Labour thinks democracy is an inconvenience and is rigging the system by postponing elections, argues Giles Sheldrick.
Local council elections could be postponed again as Labour avoid voters (Image: Getty)
It reads like something from a banana republic or dictatorship rather than a beacon of democracy. In just 18 months the boot of this Labour government has trampled upon the lives of tens of millions – be they pensioners, farmers, businesses owners or parents. No one is immune from its ruinous rule.
It is hard to imagine any administration in recent times having such a detrimental impact in such a short space of time. For those squashed and squeezed by Sir Keir Starmer’s size nines the ballot box is the only way to register – officially – their anger.
How curious then that local council elections could be delayed for a SECOND year running.
This lame duck government is using the ridiculous excuse of local government reorganisation as a tactic to deliberately prevent a bloodbath.
This is not something happening under despot Vladimir Putin in Russia, where dissent is regularly silenced, but in places like Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Surrey, East and West Sussex, and Hampshire where elections have ceased to become a legal obligation and are now simply an inconvenience.
Here the system is being rigged by a tax-snatching Labour government so universally unpopular its reasoning for postponing votes looks like state interference.
The latest affront to democracy comes after the Government postponed mayoral elections for Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk until 2028.
Fed up with Labour grabbing billions in tax from workers to pay for the shirkers? Well, tough, because there’s nothing you can do about it round your way.
Under Putin’s 25-year iron grip on Russia dissent has been silenced (Image: Getty)
Even the reasoning for meddling with town halls in the first place is really just a shameless attempt to wield more power over those already living under the iron fist of this socialist shambles.
The Government is lumping smaller district councils into bigger “strategic authorities” with more clout over their areas – a plan modelled on Sadiq Khan’s ruinous rule over London.
But let’s not pretend this delay is anything other than an affront to this country and its people.
Under Labour, councils are effectively free to decide how long they can avoid the verdict of those they rule over.
And that goes to the very heart of the issue of life under Labour and its snivelling, deceitful programme.
Under Starmer and his meddling ministers, voters are an inconvenience and democracy, well, that’s certainly not necessary when diktats are issued from ivory towers.
In short, even the most loony leftist surely sees the damage that has been caused by Labour after a year-and-a-half.
The party is running scared of accountability at the ballot box and its brazen attempt to rig the deck in its favour is seen as just that – a fiddle.
Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Surrey, East and West Sussex, and Hampshire had initially seen elections postponed by a year until May 2026. They could now be delayed until 2027.
The Labour playbook is obvious: when polls turn hostile, the goalposts move, with the little people only allowed a say when those in power think it is safe enough to grant it. Under Starmer, you do as he says, not as he does.
Cynics might point to the convenience of stalling elections when Reform UK under Nigel Farage is surging, the Tories under a resurgent Kemi Badenoch are enjoying a renaissance, and the Lib Dems always do well in local elections.
And few will forget Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ cast-iron promise of no more tax rises after her Budget last year. That was a one-off, she said, only to return to unleash more misery last month.
Cancelling elections is, as Britain is becoming so wearily used to, just another in a long line of broken promises. How many more will there be?
