THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Having been absent with leave for a couple of days, the pile of unread papers is nearly touching the roof! Here we go then.

With 72 candidates fighting for 18 seats, this years Borough Council elections appear very interesting. The political spectrum of the candidates is reflected as such:

18 LABOUR
17 CONSERVATIVE
8 LIB DEMS
3 PROGRESSIVE
13 INDEPENDENTS
6 BNP
6 GREEN
1 SOCIALIST

The stand out element from this list is the presence of 6 BNP candidates. “A very bad day for the Borough” claims a friend of mine, “they shouldn’t be allowed to stand”. Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, I would never endorse an outright ban on any party. Whilst the BNP, its members and its supporters are odious and unpleasant, democracy allows them a political voice. Where we need to defeat them is in the arguments, the debate and at the ballot box. What we should be more concerned with is the fact that they think they have the support to challenge in six wards. The major political parties must accept the blame for this;sections of the electorate feel disenfranchised and without an effective political voice. Unrepresented, they migrate to the extremes of politics. Until their views and problems are addressed constructively, Cameron and to a larger degree Blair and Brown, are pushing voters in their droves closer to the BNP.

On a ward basis, 4 areas are of particular interest.

Beacon and Bents has possibly more candidates than voters with 7 standing from 6 parties. Whilst this should make for a good political knockabout, I worry that the vote will split allowing the BNP candidate sneak in.

Whiteleas and Cleadon/East Boldon have straight head to head contests with the former looking like an Old V New Labour showdown. The latter ward, which over the last 2 elections has generated the highest ward turnouts, is a traditional Labour/Tory two horse race. Lewis Atkinson the young labour candidate of the last 2 elections, has given way to his mother (can you imagine the political chitchat in that house!). Political dynasty building to one side, this is an interesting contest. Mother Atkinson is well known in East Boldon as an honest, committed and hardworking resident and commands (rightly so) a lot of respect. Her Conservative opponent Donald Wood is equally hardworking and his face is well known to us all. Without a Liberal candidate on the polling card, this should be a good tussle though I suspect that the vote will be decided in the Cleadon part of the ward, traditionally an area which has never had a “red” streak.

Fellgate and Hebburn is home to that great letter writer of the Shields Gazette, George Waddle. Standing for the Independants, George has had his comments in the papers letter section on virtually every subject imaginable. Personally, I like and admire him as he is not frightened to speak his mind. I hope he gets elected if only to see the look of horror on Waggot and Co’s faces as he enters the Chamber for the Council’s first meeting after the Polls. Sublime!

Talking of Waggot, that “Labour of Love” Linda Waggot has decided to inflict herself on my neighbouring ward Boldon Colliery. Linda doesn’t collect stamps, she collects Wards (or at least she tries to). Over the last several years, 3 electorates have rejected Mrs Waggot, but once again she has donned her “Labour Parachute” and this time jumped into “The Colliery”. Why oh why oh why?! Surely after so many rejections the message is clear; the voters don’t like political opportunists who, like travelling salesman, wander from ward to ward until someone feels sorry enough for them and buys their wares. I sincerely hope that the good voters of Boldon Colliery don’t serve to increase the “Waggot” representation in the council makeup from an already too high “1” to “2”. My money would be on Greenwell Jewitt, the Independent Candidate. Mr Jewitt, the scourge of many a Boldon, Cleadon and Whitburn CAF meeting, is an ideal candidate to challenge the Kennedy’s, sorry Waggots. Greenwell lives in the ward, knows the ward and actually wants to represent the ward. All the yes boxes are ticked, so let’s hope the voters do the same!

So what about the outsiders? If I were a betting man, my “spread bet” would be on the Independents. With 13 seats in the frame, you can’t loose your money. For an outside bet, I’m looking at the Greens (come on Rossinisbird, please post an overview to give them a push). Environmental policies are the future of this country. There exists a generation of new political voters who not only are far more aware of these issues than we will ever be, but are actually going to cast their votes accordingly. From this generation will emerge a new political philosophy, and correspondingly, a new generation of councillors and MP’s. Ignore them at your peril!

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