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PIN PoisT ACCURACY GOLF was! wITH Neil Murray Despite the many attacks meted out on working people since last year's General election, local election results on May 7 in general confirmed Labour's hold on local government and continuing popularity among voters.
Blair will undoubtedly be pleased that May continues to be a month of celebration for him.
The low turn out can be put down to several factors. As the powers of local government diminish more and more, fewer and fewer voters see much point in turning out to vote. Central government determines more and more what local government can do and its spending powers, so the cynical don't see much point in voting.
While Labour's proportion of the vote held up, there was obviously no great wave of enthusiasm to turn out. Disillusionment with the government is setting in, without people particularly turning to the Tories or Liberal Democrats, or as yet, seeing a credible left alternative.
Where councils and seats did change hands, this was often due to local factors. The Liberal Democrats often very active on local 'bread and butter' issues tended to gain where had been discredited locally. The Tories are held in contempt and the morale of their local activists remains at an all time low.
The changes in control were certainly not uniform even in London: The Tories increased their hold on Wandsworth reaping the benefit of exceptionally low council tax. The Liberal Democrats nearly took Islington Council from Labour because of the high council tax combined with poor services - Labour hung on to control purely by the casting vote of the outgoing mayor. Brent went from no overall control (a Lib/Lab coalition) to a 20 seat Labour majority. In Hackney, which has seen a major split in the Labour group with defections to both the Tories and Liberal Democrats, Labour kept control of the Council, but the outgoing leader lost his seat to the Green Party.
Elsewhere, Labour didn't make the gains had hoped for (though some of this might have been hype to cover for expected losses), and lost control of Sheffield to the Liberal Democrats. again, the Labour leader of the Council lost his seat. The Liberal Democrat gains seem to be due to disgust at Labour's cuts in council services and privatisation policies.
As far as the Labour leadership is concerned, there are no real lessons from the election results other than complacency. They claim, contrary to much evidence, that 'New Labour' candidates did better than 'Old Labour' ones.
The gimmicky attempt to boost turnout by putting a polling staDisillusionment with the government is setting in, without people particularly turning to the Tories or Liberal alternative. tion in a supermarket was a dismal failure (turnout was no higher than at traditional places). Already, within weeks of the elecCheck out the socialist alternative • A Socialist Democracy publication • STILL AVAILABLE, £5 from Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, • London N4 2UU tion Labour councils are saying they will be making further cuts.
The votes of left-of-Labour candidates varied enormously, but some of them got a significantly higher proportion of the vote than was the case in the general election a year ago. Most noticeably, Dave Nellist, ex-MP and Socialist Party candidate, got elected in Coventry with 55% of the vote. Ian Page, a former Councillor who joined the Socialist Party, got 38% of the vote in a Lewisham ward in South London. Other candidates got highly respectable results. Others, however, got derisory votes.
While these results also vary with local circumstances (thus, the SLP got some of its best results in Newham, where Labour holds every Council seat, and was therefore not under any kind of threat), overall they indicate that some space is opening up for socialist candidates critical of the government's (and local council's) policies.
But this can only really be realised where a real campaign is built and the candidate is well known.
For instance, in Leeds, the Party's candidate who is part of the campaign against the stadium development did better than the others. Many left-of-Labour candidates who simply put out one leaflet (if that) got tiny votes. The space is there to build a left opposition to the government, but it has to be worked for, not assumed.
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