- More (potential) postal vote fraud in Birmingham in the run-up to next week's local elections. Only this time it's the Lib Dems, not Labour... Nice one, guys.
And herein lies the reason why local elections should be voted for on local, not national issues. The Lib Dems may be a valid protest vote at a General Election - but locally they've got just as much potential for corruption as the rest. It varies from council to council, ward to ward - and can be bloody complicated to work out even if you live there, let alone if you don't. Expecially at local elections where votes can actually carry some weight, think carefully where you mark your "x" - because put it in the wrong box and you could live to regret it.
1 Comments:
See, in a properly functioning democracy, I'd agree completely. Local councils would be autonomous units with control over their finances and responsible for solving local problems and taking charge of those issues defined as theirs.
Instead, everything is controlled from Whitehall such that most councillors have very little power except over who gets the bin collection contract.
In addition, the media and the whitehall politicians will pay attention to the results and take them as a 'national referenda' regardless of result.
On the other hand, local issues do make a huge difference; my local (libDem) council is absolutely useless, but the local Tories were just as bad when they ran it. The only hope the local LibDem MP has really is to make sure the local councillors are out next year, so he no longer gets associated with them.
If Labour do well (and they're defending against their worst results in years int he equivalend seats last time, then Blair will trumpet it as an endorsement. Regardless of local issues.
Stupid non-functioning democracy.
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