Stay-at-home voters reject the old political order

When an average of two-thirds of registered voters boycott an election – in some areas it over three-quarters abstained – it is another sign of a deep disillusionment with mainstream politics and parties.

The widespread hatred of the ConDem coalition for imposing austerity on behalf of the financial markets has, unsurprisingly, produced a backlash in the shape of a swing to Labour.

But with so many people deciding to stay at home, Ed Miliband’s claim that people have “put their trust” in his party is little short of risible. People voted against the government, not for Labour.

Over the last two years, Labour-controlled councils have carried through draconian cuts in spending. Alright, their budgets were cut by the government – but there was absolutely no opposition at town hall level.

Labour councils up and down the country simply passed on the cuts in terms of redundancies alongside eliminated or reduced services. No attempt was made to resist them by mobilising local communities or the workforce against the government.

Councillors who threatened to vote against cuts were suspended or threatened with expulsion!

So having more Labour councils as a result of last night’s election will not protect people one iota. There are years of cuts ahead as the government carries its plan to reduce the deficit (which Labour more or less supports as an objective).

If Bradford is anything to go by, support for Labour is weak when it is challenged in a substantial, populist way. Respect won five seats following George Galloway’s sweeping success in last month’s by-election, deposing the council leader. In London, maverick Tory Boris Johnson seems set to defeat Ken Livingstone in the race for the capital’s mayor.

Which brings us to perhaps the most stunning results of all – the decisive rejection in referendums of plans to introduce directly elected mayors to run town halls over the heads of elected councillors.

Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry and Bradford rejected the mayoral plan, and Birmingham, Bristol and four other cities were expected to do the same if early indications were anything to go by.

The total disinterest in mayors was captured in the Bristol ward of Filwood, where just 9.9% of people voted. In Coventry, on a 28% turnout, there was a two-to-one majority against a mayor. The low turnout did not help Dave Nellist in the council elections. The independent socialist candidat lost his seat to Labour in a ward where nearly eight out of ten voters stayed at home.

For the Tories, the threat from the right is gathering momentum in the shape of the anti-European Union, anti-immigration, xenophobic UKIP. They may not be quite the equivalent to France’s National Front but they are heading in that direction.

UKIP polled an average of 14%, five points higher than a year ago. They took most of their votes from the Tories but undoubtedly some from the ultra-right BNP which fared badly, losing councillors in Derbyshire and Rotherham.

The UKIP results will increase pressure on the Tory leader David Cameron, whose alliance with the Lib Dems is rejected by many traditional Conservative voters as well as papers like the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. Cameron must know that UKIP could block a Tory general election victory unless he adapts to their policies.

With the global economic crisis deteriorating at a rapid rate, added to growing political uncertainty in countries like Greece and France, the local elections only add to the break-up of the old order.

Paul Feldman

Communications editor

No vote for cuts parties on May 3

As an exercise in democracy, Thursday’s local elections throughout Britain don’t really cut the mustard. Voters are presented with a range of parties committed to austerity policies and local authorities that are, in effect, adjuncts of central government.

It gets worse. In 11 large cities, there are referendums on whether to have directly-elected mayors in place of the present arrangement whereby the leader of the largest party is able to form an administration.

There is absolutely nothing democratic about mayors, who will stand above councillors. In fact, they are an attempt to obliterate what democratic control and accountability there remains through community-based, elected local councillors in favour of autocratic rule.

No wonder prime minister Cameron admitted that mayors did not constitute “some trivial re-structure or fiddling about” and was instead “a once-in-a-generation chance to change the way our country is run”. With senior Labour figures queuing up to fill the new posts, that’s another reason to reject mayors altogether (more than 61% reject mayors, according to a new poll). So our first advice, if you really intend to vote, is to say ‘No’ to mayors.   

As to the major parties contesting seats, what can you say? For the Tories and their Lib Dem partners-in-crime, contempt does even get near what most people feel. They have imposed budget cuts of 25% in local council spending, leading to job losses and elimination of services. This is part of an austerity programme designed to make ordinary people pay for the economic and financial crisis generated by a capitalist system that has been in meltdown since 2008.

Westminster has directed local councils in England and Wales to fall in line. In Scotland and Wales, national parliaments have done more or less the same thing. Resistance by local councillors has been restricted to words. Labour councils throughout Britain have dutifully implemented the cuts, encouraged to do so by Ed Miliband and many trade union leaders.

Labour councillors have done the government’s dirty work and intend to continue doing so. There is no way Labour deserves support on Thursday, whether it’s the election for mayor in London or councillors in Manchester. Better to keep your vote in your pocket if that’s the only choice in your area. The Green Party claims that they are an alternative. But when it came to the cuts, Green-controlled Brighton & Hove council also fell into line.

That just leaves some maverick independents and the 132 candidates standing in 32 councils on behalf of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). If elected, TUSC councillors are pledged to oppose every cut and refuse to implement them if they have the opportunity. While TUSC makes no mention of the crisis, or the failure of democracy at local council level, you should give them your vote if they are standing in your area.

In his book The British Constitution, the leading political scientist Anthony King notes: “The story of British local government during the past half-century is in large part a story of its cumulative loss of autonomy, its cumulative loss of freedom and its cumulative loss of power. These losses have been on such a scale that in the early twenty-first century the word ‘government’  in the phrase local government really does need to be put in inverted commas.”

That was written in the middle years of the Blair governments. The situation has deteriorated since, alongside the fast disappearing democracy at Westminster. Real, local democracy, with control over resources and decision-making, is an objective most people will support. Achieving that will require a remaking of the present state from top to bottom because it is clearly beyond reform.

Paul Feldman

Communications editor