Lothian lost LAMBETH IN THE BALANCE

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Labour" increase its vote throughout Scotland, Labour lost control of Lothian Regional Council.

Tory and Labour both have 22 seats, Alliance 3 and Independent and SNP 1 each.

While it is only speculation why this happened, certain factors are obvious candidates for explanation.

Some Labour supporters probably just didn't see the point. Despite the dismal surrender last year, Labour's manifesto this year proclaimed that only Labour could defend the level of services in Lothian. Yet it had nothing to say about how this would be done different from last year.

The combination of large rate rises and the Falklands undoubtedly helped the Tories mobilise many more voters - the turnout in Tory seats was generally higher than in Labour seats.

Rate rises would also have helped the Alliance attract dissatisfied Labour roters.

On top of this the whole or the Tory TV broadcast on the Wednesday before the toie was devoted to slamming Lothian and the rates rises.

But none of these can be *aken in isolation. They all combined to produce an air of resignation, demoralisacion and apathy amongst the voters who would normally have voted Labour.

Coalition

It seems likely that the Tories will form the administration in an informal coalition with the Alliance. Tory group leader Brian Meek has expressed his group's willingness to "be reasonable" and noises from Liberal councillor Donald Corrie seem to at a Liberal in the Education Committee chair.

The Regional Labour Party rejected any idea of trying to form an administration at its meeting on Sunday 9 May. This seemed to have the support of those councillors present.

However the RLP made no attempt to work out a strategy to fight the cuts which the Tories will inevitably carry through.

Tory Secretary for Scotland Younger has already said he will compromise over the proposed £45 million cutback in Rate Support Grant. The end result will probably be around £20 million in the form of a rates rebate meaning more non-filling of posts and some compulsory redundancies, the probable closing of the unemployed centre and of the Citizen's Rights Office, both of whose business has boomed since the Tories came to office.

Baxter LAMBETH did not escape from the national swing to the Tories. Labour failed to dislodge the Tories from marginal wards, and lost two wards in the south, Gipsy Hill and Claphan Park, to the Tories.

In the north of the borough, a concentrated ambeth Labour leader Ted night campaign by the SDP/Liberal Alliance enabled them to retain their 2 seats won in the Bishop's ward by-election (after Lambeth's disastrous supplementary rate in 1981), and also to take 3 Labour seats from Princes ward, traditionally the most marginal ward in Vauxhall.

Now the Tories with 27 and the SDP/Liberal Alliance with 5 exactly match The four or five Labour councillors to the right of the new • Labour Group leadership will be able to dictate terms at every stage of the Council's next four years.

And maybe worse: the current Labour mayor has announced that he owes no allegiance to the Labour Party because he was not shortlisted by any ward to fight this election.

If he refuses tr • nominate a Labour cour cillor as the next mayor, tl len conby Susa THE victory for Labour in retaining control of Tower Hamlets can largely be attributed to the left wards and activists who organised and campaigned for left policies.

Where the right have dominated in the party Labour seats were lost overwhelmingly to Focus' Liberals, or narrowly saved. But in two Bow and Bethnal wards the Liberal majorities were cut back by the campaigning left.

Where no threat of opposition parties was posed the right wing were returned on average polls. The Leader of the Labour Group was not even challenged and was elected unopposed.

The SDP showing was so poor that they were beaten into the lower end of the polls, except in Blackwall and Shadwell. In wards where Bengali candidates trol of the Council go to the Tories..

Lambeth is now in a weaker position than ever before to launch a fight against the Tory cuts. We are paying for the previous policies of delaying the day of confrontation by rate rises, cuts in services and staffing.

All the left-wing çouncitiors now elected need to study the record of Lambeth Council in 1978 to 1982 and to draw the key lesson - when you start a fight against the Tories, take it through to the end!

Carlyle were standing they probably took most of the racist anti-black vote. In St. Katherine's ward, where a total of 14 candidates stood, there was an overwhelming : 1,000 plus vote for two Bengali Labour councillors, a vindication of the ward's policy to select them.

In contrast, in Spitalfields, where there is an unfortunate history of Bengalis' and others' applications being stalled, the Bengali protest vote was strongly registered and a "left' independent candidate returned.

But many of the independent' supporters divided their vote, backing Labour candidates and many Bengalis applied to join the party over the election period, seeing this as part of the fight against the right wing • council and against Tory policies.