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brixtonbroodEvery now and then I do feel that I'm living a somewhat different life to the rest of my friends or indeed the country, but the Lambeth council results have been very disorientating indeed.
For those who didn't catch it (and it's received damn all coverage, partly because it doesn't fit in with the story of the day, and partly because it arrived late due to a recount), on Wednesday Lambeth was run by a coalition of 27 Lib Dems and 7 Conservatives, with a Labour minority of 29. Today, it's run by 39 Labour councillors, with 17 Lib Dems, 6 Tories and 1 Green (yay, and they came within 15 votes of getting another one).
Why? I'm not 100% sure. No-one ever really approves of their council, and Lambeth has a very tough job to do (especially when it's at odds with the government of the day I guess) so the incumbents are easy to beat. The Lib Dems have been all but invisible in the campaign, which means that the only thing they've got going for them is a vague "vote for the other ones, no, not the tories, the other ones" vibe, which is tricky to swing if you're the incumbents. Labour have been running a disingenuous but clearly effective "Vote Labour for better services and lower taxes" campaign, combined with a fairly suspect claim that the incumbents are planning to shut down all the swimming pools in the borough and sell the land off for penthouse flats (the Lib Dems say they weren't, but then they would say that wouldn't they, but I can't actually see the bit in their proposals where they say they're going to do it). The parking enforcement was outsourced on a contract which seems to have allowed, or even encouraged some over-zealous enforcement, which a lot of people (though not me) feel very strongly about.
The local campaign to get enough secondary schools for all the children in the borough (currently 50% have to go outside the borough, often to pretty ropey alternatives) does not think that the incumbents have been doing their bit. And there was a pretty high profile fraud scandal which never helps.
On the upside, the recycling's very good, and they did give me a free 50 litre bag of organic peat free compost last week, but you have to fear for the survival of a council who are relying quite so heavily on the excellence of their rubbish collection, and outright bribery.
In short - local election decided on local issues shocker, and Lib Dems severely punished for Faustian pact and total failure to present themselves positively at national level. No idea of the turnout yet, but a warm glow for the total lack of BNP candidates, (one risible UKIPer, a couple of Socialists mustering about 40 votes between them, no Respect-ites I think).
For those who didn't catch it (and it's received damn all coverage, partly because it doesn't fit in with the story of the day, and partly because it arrived late due to a recount), on Wednesday Lambeth was run by a coalition of 27 Lib Dems and 7 Conservatives, with a Labour minority of 29. Today, it's run by 39 Labour councillors, with 17 Lib Dems, 6 Tories and 1 Green (yay, and they came within 15 votes of getting another one).
Why? I'm not 100% sure. No-one ever really approves of their council, and Lambeth has a very tough job to do (especially when it's at odds with the government of the day I guess) so the incumbents are easy to beat. The Lib Dems have been all but invisible in the campaign, which means that the only thing they've got going for them is a vague "vote for the other ones, no, not the tories, the other ones" vibe, which is tricky to swing if you're the incumbents. Labour have been running a disingenuous but clearly effective "Vote Labour for better services and lower taxes" campaign, combined with a fairly suspect claim that the incumbents are planning to shut down all the swimming pools in the borough and sell the land off for penthouse flats (the Lib Dems say they weren't, but then they would say that wouldn't they, but I can't actually see the bit in their proposals where they say they're going to do it). The parking enforcement was outsourced on a contract which seems to have allowed, or even encouraged some over-zealous enforcement, which a lot of people (though not me) feel very strongly about.
The local campaign to get enough secondary schools for all the children in the borough (currently 50% have to go outside the borough, often to pretty ropey alternatives) does not think that the incumbents have been doing their bit. And there was a pretty high profile fraud scandal which never helps.
On the upside, the recycling's very good, and they did give me a free 50 litre bag of organic peat free compost last week, but you have to fear for the survival of a council who are relying quite so heavily on the excellence of their rubbish collection, and outright bribery.
In short - local election decided on local issues shocker, and Lib Dems severely punished for Faustian pact and total failure to present themselves positively at national level. No idea of the turnout yet, but a warm glow for the total lack of BNP candidates, (one risible UKIPer, a couple of Socialists mustering about 40 votes between them, no Respect-ites I think).