Ignoring Star Wars day for the moment, the local elections are taking place in many area of the country. Opinion polls have stated, over the weeks, that Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, face a rout, and that this may be repeated in the General Election next month. But opinion polls were wrong in the last General Election when, like in 1992, people appeared to be too ashamed to admit that they were going to vote Conservative. And they were wrong in the Referendum on remaining in the EU when our nation voted, by a very narrow margin, for the madness and uncertainty that is Brexit. And of course, opinion polls called it wrong in the states that gave The Manchurian Candidate (Donald Trump) victory in the Electoral College last year allowing him to become US president (and I pray the world survives to see another one). Diane Abbott has recently made a huge gaffe on LBC, which while drawing attention to the police cuts that have occurred under the Conservatives, have allowed them to portray Labour as incompetent and that may undo much of the gains in polling which have stated that Labour would not do as bad as originally thought.
But, while a rout of Labour in the local elections of today, and possibly the General Election of next month may be bad for the nation in the short term, it may be good overall. At the moment, the Conservatives can blame the barbaric effects of austerity on the way Labour run councils are run, this being cuts to social care to the elderly, cuts to the disabled, and (even though funding is from central government) how school budgets are being rearranged to make school funding 'fairer' (for many Conservative areas). If the Conservatives do make the gains in the local elections today that many think they will, they will be left holding responsibility for these cuts. And they will not be able to blame Labour, the way that they are doing.
Saying that, the polls have been wrong before, and Labour may do well today, or even if things are bad today, that might make the electorate think about what a Conservative government means for the NHS, the police, education, the armed forces, social care, the disabled etc...
And of course, with this being Star Wars Day, May the 4th be with you.
