Last week’s local elections were, let’s face it, a damp squib, for voters across Cumbria.
Nice that the parish councils had a day in the sun, and even then, not all parishes had elections, but they are about as irrelevant to Cumbrian democracy as the SNP. At least the latter may have a campervan to use on a Lake District long weekend, once the cops have finished with it.
I do applaud all those who stand for the parish or town council but apart from a bit of grass cutting and benches for the weary to rest their tired legs, there isn’t a lot left for them to bother with.
The reason Cumbria was an electoral desert was that our ‘council’ elections took place last May when Labour took control of Cumberland and the Liberal Democrats took charge in Westmoreland and Furness.
Give a shout out to the Cumbrian voters, they delivered results that have been mirrored this May across those areas who had a meaningful vote.
However, in addition to Cumbria, large swathes of the UK did not go to the polls last week so any extrapolation of the votes into how the country might vote in a general election is pretty futile despite what the voting guru Professor Sir John Curtice might say.
On all the low-level evidence, it would seem that we are in for a hung Parliament with no party getting a majority of seats.
This is due to several factors:
- No one has a clue what Sir Kier Starmer’s policies are, not even Sir Kier Starmer. He appears to have abandoned any thoughts of nationalisation of key industries, bringing back freedom of movement and now, abandoning a pledge to abolish tuition fees.
- Sunak, on the other hand has five key pledges to deliver before the next General Election: Halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop small boats crossing the channel. Deliver those and he may well wrest away the Labour lead.
- Generally, voters are fed up to the back teeth of politicians and unless the public are enthused, we can look forward to a low turnout.
And in Cumbria, there are two added factors: Firstly, the boundary changes seem to favour, slightly, the Tories and if Labour is to have an impact on five of the seats – no one can honestly believe that Tim Farron won’t romp home in the south – then they need to put forward credible local candidates who can engage the public and, more importantly, actually explain what Starmer’s policies are!
Secondly, local Tories, smarting at having both councils under control of the enemy, have a plan to insist that Cumbria has an elected mayor who will take away many of the most important functions from the new councils.
Of course, this is diabolical. After all, it was the Tory administration that sold the idea of local government reorganisation and pushed through the awful council boundaries that still make no sense. So other than to satisfy their fit of pique, why do they want to mess with something that hasn’t had five minutes to bed in?
Just on the bedding in, strange that having had 10 months to sort out integrating Cumberland Council is already faced with the angry bin men in Allerdale? For a Labour council to upset a trade union so quickly, doesn’t bode well especially as Cumbria Crack Editor, and I suspect, many others, are left with mountains of bottles, cans and cardboard boxes from the weekend long party with no sign of recyclable waste being collected any time soon.
My question to council leader Mark Fryer is a simple one: what do the bin men in what was Carlisle and Copeland get paid and why, if it is more, and you directly own Allerdale Waste Services, the bin men’s employer, could you have not seen this coming and sorted it out on day one?
So, leaving aside Cumberland’s little local difficulty, for all the coverage of the local elections last week, the most important event in terms of getting elected, was King Charles III, who won the crown by the privilege of his ancestry, and his coronation gives us not one clue as to what will happen in 2024.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, now, back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
