Some common senses, Please!

Again, Labour did not win Bransley Central they held on to a seat that was already theirs – and good on them considering the circumstances which triggered the by-election. So well-done Labour, big pad on the back and all that – but let’s keep things in prospective!

On the other hand – it is definitely not welcome news for the Tories to come third with a drop on their share of the votes or the LibDems to end up on sixth place. But none of these outcomes were surprising either, because the two parties are in coalition and the government of the day always gets a beating in by-elections. Last parliament the conservatives won Crewe and Nantwich a safe Labour seat and Norwich when they were in opposition. Plus let’s face it, the Tories winning Bransley is like Labour winning Westminster or Kensington. Last week I did some telephone canvassing for our candidate James Hockney, and after two and half hours and hundreds of calls later I found four Conservative voters and they were all in one household!

However, what I find tasteless is the LibDem bashing, it seems now has turned into a full blown witch hunt by Labour who obviously stands to gain form a coalition bust up, and the media who are more and more turning into an ASBO’s kid with their constant indiscriminate bullying of the Liberals. Of course they equally stand to gain form a bust up, albeit short, yet sensational news reporting for a few days until a new prey surfaces. Now, whether that temporary gratification will do any damage long term is any body’s guess!

Expecting Labour to grow up and act responsibly is hard – almost a year on and they have yet to come to terms with losing the General Election and most are still deficit deniers trying hard to understand why the Tories did not match Labour’s 08/09 spending plans as promised (before they saw the actual extend of the shortage and the true state of affairs). But until these two issues are resolved expecting any sense to come out of Labour is a total waste of time and energy.

As for the media, you’d expect some sense, but with the 24/7 news cycle, the cut throat competition and the declining need for news outlets as “the only News source” – it is understandable why sensationalism is no longer the reserve of the Sunday Tabloids.