Local election results

MaxwellBygraves

Quick summary:

At time of writing, Labour have gained 524 seats, Cons have lost 308 and Libs have lost 152. Labour are projected to gain between 600 and 700 by the time all declared.

National share of vote so far is Labour 39%, Cons 31% and Libs 16%.

Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry and Bradford have so far said 'NO' to an elected mayor.

Boris Johnson still favourite to beat Ken Livingstone to London mayor, but Labour predicted to gain from Tories and Libs in GLA list vote. Latest mayoral first preference puts Boris on 45%, Ken on 39%.

Former Liberal MP Lembit Opik calls for Nick Clegg to resign. Brian Paddick likely to finish 4th or 5th in mayoral race.

Professor Pongoo, someone dressed as a 6ft Penguin, got more votes than the Lib Dems in Edinburgh Pentlands. Professor Pongoo got 450 votes. (!)

Not official, but at time of writing Labour appear to have performed better than expected in Scotland and will not lose control of Glasgow council to SNP.

The Tory candidate apparently came 7th in the Liverpool mayoral election.

Turnout nationally disappointingly low. Time to hold elections on a Sunday?

Personally, I live in Newcastle. We have yet to declare but Labour are expected to do well. Mayoral referendum expected later today.

Bad times for the Tories and Libs but turnout is disappointing for everyone. But the best news of the result so far is that the apparently the BNP have lost every seat that they had. Hurrah!!

graeme_s-2

I was interested to see that the mayoral referendums seem to have been fairly closely run everywhere, but all come down against an elected mayor.

I'm in Coventry. Couldn't vote as my electoral roll form got lost, either by the council or in the post. Have emailed another one to them when I discovered this yesterday and they've confirmed receipt. First time I've not voted in any election since I've been old enough

CambsNewbie

Seems to be a familiar pattern.. Whichever party is in government kicks a kicking..

I think one answer to low turn out might be to get rid of the culture of which council/constituency can return their result first. Have elections over a weekend, move polling stations to supermarkets, sports centres, shopping centres. Look at new technologies.

MaxwellBygraves

Graeme_S wrote:

I was interested to see that the mayoral referendums seem to have been fairly closely run everywhere, but all come down against an elected mayor.

Indeed I think Newcaswtle will have voted no, I did. I heard (operative word being heard) that they are considering imposing elected mayors on the cities that voted no anyway. If I find a link or source I will post.

MaxwellBygraves

CambsNewbie wrote:

Seems to be a familiar pattern.. Whichever party is in government kicks a kicking..

I think one answer to low turn out might be to get rid of the culture of which council/constituency can return their result first. Have elections over a weekend, move polling stations to supermarkets, sports centres, shopping centres. Look at new technologies.

I agree that weekend voting is the way forward. I think we should also consider online/mobile voting.

I'm not sure this is true, but apparently the reason we have elections on Thursdays traditionally is because people got paid on a Friday so they'd be least likely to be drunk and incapacitated on Thursday

MaxwellBygraves

Here's the Edinburgh Lib Dem slaying Professor Pongoo

Pross

My local council returned to Labour after the Tories took it last time (for the first ime in 20 odd year). I doubt I'll notice any difference though as it didn't seem to change when the Tories took control in the first place. I hate party politics in local elections, it really needs local people fighting for local issues rather than those battling national policies. It seems a lot of others in my ward agree as we tend to get independents pretty much every time (and they actually do fight our corner!). The other problem with party politics at this level is that you can often lose a good councillor because their national party is getting a kicking.

Cleat Eastwood

Pross wrote:

it really needs local people fighting for local issues .

thats communist talk - well done.

In liverpool democracy took a huge shot in the arm by having elections for a mayor, a role no none was allowed to vote for, and voting the candidate into a position that as yet has undisclosed/undefined powers and undisclosed/undefined income. As it is, one of the most corrupt local politicians got in with 18% of the vote.

MaxwellBygraves

Surprisingly, Bristol says YES to an elected mayor.

Turnout was 24% and one ward averaged just 6, yes 6%.

MaxwellBygraves

Hearing shock reports from London that last minute entrant Vladimir Putin has won the mayoral election with 108% !

CambsNewbie

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Hearing shock reports from London that last minute entrant Vladimir Putin has won the mayoral election with 108% !

Only 108%?? support seems to be sliding!

I'm sure I read somewhere in the days of the East Bloc that the various 'democratic' 'people's' republics would have more people voting communist than were actually elgible to vote in total!

EKIMIKE

F**k me, that barely constitutes what i would call a 'vote' (Bristol mayor thingy).

It's like sham democracy. Does anyone know if there is a minimum threshold for turnout? What if ten people voted, would it still be considered a valid result?

MaxwellBygraves

EKIMIKE wrote:

F**k me, that barely constitutes what i would call a 'vote' (Bristol mayor thingy).

It's like sham democracy. Does anyone know if there is a minimum threshold for turnout? What if ten people voted, would it still be considered a valid result?

As far as I know there is no minimum threshold as people have a legal right not to vote.

Apparently in said ward there was no council election, just the referendum, which is why turnout was so low.

MaxwellBygraves

Some proper good news, BNP have lost all 12 of the council seats they were defending. Good stuff.

EKIMIKE

The 6% is just trivia though. What worries me the most is the 24% figure as the overall.

beverick

Were there local elections yesterday. That seems to have passed me by.

Still. There's no point in voting in our ward. The Labour candidate typically gets 75% of the vote - 74.5% in a bad year.

I don't know about Pongoo, Labour could put an actual penguin forward and it'd win.

Bob

CambsNewbie

beverick wrote:

Were there local elections yesterday. That seems to have passed me by.

Still. There's no point in voting in our ward. The Labour candidate typically gets 75% of the vote - 74.5% in a bad year.

I don't know about Pongoo, Labour could put an actual penguin forward and it'd win.

Bob

There has been a labour revolution in Huntingdonshire! They have gained one seat!!! That still leaves 54 to fight for next time! Milibland is right... Middle England DO trust labour again!!

Seriously though, I can't remember an election where we've had so few leaflets through the door or canvassing. Doesn't seem to be so much voter apathy but councillor apathy. No-one knocked on my door asking for my vote..

MaxwellBygraves

Here's one to make you smile...

Labour have done so well today that they took the seats of Witney East, Witney central and Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire meaning David Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson have Labour councillors!

MaxwellBygraves

Ed Miliband egged in Southampton (video): http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update ... -is-egged/

Have to say I thought he handled it pretty well. Didn't do a Prezza though

MaxwellBygraves

Boris Johnson's deputy mayor has lost his seat to Labour.

Cleat Eastwood

A member of comedy (C)rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain (GLC) has become a councillor in his home city. Rhys Hutchings, a full-time member of the band, stood as Labour candidate in Newport's St Julians ward.

McBain_v1

I've no time for Councillors - the many that I have encountered have all been self-serving egotistical pillocks who deserve a rocket up the arse rather than an allowance that just panders to their over-inflated sense of self importance.

MaxwellBygraves

Still no word from London...

MaxwellBygraves

Boris beats Ken in London in the closest mayoral race to date, 51.5% to 48.5%.

Congrats to Green Jenny Jones who came 3rd and signed off a rubbish day for the Lib Dems.

freddiegrubb

When people have died in defence of democracy should voting be compulsory or if your vote made a difference do you think "they" would allow you to have it ? You decide.

MaxwellBygraves

freddiegrubb wrote:

When people have died in defence of democracy should voting be compulsory or if your vote made a difference do you think "they" would allow you to have it ? You decide.

I think there are many other steps that can be taken to encourage turnout instead of compulsory voting.

OffTheBackAdam

freddiegrubb wrote:

When people have died in defence of democracy should voting be compulsory or if your vote made a difference do you think "they" would allow you to have it ? You decide.

They did vote, it was for the "I can't be arsed to vote", "It makes f-all difference anyway" & "None of the above" Parties!

By all means have compulsary voting, but include "None of the above" on the ballot papers.

I see that whichever of the Millibands is leading Labour, is saying it's a great day for them. 12% of the eligible electorate vote for them. I wonder what a bad day looks like.
Holding elections on a Sunday will make no difference, if a voter can't be bothered to either sort out a postal vote (Arguably these should be greatly restricted, as they are open to serious abuse) or get to a poling station, that is open from something like 7am to 10pm, then will they bother to go on a Sunday?

MaxwellBygraves

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

I wonder what a bad day looks like.

Losing over 400 seats on less than 10% of the national vote?

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

Holding elections on a Sunday will make no difference, if a voter can't be bothered to either sort out a postal vote (Arguably these should be greatly restricted, as they are open to serious abuse) or get to a poling station, that is open from something like 7am to 10pm, then will they bother to go on a Sunday?

The French hold their Presidential election on Sundays. Two weeks ago in the first round turnout was 79%. Similar turnout expected tomorrow. I'm not suggesting Sunday elections would boost turnout to quite that level, but I think it would make a difference. I also think we should look at options for some sort of online voting.