I come to the end of another, personally, inconclusive month. This occasional blog provides me with both motivation and punctuation. When I review events and plan the post, I realise there are things that have been interesting, amusing, and noteworthy. So here goes.
On the 2nd May England went to the polls to elect local government representatives in some areas. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not have elections. We live in the district of Broadland just outside Norwich. The only election in our area was for the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner. In nearby Norwich there were city council seats being contested, as well as the County Police and Crime Commissioner.
I am a card-carrying Liberal Democrat while Ailsa is a member of the Green Party. As there were no seats being contested in our ward Ailsa got very involved in the Green’s Norwich campaign, mainly delivering leaflets. I was happy to help as it was a productive way of getting a walk in. Some of her ‘rounds’ were long, but it was good exercise and, in the end, was worthwhile.
Norwich has been a Labour Council for many years. This year the Green candidates won six of the thirteen seats up for election, Labour won the same and one Liberal Democrat was elected. The composition of the city council is now: Labour Party – 19 seats; Green Party – 15 seats; Liberal Democrats – 3 seats; and Independent – 2 seats. This means that Labour has lost control of the council. The Conservatives did not even come close to winning a single seat.
Nationally the Tories had an absolute drubbing. They ended up with 515 councillors, having lost 474 seats and coming third in terms of the number of seats won. Labour won the most seats across the country: 1,158, an increase of 186. The big surprise for me was that Liberal Democrats came third with 522 councillors, an increase of 104 councillors. Nationally The Greens did credibly with 181 seats, an increase of 74.1
There were some other noteworthy developments. We saw the national participation of Reform UK for the first time. This right-wing populist political party evolved from the Brexit Party. They did not do well, but must be watched, their abhorrent, racist, capitalist policies are dangerous.
Secondly, the Labour Party lost votes from Asian constituents, particularly Muslims, because of their failure to condemn Israeli actions in Gaza. This may pose a challenge for future elections as local votes reflect foreign policy. According to census data 94% of the population of England and Wales answered the question about their religion:
“46.2% of the population described themselves as “Christian”, 6.5% as “Muslim”, and 1.7% as “Hindu”. 37.2% of the population asserted that they had “no religion”.”2
There are concentrations of Muslims, for example in Birmingham where there are 280,000, or in Tower Hamlets where they make up nearly 40 percent of the population. They registered their distaste for Labour’s policies.
Blackpool South was the only Parliamentary constituency to have a by-election. This was the result of the resignation of incumbent Tory MP Scott Benton. He had to resign as he was caught in a newspaper sting operation offering lobbying services for payment. If he had not resigned, he would have been fired. Labour romped home here with nearly 60% of the vote, the Tories only got 17.5%, but concerningly Reform UK got nearly 17%.
There were elections for Mayors in 11 large metropolitan areas. Labour won 10 of these. It was perhaps not a surprise that Sadiq Khan won a third term in London. The Tories only took Teesside, but tellingly the candidate distanced himself from the party. For me the most delicious result was in the West Midlands where the sitting Conservative Mayor, Andy Street, lost by just 1,508 votes to the Labour candidate. This was unexpected as he was a popular politician and much liked personally, indeed he played down his links to the Tories. I am not sympathetic, as the saying goes: “Lie down with dogs and get up with fleas”.
Let me switch from national events to ultra local, and particularly our garden. April was cold and damp. This is not bad for the garden of course. We had to take down a few trees recently, this was painful, but the reality was that there really was not room for them all. The garden is still an oasis for wildlife. The lawn is no longer a green desert as I now leave areas uncut as a mini rewilding project. To be honest, having to manoeuvre the mower means it takes longer than it did, but I think it is worth it. When we walk round the neighbourhood, two things appal me, the number of front gardens that have artificial grass, and the way, when houses change hands, the new owners, when developers, simply rip out the gardens, bushes, and trees. Why?
Our bird life in our garden is impressive. I think the fact that we no longer have domestic animals, and the neighbourhood cats know they are not welcome makes a difference. Many of the first broods have already hatched, fledged, and flown. Ailsa rescued a newly fledged wren from a cat. She brought it home and we had set up a temporary lodging. It was, I suspect, older and more capable than we realised. It spurned our offer and flew off, albeit not very confidently.
This year our neighbours installed a nest box on the side of their garage. This was altruistic to us and the birds since it is on the side of the garage that faces our property, and they (the neighbours, not the birds) cannot see it easily. It is occupied by blue tits, and it is a real joy to see them popping in and out of the box. The holes are minute, and it seems impossible that they can get in, but they do. One developed an unhealthy relationship with the car mirror and would spend hours pecking at its reflection. This behaviour has diminished now he has a family to feed.
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Swifts, according to my diary they are late this year. I suspect the weather had a role to play in this. Five nest boxes were installed under the eaves three years ago. We were warned that the birds are picky, but I really hope they take up the offer. Other bird news from Brabazon road is that we are being visited by crows, starlings, and occasionally blue jays. Stop press, I heard the first Swift this afternoon.
A year ago, there were six bicycles in the shed. I did a cull and gave two away, one to the chap who repairs our cycles. The one I used the most went in for repair a few months ago. He warned me that it was not worth doing again, various key components are wearing out and/or buckled. Sure enough it has come to the end of its life, so a trip to the dump is scheduled. This means I must get the first reserve cycle out and dust it down. My second bike is a mountain bike with large tires which are not great on paved roads. I am seriously considering getting an electric bike, it would extend my range! They are not cheap though.
I am working on my memoir putting words down on paper. The problem is it is not very good and needs extensive editing. I need to buckle down to this. I learnt many years ago that I am not a naturally fluent or interesting prose writer. This was thanks to the excellent editorial team at the Oxford University Press. A manuscript I submitted came back, not with edits on every page, but every paragraph! Initially I was offended but as I went through them, I realised they made it coherent and readable. At the end of the process, I thought, ‘I can’t write’. It was sobering.
Alan Whiteside 