Posted on July 21, 2011 by Phillip Lee

Last Thursday the British electorate delivered a result in the referendum and the local election that has generated much comment. The referendum on changing the electoral system was never something that I thought the majority of the British public wanted and so the result came as no surprise. I was always of the opinion that the British people would vote to retain the first past the post system. Whilst the proponents of the AV system claimed that AV would create fairer results for the electorate, I believe that history time and time again has demonstrated that the first past the post system delivers the Government that the electorate wants. I now hope that the issue of electoral reform will disappear from the political agenda for a generation.

The local election results, however, were a surprise. Normally incumbent national parties suffer at local election time. The Conservative party did not. The Liberal Democrats did. Political experts have been pouring over the results and drawing many conclusions about why the cons managed to increase the number of councillors despite being at the forefront of pushing through difficult political decisions on the national stage.  I believe that the British people realise that the Nation’s books need to be balanced. The Prime Minister has taken tough decisions and has been rewarded with the broad support of the British electorate. Unfortunately for our Liberal Democrat partners in Government, the electorate seemingly penalised them for being associated with the same decisions. I suspect that this was due primarily to their handling of the tuition fee policy. Unlike my Liberal Democrat opposition candidate in the last election, I never claimed to support the removal of tuition fees. Consequently, the Liberal Democrats have suffered an electoral blow.

Going forward I hope and expect that the Coalition Government will survive these unexpected election results, as I genuinely believe that we are in a position to deliver strong governance at a time of national economic difficulties. Furthermore, although the referendum on the electoral system generated some unpleasant exchanges between coalition colleagues I fully expect senior politicians to now get on with the job of sorting out the mess that the previous administration left this country in.