Cheers and Jeers #9 (local elections special)

What a sensational set of results for the Liberal Democrats!

Here's my latest news roundup, in which I cheer or jeer the week's events (sorry it's been a while since the last instalment...)


Cheers to everyone – and I mean everyone – behind the fantastic local election results...indeed, the best ever local election results for the Liberal Democrats. Cheers to every candidate, every campaigner, every volunteer, every agent – and, lest we forget, every voter. Thanks to you all!

Cheers for all those new councillors – 700 of them! – who will now bring their liberal values to directly serving their local communities. Cheers for many of my personal friends, some of whom were hopeful but not confident of being elected, who I know will make fantastic councillors. Cheers for those who will now be leading councils for the first time, and for those making breakthroughs in areas which haven’t had a Liberal councillor in decades.

Cheers to the tireless optimists, the relentless door-knockers, the encouragers, the positive thinkers and those who simply refuse to give up hope. Because of them we’ve won in some of the most unlikely of places. Cheers for all the positivity, and for giving us something to be positive about!

Cheers also to those who weren’t successful in being elected – thank you for taking the liberal message, our values, our aspirations and our positive, inclusive outlook to the voters. Cheers for standing up and being counted.

Cheers for the Green Party, who also has a spectacularly good night and – alongside solid performances from various local independent groups and the Yorkshire Party – are helping to make the case for electoral reform. These local elections tell us a great deal, but one thing many commentators seem to be missing is that they point to the inescapable reality that the public want something other than the usual two-party dominance. Let’s hear it for STV – are you listening, Jeremy Corbyn?

Cheers to the voters of Peterborough – or at least 27% of them – who signed a recall petition, meaning a by-election will be held. It’s not so much the ousting of Fiona Onasanya that I’m cheering, even if I have very little sympathy for her, but the first successful use of a recall petition in the UK. Accountability should be at the heart of politics but, as Ms Onasanya’s defiant statements have shown in recent months, too often we find arrogance and entitlement instead. This is a historic moment for democracy and hopefully one other MPs will learn from.

Cheers to Theresa May for finally giving me the opportunity to congratulate her for doing the right thing – in sacking Gavin Williamson she has dismissed arguably the most inept defence secretary in British political history. I hope that’s not the end, however – the allegation that he leaked secrets merits a criminal investigation. Well done Mrs May in appointing Penny Mordaunt as his replacement – she’s an obvious improvement and the UK no longer has the unenviable and unwelcome record of never having appointed a female defence secretary.

Jeers to those in the media who seem only to consider the local election results in relation to Brexit, or focus on what they believe it means for the two largest parties – playing down the phenomenal Lib Dem/Green surge because it doesn’t fit their pre-conceived narrative. The public have told us what they think of the two largest parties by abandoning them (the Tories’ disastrous night was worse than even the most pessimistic of opinion polls), but unfortunately we had endless perspectives from Labour and Conservative parliamentarians and even the Brexit Party (who didn’t actually contest these elections) about what this means for Mrs May and Jeremy Corbyn. Sorry, it’s pitiful – local elections are just that: local. They’re not a backdrop to the theatre that is Brexit, and ”smaller” parties’ success can be due to their own messaging and targeting rather than failures of others...

On which point, jeers also to those making the bizarre "observation" that these elections prove that the public want the government to deliver Brexit. Anti-Brexit parties gained in excess of 900 seats, with combined Conservative and Labour losses around the 1,500 mark. How can that possibly interpreted as support for Brexit?

Jeers to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in rejecting Caster Semenya’s appeal.  To my mind, the idea of an athlete being required to take performance-suppressing drugs is as absurd as Sebastian Coe’s belief in “a level playing field”.  Genetic advantage has always been – and always will be – an inevitable part of competitive sport and the obsession with caster Semenya’s particular genetic “advantage” seems somewhat hypocritical.

Tears (well, crocodile tears) for Jacob Rees-Mogg, who now has a Liberal Democrat councillor. How sad!

Finally, on a completely different subject, cheers for Albion Rovers on pulling off one of the greatest escapes of all time. Stranded at the foot of League 2 on a mere 7 points after 26 games, they somehow had their best run of form for years to take 20 points from the next 9 games to secure safety with a game to go. Absolutely sensational!