Local Elections 2007: Vote responsibly.
This morning I arrived at my office, met with rows of arrows and signs pointing the direction toward the local polling station.
Suffolk has historically been a very blue area, characteristically harbouring an affluent and elderly demographic. Accordingly, my choice of party was sadly very limited. With only one other option available to me than the Conservatives, I placed my vote with the Liberal Democrats.
To do this is one of the better anti-Conservative voting strategies available. For those who wish to stem the right-wing shift arguably taking place across Europe, it is better to vote Lib Dem (if not Labour) as opposed to fringe and independent parties on the grounds that, with the Liberals gaining momentum over the past few years, they stand to hold a greater impact upon Conservative voting figures than other parties.
Clearly this article is predisposed in favour of left-wing social policy. This is on the grounds that, whilst I do approve of conservative-leaning economic policies and Labour have undoubtedly made a number off procedural and practical errors during their ten-year administration thus far, we must endeavour not to overlook the benefits that Labour policies have brought and the impacts that a Conservative government at this moment in time might have for our society and economy respectively.
David Cameron is rousing a great deal of support from people on the grounds that this is a key opportunity for the public to vote against Tony Blair and their first chance to vote against Gordon Brown. The Labour party is in a weak position of late, exacerbated by repeated failings with regard to foreign policy. Whereas normally such Tory rhetoric as that above would not have been enough to sway the minds of a traditionally left-voting nation, today it may do more than merely retain strategic votes from staunch Conservative voters.
History in this country will not be kind. A YouGov poll that asked the same questions about Blair as were put in 1997, told the Telegraph on Tuesday: “never before in history can a prime minister have started so well and ended so badly.” A decade ago, 63 per cent trusted him, now only 22 per cent do. Back then, 60 per cent thought him “able to unite the nation”, now only 16 per cent.
However, we must not forget that whilst approval ratings may indeed be falling, it must similarly be recorded that not only has a Labour leader never before won three consecutive elections but he has sustained three terms in a position relentlessly rebuked and reproved by our predominantly right-wing press and media services. We must not fail to acknowledge the inevitable impacts on public opinion over time as a result of misinformation and bias toward the right.
Every day we read of all the things that Blair is accused of single-handedly ruining or doing wrong: the Iraq war, the cash for honours scandal, a perceived curbing of civil liberties, and the renewal of the Trident programme, to name but a few. Far less common is to read of what has been positively achieved in the past ten years.
What needs to be asked is: with both the good and bad from the past ten years taken into consideration, will any benefit be gained from defaulting your vote to the Conservative party in direct and conscious opposition against past Labour’s (in)actions? For example, with reference to the NHS, if the complaint is that Labour didn’t deliver enough, how does letting Tories win help the situation?
The Tories may have re-branded themselves through a series of green and pretty colour schemes, and the adoption of a tree as its logo, the people behind the party remain the same.
Local government goes largely unreported in the national papers, yet it is this that gives us the most comprehensive image of the current political climate. Conservative representatives in the local elections are doing what they do best; what they have always done. Tories up and down the country are promising tax and spending cuts should they win their seat. Right-wing ideologues took over Hammersmith and Fulham a year ago from a well-run Labour group, cutting council tax by 3p, and thus also cutting £14.4 million from children’s services, housing, care for the elderly, charity grants, as well as bringing the closure of a mental health centre. Tory controlled Walsall is cutting vulnerable children’s services, so is Swindon, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. The list of cuts is long, the list of negatives even longer.
Before people are too quick to turn their backs on Labour, ask first if voting Conservative is really the lesser of two evils. People should vote responsibly and not out of contempt; local councils have nothing to do with Iraq.
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