Lib Dem froth, Labour substance

Posted By: Robin Parker
Date Posted: 30/11/2007

Well, we held it. In spite of the electorate being battered by news of alleged donations corruption from Downing Street on one side and half a rain forest of Focuses on the other, North Middleton remains in Labour hands. Ibby Khan has lost his mantle as the youngest councillor to Jonathan Burns who will, I am sure, have a great political career in front of him.

Of course, the Lib Dems will be gloating that they took us to the wire, but they know that this was their one chance and they blew it. The campaign brought out issues for us regarding organisation which will be addressed well before the elections next May. But the key thing for many of us was to know that there is a core of people who believe in Labour values and will stick with them through good times and bad. The Lib Dems don’t have such a base. Their values are as good as the next piece of opportunism that comes their way and consequently their votes fly to and from them like will o’ the wisp. Tory voters who turned to the Lib Dems in the hope of defeating Labour were missing the point. They have their core values, albeit diametrically opposed to ours, but they should stick with them. History shows that opportunism is the true enemy of democracy.

I didn’t raise the attacks against me on the prayers issue at the count. The look on her face told me that she was paying the price for her arrogant words. There was, however, one moment of pure pleasure for the Labour contingent. After the result was announced there was a noise from the gallery. We looked up and there was Murph, who’d been working like a trojan all day, clicking a pair of castanets in a victory celebration. Buenas noches.