Another Tory failure

Another day, another fiasco.  Simple probability means that doing absolutely nothing would get better results.  No wonder the Tories haven't kicked the idea of a coalition with UKIP into the long grass.  They desperately need the intellectual input.

And how dare Dave try and usurp FDR's glory?  The Great Depression was ended by properly-paid state-sponsored jobs in infrastructure, jobs which taught real skills - not stacking shelves in the Pound Shop just to cling on to your benefit!

Creating new jobs

Follow this link to learn what the Labour City Council are doing about the scourge of youth unemployment.

What are Tory Harborough and the Tory County Council doing?  Pretending the problem doesn't exist and cutting services wherever possible.  Scandalous.

Policy making online

The party has today launched a new policy making process with website and Twitter feed.  Some of us complained about the policy forums so we have only ourselves to blame if Ed and the gang don't take notice of our brilliance this time round.  Got to say, though, I'm not keen on the puce and mauve colour scheme.  I'm having horrible visions of the next rosettes.

The results are in

Contrary to what some pundits were predicting, former Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader won the PCC election for the Tories.  The turnout was a pathetic - just 15.98%.

There was no outright winner after the first count.  Sir Clive had 59915 votes, Sarah Russell 42051, and the independent Suleman Nagdi 21744.  After Nagdi's votes were redistributed to the second choice the final outcome was Tories 64661, Lab 51835.  In other words, an archetypical Tory got 25% of the largely Asian, largely city vote, we got 50% give or take, and 25% expressed no second preference.

The results here in Harborough District were a slightly better turnout of 18.7%, Con 8424, Lab 2262 and Ind 1446.

What does this tell us?  Firstly, the public does not like the idea of an elected PCC.  Labour should pledge to abolish the post forthwith.  Secondly, the absence of LibDems does not automatically mean more Labour votes.  Thirdly, the Asian vote, as I have been saying for some time, is not to be taken for granted as Labour.  It is far more subtle than that.  Finally and most importantly it tells us that people recoil from politics as the game has traditionally been conducted.

This was even the case in Corby where Andy Sawford achieved a thumping victory and the LibDems lost their deposit.  Take nothing away from the achievement of Andy and his team but the turnout - in Corby, which has been roundly betrayed by the Tories, in the media spotlight and with all the political heavyweights in town - was only 44.8%.

Britain is becoming anti-political.  It suits the Tories and the right wing press to encourage the antagonism.  We in Labour have to find new, better ways of engaging with and motivating the people who instinctively side with us.

Today's the day!

I've been and voted for Sarah.  Have you?

One day to go...

Writing in The Independent today, John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, has Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland down as a good Labour prospect tomorrow.  Clearly, he bases his prognostication on the whopping Labour vote in the city.  We won't get all that tomorrow; on the other hand, the disaffected Asian vote will largely go to the independent with, in the absence of a LibDem, Labour as second preference.  For once, the Labour vote in the county will be critical.  We should win in the north - Charnwood, Coalville etc - but the east is a write-off, except in Melton, and Hinckley & Bosworth is never easy to call.  So it is clearly important that here in the south we get our Labour votes in early, when nobody's looking, and do nothing to startle the Tories.

VOTE EARLY---VOTE LABOUR---VOTE SARAH.

PCC poster

At last!  Meaningful material from Central Office re the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.  Actually, very good material.  Congrats to whoever designed it.

Tory PCC Blame Game

David Hanson MP, Labour's Shadow Policing Minister, responding to Damian Green's comments that people can't complain about Police and Crime Commissioners if they don't vote, said:

“This Government will blame anyone but themselves for all the problems with these elections, when the truth is that they are all of their own making.

“But because these are important elections for the safety of our communities, Labour is doing our best to make them work. Our candidates are campaigning hard and we want as many people as possible to come out and vote Labour on 15 November so that we can send a message to David Cameron about his cuts to 15,000 police officers.”

HERE IN LEICESTERSHIRE IT IS CRUCIAL THAT WE VOTE SARAH RUSSELL FOR PCC AND SHOW OUR OPPOSITION TO MORE POLICE CUTS!

Don't forget the PCC election!

Just over a week before the scandal of the £75 million police commissioner elections in which a tiny turnout of between 10 and 20% will see unheard-of Tories returned, claiming a mandate to cut and cut everything except their own wages, it is worth considering what the Tories really think about the police.

A week or so ago David sent me an article from the Birmingham Post.  You can read the article in full by clicking this hyperlink, and I recommend you do.  However, the crux of the matter is, the Tories are making West Midlands Police chip in £0.5m towards the cost of policing this year's Tory conference in the city.  To add insult to injury the same funding change means the force owe themselves £249,942 for the pleasure of protecting last year's LibDem conference from cheated voters.  All this of course, at a time when hundreds of  officers in the second city are facing the chop.

The government's ploy of downplaying the PCC elections is a disgrace - and we should be ashamed of ourselves for letting them get away with it.

So buck the trend on Thursday November 15.  Defy the pundits and vote in the PCC election.  Vote Labour.  Vote for Sarah Russell!