Local Elections: Get Real

There is a good deal of nonsense being talked about the local elections. So here are some simple truths to put your thinking straight.

First, referring to where political parties are supposed to be at this time in the political cycle is the stuff of the out of date, out of touch and out of time. Those politics have gone. Now we have politics of the moment driven, not by politicians but by opinion on the street, expressed through all forms of social media as everybody shares with everybody else what they think, not what politicians, who are hated, say. When you here some pundit telling you that such and such a person is a bad politician, you know you are looking at a winner. Because the clever politicians are not trusted, they are regarded as unprincipled liars who never deliver.

Yesterday the Tories avoided a meltdown because of the collapse of the UKIP vote, but they suffered some spectacular defeats at the hands of the Lib Dems, who are the clear winners in the contest, winning 75 seats net and four councils. Sir Vince Cable now poses a major threat to May all across the Remain voting South and South East, making a Tory general election victory well nigh impossible.

Corbyn, according to the right wing not really Labour at all  Chuka Umunna, should set up an inquiry to find out why Labour did not ‘win’. In fact Labour is now neck and neck with the Tories in actual votes for the first time in nearly a decade, and had a net gain of 77 seats. Yes they did not fulfill their widest dreams, Wandsworth, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea? But they won a lot of seats. And yes they failed in Barnet because of their antisemitism issue, but they had a very sold performance right across the country and especially in Remain voting areas.

The Tories think that they won. They had a net loss of 33 seats. These are the same people who thought negotiating Brexit would be a doddle.