The electorate's appetite for vengeance has delivered grim results for Britain's governing parties, writes MARK HENNESSY
CASUALLY DRESSED British prime minister David Cameron stood despondently in the early hours in the Conservative Party’s election headquarters, running his hands through his hair.
He had reason to be glum. The results even then emerging from council elections across Britain were bleak, while the news in the hours that followed rarely improved – bar Boris Johnson’s apparent triumph in London.
Even there, Johnson’s success had as much to do with his personal appeal as with affection for his party; along with Labour’s flawed decision to opt for Ken Livingstone as its candidate in the first place.
Before lunchtime Cameron was out expressing sympathy to swathes of Conservative councillors who had fallen. He told them that losses were down to national, not local causes.
Throughout the day Conservative ministers downplayed the outcome, putting it down to late-arriving, but predictable mid-term blues that affect any administration.
Despite the Labour gains, the Conservatives noted that the majority of council seats contested were in urban wards – unlike those in next year’s round that will be held in traditional Tory shires.
However, the results show that the drive to spread the Conservative message in the north of England has hit a road block. In Sunderland, for example, Conservatives fell to Labour in numbers.
Just as importantly, they show that the Conservatives are losing support to the UK Independence Party, which nearly doubled its support in wards where it had previously run.
In last year’s local elections, the Conservatives did well, escaping the pain that comes with government that instead fell squarely on the shoulders of Liberal Democrats.
This time the results have again been dreadful for the Liberal Democrats. They had hoped desperately that the public had punished them enough in last year’s contests.
However, the appetite for vengeance remains undimmed, leaving the Liberal Democrats with their lowest number of local authority representatives to date.
Curiously, the figures show that the smaller coalition party did best, if the word can be used, in contests where their principal challenger came from Conservative rather than Labour ranks.
The issue now is what impact the outcome will have on the future of the Conservatives/Liberal Democrats coalition, with loud complaints emerging in numbers from the Conservatives.
As in all coalitions the parties involved must remained unified enough to get anything done, while, at the same time, emphasising their individual identities.
The danger now, however, is that the battle of identities looms larger, leaving the public – one struggling in tough economic times – to judge that they are being ruled by a disunited rabble.
Cameron, however, has little room for manoeuvre. For many in the Conservatives he is not Conservative enough, with many of his MPs ever louder for a less conciliatory attitude in coalition.
Conservative MP Stuart Jackson, who quit last year as a ministerial aide, said Cameron was now on notice to ignore “the liberal clique around him” and to drop “barmy policies like Lords reform”.
The first target may be Cameron’s support for the legalisation of gay marriage, which has infuriated some of the party’s constituency organisations and led to a falling away to Ukip.
Meanwhile Labour leader Ed Miliband trumpeted his party’s gains, arguing that Labour was no longer contaminated by its years in power.
However, Ed Balls, the powerful Labour shadow chancellor, worked hard to suppress optimism. He again insisted that Labour still had “much work to do”.
The Livingstone defeat in London is a blow. But it is softened by substantial Labour success in the battle for the London Assembly, along with a potentially useful victory in Southampton.
The Southampton success will offer Labour grounds for hope that they can reverse the 2010 general election result, where the party’s MPs south of the M25 around London were notable by their rarity.
However, the results in the midlands – key battleground in a general election – are good, but not yet good enough to send Miliband to number 10 if replicated in a national vote.
Meanwhile, Labour’s hopes of ousting Respect’s George Galloway – who sensationally won last month’s Bradford West byelection – in 2015 have been dented, after Respect gains.
For now though, Miliband will focus on the positive. Stopping the gallop of Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party for control of Glasgow City Council will be particularly sweet.
