[Kyle]

Originally Posted by joeysteele

Hi Kizzy.
They didn't get Rotherham, thankfully Kizzy,they just took 10 seats on the Council.
8 from Labour and 2 from the Conservatives,thst still leaves Labour with 41 and a really big majority on the Council.

To hear the media however you'd think they had wiped all other parties out on Rotherham council.

In strongholds of any party, the only party you can take from are in the main the strongest party there.
It is a fact though,they took 10 seats on the Council but nothing else happened and nothing changed either.

Taking 10 seats off a town where you could stick a red rosette on a donkey and still expect to get a landslide is an achievement even if it doesn't change the council demographics too much.

Rotherham is well and truly pissed off with labour.

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Taking 10 seats off a town where you could stick a red rosette on a donkey and still expect to get a landslide is an achievement even if it doesn't change the council demographics too much.

Rotherham is well and truly pissed off with labour.

It doesn't however tell anything for the future or mean any real change. Rotherham was an area that moved against Labour, no doubt as to that, it was also an area that could have done so in a much bigger way than it did.
My guess is and it is only a guess,that Rotherham is still likely to remain Labour and that the seats lost to UKIP will gradually return.

For example,I recall some years ago wher,e I think it was Newcastle on Tyne,where the Lib Dems almost swept the board to turf Labour out of the Council,another area felt let down by Labour at the time.
The figures of the local results on thursday showed Labour, again and still, well and truly back in control of that council after the last 2 to 3 years of turning around that Lib Dem advance of the early 2000's then reclaiming it in 2011.
There will always be special local issues that influence voting in council elections which result in rises and falls.
What I was saying in the main was, while not taking away from UKIP the good results they got there in Rotherham, little will have really changed and I would be surprised if over the next Council elections that Labour don't begin to reverse those gains made.
Local elections are often very volatile,it is hard to read much into them.

Birmingham is another place too, which saw greta disillusionment with Labourwho were turfed out a good while ago, now that has been reversed and Labour solidly has control again.
The irony is that because UKIP took 8 seats from Labour in Rotherham, and did so ion many other areas too, that may well result in them being better councils for that happening.

[Kyle]

Aye your right I don't expect to see the trend continue too much unless Rotherham council really put their foot in it.

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Aye your right I don't expect to see the trend continue too much unless Rotherham council really put their foot in it.

In all honesty Kyle, I just wish councillors and MPs would just accept that they are there to serve the people not take them for granted.

It really dismays me as someone who loves and is really interested in politics, that once they have power it is more often than not that power becomes and is abused by an ever growing number of those elected,benefitting very few who actually voted for those in power of all parties,Councils or Governments.

Power to govern should be an honour and humbling not something ending in corruption and arrogance towards those who are asked to elect same.

[Kyle]

Originally Posted by joeysteele

In all honesty Kyle, I just wish councillors and MPs would just accept that they are there to serve the people not take them for granted.

It really dismays me as someone who loves and is really interested in politics, that once they have power it is more often than not that power becomes and is abused by an ever growing number of those elected,benefitting very few who actually voted for those in power of all parties,Councils or Governments.

Power to govern should be an honour and humbling not something ending in corruption and arrogance towards those who are asked to elect same.

You should have gone into politics Joey. I'd have voted for you. Someone with decency and knows what being a 'civil servant' is all about. I feel sorry for the people that go into politics with the same mandate as yours, they only get tarred with the same brush by cynical people like me who just can't be doing with it all anymore.