Status quo is not such a bad result (From Durham Times)

Status quo is not such a bad result

1:46pm Friday 12th June 2009

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IT says something for the good sense of people in the North-East that in a period of political turmoil they kept their heads in last week’s European elections.

Unlike the results in the Yorkshire and Humber, and the North-West, they were not desperate enough to be taken in by the phoney patriotism and ill-disguised xenophobia of the British National Party.

This may be for historical and geographical reasons. Race has thankfully never been a significant issue in the region’s politics and that, in turn, may be because none of its cities has seen the numbers of migrants who arrived in parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the last 50 years.

But in other respects, the North-East result mirrored what happened elsewhere. The turnout was poor. At 30 per cent, it was 10 per cent down on the previous Euro poll. In Durham County, it even fell below 30 per cent. No doubt this was caused mostly by the general disaffection with politics in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandal but changes in the way the ballot was conducted also played a part.

The traditional Labour vote did not collapse. It just didn’t turn out. But, nevertheless the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will see some succour for the forthcoming General Election in the details of the results in the different areas. For the Conservatives, some seats once considered marginal (Darlington, for example) would seem to be within their grasp once after many years in Labour’s hands. The Liberal Democrats will be looking at the Durham County figure and wonder just how many of those 20,300 Lib Dem votes were in the Durham City area.

The BNP did improve on its 2004 showing but that was down to its proportional share being greater in a low turnout.

It was a similar story for UKIP and the Green Party who might have expected to pick up more votes on the back of the shunning of the main parties.

The status quo, in terms of North-East representation, was maintained in the face of the one of the most traumatic periods in UK politics. We still have a Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MEP in the European parliament which means the views of the vast majority of the region’s people are represented. The result may not have had the drama of what happened elsewhere but perhaps that’s something we should be thankful for.

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