What is one to make of last week’s election results? Clearly, it was a good result for the Tories who increased their share of the vote and added a further eight councillors to give them a cast-iron grip on the county.
The party did not appear to suffer from the expenses scandal, although we can testify that there were one or two jumpy Tory candidates out there thinking they would.
It was Labour and the Lib Dems that suffered, both parties losing significant strongholds — Labour in Didcot and Banbury and the Lib Dems in Abingdon and surrounding areas.
Was this a verdict on MPs’ expenses? Logically, one would say not as one would expect the main parties to suffer equally. Was it a verdict on the Government? Probably, and this was clearly the message the Tory group leader Keith Mitchell was giving out.
We would contend, however, that the most significant result of the night was the turnout, at 38 per cent. It was massively down on 2005, which admittedly coincided with a General Election, and we would guess is one of the lowest turnouts we have seen for a county election in Oxfordshire.
Was that a reflection of the electorate’s dismay at Westminster shenanigans?
Probably so.
In many ways, the Euro election results were more interesting with the Greens polling the second-highest vote in the county and the highest vote within Oxford itself. That made the Greens the biggest beneficiary of the MPs’ expenses scandal, although it did not do them much good. Caroline Lucas retained her place as the only Green MEP in the South East but the Greens actually lost seats to Labour on the county council.
For the Tories in Oxfordshire, it was the sort of result they could only dream about ten years ago. Their control of the county is as strong as it has been in recent history.
And yet, the party is still unable to win a seat in Oxford. It is not for want of trying. Blanket 20mph limits in Oxford and the Transform Oxford proposals were clearly an attempt to make the Tories more appealing to city voters.
Once again, however, we are left with a ruling group at County Hall that can claim no representation at all in the city at the heart of Oxfordshire.
With the Conservatives having such a strong hold on the county, it is more important than ever that opposition voices are heard at County Hall.
The Tories will take all the places in the council’s executive. That is only right. They have been elected on a platform and Conservative representatives should be in the positions to deliver that platform.
They are also expected to take all the chairmanships of the council’s scrutiny committees, which are there to hold the executive to account.
This is not good. These committees should be able to express a dissenting voice, they should be able to challenge the executive and they should be able to investigate alternative ways of doing things.
We would like to see these chairmanships shared out among the parties and going to people who have an interest and a passion for their subject, irrespective of the colour of their politics
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