The Wardman Wire

Iain Dale and various others are suggesting the merger of the two elections next summer is a deliberate ploy by Labour to avoid two crushing defeats within four weeks of one another.

It might be a convenient outcome (if by convenient you mean one crushing defeat as opposed to two!), but there is no conspiracy here.  It is the norm to do these things and makes perfect sense.  I am sure, whatever Labour’s circumstances, they would do the same thing.  And, of course, the Tories would do exactly the same if they were in Labour’s shoes too.

In fact, I would go as far as to say the electorate would be mad with Labour if they did not do this. It would be a waste of money and time.  And the stats back the move up too -voter turnout for the European Parliament went up from 24% in 1999 to 34.5% in 2004 when they were combined last time. Dale is asking why they didn’t do this sooner - well, it is still 8 months to go and the deadline for setting the dates has not yet passed.

Then again, I guess it is the job of partisan political supporters to make unfair remarks and make the opposition look bad even if they are being hypocrits.

EDIT: I do not mean that last comment as criticism directed at the Tories, more an observation that all sides do these things. You can be sure that if the Tories were in government and struggling, then some Labour folk would make unfair capital out of the situation too. It’s the nature of the game.