If the opinion polls are anything like right Gordon Brown may well be in an untenable position after Thursdays elections.

 

Assuming that the Labour vote does collapse the fallout could be:

 

Brown resigns, a new Labour leader is elected who would have to call a General Election on the basis that we wouldn't accept yet another "unelected" PM

 

Brown tries to tough it out, leading to further internal division in New Labour and ultimately resulting in a massive loss whenever he decides to call the next GE

 

Brown reckons "what the hell" and calls a GE anyway.........not likely on his past record!

 

All of the scenarios are pretty bleak for New Labour but I do wonder if David Cameron could force the issue and help lance the expenses boil?

 

I read somewhere this week (can't remember where) a proposal for every Conservative MP to resign from parliament - forcing the best part of 200 by elections.

 

I quite like this!

 

It would be an ideal opportunity to "purge" the Tory MP's tainted by the expenses scandal, eliminate the criticism that such MP's will earn another years worth of salary (& pension pot benefits), allow local parties to run a selection process and above all else it would show a radical approach to putting the "house in order".

 

There is a risk that the other main party's wouldn't stand in the by elections (remember Haltemprice & Howden last July?) but I reckon the British public would go for this & it might just force a dissolution of parliament & the GE that we all want.

 

 

In this weeks Council Committee papers was a report that I thought quite useful in showing the costs associated with the various recycling activities carried out in the Borough.

 

A couple of things struck me:

 

(1) Last year 558 tonnes of recyclable plastic was collected at a contract cost of £201k. This was offset by income of £42k from selling the plastic & recycling credits - net "loss" of £159k

 

(2) Also 5,906 tonnes of green waste was collected - again at a "loss" of £301k

 

Looking at these figures, there must be a debate about the desirability and value for money of these services.

 

The green waste collection, although operating at twice the loss of the plastics collects 10x as much material.

 

I am concerned why we are collecting a relatively small amount of plastics at such a high cost.

 

I am sure the Environmental Services Committee will be looking at these issues in detail at a future meeting.

Quite an interesting canvass session in Cheshunt Central Ward today.

 

I have to admit to approaching the session with some trepidation given the "hammering" that politicians have received in the past few weeks - however I was pleasantly surprised.

 

The overwhelming majority of people we spoke to "on the doorstep" were friendly, responsive and understood that our County Council election candidate wasn't tainted by the abuses at Westminster.

 

Some people, raised concerns about the expenses scandal but when they realised that we are just as outraged seemed to accept that as local activists we are trying to do our best for local people.

 

Most revealing was only a couple of people previously "identified" as Conservative voters said they would now vote for another party, there was no obvious sign of a growth in BNP support & not a single person said they would vote socialist.

It comes as no great surprise that Julie Kirkbride has announced her intention to stand down as Bromsgrove's MP at the next General Election.

 

There has been a media feeding frenzy about her situation and I believe that her position had, rightly or wrongly, become untenable.

 

Iain Dale has been reporting that the "locals" acting as the driving force for the "Julie Out" petition are actually RESPECT party activists - not that it's been widely broadcast in the media.