Trend reversal in South Tyneside

Local election results go against national trends

Labour retains a healthy hold on South Tyneside District Council after yesterday’s local government elections, however, the loss of four seats to the Independent Alliance makes that hold rather tenuous if the party’s national fortunes continue to nosedive with Prime Minister Brown at the helm. The prospect of an election in two years time which might see the arrival of a Conservative government will surely worry local Labour activists, if a general election were to be held either on the same days as, or close to local government elections, they could easily lose the four seats that they need to retain control. Four seats going from Labour to Independent would spell the end of Labour’s long hold on power in South Tyneside.

The writing has been on the wall for the past two years, but somehow Labour has managed to buck the national trend here, it’s share of the vote has not slipped down to the 25% mark seen around the rest of the country and they are fortunate that there is no real organised campaign from the Conservatives to worry them, the Tories in South Tyneside also buck the national trend by failing to get anywhere near the vote share enjoyed in the rest of the country. No, Labour’s troubles are coming from those no longer welcomed within their ranks, the South Tyneside Independent Alliance boasts a number of former Labour Party members and two former Labour councillors returned to the Chamber last night under a new banner.

The share of the vote in South Tyneside was as follows;

• Labour 37.27%
• Independent Alliance 22.85%
• Conservative 15.91%
• BNP 9.19%
• Progressive 5.78%
• Lib-Dem 5.01%
• Real Independent 2.33%
• Green Party 1.39%

45000 people voted out of an electorate of 114,236 so turnout was just a little higher than expected, but we are faced with the vagaries of the first past the post system which sees Labour form the majority ruling party when 63% of people voted against a Labour candidate, and in terms of how many of the total electorate bothered to come out and support the Labour Party, they were elected by only 14.69% of the electorate!

Don’t jump up and down and get too excited by that figure because the other parties attracted even less support of the whole electorate!

I have to express serious disappointment with our local Conservative Party in South Shields and Jarrow, the level of support is clearly commensurate with the level of campaigning and canvassing, as I’m sure the other parties are aware. It appears as though candidates were found to give electors a good choice at the polling stations, but other than in a few selected wards active campaigning seems to have been negligible and expenditure close to zero! If they want to be seen as a serious choice in local politics then they need to do much better than this, try taking a leaf out of the Independents book, I don’t care for their total lack of meaningful policies but they have grasped the concept of fighting elections!

Seats are won over the long haul with lots of voter involvement on the ground over the period of many many months, Mr. Ahmed Khan is a perfect example of this tenacity and determination, John Hodgson too has put in the leg work as had Steve Pattison who came so close to winning. If the Conservative Party has any intention of making a mark as the Progressive vote dissipates then they need to put in two years of hard graft on the streets to have any chance at all.

The cause of the Independents has been greatly helped by local conditions and voter antipathy towards plans for a new hotel at the Gypsies Green site in South Shields and a perceived lack of communication with the voters from the ruling Labour group, the large turnout in the areas of Westoe Crown Village and the area behind the Bamburgh and the New Crown public houses bears testimony to this, Gordon Finch’s election has no doubt been achieved on the back of this effective protest.

So why have the Labour and Conservative share of the votes gone against the national trends? Could it be that a moderate Labour group enacting post Blairite modernisation policies have effectively stolen the Tory party clothes? Could it be that Conservative voters are plainly out there (just look at Whitburn and Marsden) but nobody bothered to go looking for them?

South Tyneside Election Results.xls

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Election night live blog

00:32 Conservatives have taken five seats from Labour in Sunderland - yes you read that right, five seats! If only they could get properly organised in South Tyneside.

In Sunderland they stood under the name “Local Conservatives”, biggest surprise is taking two wards in Washington, higher turnout in Conservative seats than Labour seats.

00:47 Guido has a live chat it’s err “interesting”

00:51 Conservative Home’s live blog reports that one of the Conservative gains in Sunderland moved the candidate from third to first place in the ward.

00:56 High turnout (44.6%) in Horsley Hill, where Arthur Meeks is defending for Labour in South Tyneside.

00:58 Labour lose Horsley Hill in South Tyneside to Independent Gordon Finch (former Progressive) 141 majority for Finch, unexpected result?

01:09 Tories now quarter of the way towards gaining 200 seats nationally.

01:16 44.6% turnout in Horsley Hill, if this is replicated in Beacon and Bents it will not bode well for defending Labour councillor John Wood.

01:17 Recount in Harton ward of South Tyneside, Jimmy Capstick(Progressive) in a spot of bother, Neil Maxwell (Labour) hoping to make a political comeback for Labour

01:22 41.5% turnout in Fellgate and Hedworth (South Tyneside) where Labour’s Leader Paul Waggott is defending

01:23 Five South Tyneside wards report turnouts of over 40%, Labour ought to be cautious, traditionally these numbers do not favour good results for them.

01:28 Huge 48% turnout in Cleadon Village and East Boldon (South Tyneside) expect a strong result for Conservative Jeff Milburn.

01:29 Capstick (Progressive) holds Harton ward (South Tyneside) by only three votes, Tory beaten into fourth place by BNP

01:29 Ahmed Khan takes Beacon and Bents (South Tyneside) for Independents by more than 400 votes from sitting Labour councillor, and former Mayor, John Wood. Conservative again beaten by BNP.

01:43 Independents gain another seat from Labour in South Tyneside, John Hodgson (a former Labour councillor) wins in Monkton ward defeating Labour’s Terry Fairley by 109.

01:46 Independent Allen Branley holds Westoe ward (South Tyneside) by huge margin over Fay Cunningham for Labour. (1259 majority)

01:52 Conservative have now nett gains of over 100 seats nationally.

01:55 Harton result has been removed from council website, is there another recount?

01:58 How much money has Ahmed Khan spent? I did warn he was determined to win!

02:00 South Tyneside’s Labour Leader has lost his seat in Fellgate and Hedworth to former Labour councillor Geraldine White (122 majority for the Independent.) It was predicted.

02:01 Cllr. Iain Malcolm to take over as Labour Group Leader on South Tyneside Council?

02:03 Joanne Bell holds Boldon Colliery (South Tyneside for Labour.

02:04 Joe Abbott (Lib-Dem) holds Hebburn North in South Tyneside.

02:06 John McCabe (Labour) holds Hebburn South in South Tyneside

02:09 Comfortable hold for Labour’s Ed Malcolm in Simonside and Rekendyke, South Tyneside

02:10 Labour Mayor Tracey Dixon holds Whitburn and Marsden, Fiona Milburn turns in a creditable performance for the Conservatives (if only Harry had stood again.)

02:11 Terry Haram holds Whiteleas for the Real Independents against a very strong challenge from Labour’s Doreen Purvis, (majority is down to only 70 votes.)

02:17 Veteran Labour councillor Tom Hanson beats off challenge from South Tyneside Independents in Bede ward

02:19 Jim Perry (Labour) wins from BNP in Primrose ward, another poor result for the Conservatives in South Tyneside

02:25 Jeff Milburn (Conservative) holds Cleadon Village and East Boldon with almost 38% of the vote.

02:26 Still waiting to see if Progressives have held West Park

02:29 Heart attack time for Labour in Biddick Hall and All Saints! Anne Walsh holds the seat for Labour with only ten votes to spare from Independent Steve Pattison!

02:30 Alex Donaldson holds Cleadon Park, South Tyneside for Labour, majority reduced to 113 over Independent.

02:33 Enid Hetherington holds West Park, South Tyneside for the Progressives.

02:35 Make up of South Tyneside Council is now: Labour 31 seats, Independent Alliance 12 seats, Progressives 5 seats, Conservatives 3 seats, Lib-Dems 3 seats. Labour has had a bad night losing four seats to the “hard left” Independents (Horsley Hill, Beacon and Bents, Fellgate and Hedworth, and Monkton.) The Conservatives have had a lacklustre performance here too, apart from Cleadon Village and East Boldon, and Whitburn and Marsden. Their neighbours elsewhere in the north-east have fared better. The Independents have done really well on the back of strong negative campaigning which in some wards was reduced down to the personal levels. Electoral turnout was highest in those wards which swung against Labour in seats which they held last year. Only John McCabe bucked that trend.

02:51 It is now 22 years since Labour did not have a majority in South Tyneside

02:56 Still waiting for results from North Tyneside where the Conservatives need only three gains to take control.

03:04 Conservatives have won control in Bury, one of their target councils. Labour’s share of the vote nationally looks like it has fallen to 25%, Conservatives projected at 44%, Sky News projects a Conservative majority of over 160 seats if a general election had been held yesterday. Looks like Boris will kick Ken Livingstone out of the Mayor’s office in London too. Ed Miliband says results so far for Labour are “disappointing”.

03:20 BBC are reporting the worst Labour results for 40 years, are they sure they want to hang on to Gordon Brown?

I’m off to bed now, the Lib-Dems aren’t dong too well either, Calamity Clegg’s leadership has not improved their results at all, they’ve even lost control of Liverpool.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Slow voting in South Shields

Just been around a few polling stations in South Shields and the reports so far are that presiding officers are finding things rather slow, but some interest in Beacon and Bents - not like London! (There is probably a bit more at stake there.)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Why vote?

What should motivate me to go to the polling station?

I’ve just walked back from school in the middle of a heavy rain shower thinking, if the weather is like this tomorrow then what would motivate me to get another soaking by going to a South Shields polling station?

Our local government elections have an unenviable track record for making people stay at home regardless of the weather, is that people feel disengaged or uninvolved with local politics? Why is there a sense of futility about the exercise?

South Tyneside Borough Council like hundreds of others in England and Wales is responsible for spending hundreds of millions of pounds of our money, and then raising some of it from council taxes, which we all perennially complain about, yet only around 38% of us bother to take the time to involve ourselves in the business of deciding who should spend this money for us, or to question why they should spend it all. Local councils provide services that we all use in fashion or another, education for our children, social care for the elderly, street cleansing and waste collection, street lighting and highways maintenance, library services, local amenities and sports facilities, cemeteries and crematoria, planning and licencing services, and a plethora of other legal obligations put upon them by central government.

These are all elements of our normal daily lives which from time to time we all find fault with and have a good old moan and groan about, yet more than half of us do not seem bothered about helping to decide who’s fingers should control the purse strings. It’s our money, surely you would think that more of us would be interested! No, apparently not, we don’t go to the poll because we cannot be bothered, they are the same, they are in it for what they can get out of it, the weather was too rotten, what difference does it make anyway? All standard excuses that we give year in year out.

I’d be motivated in any case, because I am one of those who cares passionately about the area that I was born and brought up in, I feel that the decision that I make at the ballot box will help shape the future for the next two years at least, and that in the longer term my children may benefit from the decisions that we make tomorrow. However, I often consider what our political parties are doing to interest me, and more importantly those eighteen year olds who may be about to vote for the first time. It’s certainly true that most of them are only active on the streets of South Shields in March and April, it’s certainly true that only some of them produce literature for their local candidates in the wards for us to read, some either don’t bother or don’t have the finances to produce material, leaving us to rely on newspapers, or even websites!

Here is one of my major complaints, todate I have received literature from the Labour Party and the Progressives in my ward, I have looked at the website for the Labour Party in South Shields, the Green Party in south Tyneside, and the Independent Alliance, I understand that the South Tyneside Progressives have a website somewhere but it isn’t showing up in Google searches, and unfortunately there are no official sites for the Lib-Dems or Conservatives locally. The interesting and frankly shocking fact is that none of these websites are truly interactive, they can allow us to contact someone by email and hope for a response, but you won’t find any user friendly polls, or blog style comment facilities, or even details of where they meet, or how to join in. Yet this is the digital age, a time when they have all tried with pilot schemes to increase voter turnout at local elections by offering postal voting on demand, voting by text or email, and even suggested voting at your favourite supermarket. They say they listen but their websites don’t even reach out.

Another question I have asked myself is, should I ignore national politics when it comes to local elections? In years gone by by was inclined to say that I most certainly should, but I’m older and wiser now, and I realise that you simply cannot divorce and separate the two. National government is entwined in local government as much as spaghetti is entwined with bolognese sauce, it provides the great majority of the cash used by our local councils by way of central grants and it dictates how much of that cash should be spent, it also provides obligations that councils must follow administer, enact, and enforce parts of national legislation. So realistically we cannot ignore the policies of the government of the day when it comes to our town halls. There is a balance to be sought between national policy and local initiatives and I need to realise that my local council tax is as much decided by national government as it is by my local councillors.

Therefore it is reasonable to question just why council tax has doubled during the period since Labour was elected in 1997.

So why vote?

I’ll vote because I know that my local ward councillors ought to be there to represent my views in the town hall, that’s whether I voted for that particular ward councillor or against them, they have a duty to represent the whole ward and collectively the whole borough of South Tyneside. I’ll vote because I know that local councillors still have some influence over how are lives are affected in South Tyneside, I’ll remember that I am one of the 25% of households here who pay the full amount (non discounted) of council tax. I’ll be like like many other people who will vote because I want to send a message to Gordon Brown too, and hope that he’ll listen!

More importantly I’ll vote to defend my right to complain, carp, and generally moan when things don’t look right, without casting that vote I don’t consider that I have a right to moan! Have you ever considered it that way? Unless you vote and help decide the future of the borough, then do you reasonably have a right to complain about things you don’t like?

I’ll vote for people who offer to make a difference, and if they are successful I’ll be happy, if they don’t deliver they will face me again in two years time. I’ll vote for a party or organisation that has a well produced plan of ideas and policies that appeal to me, and I’ll not vote for those who cannot be bothered to offer a meaningful map of policies.

I’ll vote for children and for my elderly relatives, because they deserve the benefit of my choice in how they are to be looked after, I’ll consider the effect of politicians plans for my local environment and how it will be affected in future years. I’ll vote because this is a democracy, a nation that was twice threatened in war by a repressive regime that believed strongly in a one party state, I’ll remember that millions of people died to protect my right to decide how I should live in free, liberal, democratic state. The supreme sacrifices that they made should not be forgotten and I feel duty bound to continue the type of lifestyle that they died to protect.

I’ll vote because I still believe that it matters, not just to me, but to those who live around me, in my street, in my neighbourhood, in our schools.

A poor turnout tomorrow will not be good for democracy, it will only confirm that people are not fully engaged by political parties and see little relevance in their attempts to converse for a few short weeks at this time of year. But please consider all of the above and put this matter to one side for now, it was ever thus, but by participating in the electoral process you may help to change minds, the political wannabes may actually take notice if more people tramp along in the rain to a polling station, they may actually respond one day and involve us all further throughout the year.

Please use your vote, and remember why we are privileged to have one!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Beauty and the beast

……or how to scare the kids

I suppose I ought to be able to get used to this sort of thing, you know political canvassers and activists banging on your door in South Shields at this time of night.

“But it’s the only time you ever see them”

I hear you objecting,

“they never bother unless there’s an election on”

Yes, I know, I know, but generally they don’t bother at all around here, especially the Labour Party. So I was a little surprised at the sort of effort they are throwing at West Park ward. As soon as I saw the faces behind the glass I just knew it was time to warn the kids to hide behind the sofa, it was the candidate “Bob the builder” along with Ernie Gibson and Joyce Welsh. I was beginning to question what my new spectacles were seeing. My immediate thoughts were that they must be very confident of winning in Whiteleas, my second thoughts were that they’d already given it up as lost to Terry Haram, otherwise they wouldn’t be foot slogging down here.

I tell you, it was frightening, well political people just never knock on doors in West Park do they?

It felt like a scene from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

West Park Candidates

• Bryan Leonard Atkinson - Green Party

• Enid Catherine Hetherington - South Tyneside Progressives

• Quintin Ian Patrick Smith - Conservative

• Bob Watters - Labour.

Whiteleas Candidates

• Terry Haram - Independent

• Doreen Purvis - Labour

• Alan George Smith - BNP

• Christopher Taylor - Conservative

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Miliband slams Mugabe

A harder line from the Foreign Secretary

It seems that South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband has at last been encouraged by differing African viewpoints to take a harder line against the “evil” dictator of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. Describing the election recount which is taking place as a “charade of democracy” he said in the House of Commons:

“The ballot boxes have been kept in uncertain conditions. The Electoral Commission has seen 13 of their number arrested in a clear effort to threaten and punish those who did their job independently”

adding

“ordinary Africans do not condone the way in which President Mugabe is clinging to power and beating his own people to death to ensure he retains it”

Such a pity that Zimbabwe has no oil, or that the shipment of Chinese arms has failed to reach the impoverished state yet, that way we could, as one letter writer to the Shields Gazette commented, claim they have weapons of mass destruction. Just why has it taken so long for the FCO’s stance to harden up?

It looks as though they have been waiting for appropriate fractures to appear amongst the reticent African neighbours of Zimbabwe, who are taking somewhat longer than expected to show dissent against Mugabe’s dictatorial regime.

Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who recently helped broker a peace deal after Kenya’s contested elections, at the weekend asked whether African leaders were doing enough.

“Where are the Africans? Where are the leaders and the countries in the region? What are they doing?”

Such a pity that there isn’t a unified African chorus of voices screaming for Mugabe to depart with haste!

It’s also a pity that one of the local government election candidates in South Shields should choose to compare our own democracy and election procedures with the situation in Zimbabwe, on literature sent to electors in the past week. It’s a bit over the top don’t you think?

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

South Tyneside candidates announced

Local government election May 1st.

The full list of properly nominated candidates for the local government election in South Tyneside has just been released by the Town Hall. Here it is:

Beacon and Bents	Olive June	Elsom	Independent
	Jimmy	Hills	British National Party
	Ahmed	Khan	Independent
	Edward Anthony	Russell	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Carole	Troupe	Liberal Democrats
	John Andrew	Wood	The Labour Party Candidate

Biddick and All Saints	Bramanay	Nilsson	Green Party
	Steve	Pattison	Independent
	David	Richardson	British National Party
	Barbara	Surtees	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Bill	Troupe	Liberal Democrat
	Anne	Walsh	The Labour Party Candidate

Cleadon Park	Colin	Campbell	Independent
	Alexander Bruce	Donaldson	The Labour Party Candidate
	Phil	More	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Dave	Sundin	British National Party
	Rachael	Taylor	Green Party
	Paul Michael	Walker	Independent

Harton	James Lowrey	Capstick	South Tyneside Progressives
	Marilyn	Huartt	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Neil	Maxwell	The Labour Party Candidate
	Brian John	Paget	Green Party
	Adam	Woods	British National Party

Horsley Hill	Gordon Hall	Finch	Independent
	Martin	Haskins	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Les	Lovelock	British National Party
	Arthur Clark	Meeks	The Labour Party Candidate

Simonside and Rekendyke	Nader	Afshari-Naderi	Liberal Democrats - For A Fairer Britain
	Grahame Robert	Anderson	The Conservative Party Candidate
	David	Baker	British National Party
	George Edward Burnett	Crozier	South Tyneside Progressives
	Edward	Malcolm	The Labour Party Candidate

West Park	Bryan Leonard	Atkinson	Green Party
	Enid Catherine	Hetherington	South Tyneside Progressives
	Quintin Ian Patrick	Smith	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Bob	Watters	The Labour Party Candidate

Westoe	Lynne	Barber	Green Party
	Allen Glen	Branley	Independent
	Fay	Cunningham	The Labour Party Candidate
	Anthony	Dailly	The Conservative Party Candidate

Whiteleas	Terry	Haram	Independent
	Doreen	Purvis	The Labour Party Candidate
	Alan George	Smith	British National Party
	Christopher	Taylor	The Conservative Party Candidate

Bede	Gerry	Brebner	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Thomas	Hanson	The Labour Party Candidate
	Kevin	Lees	Independent
	Ann-Marie	McGourlay	British National Party

Boldon Colliery	Joanne	Bell	The Labour Party Candidate
	Geordie	Gilchrist	British National Party
	Stewart Thomas	Hay	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Ed	Keller	Independent

Cleadon and East Boldon	Joan	Atkinson	The Labour Party Candidate
	Jeff	Milburn	The Conservative Party Candidate

Fellgate and Hedworth	Ian	Armstrong	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Paul	Waggott	The Labour Party Candidate
	Geraldine	White	Independent

Hebburn North	Joe	Abbott	Liberal Democrat
	David	Fettis	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Laura	Khan	Independent
	Richie	Porthouse	The Labour Party Candidate
	Martin	Vaughan	British National Party

Hebburn South	John	Coe	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Jo	Durkin	British National Party
	John Gerard	McCabe	The Labour Party Candidate
	Stephen	Rhodes	Independent
	Susan Heather	Troupe	Liberal Democrat

Monkton	Terry	Fairley	The Labour Party Candidate
	Marc James	Foster	The Conservative Party Candidate
	John	Hodgson	Independent
	Peter	McCarty	Liberal Democrat
	Caroline	McLaughlin	British National Party

Primrose	Walter Featherston	Armstrong	The Conservative Party Candidate
	Pete	Hodgkinson	British National Party
	Jim	Perry	The Labour Party Candidate

Whitburn and Marsden	Mark	Crozier	South Tyneside Progressives
	Tracey Allison	Dixon	The Labour Party Candidate
	Fiona Anne	Milburn	The Conservative Party Candidate

You will note the surprisingly strong challenge this year from the BNP which may upset one or too calculations, and the lack of an Independent candidate in one or two wards, also, once again, the Lib-Dems have been unable to field a full team of candidates. Looks like the Labour Party and the Conservative Party are the only ones to contest every ward, and the Greens are continuing to “have a go”, the Progressives also refuse to give up the fight. But…….

Has the “Branley Bunch” burst it’s blip?

Update

Colin Campbell (Independent) has withdrawn from the election in the Cleadon Park ward

:: :: ::