The 9th of June was judgement day in the General Election when the results for the 3 Sandwell Constituencies were announced.
In Warley, the Conservative share of the vote increased, while Labour majorities in West Bromwich West and West Bromwich East were significantly reduced. More worrying for Labour, the returns in wards which they had so often taken for granted showed a definite and decisive swing to the Tories.
Patriotic, hard working and level headed people had no time for the unshaven socialist scruff who currently leads the Labour party, even if he had been spruced up with suit and tie for the tele and the election.
Folks could not see him representing Great Britain in the councils of the world and certainly not defending our interests. After all this is the bloke who if Russian tanks rolled into Eastern Europe would talk them out of aggression, who would replace trident as a nuclear deterrent but would not press the button. Some deterrent that would be.
After Corbyn’s opposition to air strikes on terrorist ISIL in Syria, comment was made “How does Jeremy Corbyn and his tiny band of trots in the bunker think they’ve got a unique view on it all. If anyone should resign….it should be Jeremy Corbyn”
The speaker was John Spellar newly re-elected Labour MP for Warley. Spellar is only one voice in a chorus of disapproval and distrust in the Labour party in respect of Corbyn.
Of course we had the usual promises, money for this, that and the other. The laughable Diane Abbott “misspoke” and was unable to say how much the promised increase in police numbers would cost. Leader Corbyn questioned on Woman’s Hour about the cost of providing free childcare for 1.3 million children could only stammer “It will cost a lot” a couple of times then wittered on about giving children a start. Presumably, the free start he was promising to children of millionaires, because the benefit was not to be means tested, would have appealed to Ms. Abbott who shelled out to privately educate her child, despite having pandered to the trots by criticising Blair and Harman for doing likewise.
The manifesto was the same old spend now and worry about payment later. People who remember a Labour government have heard it all before and know it means higher taxes and more government borrowing and then higher taxes to pay for that borrowing.
They have seen benefits spiral so that for some idleness has paid more than work and have resented having to support fecklessness. A social security system that supports the needy not the greedy is what most Sandwell people want. They have little truck for socialist dogmas straight from north London drawing rooms, cocooned by wealth and privilege against world realities.
But it is not just ineptitude and other worldliness that marks Corbyn’s Labour. There is a streak of nastiness and exploitation of misery for political gain which sometimes surfaces. After the London Bridge/Borough Market atrocity, there was a hint that “cuts” and reduced police numbers might have had a part to play. Precisely how more bobbies would have prevented fanatical terrorists driving a van into innocent pedestrians, then stabbing anyone in their path, Labour chose not to explain. The deadliest London terrorist attack, that of 7/7, occurred before police rationalisation, alias “cuts”. While Jeremy Corbyn might have a track record of reluctance to condemn terrorists, we attribute blame solely to the vile scum who carried out that attack.
The aversion shown to Labour by former supporters reflected not only scepticism in respect of the party’s promises, but an abandonment of the old belief, so long pedalled by Labour, that it is the party of and for the working person. Sandwell residents have learned by long experience.
According to a certain Tom Watson, Friar Park ward has been blighted by a “generation of neglect” Residents have “waited too long” for improvements. “We need redevelopment after a generation of neglect. Residents deserve better” said the same Tom Watson, now re-elected MP for the area.
During that “generation of neglect”, Mr Watson has represented the area for the last 16 years, throughout 3 Labour councillors have represented the Friar Park ward on the council and Sandwell council has always been dominated by the Labour party.
Rip Van Winkle Watson?