Tameside Labour gravy train hits the buffer.

 

It was fairly predictable that voters in Tameside were going to give Labour a bloody nose. One councillor who lost his seat after 42 years, said that people made it clear to him when he was out on the stump, that they hate Starmer and his Labour government. 

Angela Rayner who was until recently, part of Starmer's despised Labour government, campaigned in Droylsden, and both Labour candidates lost their seats. It would have been more helpful to both candidates if she had kept away because her name is so toxic. Rayner has become something of a semi-detached MP and I believe she's rarely seen in her constituency these days. Most of her time is now spent at her luxury £800,000 sea front property in Brighton & Hove, which she shares with her "soul mate", Sam Tarry. 

There were also local issues. The closure of Ashton baths has cost Labour votes as well as councillor Eleanor Will's expenses paid jolly, to the South of France. Ashton town centre is full of beggars and rough sleepers. The disruption they've caused to Armentieres Square, in Stalybridge, has also cost Labour votes. It seems to be taking Biblical ages to lay a bit of tarmac and this has disrupted public transport. 

I am surprised that the Tameside Labour gravy train lasted as long as it did. The Borough has been a Labour one-party state for the last 47 years and that's not good for democracy. Labour politics in Tameside had become incestuous and nepotistic. There were far too many husbands and wives on the council. The current Labour leader, Eleanor Wills, is the third member of her family to be a Tameside Labour councillor.