Local election results

[domtheone]

Yup. I read as bad as 1000 a few days back. Then perhaps only 5-600 damage limitation.

1300 lol.

The PM really should step down.

Alas, she’ll need to be dragged out kicking and screaming.

 

[IronGiant]

The Tories were braced for 800-900 losses and quoted 1000 seats to manage expectations. But the end result was an order of magnitude greater...

Doesn't an order of magnitude generally suggest an increase by a factor of 10?

 

[Sonic67]

Fury as Conservative wins council seat by single spoiled ballot scrawled with word 'Brexit'

A defeated independent candidate at the local council elections has demanded a recount after his Conservative Party opponent was awarded victory thanks to a single ballot that had “Brexit” scrawled on it.

 

[richp007]

Crazed dictator May really is going to need to be dragged out of No. 10 kicking and screaming.

Labour are a joke. Raving Loony Party.

Lib Dems can do one as well.

Happy for the Greens, about the only bunch I have any time for currently.

 

[Sonic67]

 

[nheather]

So bad day for the Tories, I thought it was going to equal out when you combined these unusual results with the equally unusual results of the 2015 election (2015 saw LibDem virtually wiped out, big gains for Tories and UKIP).

So if you combine the two results to compare now, with pre-2015 you get something like this

Councillors

Conservative - Down 793 (3562)
Labour - Down 285 (2023)
LibDem - Up 292 (1350)
Green - Up 204 (265)
UKIP - Up 31 (31)
Ind - Up 481 (1045)

Councils

Conservative - Down 12 (93)
Labour - Down 9 (74)
LibDem - Up 6 (18)

There have been some new councils and seats added so the numbers don’t work perfectly but they are close enough.

So definitely bad for Conservatives, worse than I was expecting. And good for LibDem. Independents actually have seen the biggest gain, but haven’t be able to convert that to councils. UKIP still up overall. Labour are the only party to see a continual fall, though overall not as bad as the Conservatives.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

Overall, no real surprise. The tories are hated equally by remainers and leavers. The remainers see May as someone trying to deliver Brexit, and the leavers see her as a remainer who has failed to deliver any of her clear and tough worded promises.

LibDem have never accepted the referendum result (clearly they don’t like PR as much as they profess), support a second referendum and probably unilaterally cancelling Brexit if we are honest, so clearly a good option for the remainer vote. Had we left on 29th March I doubt the LibDem results would have been half as good.

Where did the leave vote go? I suspect to many of the Independents who claim to want to see Brexit delivered.

I don’t think the Local Elections have helped the focus the Brexit debate, just added to the stalemate. The Tories are already reporting that the results tell them to “just get it done” but Labour are saying their poor performance was down to not fully supporting a people’s vote (aka 2nd referendum) so what hope the cross party talks.

The biggest losers are the councils. They have lost so many skilled and experienced councillors. Okay there is always a case for new enthusiastic blood, but that should be joining an established team who can support and give guidance. But many councils will now be a sea of new faces, with no previous experience, all looking at each other shrugging their shoulders saying “what do we do now?”.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Supersonic]

The biggest losers are the councils. They have lost so many skilled and experienced councillors.

Since most of the lost councillors were Tories, I don't see that as a problem.

Our formerly-Tory council (it's now NOC) didn't do much other than cut services and start charging for the rest, while still raising the council tax. That's classic Thatcherite shrinking of government. I accept that to a point, but not when it comes to core services like waste disposal.

I would actually trust Vince Cable to empty my bins over Theresa May...

 

[nheather]

Since most of the lost councillors were Tories, I don't see that as a problem.

Our formerly-Tory council (it's now NOC) didn't do much other than cut services and start charging for the rest, while still raising the council tax. That's classic Thatcherite shrinking of government. I accept that to a point, but not when it comes to core services like waste disposal.

I would actually trust Vince Cable to empty my bins over Theresa May...

You do realise that it isn’t Theresa May that arranges your refuge collection. Of course, you do, only joking.

Local government is very different to national government. For a start, local councillors do not get paid, other than legitimate expenses. Also they do not set your council tax for the most part - that is set at county level. And show me a county council of any colour that does not increase its council tax each year?

For the most part, although the councillors do have a party affiliation, what they do is nothing to do with the party. They use their skills and experience to utilise the budgets they are given to the best of their ability. Where councils have had a smallish change, I doubt you’ll see any difference even where they have changed overall control. But they will miss the expertise and experience that is lost, and where councils are mostly fresh faces their will be a severe drop in knowledge and ability that will take some months/years to re-establish.

Imagine your team at work. Say an experienced guy left and was replaced with a new guy with no previous experience. You would probably manage and be able to bring them up to speed. Now imagine that all or most of your team are replaced with new guys with no previous experience. I imagine you would see a drop in capability of your team that would take some time to build back up.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Deleted member 433786]

Happy for the Greens, about the only bunch I have any time for currently.

Greens done very well in our neck of the woods, would have went for them myself but they didn't field a candidate here. Apart from Brexit there is a bit of a stink on the Wirral due to potential developments on the various greenbelt sites we have. I expect that contributed to there success

I held my nose and went Lib Dem. Corbyn needs to do one asap....

cheers

 

[danwel]

Greens done very well in our neck of the woods, would have went for them myself but they didn't field a candidate here. Apart from Brexit there is a bit of a stink on the Wirral due to potential developments on the various greenbelt sites we have. I expect that contributed to there success

I held my nose and went Lib Dem. Corbyn needs to do one asap....

cheers

No candidate in my area either or there is a good chance they would have got my vote.

 

[Deleted member 27989]

Greens done very well in our neck of the woods, would have went for them myself but they didn't field a candidate here. Apart from Brexit there is a bit of a stink on the Wirral due to potential developments on the various greenbelt sites we have. I expect that contributed to there success

I held my nose and went Lib Dem. Corbyn needs to do one asap....

cheers

That stink has been there years, decades, literally Ever since my first trip out to that region in 1992 to our factory they advised me to stay land inwards in a hotel.

 

[Supersonic]

You do realise that it isn’t Theresa May that arranges your refuge collection. Of course, you do, only joking.

Local government is very different to national government. For a start, local councillors do not get paid, other than legitimate expenses. Also they do not set your council tax for the most part - that is set at county level. And show me a county council of any colour that does not increase its council tax each year?

For the most part, although the councillors do have a party affiliation, what they do is nothing to do with the party. They use their skills and experience to utilise the budgets they are given to the best of their ability. Where councils have had a smallish change, I doubt you’ll see any difference even where they have changed overall control. But they will miss the expertise and experience that is lost, and where councils are mostly fresh faces their will be a severe drop in knowledge and ability that will take some months/years to re-establish.

Imagine your team at work. Say an experienced guy left and was replaced with a new guy with no previous experience. You would probably manage and be able to bring them up to speed. Now imagine that all or most of your team are replaced with new guys with no previous experience. I imagine you would see a drop in capability of your team that would take some time to build back up.

Cheers,

Nigel

Yes, was just trying to keep things humorous.

Councillors don't actually run the councils. They're just politicians, no more. Just like MPs don't really run the country, it's the civil service that does that (did you ever watch Yes Prime Minister - painfully accurate).

Changing the politicos does cause change, but doesn't necessarily remove any of the people with expertise at 'running things'.

 

[Goooner]

Saw a post on Twitter earlier around 40,000 spoiled ballots. No idea how that compares to previous elections, but it seems quite a lot of people taking the time and effort to get to the polling station and spoil the paper, rather than just not bothering at all.

 

[Deleted member 433786]

Saw a post on Twitter earlier around 40,000 spoiled ballots. No idea how that compares to previous elections, but it seems quite a lot of people taking the time and effort to get to the polling station and spoil the paper, rather than just not bothering at all.

I do think there is value in a polling card having "non of the above" as an option. Unfortunately politicians do not want to face the realisation that most of them are dick heads regardless of which party they represent.

cheers

 

[Rasczak]

Saw a post on Twitter earlier around 40,000 spoiled ballots. No idea how that compares to previous elections, but it seems quite a lot of people taking the time and effort to get to the polling station and spoil the paper, rather than just not bothering at all.

In the 2015 General Election there were 97,870 spoilt ballot papers so a figure of less than half that would seem about right IMHO for the local elections. Ultimately there was much talk about 'disillusionment with politics' but actually people did come out and vote in fairly normal numbers.

Personally I have little time for people who spoil their ballot papers. It is non-committal and not constructive. If someone is like that at work they just get side-lined and ignored. Should be the same at the ballot box IMHO.

 

[Sonic67]

Saw a post on Twitter earlier around 40,000 spoiled ballots. No idea how that compares to previous elections, but it seems quite a lot of people taking the time and effort to get to the polling station and spoil the paper, rather than just not bothering at all.

Last local elections it was 1 in 150 that were spoiled.

And spoiled down to people either writing "none of the above" or just not voting in a correct manner.

This time it seems to be more about people writing "Brexit" or similar.

 

[Goooner]

Just re-read the tweet, it was analysis of just 72 of the 248 local councils, so it’s going to be a lot higher than 40,000 if they count the other 176.

The figure comes from Daily Mail analysis, so make of that what you will.

 

[Deleted member 27989]

In the 2015 General Election there were 97,870 spoilt ballot papers so a figure of less than half that would seem about right IMHO for the local elections. Ultimately there was much talk about 'disillusionment with politics' but actually people did come out and vote in fairly normal numbers.

Personally I have little time for people who spoil their ballot papers. It is non-committal and not constructive. If someone is like that at work they just get side-lined and ignored. Should be the same at the ballot box IMHO.

Whilst I get your point, I do have some sympathy for people. If there is no candidate that is deserved or representative, and they make the effort to go out, whilst there is no option of none of the above, then saying so is in my opinion commitment and constructive. More so than not turning up which may indicate one doesn’t care.

 

[Over by there]

Personally I have little time for people who spoil their ballot papers. It is non-committal and not constructive. If someone is like that at work they just get side-lined and ignored. Should be the same at the ballot box IMHO.

Everyone should be able to vote how they wish, I have spoilt my papers in the past. Big problem with this is they do not really get through the elected person that you are not happy with them.

The elections in this country need "none of the above" and a legal requirement to vote correctly, no spoiled papers. Then the press can go to town on the "none of the above" when Joe Bloggs says he has a mandate from the people on a 27% turnout.

Edit. Rethink that. If there is compulsory voting then perhaps the elected will look at the 27% turnout, the 51% of that that got them elected and the press can hammer them on the 73% none of the above.

 

[Goooner]

In one of the councils I’ve seen results for, Malton, I think it was, spoilt ballots got 39% of the votes, next closest was Labour on 18%.

 

[Rasczak]

In one of the councils I’ve seen results for, Malton, I think it was, spoilt ballots got 39% of the votes, next closest was Labour on 18%.

Do you have a link to the report/news article? Googling Malton spoilt votes doesn't reveal anything.

 

[Goooner]

It was just another tweet, I’ll see if I can find it again though.

 

[IronGiant]

I'm having trouble finding any turnout stats, anyone have a link for me?

 

[Goooner]

Do you have a link to the report/news article? Googling Malton spoilt votes doesn't reveal anything.

Here’s the tweet I saw

Dave Ware on Twitter