The next 2 years...

As the dust settles on last week’s local elections, time to take stock here in North Devon. The big losers were the Lib Dems who now only have 1 seat in North Devon. Labour has made some useful progress, especially in Ilfracombe and Braunton, and we significantly increased our overall share of the vote.
The challenge for Labour is to build on this performance. We have to establish ourselves as a credible representative of those who share a progressive view of society and share our values of fairness and justice for all. The Lib Dems will have a hard job defending their record in 2015 and there will be many who will be looking for an alternative voice. We have to be better at explaining our position to the people of North Devon and become ever more engaged with community concerns. It’s good to see as a first step to that end, we will be holding an open meeting to look at Labour’s policy alternatives – specifically on Housing and the Living Wage.
The time has come to be clear about what our policy priorities in government would be – it’s time to be bold and show how a Labour government would be radically different to the Coalition.