Southport Election 2021: Tears, Joy & Chaos!

Here is just a brief outline of Southport voting in May 2012 

An astonishing Labour victory as candidate, Sonya Kelly, makes history via winning Birkdale ward, with 1125 votes. Now that was a huge surprise as political opponents always said that it was totally impossible and would never happen here. The LibDems have held three council seats in the ward for years. Nevertheless, this year they could only manage to come in third place. Clearly, Labour will now ramp up their game plan and have Birkdale firmly in their sights at the next election, with a view to ousting the sitting LibDem councillors. 

The Tory candidate, Michael Prendergast, was handed an easy victory in Dukes ward. This was thanks largely to LibDem HQ's earlier controversial decision to remove their standing councillor, Tony Dawson, from the party and replace him with a largely unknown outsider called David Ian Newman. Councillor Dawson went on to stand independently and had received a fair number of votes, albeit not enough to stop the Tory onslaught. Naturally however this political chaos was predictably seen to split the vote and grant the Tories a win. Mr Newman came in third place behind runner-up Mr Dawson. The LibDem brass can therefore only blame themselves for foolishly losing this valuable town centre ward. 

Ainsdale ward’s LibDem, Lynne Thompson, made light work of retaining her seat with 1807 votes . Reasons appeared to be obvious and were due to long-standing Tory invisibility/apathy in the ward and also the fact that she does work well in the community with the local populace.

Moreover, previous public disgust against the Labour Party for voting in strength to destroy Ainsdale’s wildlife-rich Kitty’s Wood still remains painfully in local memories. 

In Cambridge ward the Tory candidate, Sinclair d’Albuquerque, ousted popular LibDem councillor, Pat Keith, by gaining 42% of the vote. This ward has fluctuated between the two parties for many years. 

The LibDems also managed to hang on to Meols ward with well-liked and practically-minded  Councillor John Dodd retaining his seat, with a healthy 1692 votes. 

Labour had a big win in Norwood ward as Carran Waterfield received 1326 votes, equating to 44% of the vote.  

Kew ward saw a Labour win for Jennifer Julie Corcoran with 1079 votes. Interestingly, a previously successful LibDem councillor therein, Fred Weavers, had recently left the party and this time had stood for the Greens. Sadly, for him he came last in the ward with only 200 votes. 

NB. The poor old Green Party were roundly thrashed in all the wards mentioned above. 

The overall conclusion is that Labour gained Birkdale in an historical win, while the LibDems lost 4 Southport seats. LibDem infighting and disarray has unmistakably had a significant bearing on public opinion and subsequent results. Still, frayed tempers and knee-jerk decisions, later to be regretted, are par for the course in point-scoring political circles. 

Nothing lasts for very long in local politics; the glory of today will be the despair of tomorrow and vice versa! 

More: 

https://www.otsnews.co.uk/labour-capture-birkdale-for-first-time-while-lib-dems-lose-4-southport-seats/ 

More: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dirty-Politics-Mr-Pat-Regan/dp/1482031248/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confessions-Twenty-First-Century-Blogger-Changing/dp/1788083644/