Apathy has most of our election votes

POLITICAL power struggles reach a peak next Thursday as the district councils go into the melting pot at the polls.

It's going to be very interesting to see the outcome.

The one certainty, unless there's a last-minute sensation, is that apathy will dominate the day.

Usually well under 40 per cent of us bother to vote, but most people complain at some time or other about council policies between elections.

The struggle for control of Wycombe District Council should be the most interesting as since the last elections in 1995 it has been controlled by an alliance of Liberal Democrats and Labour.

It will only take a slight shift in voting habits to change the council's political complexion.

There's been a virtually spark-free and amicable pact between the 19 Lib Dems and 15 Labour councillors, while the 24 Conservatives, who previously held the council for all the 21 years of its life, have had to fume.

They've at times been waiting like crocodiles for any fall-outs between the Lib Dems and Labour, but as far as I know there's been nothing significant.

Now the Tories are largely pinning their hopes on criticising the pact's record, particularly homing in on transport policies; bus lanes, park-and-ride and other things to reduce jams and pollution. However, their rivals point out that county council Tories have been backing some of those transport schemes.

Also some Tories have campaigned against the decorative granite balls and whirligig sculpture in the town centre.

Then two weeks ago the Tories said they suspected an election pact between their rivals.

The Tories are standing in all 32 wards, Labour in 24 and the Lib Dems in 23.

This, they said, showed that the Lib Dems and Labour had targeted wards to ensure that they could at least continue their pact after the election if neither gets an overall majority.

There's definitely been no collusion, said the other two parties.

So what's the Wycombe district result going to be?

I may be proved to be terribly wrong but I suspect that the Tories will regain a few seats and lose a few others, but when the late-night count is over, the other two parties will still be able to put the seal on another deal to keep control. Ultimately, I think the electorate will probably tend to judge the three main parties on their national image.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.