So now that all the sound and fury of the referendum is over what next for Salford ?
Firstly as a democratic party we have to respect the result and get on with implementing the decision . In politics I have won many battles but also lost a few and the important thing is not to spend your time screaming it's not fair but to fight on the new terrain you find yourself in.
In May Salford will have an elected mayor and I want it to be a Labour one. In order to achieve that we have to be prepared to fight for the soul of our City. There is no doubt that people responded to the simple message of the yes campaign. Not a massive number but enough for them to win. They told people it was possible to half the council tax without damaging services and for families suffering as a result of the activities of central government it was a tempting theory. Indeed some may be wondering why voting yes has not changed immediately the level of council tax . That untruth needs to be nailed over the forthcoming weeks. There were others who voted yes for more benign reasons. Some thought they were doing what Labour wanted. For a Group who claimed on the night it was a defeat for Labour they spent an awful amount of their time trying to convince people a yes vote was Labour Policy. There were some who were confused by the question. They told us they voted yes to keep the traditional mayor. Finally for many the way local government is organised is really not a subject to drive them to the polling station. For us the reasons though important are not what is critical . It is the campaign to keep Salford a decent caring City that is vital and the next three months are going to decide whether we progress or are plunged into chaos.
It is up to the Labour Party to decide who their candidate will be and I will support whomever is selected. I believe however at this point more than an ever, experience will be needed. In the period prior to May the candidate will need to speak out on radio, tv and by written word. We will not win this election by repudiating everything we have done but by clearly explaining our achievements. The views of the electorate have not changed dramatically since last May. We lost the referendum because we did not get the vote out.
We do of course already face a Government determined to cut the money we have to support the people of Salford and I have noted elsewhere the effects of their policy of shifting resources from the North to the South. Now we have a political movement that wants to compound that by cutting £66 million from the council and targeting the homeless
elderly and vulnerable children.
So what needs to be done. Firstly a recognition that we may have lost a battle but we need to win the war, I hate losing but I equally hate lying around whinging about it even more. Secondly we need to identify resources so that never again do we set campaigners the task of producing material without spending money. Thirdly we are going to need to coordinate the campaign so that both the mayoral and the council campaigns work as one. It will be similar to having a general election and a local on the same day, but these organisational changes will not be enough. We must find better ways of involving and consulting with ordinary people. We already have a good system of community committees but there needs to be better management of the agenda and a clearer process of consultation. We will need to make the case for regeneration and why this City depends on it and we need to connect more the short term inconvenience with the long term benefits. The changes to Chapel Street are a good example. We did not make them because we just like messing about with roads but because it is a prelude to a massive programme of investment that will transform the area.
At the end of the day I believe there were two crucial factors . For some undoubtably the promise to half the council tax influenced their decision . For many others they really did not care how the council was run . We have had similar experiences before. At the last European Election the combined forces of the right easily outnumbered our vote because it was not easy to motivate people to vote in an election that they saw as having little to do with their everyday lives. We have had a similar experience. We face a period of intense campaigning as we seek to reach to our voters but we are fighting not for us, but our City’s future.
