By this time next week, we will know the outcome of most of the local elections scheduled to be held on Thursday. These elections will principally involving county councils and the so-called 'unitary authorities' and will give some indication as to the current mood and thinking of the electorate.
Opinion polls tell us that Labour are some distance ahead of the Conservatives, while Ukip is nip-and-tuck with the Liberal Democrats, though a long way behind the 2 main parties. However, opinion polls are not always reliable and, in any case, these are local elections and will not change very much at all; consequently, turnouts will be low and people may decide to vote rather differently from the way they would vote in a general election.
For myself, I've voted at most of the elections held over the last 40 years or so and, frankly, have had more than enough of the time-serving and self-serving career politicians with whom we've been saddled for most of this period. Liberal, Labour or Tory - take your pick, they're all social democrats with barely a cigarette paper between them. None of them has the balls to make the serious and effective changes that are needed in order to bring the 'Great' back into 'Great Britain' and the only leader who did in recent times, Margaret Thatcher, is vilified by many including those who have no idea as to what she actually did.
I doubt very much that Ukip would do any better but they can hardly do any worse. Ever since Mrs Thatcher left office, things have deteriorated; slowly under the government of John Major and increasingly rapidly under the disastrous administrations of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. We are now in such a mess that the current coalition government has no real idea of what to do or, if it does, it's terrified of doing it for fear of ruining its chances at the 2015 general election. In fact, the position is even worse as the Conservative side of the coalition is hog-tied by their Liberal partners and unable to do most of what they would probably like to do, if they had the courage.
My area, which has a Conservative county council and Liberal district council is a disaster; neither side of this equation seems to have been of any use for as many years as anyone can remember. Actually, the Liberals have failed in their primary aim of developing the local town, even though plans have been on the table repeatedly over 3 or 4 decades; consequently, the town is now dying on its feet while there is massive housebuilding everywhere, with resulting traffic congestion as the roads simply can't cope with the additional bodies, cars, and lorries.
Whether or not they have any chance or will make any difference, I'll be voting Ukip, partly as a protest against the others and partly because the others have simply failed to deliver anything useful or positive for years. I'll also be voting Ukip in next year's European elections and also in the 2015 general election and I'd like to think that I won't be alone in following this path. Here's hoping.
The upcoming local elections are likely to see a very low turnout, as, despite the fake promise of "localism", which remained an empty word, all we got was Austerity.
ReplyDeleteFor a pragmatic view of Britain's economic problems we need to be open and frank and face the facts. As for the solutions needed to achieve a prosperous future, we need pragmatic ideas.
Don't expect any pragmatic ideas from the Coalition or from Labour.
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