Sunday, April 27, 2008

ELECTION WEEK


This week is local election week across many parts of the country, BUT not for our own Isle of Wight Council. The chance to kick out the Tories here will have to wait another year.

No doubt (as in 2004) Labour will get a good 'kicking' on the mainland and then recover (as in 2005) at the next general election. Sadly people are now encouraged by the media to vote at local elections NOT on the local issues, but as a kind of referendum on the national government. Consequently good Labour councillors will take the punishment that voters would currently like to give government, but are not yet hoodwinked enough to do so at a general election.

In some parts of the Island we do have elections next Thursday - but only for the new parish councils in Newport and Ryde. These elections have very rarely been politicised in the past - apart from Sandown Town Council - but for these elections the LibDems have decided to stand on political labels. Labour in Newport would have done the same if we had known, but decided against it as we did not want to be isolated. The IW Tories are - as ever - standing unlabelled or as some of the 'independents'.

Therefore, as a Labour IW Councillor in Newport I would be delighted to see the following Newport parish council candidates elected next Thursday to join Tony Coburn and I as town councillors :

Mary CRAVEN, Fairlee; Steve FALLA and Brian RUSHTON, Newport North; Laraine PASCOE, Newport South.

Whatever people vote, I really hope that we get a reasonable turnout for these elections.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Labour WILL get a kicking in the next General Election and it will be richly deserved. I hope they never get into power again. Labour is a party of traitors.

Anonymous said...

It's called conditioning!

Pensioners, the low paid, people on benefits etc. are all better off now than they were 10 years ago.

What people are moaning about is, that they think they should be even better off!

How soon they forget that only the rich benefitted under 18 years of the Tories. Short memory syndrome!

Anonymous said...

Look out, look out, there's an ostrich in the house.

Anonymous said...

'An end to boom and bust' would be funny if it hadn't happened, how very predictable. Gordon is finished. Labour never works, many are better off but at what real cost? Billions have been wasted, PFI are hiding enough debt to sink us forever.

It'll take the Tories ten years to sort the mess out. Tony will of course blame it all on Gordon, what tosh.

Anonymous said...

But "Boom & Bust" had ended and as bust has not happened yet it must still be a thing of the Tories.

I'm glad you agree that many are better off because they certainly weren't be 1997!

PFI?? shurely that was introduced by the Tories!!!

And you reckon nothing will improve for 10 years!!!

Well all I know is that for all of this Labour admin we have not slipped into recession, er.. remind me how many times we did, under the last lot?

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, things are great Mr Rose Tinted-Spectacles.

Record inflation,(real prices not Spin) Record violent crime, record fuel prices, falling house prices etc etc.

Most importantly unemployment will rise by 1,000,000 in the next 12 months - you wait and see. We're in serious trouble here in Britain and it's not the fault of America or India nor China. Labour got us into the mess it always does.

Cameron will be our next properly elected PM. Shame it won't be until 2010.

Gordon will cling on to his dream as Labour disintegrates. He bottled the election last year, he knew he'd never get the backing of the people so he ducked it. What a coward! Those Labour Mp's who didn't have the courage to hold an election when Tone went will live to regret it. They'll be out of power again for decades.

Anonymous said...

"Record inflation",?? Are we even close to the 27% under Mrs Thatcher yet?
"Record violent crime", keep reading the Daily Mail
"record fuel prices", So it's this Labour Government setting the price @ $120 per barrel!
"falling house prices" er.. haven't they be too high for years so 1st time buyers couldn't afford them?? etc. etc. etc.
Someone's wearing rose-tinted specs but it ain't me!

Anonymous said...

You have to smile. 'Labour isn't working.' What an apt slogan, 1979 wasn't it?

Truth is you don't have to be a Mail reader to see what's happening to this country, ask anyone, we're all down and we have further to go. People want a fresh start, elections are lost not won.

We shall see. May 2nd when the counting is over. As Geoff says some good Labour Councillors will lose because of blunders and lies at the top. Politics is always tough.

Anonymous said...

It's always a shame when hard-working councillors are pushed out due to bungling by their party leaders. It happens to all parties and this time it's Labour's turn.
It will be interesting to see what happens when our local elections come round. Which will have the greatest effect on voters, Gordon's failure in London or the Tories' awful record on the Island? I predict overwhelming apathy.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"Record inflation",?? Are we even close to the 27% under Mrs Thatcher yet?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't those horrendous inflation rates created the last time we had a Labour government, and inherited (and sorted out) by the Thatcher government?

Anonymous said...

Corrected, yes you are wrong! Highest interest rates were 1980-81 2 years after Labour left. They only started falling when enough North Sea Oil came on stream to make UK nett exporter.

History lesson over

Anonymous said...

1980-81 was when Mrs Thatcher was sorting out the dreadful mess that Labour had left the economy in.

Now history is repeating itself as bankruptcies and repossessions increase as the easy money disappears (only this time Labour are still in power). Of course those traditional Labour voters in subsidised housing association homes will be ok no matter what. They won't be kicked out of their homes, the taxpayer will see them alright.

What a mess.

Anonymous said...

2 years? Come off it, Labour are still blaming the Tories ten years after they took power - now they keep saying 'we want to renew in Government.' These jokers know the public are sick of them but lack the guts to throw Gordon out.

The Tories are coming back. Thank God for that. Boris is leading the way.