It is with immense pleasure that I can report that Andrea Kay is the new county councillor for Thornton Cleveleys North, defeating Labour’s Penny Martin by a sizeable 1740 to 1276. UKIP failed to make an impression, and the BNP were truly humbled, much to my delight. The much-fabled ‘Martin machine’ turned out to be more Professor Brainstawm than Large Hadron Collider. Andrea will be a superb County Councillor, as anyone who knows her will testify. County Hall in Preston had better start getting prepared!
It was a great night all round with Conservatives grabbing Lancashire so very convincingly.
And next? Well, bring on a General Election. Who knows when. Does Gordon? I think not. Will it be soon? I think not. The last possible moment is my guess. James Purnell made a courageous gesture, but no-one had the guts to follow him. Why would they face a General Election now when they can wait a year and hope something – anything – turns up. Political cowardice, and certainly not in the national interest.
Hazel Blears has also shown spirited defiance (if poor ethical judgement with regard to her finances). I hope she gets to make her resignation statement in the House. And I liked the touch of her wearing her ‘rocking the boat’ brooch. Feisty, certainly, and brings some colour to our politics, I suppose. And as for poor James Purnell, he now gets described by his enemies as ‘awkward’ and ‘unclubbable’ which presumably means he wouldn’t share pizza and a pint with Gordon’s bully boys. But at least he’s thoughtful, even if his thoughts head in the wrong direction – “an active state” hardly inspires me given its record over the last decade. Thoughtfulness in public life is much to be desired. Obama’s greatest achievement is, perhaps, to make intelligent analysis an acceptable part of political debate in the public space once again. It may take a while to filter over here, especially whilst the Prime Minister fiddles whilst Rome burns – what was he doing ringing up Simon Cowell to enquire after Susan Boyle’s health in such a momentous week?
Our real problem is that we no longer have a Government. Policy is non-existent, debate in the Commons meaningless as we drown in a sea of expenses scandals, tittle-tattle and rivalries amidst Government ministers and a Prime Ministerial vacuum. What are Labour for? I couldn’t tell you Gordon Brown’s vision any more than the increasingly odd First Secretary of State Lord Mandelson can. Is the answer really Lord Sugar? Is it really a form of PR that puts more hands in the power of political parties? At least with the current system, voters can say to their MP ‘You’re fired’ without them sneaking back in on some ‘loser’s list’. And as for ‘recall’ – can we really run a system where every MP spends 5 years looking over their shoulder as their opponents gather signatures slowly but surely from amongst the malcontents. How will that encourage MPs to take a more independent line?
Ourpublic life is in a sorry and devalued state. Our Government is doing nothing about it. We need a General Election for the sake of the country.
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June 7th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Paul you are wrong about fair voting. The Fylde Coast would make an ideal FIVE member constituency, elected by the single transferable vote system. As used for many years in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. In fact it was used this week in Ulster.
It would result in the best (most popular) candidates being elected. It would be easy for voters to remove MP’s that fiddled their expences, without voting against their favourite Party.
Voters select their order of preference 1 2 3 4 5 NOT the political PARTY boss’s.
This is the most important aspect, but the party still decides who the FIVE candidates are.
On the current trends it may mean the top 3 Conservatives would be elected, and just the 1 top Labour.
The fifth place could go to UKIP, Green, BNP or even shock horror the top Lib Dem. Would that be so bad?
Imagine no wasted votes, everyones vote could count, and FIVE MP’s all fighting to be the best at helping Victoria Hospital etc.