A couple of belated notes from last week’s Council Meeting:
Firstly some new challenges for me – I have been appointed as opposition representative on the Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authority, and as spokesman for Planning matters on the new Salford Conservative Shadow Cabinet. I relish both roles and will be commenting in much greater detail on both positions over the course of the year.
Secondly, it was very clear over the Council Meeting that the ruling Labour Group have absolutely no intention of listening to the local residents who gave them such a bloody nose on 1st May. They intend to plough on regardless with their fingers in their ears – starting with the Building Schools For The Future programme.
There are two years until the next set of local elections, but local residents in 2010 will have a clear choice between a Labour Party which will have continued to ignore local concerns and a Conservative Party which listens to residents and stands up for local communities.
Congratulations on your new appointment.
With regard to BSF there is a marked contrast between the Advertiser and the MEN versions of the Moorside/Swinton merger. Sounds as if there has been a few smacked hands in between times.
“A clear choice between a Labour Party which will have continued to ignore local concerns and a Conservative Party…”
I don’t think the choice is that clear Iain.
Looking at the local elections in the big northern cities, the Lib Dems still remain the major challenger to New Labour. They took control of Sheffield and Hull and retained control of Newcastle, Stockport, Rochdale and Liverpool (Just). They also made gains in Manchester, Leeds, SALFORD and are now the largest party in Derby, Oldham and Warrington. Oh and not forgetting the five gains made in Burnley as well.
What we are now witnessing is an Anti-Government period. Unfortunately for Labour, Gordon Brown is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t from now on. This can be seen from the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. The majority of people didn’t vote Tory because of the strong local policies that their candidate was promoting because, let’s face it, he didn’t have any. The Tories ran the right campaign consisting of not really saying much, putting out enough anti-labour literature and squeezing enough Lib Dem voters to win.
I don’t think we are experiencing a Blue tide, more of a Blue rinse!
Well, I was talking about a clear choice for local residents in Salford, where the Conservatives are the official opposition, are neck-and-neck with Labour in vote share and have a whole stack of seats which would fall with comparatively small swings.
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats are split down the middle and have no serious prospects for advancement outside the four wards in which they currently have Councillors.
As for Crewe & Nantwich, well I spent 10 days there and I can assure you that there was a great deal of warmth for both Edward Timpson and the Conservative platform he stood on, unlike the nasty negative and on occasions downright deceitful campaigns run by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Well, it is my understanding Iain that you actually targeted 5 wards in Salford and only managed to obtain 3? Correct me if I am wrong of course. As for my ward in Irlam, you could have won that seat quite easily if you had run a proper campaign. I can appreciate that resources can only be spread so far but two leaflets in just four weeks prior to polling day wasn’t going to top the campaign that CAP ran. Also, the content of your leaflets is questionable: “All your Labour Councillor Rodger Jones can do is spend his time in his GMPTE luxurious offices in Manchester, devising the outrageous congestion charge.” Absolutely nothing positive to say about what you would do for Irlam! You were negative, bordering on single issue. Something CAP out did you on.
Admittedly, you had a great night on May 1st. But what’s the next step? Don’t you think after the good local election results for your party in what will be the Worsley & Eccles South Constituency, that it would be a good idea to get a PPC in place and start your campaign now? Barbara Keeley’s seat is one that Labour must be worried about.
Finally, I forgot to congratulate you on your appointments.
Hi Adam,
Don’t believe everything you read on Steve Cooke’s blog! Our target was to make three gains and defend the two seats we already held. Of course it would have been nice to win more – in an ideal world we’d win all twenty – but to argue we underperformed is just spin from our opponents.
As for our Irlam leaflets, I’m happy with the content of what went out, especially the colour A3 which had a whole side set aside for policy and manifesto commitments. Of course there are always lessons to learn from campaigns – successful and unsuccessful – but we started from a comparatively weak third place, CAP made significant attempts to persuade Conservatives to vote tactically and yet our vote still nearly doubled compared to 2007.
As for Barbara Keeley, well her attitude on election night did not bode well for an energetic defence of her seat. At the next General Election residents will choose between an outsider Labour MP who does what her leader tells her to do, and a Conservative candidate who will listen to local concerns and stand up for local communities.
Regarding Barbara Keeley and the new Worsley/Eccles seat at the next General, it may well be that neither Barbara nor the Tories will be victorious but somebody else (and I don’t mean the Lib Dems). We’ll just have to wait and see. I do feel confident that Keeley’s on her first and last term of office.
I’m afraid Richard that (to adapt a phrase from the Liberal Democrats) for those local residents wishing to defeat Labour, a vote for anyone other than the Conservative candidate at the next election in Worsley & Eccles South will just help return Ms Keeley to Westminster.
As a resident in Ellesmere Park Richard you will of course have the opportunity to vote in the new Salford & Eccles constituency for someone who isn’t Hazel Blears.
I can confirm right now that I won’t be voting for Hazel!
Why not the Liberal Democrats, we have two hard years but lets not write us out just yet. Guess whos got the short straw to stand there?
any one got a map of the area
Joe
We know that Labour will offer us Blears and Keeley in the two Salford constituencies at the next General Election. Who will the Conservative candidates be? Iain, is there anything you can say about who the candidates are or when they will be chosen if they haven’t already been?
I’m seriously considering standing for the Worsley and Eccles South County Constituency at the next General Election, as well as considering the Salford and Eccles Borough Constituency and the Stretford and Urmston Borough Constituency but I have yet to finalise my plans.
If I do go for the Worsley and Eccles South Constituency, where the Conservatives have a very good chance of winning if the recent local election results are anything to go by, I could do very well given that I’m essentially a conservative, n’est pas?