GO GET ORGANISED!

As Julie Covington once sang “So What Happens Now?”. Whilst she was actually referring to the excess baggage of a suitcase, when you look at the politicians who are around at the moment I struggle to see the difference. The elections are over, the euphoria is over, but to be honest, Labour rule is anything but over; it’s an anti climax. You can’t look to north of Alnwick for salvation; they didn’t exactly give Labour their marching orders! If Scotland is such a hot bed of unfettered independence, one seat more than Labour says otherwise. The Tories may have done well in England, but the feeling still lingers that the killer blow was not there. At national level, as things stand the North together with Scotland and Wales, will probably return a Labour government under Gordon Brown. So what’s left to keep us going over the next few months?

On a national level, there’s always Mr Brown, a leader in waiting of a nation who we never actually had the option of voting for. There’s also Labour’s pathetic record on the Health Service, Education, Crime and Iraq. None of these are going to go away, and the public are going to finally realize that New Labour is really the Emperors New Clothes.

On a regional level, there’s always South Tyneside Council. Despite the ample opportunity for the Independent Alliance to capitalize on national Labour discontent, they have failed to make any significant impact on the make up of the Borough’s Council structure. This means that the Labour hegemony which has treated the area as a private club will continue. If any of this cohort actually read this blog, your under sever scrutiny from this day forward. Remember the Freedom of Information Act? It will be the death of you!

We will also see the Green’s move on and upwards. Despite being reasonably well organised in this Borough, their time will come and in two years I anticipate a candidate in every ward.

Any analysis as to why Labour weren’t completely trounced is in some ways futile; voters were given an ample choice of alternatives but they saw fit to return a virtually unchanged roster; that’s democracy whether you like it or not. However, where a well organised and concerted campaign was conducted by the opposition, Labour was taken to the wire. The Beacon and Bents Ward is a good example of this, whilst Cleadon and East Boldon, without the presence of a Liberal candidate, was a white wash (though the Labour candidate conducted an admirable campaign and the Tory representative never even bothered to take to the streets).

So what’s the lesson? It’s quite simple; organise yourselves in the ward, and begin your campaign NOW! Regardless of your political colour, at least make sure that there is an alternative to the norm.

Now then, who’s up next in my ward? Put it this way, if it’s Mr Milburn great, if it’s Pott’s, well you’ll be lucky to survive the negative press. Either way it should prove very interesting!