Cuts and complex issues stalk election
COUNCIL elections can make political parties nervous.
While they’re meant to be fought on local issues, they’re often not.
And even when they are, they can throw up some strange results.
At a Britain-wide level, the elections on May 4 are being seen as a test for both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.
With one poll yesterday showing the Conservative lead over Labour stretching to 21%, there will be pressure on the Prime Minister to make sweeping gains.
Equally, Mr Corbyn will be expected to defy the polls and deliver results that his party can at least live with. A disastrous set of election results is unlikely to lead to an immediate Corbyn resignation, but will surely increase the chances that he will go if the rule changes on future leadership elections he and his allies are seeking are approved by the Labour Party conference in September.
In Labour heartlands like the South Wales Valleys, shrewd party activists know that Corbyn is a vote loser. There will be some jitters in anticipation of the negative impact he could have in some seats.
On top of this, Labour has created problems for itself by mishandling internal problems within the party. In Bridgend – Carwyn Jones’ home patch – a wholly avoidable threat has arisen from a number of former Labour councillors standing as Independents. The party’s ruling council group decided to punish the individuals concerned by suspending them after they voted against a proposal to merge Bridgend council with the neighbouring Vale of Glamorgan authority. This has led to deselections and resignations in sympathy, followed by electoral challenges. Ironically, in opposing the merger the rebels were in tune with the then Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews, who rejected the proposal out of hand.
Across Wales there are local issues that can skew national voting swings. Who knows how the continuing Caerphilly council senior officers’ pay scandal, which has cost taxpayers millions of pounds already, will play out with voters? Will they blame Labour, as Plaid Cymru wants them to, or will they say a plague on all the parties’ houses?
Elections give voters an opportunity to take control for a day. It’s up to all of us how much weight we give to UK-wide, Wales-wide or local issues when we decide where to put our cross or crosses. Some of us will see it as a moment to vent our feelings about the performance of political parties in government, whether in London or Cardiff. Others will give greater weight to the performance of their local representatives and the grouping they represent, taking the view that it would be perverse not to do so.
The general “motherhood and apple pie” style of the pledges put forward by the parties is rather ridiculous. Who would not want children to have the best possible education, for example? The sad fact is that parties are resorting to such bland promises because they are constantly having to make do with ever-diminishing budgets – a scenario unlikely to change soon.