Tory Reckless Policies

A victory for Labour but not one which points to anything in May. Labour in Medway is confident of stopping the blue-tide which has decimated our towns, but we also know that the Conservatives are entrenched locally with institutional support at all levels of local government.

This blog agrees wholeheartedly with the blog post by Luke Akehurst, Labour NEC member that despite the result there remain marked differentiations between regions of the United Kingdom and the South East remains stubborn to change

A lesson for Medway Labour:

"But we need to be careful to stay sober about its wider strategic significance.

I don't see this as a big way marker on the route to victory like Dudley West or Wirral South were in the '90s. OE&S is too idiosyncratic a seat - the next General Election will be won in Con vs Lab marginals and OE&S is a rare Lab vs LD fight (though if Cameron hadn't switched off his machine to help Clegg it should have been a three-way marginal).

Cameron's vote slump (with apparent Tory switchers direct to Labour, as well as to the LDs and UKIP) provides a political problem for him as his own rightwingers will view him as having betrayed grassroots campaigners in order to try to help Clegg.

The willingness of Tories to vote tactically for the LDs, and of the two parties to collude on where they put up a fight, is extremely worrying from a Labour point-of-view.

We need to be careful not to let euphoria at one good win stop us from making the comprehensive policy and strategy review that is the appropriate response to getting thumped to a 29% defeat in the General Election.

And we need to note that the LDs were still competitive in a target seat for them even when bumping along at 7-9% nationally - they are not a wholly dead parrot yet.

This is the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end."

The Tories also have to learn a lesson. Do not play games with the electorate like you have done by encouraging Tories to vote Liberal Democrats

Learn from the mistakes and step back from the reckless cuts agenda which is harming our local community.

Like River Ward in September we have a long way to go but a welcome result.