Anders Hanson

Last night was the Annual Meeting of Sheffield City Council, with this year’s event all set to be more eventful than usual as the council is now in no overall control.

I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that Labour kept control, given they are still (for now) the biggest party on the council. But it was the way in which is happened, and the other votes for committee chairs that are perhaps the most enlightening.

When it came to the vote that decided on the cabinet and leadership of the council, the Tories and Greens abstained thus handing the leadership to Labour despite them supposedly opposing them so vehemently for so long. But what happened next was that Labour and the Greens then voted to put the sole Tory councillor in charge of one of the key scrutiny boards. OK, so the opposition did get an extra scrutiny position, but why give it to the Tories when their vote has collapsed at this election and they lost one of their two councillors? Did someone just use the words “stitch up”?

What happened in the vote is a complete contrast to the comments by the Tory just after the election, when she said that she didn’t want any positions or titles and would just do what was best for Sheffield. Still, given the way the Tories have backed some of Labour’s worst policies over the last few years it shouldn’t be a surprise really.

SHEFFIELD LIBERAL DEMOCRATS: Labour hold on to council reign, thanks to Greens and the Tory

Can someone please give Terry Wogan a geography and history lesson.  Of course, there is partisan voting in the Eurovision Song Contest, but Terry Wogan seems to believe that all neighbouring countries are likely to vote for each other, and that all former Communist states are friends.  In many cases, the opposite is true.

To me, the heartening thing is how many neighbouring countries will vote for each other despite years of animosity.  Terry Wogan should not be surprised that Poland doesn’t vote for Germany or that Greece doesn’t vote for Turkey, but he should perhaps be impressed that Turkey votes for Armenia .  In some cases though, voting will be influenced by the large minorities that live in one country, which could be the reasons for Germany voting for Turkey and Estonia voting for Russia.  Perhaps also he shouldn’t criticse when the only countries to vote for the UK are Malta and Ireland.  Still at least there was booing when countries blatantly voted for a friendly country.

For what it’s worth, I think Ukraine should have won, although the Serbian song was by no means the worst.  Although voting is political, you do at least have to have support from a wide range of countries to win as you cannot rely just on neighbours to get through.  This year seemed to be one of the most varied, most over the top and campest contests I’ve seen.  It looks as though all of Europe is now getting in to that spirit.  One thing though that I can say with some certainty is that the UK did deserve its appalling showing - our song was dreadful and we should have had Big Brovaz representing us instead.

I was going to comment on Ming’s ludicrous call for a General Election now that Blair is going, but Jonny Wright has got there first with exactly what I wanted to say.

As has been pointed out: we elect local MPs, we elect them to represent a party not a leader (if they did represent a leader, maybe all Lib Dems should have caused by-elections when Charles went), we knew that Brown would probably take over some time in this parliament, and we didn’t say this when Major took over in 1990.

When I was told about this this lunchtime, I couldn’t quite believe it was something Ming had said. I assumed it must have been one of Norman Baker’s hobby horses. Obviously not!

JONNY WRIGHT: Ming Campbell - constitutionally incoherent

So did I shed a tear?  Well no, but I confess to still being a little sad.  Blair’s resignation today showed how brilliant he is at the big occasion and how he can do a barnstorming speech that says the things that are probably right at the time.  But like so many people the big negative about Blair’s years as Prime Minister is the way he let so many people down after such a triumphant and positive feeling at the start of his premiership.

Blair has undoubtedly made some positive contributions to the country.  No Prime Minister is all bad after all.  To me these should be marked down as areas like peace in Northern Ireland, devolution, investment in public services, the Human Rights Act and a more tolerant society.  But the problem is that I can come up with such a longer list of things he’s done wrong.  Even on some of these positives, there are big negatives, for example, he may have invested in public services but it hasn’t made much of a change that is noticeable to the public.

One of the things that was drawn out in tonight’s Question Time and then by Mariella “I will defend Labour at all costs, even if it makes me look ludicrous” Frostrup on This Week, was the way the country feels more positive.  I think that may be true. People may feel negative towards Labour and Blair in particular, they may feel that certain things have got worse too.  But the country does not have that generally negative feeling that things never can get better.  The Blair legacy is less “Things Can Only Get Better” but more of a “Things Could Get Better”.  Not much of a ringing endorsement, but at least more positive than when Thatcher went for example.

I am glad that Blair is going, but it is nothing compared to the joy I felt when Thatcher went.  Perhaps that is the slightly lefty Northerner in me.  I saw at first hand how Thatcher destroyed large parts of the country, whereas Blair’s legacy is less tangible.  Perhaps that is an appropriate theme of his premiership. He didn’t achieve anything that tangible.  Something that fits in well with all his spin, which has turned negatives in to positives and lack of policy in to policy, something which has done major damage to the way politicians are perceived in this country. When it comes to substance, his major substantial action has been Iraq, but that is the major exception that proves the rule.  Typical.  The main time he goes out on a limb and does something concrete, he balls it up completely.

So next month we will see Prime Minister Brown.  I tend to agree with the analysis of some that Brown and Labour as a whole will get a lift simply because Brown is not Blair.  Brown will bring in some new faces, he will change a few policies and life will carry on as normal.  Although the opinion polls show people not liking Brown, I also suspect that once people see more of him they will start to like him a bit more.  It is quite amazing that for someone who has been Chancellor of the Exchequer for ten years, that we know very little about him as a person and what he would want to do.  That could be the making of him, as suddenly people may see him as more human and more palatable than they thought.  But don’t get me wrong, I really don’t see this as long-term as Brown will suffer from still being too like Blair, not being shiny and new, and simply taking office whilst Labour is on the downward part of its cycle.

Who’d have thought it? Ming Campbell manages to give a good answer to the last funny question on Question Time, and at the same time looks in tune with pop music.

To the question, “If ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ was the theme tune to Blair’s arrival as Prime Minister, what should be the music for his departure?”, Ming quickly answered “It would be Kylie Minogue’s ‘Spinning Around’.”

For someone who is criticised for looking old and being old-fashioned, it was a pretty good answer. It isn’t even as if he would have had a chance to prepare.

Anyone who saw cartoon Ming Campbell as a rapper on last Thursday’s local election night coverage, I am starting to wonder if there is another side to him.