Labour Looses NLC Control
06 May 2011 by Paul Rhoades
From the polls closing last night, it quickly became clear that the election in North Lincolnshire was going to be a close run battle.
Politically, Scunthorpe County (the constituency represented by Nic Dakin) has always been an island of red in a sea of blue. The 2010 election saw Labour MP Ian Cawsey loosing neighbouring Brigg and Goole rendering Scunthorpe no longer just an industrial island, but a political one too.
The North Lincolnshire Council Elections have, in recent years, been a close run affair with parts of the voting boundary taking in towns and villages which in a general election for the constituency of Brigg and Goole.
Recently, power has been controlled by just one or two seats in these marginal areas. Scunthorpe is, and always has been red, and so it remains today. North Lincolnshire however is now well and truly blue with the Conservatives holding a larger majority than achieved by either party recently.
Labour went in to the election with a majority of just 1 seat, with everything riding on their performance in the towns and villages surrounding Scunthorpe.
An early victory with a margin of just 1 vote came early in the count with Labour winning the Burringham and Gunness Seat. This set the scene for the remainder of the count with close results from the villages but Labour continuing to do well in town.
The Tory's ended up in 4th place in Froddingham, beaten by Neil Eyre an independent with no party support or funds. Neil delivered home made leaflets with his wife to several hundred homes in the area showing how an individual can become involved in the democratic process without the backing of a big party. Neil's efforts not only show how unpopular the conservatives are in town, but also goes to show how in Scunthorpe, the Tory's are not even voter's second choice.
Out of town Broughton had been a hard fought campaign, but sheer weight of numbers and mobilisation of voters in this traditional Tory seat saw the existing councillors from Broughton increase their majority from the previous election and retain their seats.
The Tory victory however centred around Winterton, the home of former Labour MP Elliot Morley, which may have come back to haunt Labour at the ballot box.
Labour knew they faced a challenge here. With two of their existing councillors retiring from this ward, they not only had to deal with the Morley backlash, but also introduce two new candidates to voters at the same time.
Finally at 3:30 this afternoon, following five recounts, the result was declared, with the Tories taking all three seats in Winterton and returning a Conservative Council for North Lincolnshire.
While this is all well and good for shoppers in Brigg (who can now look forward to their free car parking), commentators are already claiming that the cost to the other residents will be too high.
The Conservative budget presented in February contained an additional reduction in staff funding which unions have claimed represents in the region of 2,000 jobs.
We wait to see where the axe will fall.
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Comments
Should I feel better that I will now be sacked by a tory instead of a labour party member? Services will be closed by nasty tories instead of apologetic labourites? None of them represent me, I shed no tears.
oops...sorry Thoades
The problem as I see it, stems back to Gordon Brown and the bank fiasco. There is no blaming of the Tories or Labour parties, as the political class they are both equally culpable.
The failure to regulate finance and business generally, has led to an unsustainable culture of greed, which is abhorrent in society from top to bottom. Bailouts, Expenses Scandals and house hold debts exemplify this.
Government spending under labour has been branded excessive, we are constantly told "Its the state it was left in". This is a cop out. Compared to that of the last Tory government on the basis of GDP, Labour government spending was comparable. This is not how the media would have us belive.
To protect the banks, their financial backers, owners and investors, the media has us all believing that the "crisis" is down to excessive spending, not a failed system.
To protect their position, the previous government chose to bail out the banks, instead of creating a savings and investment bank of our own. They could have chosen to repay small investors their losses, support pension funds and provide affordable loans to small businesses and mortgage owners. This would however have been political suicide, and death by media.
Instead they chose to give �850Bn to the banks, who then promptly paid themselves bonuses (�7Bn this year alone).
The snowball effect of capitalism not only escalates the growth of profit, but also the growth of debt. This has been seen in the need to keep bailing out different banks and countries, despite having been told that the "debt crisis" has been solved.
Each year an estimated �120Bn in tax is either avoided or uncollected from large businesses and individuals by the revenue.
Over �1.3 Trillion has been spent on illegal wars.
Why should those who have always been on the bottom rung of society have to pay each time?
Why should workers have to suffer in order to bail the banks out of their own collapsed system?
Why should jobs and services of "normal" people be jeopardized by the greedy few of the ruling classes?
In short, these cuts are unnecessary.
http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/cuts
Spot on. Make the people who made this crisis pay for this crisis. If Labour had done anything to oppose the cuts they would have earned some respect. Instead they bought the lie and set about sacking people. Disgrace! It is no wonder they lost.
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