Here I am at the edge

  Karin Smyth does not want an election The last thing our MP,  Karin Smyth , wants   is a General Election . When she was handed Bristol South , after the promotion of D awn Primarolo  to the House of Lords , despite losing 10% of her majority in the previous two elections, in a desperate bid to retain Labour control of Bristol . Less than a decade ago, this contituency had a 30% holding position for the Labour Party - at the last election. That was whittled down to a 200 voter majority - once the safest Labour seat it will fall at the next election. Like many of her colleagues, Ms. Smyth has found the populace have not been behind her party for decades.  Her political memory wll be the lady who lost Labour's strongest seat; which is unfair, the seat was going to change, it was a case of when.

UKIP to the fore With a terrible choice of leadership candidates for the Conservatives ahead, I foresee the rise of UKIP shortly. You can forget the Labour party for many reasons; they are a misogynistic party, and in all thier history, they have never had a female leader. In a world against terrorism , they staunchly support several terrorist factions. Since the late '60s, the party has been holding onto the seats it gained in a landslide victory in the years after the 1929 General Strike; in each  election, they lose more voters as they drift further from their roots. A sign of the times came in the last election when four previously hard-core Labour seats turned to Conservative. What cost Labour, so many votes is their staunch pro-EU stance when over 70% of the UK is in favour of Brexit . Another factor is their wish to increase immigration when the UK is already burdened with an extended immigrant population and few jobs.

  Another Labour stronghold falls For the first time I can recall the Labour Party is not in control of Bristol City Council after losing 13 seats to the Green Party in the local elections .