Love of Labour lost? The local elections

Local election campaigns are once again lurching into action in preparation for May 4th, and NHS woes would seem to indicate labour has even more to fear than usual.

I should be whipped for it, but I didn't know until yesterday after some stats research that local councils in the UK are dominated by the Conservatives. According to the Beeb website, out of 2392 councillors and 37 councils in the UK, the Cons hold 65% and 50% respectively. The Lib Dem figures are 21% and 8%.

A few of these stats are interesting. The Lib Dem 21% figure is rather close to the circa 20% support the party finds itself with in the general elections, but the Cons enjoy almost exactly double the 32% support they fought for in the 2005 general election.

Clearly Labour are going to have to watch things now that they've been forced to acknowledge a failure every day since the resignation/sacking of Sir Nigel Crisp from the positions of Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of the DOH on March 31st.

Patricia Hewitt appeared yesterday on the Today programme’s 0810 interview to defend the huge staff cuts occurring across the country. The Health Secretary sounded eloquent as ever, but in this case her comments were rendered redundant by the figures which showed the hospitals in worst financial condition were suffering cuts of between 200 and 1000 staff each. Regardless of the repeated mentions in the Chancellor’s budget over the last few years of the billions of pounds being poured into the system. So where's the leak?

This came in the same week when the blame about the conditions of loans and donations to political parties was neatly deflected onto the Tories, nevertheless revealing the increasing pressure on the party in power – a pressure that the Conservatives will have to maintain to remain with a chance in what promises to be a closely fought election.

The former red sea of supporters looks increasingly sparse and unlikely to be able to keep a timid kitten from the banks of victory, let alone the crowd of eager Cameronites poised in their company yacht.