
People are being turned off politics and the Tories may feel good about this, but as per usual, no answers.
I guess that Tories will bring respect back to local servants, who are paid below the min wage for cleaning up their own streets, but I've been around a long time now and I'll just say ok to that.
The press have had a field (24hr) day with politics as a whole and we are all liars, thieves and cheats. The presss, however, are the bastions of the truth and will defend that truth way before a forgoton apology is printed.
Yes Labour is struggling to field candidates and heaven knows what will happen in 2010 when a 50% AWS is demanded.
My prediction is a 50% shortage of candidates, mostly female.
Why be a politician, or a street soldier when no-one actually cares?
More to it that just a blog, Iain.
It's about society, community, decency and accpetance that there is actually someone out there, of either political slant who whishes to do something about it.
Gary
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