At time of writing campaigning for the local elections has started.

No election at Stroud until 2020, but on May 4 locals can watch from afar as the new political landscape unfolds.

It will be interesting to discover how voters react to Labour now Momentum have completely taken over the party.

I suspect it will make little difference this year and that there will be a normal backlash against a governing party.

The real test for Labour will be in a few years time at the next General Election when voters will have had time to observe how efficient the new style hard-left Labour run local councils.

Currently Stroud is run by a coalition of left-of-centre parties which indicates that the area is slightly to the left although since 1945 it has elected three Conservative MPs, serving Westminster for a total of 49 years while Labour has elected two MPs for a current total of 19 years.

Current incumbent David Drew is the first Labour candidate to be elected during a Conservative government.

Some time ago I posed a question in the SNJ - why Stroud elected a Labour candidate at last year’s General Election when Stroud was down at 40th on a Labour hit-list of constituencies they needed to win to become governing party,

Perhaps nobody knew the answer because there was no response.

My own thoughts are that Labour amassed their win by deed of collapse of votes for other left wing parties combined with the fact that Neil Carmichael was a leading campaigner for Remain in the EU Referendum.

I believe a small number of Brexiteers chose to punish him by not voting Conservative in 2015.

Mr Carmichael has recently stated he will no longer stand as a parliamentary candidate which is probably just as well as some voters have long memories.

For the record I sincerely believe that a Momentum dominated Labour cannot now win the next General Election and that the LibDems will have a revival with an influx of former Labour voters of the soft left persuasion.

Tom Newman

Stroud