Well this an interesting but completely self deluding piece by John Spellar MP, posted as a guest article on Luke Akehurst's blog.
The main thesis here - sorry to so rudely paraphrase - is that because the Tories have fewer councillors on our northern metropolitan councils than they did in previous 'Tory breakthrough' years, all is not doom and gloom.
A pity the same can't be said for our southern unitaries where the next general election can be won or lost.
John is absolutely right in one key respect - the next general election is by no means a done deal. But if the best senior Labour MPs can do is scrabble for a different set of statistics to show that things are still OK, then the Labour Party will sleep walk into oblivion. These are the sort of statistics one expects to see on a LibDem leaflet proving that it's a two horse race between the LibDems and anybody else.
Yes; Labour can win the next election. Yes; the Conservatives must be exposed as lacking penetration in the north. But no, no, no; Labour cannot win a general election in the north alone.
To be fair to the Rt Hon, I don't think he means to suggest that, but this little bit of research is unqualified by any rational analysis of what it really means (not very much) and could easily be interpreted as I have suggested. And all that means is that another section of the electorate will (wrongly, I hope) assume that they are being taken for granted by Labour.
And as an aside, it's just as well the Electoral Commission aren't responsible for blogging, because the sort of proxy blogging by the Rt Hon John Spellar MP would almost certainly be classed in the same category as a David Abraham's third party donation.
