Politics are changing
It has been a while but with all the events going on at home and across in France I felt that I had to make a comment.
Starting at home. This week saw heavy losses for both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the local council elections and some great gains for Labour. In fact Labour took over 800 seats when their target was 300 and gained control of 32 councils including important areas such as Southampton and Birmingham. The Lib Dems saw their number of seats drop nationally to below 3000 for the first time since c.1988 and the Tories lost around 400 seats nationally as well. Even in my area Labour added a seat to the one gained last year and support seems to be up generally.
With this news comes a warning though. For a start the national turn out was just around 32%. This is one of the lowest on record and may highlight a number of issues. For a start it could show that people are fed up with mainstream politics and for lack of an alternative decided not to vote. It could be that people don't care as much about local politics as they do national politics and so didn't see the point in voting. It could simply be down the the rubbish weather we have been having! The other issue is that the people who did vote will have used a protest vote against the Tories and the Lib Dems to show they are unhappy with the coalition. This gives them time to turn things around as there is not scheduled to be a general election until 2015. The other issue that all the main parties have is that their leaders are not as popular as their parties. A lot of people would vote Labour but have said that they don't see Ed Miliband as an effective leader. A lot of people said they would vote Lib Dem but after the coalition they do not trust Nick Clegg (and in fact the support from 2010 floating voters has almost entirely disappeared). The Conservatives are still relatively popular amongst their core supporters but again these people are not particularly fond of the Prime Minister, David Cameron. It doesn't help that many people on the street think Ed Miliband is his brother David Miliband when shown a picture, or that close your eyes and you could easily mistake Nick Clegg for David Cameron (and vice versa).
Of course looking at this from another point of view, Labour have done immensely well and far better than predicted (or David Cameron would have liked). Of course they now need to build on this and take this forward to a national level. Several polls recently would have put Labour at a majority of around 68 at the next election. What Ed Miliband needs to do is come out and support the unions (the people who put him where he is) and ordinary working people. He needs to show that he is not afraid to speak his mind and come up against David Cameron in the Commons. He needs clear cut policy and to be brutally honest. This will gain him the respect he needs.
Over to France...Yesterday they held the final rounds of their presidential election. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande prevented Nicolas Sarkozy from having a second term (the first president since 1981 to have this happen). The French people simply got fed up with the Centre Right politics that have dominated in recent years. They see that this is the cause of all their economic problems and lack of jobs along with changes to workers rights over the years and they have made a stand. Hollande gained just under 52% of the vote to become the new French President. This, like it or not, will affect British politics as our relationship with France must change as a matter of course of having a new president. As a socialist Hollande will be an interesting partner for our right of centre government to deal with. I look forward to how this relationship plays out both domestically and in the wider arena of the European Union.
All this shows an underlying want, both here and in France, to allow a socialist agenda to make its way in. People are fed up of the leaders they see in the corporate pocket and want to stand against what they see. They have come around to the idea that left of centre politics, or full on socialism, means jobs, economic stability and fairness for the majority. Here the rich will be thousands of pounds better off since the 50p rate was axed and yet the poorest will be that much poorer since loosing tax credits. It is time we followed France's lead and worked out what is actually best for our country. I somehow don't think it is this double dip recession we seem to have found ourselves in...
Starting at home. This week saw heavy losses for both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the local council elections and some great gains for Labour. In fact Labour took over 800 seats when their target was 300 and gained control of 32 councils including important areas such as Southampton and Birmingham. The Lib Dems saw their number of seats drop nationally to below 3000 for the first time since c.1988 and the Tories lost around 400 seats nationally as well. Even in my area Labour added a seat to the one gained last year and support seems to be up generally.
With this news comes a warning though. For a start the national turn out was just around 32%. This is one of the lowest on record and may highlight a number of issues. For a start it could show that people are fed up with mainstream politics and for lack of an alternative decided not to vote. It could be that people don't care as much about local politics as they do national politics and so didn't see the point in voting. It could simply be down the the rubbish weather we have been having! The other issue is that the people who did vote will have used a protest vote against the Tories and the Lib Dems to show they are unhappy with the coalition. This gives them time to turn things around as there is not scheduled to be a general election until 2015. The other issue that all the main parties have is that their leaders are not as popular as their parties. A lot of people would vote Labour but have said that they don't see Ed Miliband as an effective leader. A lot of people said they would vote Lib Dem but after the coalition they do not trust Nick Clegg (and in fact the support from 2010 floating voters has almost entirely disappeared). The Conservatives are still relatively popular amongst their core supporters but again these people are not particularly fond of the Prime Minister, David Cameron. It doesn't help that many people on the street think Ed Miliband is his brother David Miliband when shown a picture, or that close your eyes and you could easily mistake Nick Clegg for David Cameron (and vice versa).
Of course looking at this from another point of view, Labour have done immensely well and far better than predicted (or David Cameron would have liked). Of course they now need to build on this and take this forward to a national level. Several polls recently would have put Labour at a majority of around 68 at the next election. What Ed Miliband needs to do is come out and support the unions (the people who put him where he is) and ordinary working people. He needs to show that he is not afraid to speak his mind and come up against David Cameron in the Commons. He needs clear cut policy and to be brutally honest. This will gain him the respect he needs.
Over to France...Yesterday they held the final rounds of their presidential election. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande prevented Nicolas Sarkozy from having a second term (the first president since 1981 to have this happen). The French people simply got fed up with the Centre Right politics that have dominated in recent years. They see that this is the cause of all their economic problems and lack of jobs along with changes to workers rights over the years and they have made a stand. Hollande gained just under 52% of the vote to become the new French President. This, like it or not, will affect British politics as our relationship with France must change as a matter of course of having a new president. As a socialist Hollande will be an interesting partner for our right of centre government to deal with. I look forward to how this relationship plays out both domestically and in the wider arena of the European Union.
All this shows an underlying want, both here and in France, to allow a socialist agenda to make its way in. People are fed up of the leaders they see in the corporate pocket and want to stand against what they see. They have come around to the idea that left of centre politics, or full on socialism, means jobs, economic stability and fairness for the majority. Here the rich will be thousands of pounds better off since the 50p rate was axed and yet the poorest will be that much poorer since loosing tax credits. It is time we followed France's lead and worked out what is actually best for our country. I somehow don't think it is this double dip recession we seem to have found ourselves in...
Comments
Post a Comment