Gosh it's been a
long while since I've written a blogpost (some of you may have been
relieved) but it's certainly been an interesting period in British
politics and following the Local Elections results, there is a need
for a period of reflection for all the major political parties, not
least Labour. Whilst it's true to say that Labour have gained council
seats in England and managed to take Plymouth and Kirklees
(West Yorkshire) councils and have managed to elect Dan Jarvis as the
first Mayor for the Sheffield City Region (massive congrats to him btw!)
in Lincoln it has been a truly mixed picture. On a total voter
turnout of only 30.33% (very low but not particularly surprising
given only 1/3 of the City Council seats were up for grabs and it was
mathematically impossible for Labour to lose overall control of the
council) Labour held the central Lincoln wards where the electorate contains younger voters who are more
progressive and tend to be more engaged with politics – Carholme ward, for example,
Lincoln MP Karen Lee's former ward, saw the election of the
incredible and very knowledgeable Laura McWilliams as a Labour and
Co-operative councillor who comes from a very similar background to
myself- working class, willing to speak Truth to Power and willing to
provide a platform to those who often feel they are voiceless in
local and national politics. I thoroughly recommend reading her
Wordpress blog as she has written pertinent and thought-provoking
posts on the nature of the modern Feminist movement, loneliness and
unemployment (https://wizardoflozblog.wordpress.com/).
I see Laura as a potential future MP, whether that be representing
our amazing constituency of Lincoln or another constituency where her
talents would be very much appreciated!
Unfortunately my
home ward of Birchwood swang from Labour to the Conservatives. The
full result is displayed below:
Birchwood
Ward (Lincoln) Results:
Alan
Briggs (Con) - 786
Adam
Carnie (LD) - 68
Paul
Gowen (Lab) - 654
Dr
Ben Loryman (Green) - 49
Warde
(UKIP) - 100
In some respects
this result comes as no surprise: Birchwood was an area where
Brexiteers were particularly vocal during the 2016 EU Referendum and
the amazing campaigner for community cohesion and youth empowerment,
Rosanne Kirk lost her County Council seat to the Tories in last
year's Local Elections (although she still holds a City of Lincoln
council seat). It was great to have Lib Dem and Green candidates
standing in the ward and from what I managed to find out about their
platforms, I was interested in their ideas, especially Adam Carnie's
suggestion to set up a “tidier neighbourhood scheme” which would
include promoting vegetable growing schemes
(https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/you-need-know-candidates-lincolns-1481125).
I hope that the newly elected Tory Councillor may work with Adam to
help create community gardening projects to ensure green spaces are
maintained as well as providing opportunities for people from
different socio-economic backgrounds and life experiences to come
together, facilitating conversation and reducing levels of social
isolation. There was a small UKIP vote in the ward, which I must
admit given the history of voting here, wasn't very surprising. I
have to say that Paul Gowen has been and continues to be a great
anti-poverty campaigner for Birchwood whose personal story, of being
a carer in the city and understanding the challenges that carers face
in their day-to-day lives is inspiring. I hope that he will continue
to campaign for better local authority services for the people of
Birchwood in the future.
Yet Birchwood is
exactly the kind of ward where Labour should be looking to gain votes
at the moment, especially amongst hard-working families who have been
described by the Tories as “Just About Managing”. We are an area
where levels of deprivation remain high: data from Lincoln
electoral wards for Jul-Sept 2017 showed that the percentage of
children defined as living in poverty when housing costs are taken
into account is highest in Glebe (34.13%) followed by Birchwood
(34.12%). To hear that 788 children in my ward are living in
households where getting adequate food and clothing is disappointing
to say the least. I appreciate the situation in Lincoln could have
been much worse, were it not for the Labour-led City of Lincoln
Council's Anti-Poverty
Strategy,
which has been in place since 2014. The Strategy has a number of
objectives, including “increasing money management skills and
confidence, supporting families to feed and clothe their children and
helping those facing poverty due to illness”
(https://democratic.lincoln.gov.uk/documents/s26370/Lincoln%20Anti-Poverty%20Strategy%20-%20Appendix%201.pdf).
Campaigns that have been run by Lincoln Against Poverty, the
organisation overseeing the implementation of the strategy include
The Living Wage Campaign (encouraging employers in Lincoln to pay
their employees and workers at least the Living Wage, with employers
being recognised and recommended by the City Council for doing this)
and the Helping Hand Campaign, which is designed to get debt and
budgeting information and advice to residents who need it
(http://www.lincolnagainstpoverty.co.uk/us/).
Projects delivered by the City Council included running 5 “Survive
the School Holiday” sessions which provided adults in Birchwood
with information about debt, welfare and jobs. I myself have never
heard of local Tories talking about this scheme and yet it is a
scheme all councillors should be promoting in a positive light.
Equally the promotion of the Living Wage Scheme and provision of help
for families who are being affected as a result of being put onto
Universal Credit are policies that Labour councillors should be proud
of.
Only a few days
ago I heard of the decision to close Birchwood's only Youth Club,
Generate, which has provided a number of much-needed support groups
and activity groups to disadvantaged children and young people for
years because the County Council cannot seem to attract an
alternative provider to run the centre. The assistant director for
Children's Services at the County Council has said that any gap in
service should be kept to a minimum but with the County Council
having made cuts since 2011 to youth services funding and there being
no statutory requirement for the Tory controlled County or City
Council to provide such services, it may be very difficult to attract
a suitable provider.I was glad to hear our Library won't be closed,
although Greenwich Leisure Limited are quoted as willing to provide
only temporary assistance.
(https://thelincolnite.co.uk/2018/05/birchwood-youth-club-close/)
It's a disgrace: our library services and youth services should not
be subject to such uncertainty but at least we still have Birchwood
Boiler Community Hall running youth groups and perhaps there is room
to facilitate more groups at this venue in the coming months.
I don't know how
many Birchwood residents were aware of the Generate closure but
perhaps it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the final vote
tally if they had. Birchwood residents were particularly interested
in Tory promises to scrap green bin charges (currently £36) and
provide one hour's worth of free parking for city centre car parks.
My Dad, who's never been political in any way (other than on Brexit)
told me that neighbours on our street wanted to see green bin charges
being scrapped and were clearly drawn in by such a promise because
they believe it is money they should not be paying out. Birchwood
residents who are lucky enough to have front and back gardens, like
me and my parents, are incredibly keen gardeners. However I don't
think Labour adopting the policy would have gained the extra votes
they needed to retain this council seat.
Tories
also promised residents that they would “only
support future housing developments which come with school places,
better roads and health facilities”
(https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/you-need-know-candidates-lincolns-1481125)
yet they didn't seem to have much to say as to how they could
guarantee this in areas like Birchwood where services such as
Generate are closing and residents now cannot use the Lincoln
Walk-In Centre when they need medical help out-of-hours
because
the County Council supported the decision by Lincs West CCG to close
it despite respondents to their consultation being overwhelmingly
against the decision. Neither has there been much discussion in
Birchwood about the set-up of a council owned construction company or
the investment plan being put in place to build new council homes:
policies that residents should be fully aware of when they go to vote
in local elections. It's also important to note that some Birchwood
residents were aware of the council's decision to invest £13m in the
new Travelodge Hotel being built in the centre of Lincoln, which was
done with the hope returns will go towards maintaining council
services and suffice to say, they were not happy with such a decision
being made
(https://www.lincoln.gov.uk/your-council/news-and-media/latest-news/city-of-lincoln-council-invests-in-new-city-centre-hotel/).
I'm a sceptical voter at heart so the newly elected Tory councillor,
Mr Briggs will have to demonstrate to me and other Birchwood
residents how this particular promise can be kept. His answers to
questions in the Lincolnshire Live piece were in my view a bit vague
and “management speakese” to say the least but let's see if he
does actually manage to secure more funding for Birchwood for more
community projects and whether he will work with representatives from
Labour, Lib Dems and Greens to campaign for this funding.
Residents I've
spoken to also said they wanted to see street-lighting turned back on
at night in our streets and pot-holes being repaired on our roads.
Street-lighting is unfortunately currently out of the City of Lincoln
Council's remit and well nearly every party in Lincoln promises to
fix pot-holes as they know the state of some of Lincoln's roads are
not exactly ideal. The parties also had broadly similar policies when
it came to reducing anti-social behaviour in order to reduce
instances of crime and to raise the issue of dog-fouling on Birchwood
streets. So even making residents aware of these policies may not
have made much of a difference to the final vote tally.
Much is being made
of the impact of voters' opinions towards Brexit on their choice. I
remember speaking to two residents who were undecided at the time but
were floating with the idea of voting Conservative in the local
elections because they believed (rather passionately) that doing so
would help send a signal/message to the City Council not to ignore
the wishes of Leave voters. Whilst it is true to say that Local
Authorities have very little say over how Brexit will be delivered
and have been somewhat quiet about the impact certain versions of
Brexit may have on their ability to deliver services, especially if
the Local Authority budget is cut centrally in the months following
Brexit, these voters were determined to send their message and for
that message to be heard. This made me very nervous in the days
leading up to Polling Day and did in some respects convince me to
vote Labour because I knew, based on past experience, how tight the
seat may be.
The national
policy platform may have an impact, especially when the attitude
towards the platform creates a desire amongst local residents for
radical change in the make-up of a council or constituency. One can
see that in Richmond-upon-Thames, Kingston-upon-Thames and South
Cambridgeshire, where the Lib Dems managed to gain control of the
council and decimate the number of Tory councillors on it. I have no
doubt that Labour have the ability to enact such dramatic change at
the next local elections, but I hope that in Lincoln at least, the
City Council will remain predominately Labour at those elections and
takes back seats from the Tories in wards such as Birchwood. Time
will tell.
A number of
residents have talked to me in the past about language they have seen
being used on social media accounts in particular to describe
floating voters who do not necessarily agree with all of Labour's
policies or indeed with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership style. Calling
life-long Labour moderate supporters or floating voters or indeed
even Labour MPs “Red Tories” is not really going to help improve
Labour's reputation. Thinking the worst of voters who have had to
choose another party this time round because of the appearance of
lack of inaction by the leadership to tackle Anti Semitism or the
party's ambiguous approach to Brexit, especially if they have decided
to vote Tory isn't going to win them back either.
Policies designed
to appeal to working class voters also definitely need to be better
promoted, both local and national policies. For example, most of the
residents on my street had no idea that Labour were on course to
build 350 new homes by the end of 2018/19 and only a few had heard of
Labour's national policy to cap the total amount of money that people
will pay in overdraft fees or interest repayments, “imposing a
limit of £24 per month per £100 borrowed”
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43943854).
That being said, I would guess that residents would be interested in
hearing more detail. Momentum activists, Labour activists and members
of the general public who are pleased by the policy platform all have
a role to play in the dissemination of information, as evidenced by
council seat gains for example in Wandsworth and Westminster. I don't
want to see the passion for progressive policies lost but at the same
time, there needs to be a real clarity of position from the Labour
leadership regarding Anti-Semitism and Brexit. I am socially liberal
and I do not define myself as a socialist but I do like most of the
elements of the Labour policy platform that has been established and
I have been willing to listen to those who are proponents of
socialism hence why I decided put my cross in the box for Labour.
Labour has always
been and should always be a broad church, especially in marginal
constituencies and councils. Lincoln Labour relies on socially
liberal, progressive voters who would ordinarily vote Lib Dem or
Green in a strong Labour constituency (e.g. Islington North) to vote
Labour to ensure they keep hold of seats. Labour also relies on
Tory-Labour swing voters to make a calculated decision to back them,
based on local policy and whether they are enthused to vote for a
local candidate. A number of political commentators and activists,
including Owen Jones, have pointed to the need to engage younger
voters, who are more likely to be Labour supporters, to consider
voting in local elections. I
admit it would
have been wonderful to see more young residents in Birchwood (and
more residents generally) coming out and voting in the Local
Elections, as they did in Carholme ward. I think it's important to
read papers and listen to others on how to increase voter engagement
from a non-member, apolitical stand-point. I certainly feel and I
want to engage with more non-voters and floating voters in Lincoln
more generally and use my blog as a platform for them to discuss
concerns but also promote the positive things that are happening in
Lincoln. Sometimes accentuating the positives and talking about
progressive and innovative policy ideas can be much more effective in
helping a particular party to gain votes.
The BBC 's
projected national vote share places Labour and the Conservatives on
even-stevens at 35% a piece. Labour activists should be proud of the
gains they have made nationally, especially in Wandsworth and
Westminster but there is no room for complacency. The main tasks are
to rethink youth voter engagement in local elections and rebuild
trust amongst voters who have turned to alternative parties for both
local elections and general elections to come. These tasks are far
from being hopeless and should be tackled with gusto and with the
input of all who share a vision for a country that is progressive and
inclusive and fair.
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