There was some satisfaction

I must thank the 205 people of the Seamer Ward in Scarborough who voted Labour in the local elections just held. This tally was just sufficient to help me beat the candidate who came last, who happened to be a Tory. I spent today down at the Grand Hall of Scarborough’s Spa where the count was held, and it has to be said the Tories were a bit shellshocked by their results, which saw them lose several seats. But we also had here a class of victorious independents who are mainly Conservative, but play a pretence of independence and benefit from the protest vote. Their tally improved dramatically. So my prediction is that my local council will be a Conservative/Independent run authority. Local people won’t notice the difference of course, austerity will continue as normal. And given the media’s focus on Labour nationally losing a few score or more seats to the Tories’ loss of 1,200 seats, all eyes will be on the ‘Corbyn problem’ as if that were the only game in town. I suspect that now may be a good time for Labour to withdraw from its Brexit talks with this wholly discredited government and restate its position more loudly. It means taking a risk and opposing Brexit. Period.