2/26 Louise Stewart's South East ~ Blog of Asad Mirjat

Louise Stewart's South East

Testing times for party leaders at local elections

February 17, 2011 at 11:16 PM

After the Government finally overcame stiff resistance from the House of Lords to get the legislation through Parliament, it's been confirmed there will be a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) on 5 May.

The referendum on changing the voting system will be held on the same date as more than 9,000 council seats across England are up for grabs in the local elections.

It will be an unprecedented set of polls and a real test of how voters feel about the coalition. It will also be a big test for Labour's new leader Ed Miliband and an opportunity to see how successful he's been at trying to win back support in the South East.

Ed Miliband will be hoping he can build on what happened at the local elections last year. Ironically the Labour party enjoyed a good day at the town hall polls just as it was being punished in the general election.

With net gains of 420 council seats and 15 authorities, Labour exceeded the expectations even of psephologists who forecast it would come out ahead because of the higher turnout guaranteed by a general election and because it had done so badly in 2009 when Labour suffered a humiliating defeat.

They lost more than 250 councillors and were left without control of a single county in England.

Labour will be heartened by research by the academics Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher which suggest that the party looks set to gain more than 1,000 seats and outright control of several additional councils in May's local elections.

They predict the unitary councils will provide the greatest opportunity for political change and estimate that Labour could win a dozen seats and become the largest party in Medway on the kind of swings it's achieving in local by-elections. They will hope to do the same in Brighton.

Labour will also be making a big push to try to win back some of the support they enjoyed in the South East under Tony Blair. If they can build on the current electoral trend it's feasible that Dover and Gravesham could swing from the Conservatives to Labour.

The 5 May will also be challenging for the Coalition parties.

It will be particularly tricky for the Liberal Democrats as their leader Nick Clegg staked his reputation on getting a referendum on the alternative vote at the time of the Coalition negotiations. Having secured the vote, if the people vote 'no', then it will be Nick Clegg facing a crisis amongst his own MPs.

Also worrying for the Liberal Democrat leader is the fact their poll rating has sunk to its lowest level since 1990 - that has been put down to the backlash over tuition fees. If that translates at the polls there is a real possibility that the Liberal Democrats will be punished by a national swing away from them towards blue and red.

The Conservatives for their part could find they are punished at the polls for decisions they have taken particularly the cuts to local government spending and the scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future scheme.

For David Cameron the Building Schools for the Future scheme also poses another problem.

If voters say 'yes' to AV he will face difficulties within his own party, particularly amongst backbenchers.

But if the public vote 'no' he can't be seen to gloat over his Coalition colleagues.

Testing times for parties as referendum and elections loom

February 17, 2011 at 11:16 PM

The referendum on changing the voting system will be held on the same date as more than 9,000 council seats across England are up for grabs in the local elections.

They lost more than 250 councillors and were left without control of a single county in England.

The 5 May will also be challenging for the Coalition parties.

For David Cameron the Building Schools for the Future scheme also poses another problem.

If voters say 'yes' to AV he will face difficulties within his own party, particularly amongst backbenchers.

But if the public vote 'no' he can't be seen to gloat over his Coalition colleagues.

Rail companies admit they were 'not quite ready' for snow

February 15, 2011 at 11:09 PM

Rail bosses have admitted they were "not quite ready" during the cold weather this winter

Finally, rail bosses have admitted what was apparent to any commuter in the South East left stranded during the bad weather last November - that they were "not quite ready" when the snow struck.

Executives from Network Rail, Southern Trains, and the Association of Train Operators were all giving evidence to a group of MPs on the Transport Committee.

They admitted mistakes were made during the severe weather. The Operations and Customer Services Director, Robin Gisby of Network Rail even said they "got into a pickle" on one particular day in early December when they tried to run a full timetable instead of a reduced one.

But they've all promised that lessons will be learnt.

We've heard that before though - after the severe weather caused travel disruption in the winter of 2009.

So why were they "not quite ready" when the snow fell, despite the fact we've now had a couple of harsh winters in a row?

There was much public debate about the closure of airports during the bad weather

The problem seems to be the great British weather is still pretty unpredictable which makes it difficult to plan.

The man tasked with investigating why the transport system struggled to cope, David Quarmby, said when he questioned the Met Office, it assured him there was no evidence that severe winters "clustered" together.

It will be cold comfort to the thousands of passengers stranded at airports in the snow but Mr Quarmby also said it was the right decision for Gatwick to close for two days.

He said they handled the situation better than Heathrow, where people were uncertain about how long it would remain shut.

And he said despite the myth that Britain is the only country that can't cope when it snows, Mr Quarmby pointed out that neither Germany nor Holland had fared any better than the UK in dealing with the snow this winter.

After two winters of severe disruption commuters will be hoping enough improvements have been made to help avoid a repeat performance next winter.

Kent Council victory in Building Schools for the Future case

February 11, 2011 at 5:39 PM

Kent was one of the areas worst affected when the Building Schools for the Future project was scrapped by the Coalition government back in July 2010.

Under the £55bn scheme introduced by Labour, every secondary school in England was to be either rebuilt or refurbished. But more than 700 school building projects were cancelled when the scheme was scrapped.

Rebuilding plans at 36 schools in Kent were halted and eight more were up for discussion when the Government pulled the plug on the scheme.

At the High Court Mr Justice Holman has now ruled in favour of the councils stating that the Education Secretary Michael Gove had unlawfully failed to consult them before imposing the cuts.

It is not the first time Mr Gove has been forced to apologise over BSF

He said that In five of the cases the failure was "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power".

Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham says "This ruling is a victory for all the communities and children betrayed by Michael Gove." He's calling for Mr Gove to apologise in the Commons.

It wouldn't be the first time Mr Gove had been forced to apologise over BSF. Last summer the Education Secretary "apologised unreservedly" to council leaders over mistakes on a list of schools affected by building cuts.

The mistakes meant schools thought their plans would go ahead, only for them to find out later that they would not.

This ruling is a further embarrassment for him - particularly as Kent County Council is one of the biggest councils in the country and is also the only Conservative-lead council to challenge the Government over this. It has put its Leader Paul Carter at loggerheads with the Education Secretary.

The Government says it will now consider submissions from the six councils before it makes a fresh decision on the future of school rebuilding or refurbishment in their areas.

It may not mean the projects which were halted in Kent will now get the green light but this ruling does leave Michael Gove facing renewed questions about his judgement.