Fat free elections

+Election fever here in Scarborough for our new town council has hardly hit new highs and most of the contestants don’t seem to be doing much to encourage a big turnout in the first ever election for the new council. I suspect most people are still wondering what the town council will actually do, not least the candidates themselves. This new democratic opportunity is not unique to Scarborough. Just south of here the people of Hull and East Yorkshire will vote, if they can be arsed, for a new executive mayor. Executive mayors are seen as the great panacea for cutting edge decision making and getting things done. But this bit from LabourList does not auger well: ‘Once nicknamed the UK’s “most disillusioned city” when it comes to voting, it’s clear that above even policy, politicians are fighting a battle for attention. In the 2019 general election, three of the four constituencies with the lowest turnout were in Hull, and in 2024 the area remained towards the bottom of the table.’ The anecdotal evidence in the article suggests that not many people even know about the election. The thing about all these new mayoralities being created is that nobody voted for their introduction—it’s a top down solution to Whitehall’s perception that local government can’t tell its arse (that word again) from its elbow and needs some American-style thrust. As things stand, it once again looks like Reform UK’s moment. Quite a shift from my day as a councillor on Hull City Council, with 60 members: 59 Labour and one Tory. That too I suspect was the product of apathy, but now low turnouts seem geared to deliver non-stop volatility.

+Meanwhile an election over the pond is generating more news interest than usual, with Canadians heading to a general election even asking (we are told) what it is to be a Canadian, thanks to Trump’s threats. Mark Carney, the Liberal leader and former Bank of England governor stands a good chance of winning. This would probably be a better result than the Tories succeeding, but as political history teaches us, winning an election on the basis of being good at opposing something doesn’t always lead to much beyond a sigh of relief for the victor—before reality sinks in. Gordon Brown comes to mind, but there are many other examples.