Yep, still no Labour! They don't bother. It's so Tory heartland, depite terrible rural poverty,lack of jobs, etc. In fact, as I teach here, i would say the poverty is fully as bad, if not worse than the poverty and awfulness I saw living and teaching in the East end of London for 5 years. But for some reason it doesn't translate into votes. Historic maybe, but mostly because of a history of the population seeing no return whatsover for their vote, ever. At best, it's only ever been Liberal here. And that was ten years ago, and regarded as a local blip. I truly don't understand it.
Or, I do. Unfortunately, UKIP are major round here now mainly because they are tapping into that discontent and the fall out from years of Tory neglect: now we have tons of hard done by right wingers all crying that the Poles are taking the jobs, that we have no transport links etc.
The reality is quite different. Fact is, the Tories have done naff all for my area ( no surprise there) but now as things are so bad, people are coming out of the woodwork to vote. Unfortunately, they're going for UKIP. But everyone else has missed a trick. I think a Labour / Green / Whatever candidate round my way would take heart. There are plenty of us who hate our choices. I see from my work that my local community is brilliant: i don't see any evidence of racial hatred in school or class and it perplexes me that people will vote UKIP and say to me "It's about the parking / building" etc and just not be honest. I can honestly say that my class has been enriched by immigration.
But the ignorant are winning round my way. My kids have friends from Lithuania, Poland, London, local, China, Spain, Romany, American. In one class, and they love it, and I love teaching such a mix. And that's rural in the sticks. I CANNOT understand why, in the light of that, why parties are not fielding candidates in my area. It's wrong.