On the same day as “the election” there are in fact 36 metropolitan, 194 district and 49 unitary authorities also vying for votes. A great majority of punters in those authority areas, who walk to the polling station innocently on 7 May, will be bewildered by being handed not one, as they expected, but two or, in the rare case of parish council elections, three voting slips. Their bewilderment shouldn’t rest entirely with them but rather with Labour and the Tories, who see politics more and more in national terms and local authorities as the mere administrative arm of their policies.
The lack of information isn’t helped by large swaths of the country no longer having local newspapers covering the local political scene. In our neck of the woods we are fortunate to have two struggling rags that do a very good job. Even so, while door-knocking I am often confronted by a lowering of the eyes and the words: “Sorry John, I can’t vote for you this time.” When I gently point out to them that I am not actually a parliamentary candidate but am seeking re-election to the district council, there are relieved smiles, sometimes a hug and a promised vote.
The media per se are at fault, as local authorities are never sexy unless there is a good fraud story. But it will be these authorities that will have to administer brutal cuts to public services.
John Marjoram
Green party candidate for Stroud district council
• In the Scottish leadership debates at the weekend, Nicola Sturgeon was at pains to say the SNP had the right to vote down a minority Labour government’s budget. The precedent was the Labour voting down of a minority SNP government’s budget at an earlier stage of the battle in Scotland.
This highlights the importance of Labour abolishing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Unless the status quo of the Parliament Act 1911 is regained, the minority parties allegedly supporting a minority Labour government would have a stranglehold on what Labour could propose. If Labour forms a minority government its first act should be to reinstate the 1911 proposals. It is absurd to imagine it could survive five years of constant tacking to accommodate the minority parties.
Trevor Fisher
Stafford
