Poll Position or Arrogant complacency?

Have had a few enquiries from interested parties, so to speak, on my predictions for next weeks Local Election result and on the position of the Labour camp.

I do find it somewhat disconcerting to read Tory surrogates dicing up the wards and effectively calling the result in whole swathes of Medway, before the majority of ballots have even been cast.

It looks and reads like Medway Tories are already measuring the curtains - such is the contempt, and I would argue actual complacency towards the electorate.

Such is to be expected some might say.

Every ward is winnable for Labour and we are straining every sinew and fighting to win in every area we have selected candidates. From Peninsula to Chatham Central, from Rainham to Cuxton & Halling, we are fighting to win to serve the people who are fed up with this lacklustre administration.

What is concerning for Tories is that some of their own members have already written off their own colleagues in some areas. People who are out day after day struggling to persuade people to vote Conservative now have to fight the publicity from their own side. Perhaps the Tories deep down know they have reached the high water mark in 2007, perhaps they are writing off areas of Medway?

Medway Labour are not complacent about votes like the Tories.

Medway Labour has selected a significant number of candidates under 35 and continues to campaign hard.

The Labour candidate bench represents a new generation of candidates who present the electorate the chance to change the current 'old guard' mentality which has led to closed and very very poor decision making.

The Tories are predicting losses. They are cutting the number of Council meetings and reducing Overview & Scrutiny budgets for the express purpose of stopping an opposition they perceive as tenacious and actually quite dangerous.

As this blogger has been arguing for years, and has tried to put in practice, Labour need to be more outwardly engaging in our communities and delivering on the ground for people. Naval gazing in the Council chamber, when attendance is miserely, will not lead to victory.

It is a lesson only a small number of Tories have learnt.

I have kept a record of Tory leaflets prior to January 2011 and in 80% of the wards in Rochester & Strood / Chatham & Aylesford we had no 'local' election leaflet from candidates from 2008-2010. Only during the General Election did we see an attempt to piggy-back off the election publicity of the PPC candidate.

Instead the Tories spent huge sums of Council Tax payers money on the Medway Matters and Council propoganda; telling us the favourite food stuffs of Tories and advising on other irrelevent pursuits.

The 'Love Medway' campaign in Tory blue/green is another overt attempt to curry favour; patronising as it is telling people to put rubbish in the bin. I'll leave that to the Council Tax payer to judge on whether that was money well spent.

It simply is not good enough to communicate nothing until 3 months before the general election and then blitz people with expensive glossy's. The public are not that gullible.

I will not be providing any commentary - every ward is winnable and no ward can be taken for granted.

We leave arrogant complacency to the Conservatives as they have shown in practice every single time they are elected.