28% of the vote for Clegg’s Lib Dems and little to show for it!

The Labour Party were slaughtered at the local elections.  Pure and simple, they have been wiped from the face of local Government across the country.  Brown fears a general election…he is a man that runs from a vote…be it for the leadership of the Party, be it the Lisbon Treaty and of course a general election.  If he remains leader don’t expect one until 2010…as he clings to power until the last possible milisecond!

But he is a vindictive man.  He privately knows that Labour will be annihilated at a general election and it could take years before they are in a fit state to govern again.  Maybe 10 years plus. 

Hence do not be surprised to hear Brown propose a new electoral system based on PR.  At the local elections the Conservatives polled 38% of the popular vote, with the Lib Dems on 28% and Labour 23%. 

But how did this vote translate into councillors and control of councils under first past the post?

As we know, results are now in from the 34 Councils that went to the polls.  The Conservatives have 1476 councillors, as opposed to the Lib Dems 473 and Labour collapsing to just 176 councillors.  But more importantly, the Conservatives now have won control of 30 Councils, while the Lib Dems only managed 1, (and they lost control of Devon & Somerset to the Conservatives!).  Labour lost all their control over 4 councils.  Worst for Labour was seeing Lancashire collapse, where Labour lost 25 seats, 18 of those to the Conservatives.  Lancashire is pure red country.

Hence Gordon will look at the results and PR may make sense to help minimise the crushing defeat he would receive at the hands of the electorate and the Conservative Party.  He would secure far more Labour MP’s under PR than he will manage under first past the post in the 2010 election.

Brown may even seek to calm his backbenchers fears of losing their seat this week by announcing a PR system, which would save many of them losing their seats.  This may even be a tactic he uses to save his leadership!

Of course, Nick Clegg wants PR more than anything.  Clegg will be gutted that first past the post has again deprived the Lib Dems.  This was a poor night for the Lib Dems, given the unpopularity of Labour, they would have hoped to have a better showing than they did.  Their share of the vote was up but they cannot convert this to winning seats/councillors.  Nick Clegg is an impressive politician at times.  He has landed some heavy blows on Gordon Brown at PMQ’s and his leadership over the Gurkha’s was very impressive.  He must have been expecting a good performance for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections and I am sure is disapointted and will blame the electoral system for being unfair.

Let’s watch over the coming days and see if Brown is a convert to PR.

Speaker Michael Martin has just announced that he is going to give a statement tomorrow on MP’s expenses.  Rumours are circulating Westminster like wildfire that he will announce that he will step down at the next election. 

However, is this enough?  Given the growing calls for him to go, the disrespect & contempt people hold for him, the Great Office of the Speaker is being damaged.  The centuries old tradition of not criticising Speakers has been broken, with a Leader of a Major Political Party, Nick Clegg, calling for his head.

Given the sheer hostility people feel towards politicians and the expenses scandal, the House of Commons needs to be seen to react.  It is not enough to sit and wait for the Chris Kelly report for late this year. 

As previously blogged, Speaker Martin has had a bad few months, be it over the Damien Green issue or MP’s Expenses and the way he has been slow to grasp the severity of this issue…or indeed his disrespectful remarks to MP’s in the House last week, including Kate Hoey….shows that the Office of the Speaker is being dragged down by Martin’s actions.

Speaker Martin should announce that he is going with immediate effect after an election for a new Speaker.

That is the first step of many to show the House of Commons wants to regain the public’s trust.

For the sake of Parliament, for the sake of the Honourable history of the Office of the Speaker.. Michael Martin….GO NOW.

If he refuses to then MP’s should vote with a clear conscience and support Douglas Cardwell’s motion tomorrow.  But let’s hope that Martin decides to go down with dignity that scrapping like an alley cat.

Not often that a Conservative blogger calls out a strong performance for the the Leader of the Lib Dems but Nick Clegg put in his strongest performance in Prime Minister’s questions for a long time and landed punches worthy of Muhammed Ali in his prime.

Often Nick gets overshadowed in PMQ’s and does not ask hard hitting questions. Today, perhaps because of his passion around the Gurkha’s, perhaps that David Cameron had already asked his questions on Gurkha’s and shot his bolt, Clegg finally hit back.

Gordon Brown put in one of his most lack lustre performances in the Commons for a long time. He seemed distracted, he mumbled, often resorting to saying ‘err’. At times he rambled on so much that he seemed to bore himself.

David Cameron today asked very constructive Statesman questions and posed a great solution for the Gurkha’s, involving entering a clause into Immigration legislation passing through the House. As ever, because it was not Brown’s idea, he avoided it.

Clegg asked his first question. Brown completed avoided it and answered what he wanted to. This obviously pissed off Clegg and he hit back. In a devastating way. Brown has ‘acted disgracefully’ over the Gurkha’s and Clegg nailed him on it.  The mood in the House was electric.  Stunned perhaps that Clegg had clubbed an uppercut that for the first time knocked Brown to the canvass.

Iain Dale, premier league blogger—(he should be in Parliament….find him a safe seat quick), marked the Leader of the Lim Dems as the ‘winner’ of PMQ’s this week. Take a look….

At the end of PMQ’s, Brown was due to make a Statement on Afghanistan. Because he so obviously performed so badly and he was so embarrassed to now be beaten up by the Lim Dem leader, hunched his shoulders and was rushing out of the chamber and had to be called back.

I doubt I will often write this, but great work Nick Clegg.

Catch up with this video posted on YouTube by ITNNews today

Also watch Gordon Brown rush from the House today after his verbal bruising. 

This video was posted by Spoiltballot on YouTube earlier: