May 1st Election Day

[mastap]

 

The BNP beat Labour in Shaw.

 

Haha, never happen. Shaw's Lib Dem all the way. Has been for years and probably will be for the forseeable future. Every council manages to f*ck up the area it controls, and screw the people who live their, but in Shaw we're quite happy with the Lib Dems as they seem to screw us less than the other parties do! No reason to change round here, all is going ok!

[leeslover]

I have just been reading anyhing going whilst I am coping with the panic attacks and live reactions to what my mobile phone has been sending to people, and chanced on this.

 

Sorry Mike (Garcon), but do you ever get the feeling that people feel there is a hint of opportunism about the Lib Dem election strategy in any particular ward or constituency?

 

Come General Election time I'll be hoping for a hung Parliament, but with the jerrymandering of sucessive Tory and Labour governments over the years that's a surprisingly difficult outcome to achieve.

 

it may surprise you for me to say this but it would arguably have been better for oldham if the lib dems had made an overall majority, as it would allow them to imprint their own definate agenda and the people of oldham to then judge them on that, whereas i can see a lot of fun and games over the next year, as when the tories side with labour, it will be 30 each, and the mayor is labour for the next 12 months, so i cant actually see a lot getting done again until either side has a workable majority

 

Oddly enough I can understand that. Although I guess where we'd differ is on the likely outcome.

 

Certainly would be better than a year of stalemate.

[garcon]

Opportunism? Not so much that as a targetting of very limited resources. Certainly at local level... the Lib Dems have always targetted the winnable seats with extra leaflets etc., and in recent times have made good inroads with that approach. There simply aren;t enough people on the ground to put the same effort in across every ward.

 

As it turns out, the Lib Dems are leading Oldham Council without a technical majority (they have 30 seats of the 60). I guess we'll see which way the Tories tend to turn when it comes to the big decisions. I think there is more co-operation between the parties at local level than at Parliament, so hopefully there won't be too many false starts this year.

 

Nationally, there's a similar picture. Lib Dem activists in a constituency with little prospect are likely to be drafted in to support target seats.

 

I suppose where the opportunism comes in is in the Lib Dem's support of PR - a system that would give them a much bigger say in Parliament. (And it may well take a hung Parliament, where the third party gets to effectively decide policy, to make that happen).

[Yard Dog]

Jumped on this thread a bit late, but the sniping from the Lib Dems was unbelievable and, really, reminded me just how desperate politicians can be. Fair play to the Lib Dems for their effort though...must have had 3 or 4 propaganda leaflets from Nazia in the election run-up...even got one posted through the door in Royton North at 8am on the day of the election.

 

I am not proud to say I voted for Anita as a protest....but this country needs a wake up call, and the current 2 party system is a shambles.

[garcon]

Jumped on this thread a bit late, but the sniping from the Lib Dems was unbelievable and, really, reminded me just how desperate politicians can be. Fair play to the Lib Dems for their effort though...must have had 3 or 4 propaganda leaflets from Nazia in the election run-up...even got one posted through the door in Royton North at 8am on the day of the election.

 

I am not proud to say I voted for Anita as a protest....but this country needs a wake up call, and the current 2 party system is a shambles.

Sniping?