| Topic: | Re:The telephone poll | |
| Posted by: | Robin Taylor | |
| Date/Time: | 10/08/10 09:13:00 |
| "On the question of whether the tram was decisive in the election I would suggest you ask your colleagues in the local Labour party. Every one of them that I have spoken to lays the blame for their unexpected defeat in 2006 squarely at the door of the tram." I have Labour Party colleagues not just in Ealing but in various other parts of London - and they are all baffled by some of the seats they lost on the night of Thursday May 4 2006. They just can't understand it! Perhaps you can explain to them what went wrong for Labour in their particular area - which was no where near (and completely unaffected by) any tram issue. "This time around all the seats were regained with ease." That is simply not true. One of the areas where the tram issue supposedly had a great resonance was Hanwell/West Ealing. We were told that the Tories won seats in Elthorne, Hobbayne and Walpole because of the tram. But guess what? After the 2010 local elections ALL OF THESE WARDS STILL HAVE TORY COUNCILLORS!! How come? Surely if the tram was such a vote loser for Labour in 2006 then these seats should have produced big swings back to Labour in 2010 (when the tram issue was dead and buried). Yet Labour's gains were far more sweeping in wards much further away from the proposed tram line (e.g. Mandeville, Perivale). The simple truth is that the electoral facts do not conform to the narrow view of those who opposed the tram. |