The results of the recent local elections, where Labour added a few councillors but crucially lost control of more councils than they gained, led me ponder just what makes a party electable.
I concluded that we are still operating in the shadow of two powerful Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
Mrs Thatcher came to office at a time of “managed decline”, under which the policies of both red and blue governments since the war had failed.
The Thatcher governments had no alternative but to apply monetarist policies that were needed to tackle the Great Inflation of the 1970s, and our restructured economy now competes with the best the World can offer.
Failing to increase social capital, her unpopularity increased.
The Blair government inherited a “golden” economy, expanding at a sprightly pace, from the Conservatives but spent its bounty attempting to buy popularity.
When the Great Labour Recession hit in 2008, they found that they had massively overspent.
The incoming Conservative/Lib Dem coalition was forced to rein in spending, again increasing their unpopularity.
Life, for a Conservative, sometimes just isn’t fair!
The Labour Party in Brighton and Hove has been claiming that the local elections next year will bring them massive gains and must have been stunned last week when hard-left policies promised across several councils did not produce the predicted Labour surge.
They must now surely see that the Conservative Party has been successful by opting for common sense policies and not through dogmatic social experimentation mixed with extravagant spending promises.
Labour should also now appreciate that, no matter what the media might say, the majority of you reading this will, in all likelihood, believe that although you sympathise with many Conservative policies, yet believe “nobody else does”.
I write here to confirm, however, that you are not alone: you are in good company.
Most reasonable people were desperate for the Conservatives to recover their “mojo” and take the fight to Jeremy Corbyn: the most unsuitable person to have ever been one election from being Prime Minister.
Last week we witnessed the start of that fight back.
Councillor Tony Janio is leader of the opposition Conservative group on Brighton and Hove City Council.
All very well fot Cllr Janio to say the fightback has begun.Unfortunately for constituents the Major Political Parties seem to be spending most of their time fighting amongst themselves.As for the local Conservative Party you let Geoffrey hold the reins for too long.I was a former Conservative voter for 40 years but wouldn’t give any of you the time of day now.
Unfortunately the Conservatives are also the party that brought us a totally unnecessary Brexit referendum (remember David Cameron trying to see off UKIP and his own right-wingers?), a referendum result which has split this country down the middle.
Yes they are of course more fiscally responsible than the Labour party, which always spends money like a drunken sailor on shore leave, but at what ultimate cost to the United Kingdom.
A big chunk of the Labour Party want out of Europe as well. If naval gazing Corbyn would have been more vociferous during the campaign then perhaps a majority of the public would have voted remain. As for me? I am a remainder …. Conservative. However, the public voted OUT. It’s called democracy. Sometimes being a democratic country doesn’t give us the results we want!
The Tories have been in power for eight years and now the fightback has begun ? It doesn’t make sense surely we should be living in another golden age by now. Instead we’re still paying off £2 trillion lost by their banker friends, have had years of anti-immigrant propaganda and taking away our rights and freedoms to live in 27 other countries. Thanks Tony
It’s a tough call locally between a rather wishy-washy Labour lot, who have just ejected their leader even though the party has done an ok job, and the Tories, who seem to be dominated by the big mouth know-nothing sort of boys you used to get in the school playground and propping up golf club bars.
Who’s got a vision for the city? Who sees the bigger picture and can pitch a reasoned and reasonable set of priorities to us voters? Who can provide the leadership as we look ‘up’ to our post-Brexit Government and ‘down’ (not patronisingly) to small businesses, community groups and individual voters.
When I think about the over-zealous enforcement of parking and the dropping of fag butts vs the way other things drift, it gives me an idea of the scale of the ‘cultural challenge’.
Our neglected, potholed roads could prove lethal to cyclists, motorcylicts or even pedestrians at any time. A better schedule of repairs would reduce the risk of money wasted on litigation.
This is a council that always thinks it knows best, but it doesn’t. And where housing and social care staff lord it over the weak and dispossessed because they can. Almost every interaction I have with the council leaves me disappointed.
But I’m not sure it will be any better if the Tories win (although I’ve yet to see or hear anything from them to persuade me they’ve got ideas and want my vote).