Over at his MEN blog, David Ottewell has posed himself a question - was the congestion charge a factor in the local election results? David doesn’t think so, but I’m not convinced by some of his reasons.
Yes, a targeted campaign against Roger Jones, chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, saw him lose his seat. But his seat was already pretty marginal.
It’s certainly true that Irlam was already a marginal seat, but that doesn’t account for a result which sent shockwaves around the counting hall. Roger didn’t just lose. The Labour vote share dropped 15% to a distant third place and Roger got only 23% of the vote - in a ward that has elected Labour Councillors continuously for three decades.
It’s quite conceivable that Roger would have lost had he been a run-of-the-mill backbencher rather than the Chairman of GMPTA - but I suspect the margin would have been an awful lot narrower.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, is another “face” of the transport innovation fund bid. He won on Thursday, by 1,200-odd votes. Is that result, too, a referendum on the congestion charge? If not, why not?
Sir Richard represents one of the safest wards in Greater Manchester for any party. Trying to draw conclusions about the congestion charge from Labour performance in Crumpsall is like trying to draw conclusions about the popularity of Boris Johnson by looking at local election results in Knightsbridge.
Bolton council was a major Conservative target. They failed to make significant gains, even though they did very well elsewhere. The Tory group in Bolton left people in no doubt they are opposed to congestion charging.
Whilst the MEN coverage of the local elections this year has on the whole been very good, I thought the coverage given to the elections in Bolton did not reflect the state-of-play at the start of the election period. Thanks to a strong performance in 2004, Conservatives were defending three wards that had been won by Labour in both 2006 and 2007. To hold on to two of those wards and still make a net gain of 1 Councillor is an excellent result. Indeed, Labour will have been bitterly disappointed not to make further gains and buck the regional trend.
Success Should Be Encouraged
I spent a sunny Sunday today in Crewe & Nantwich, where I continue to both amazed and appalled by the contemptible content of the Labour Party literature.
For a brief period in the mid-nineties - before my time alas - the Labour Party tried and managed to pass itself off as a Party that believed in aspiration, a Party that believed in fulfilling our potential as individuals, as communities and as a country. It’s been slipping for a long time, but as the power and popularity drains away from our failed Labour Government the mask has well and truly come off.
The Timpson family built their company from one small shoe shop not far from here in north Manchester. They are a true northern success story - a company and a family that should be held up as a shining example. Instead, the Labour Party denigrate that success as they desperately flail around as their electoral air begins to run out.
A few years ago I worked two summers at Salford Young People’s University, and it was a real privilege to play a small part in opening up the eyes of some of those children who attended that summer school to the potential that they had and the heights that they could achieve.
It’s a real contrast between that and the way in which many (although not all) of our local Labour politicians in Salford talk down to, patronise and take for granted local residents and communities who have placed their trust in Labour. The Labour campaign in Crewe & Nantwich has sunk far lower than I could ever have imagined. I hope they learn a very severe lesson on Thursday 22nd May.