UK Local Election Results

[Drogue]

As some of you may know, yesterday was the local elections for many councils in England and Wales (and my first chance to vote ), and is usually used as a political barometer as to how the main parties are looking. Many pundits expected Blair's Labour to lose, but I haven't seen one that predicted such a dramatic change. Where I live, we used to have 26 labour councillors, 12 Lib Dems and 8 Conservative (Tory) (and 1 independent). We now have just 11 Labour, 17 Lib Dems and 19 Conservatives

More importantly, nationwide, Labour have lost 749 seats, Conservtives have gained 542, the Lib Dems have gained 166, and the BNP (far right) have gained (their first) 11 This is an enormous blow for Blair, and has been partly blamed on the Tories election campaign (which local wise, was very good) and on the Iraq war. Personally, I think it's more about peoples disillusionment with current Labour spending and taxes, as always, but I'm not sure.

Did anyone think the War, if it is that, would affect Labour this badly? Will Blair survive this, especially if it is echoes at the next General Election? How has IDS, who most people seem to think is not a good leader/shadow PM managed to gain far more than Hague? Is the BNP goign to get an MP at the next election?

Discuss. I guess this is mostly for fellow Brits, but I'm sure some knowledgeable foreignors might have a view on these issues.

[Spiffor]

+ 166 for the Libs ?
Does it mean the Libs have a chance to become a significant party again ?

[Boris Godunov]

How disappointing they didn't vote more for the Liberal Dems than the stupid Tories.

[Shi Huangdi]

If anger at the Iraq War was the big deal here, the conservatives would not have gained so much.

[FrustratedPoet]

My girlfriend was standing for election in the Shiplake constituency of South Oxfordshire.

Despite only being 22 years old and doing absolutely no campaigning whatsoever she still got 13.33% of the vote and came third in the voting: http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/NewHomeP...&Name=Shiplake.

The results of district council elections have very little impact on national issues IMHO. I can't really see them as being any kind of barometer of public opinion about the war in Iraq. Anyone who voted based on their opinion of the war was entirely missing the point, I think. The local councils have a huge impact on local issues such as waste disposal, planning permission, allocation of recreational space and local building schemes. Those kind of criteria are what one should consider before casting a vote for or against a candidate. Your opinion on national issues should only be relevant if you're voting in a national election. That's what I think, anyway...

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
If anger at the Iraq War was the big deal here, the conservatives would not have gained so much.

You may have just summed up in one sentence what I was clumsily trying to articulate in my last post. Git.

[Maniac]

How many seats are there in total? Could you please give percentages of before and after the elections?

[oedo]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
If anger at the Iraq War was the big deal here, the conservatives would not have gained so much.

I´d rather say many Labours simply didn´t vote. a Labour voting for the Tories because of Blair´s Irak politics would truly be a complete idiot.

[Starchild]

The LibDem's gained a lot of seats, from what I've heard, in heavily Muslim areas due to disillusionment/anger over the Iraq War. All my voting for the LibDems however didn't manage to budge the Conservatives out of the Suffolk Coastal council though


The gains made by the BNP, I hope, will serve as a wake up call to the local parties in those areas and they'll work to get rid of those fascists by the next election.

[Immortal Wombat]

I wasn't given a choice of any Labour candidates, so I was forced to vote for the Lib Dems.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Spiffor
+ 166 for the Libs ?
Does it mean the Libs have a chance to become a significant party again ?

They already are, in terms of number of voters, they were only a few percentage points behind the Tories, closer the the Tories to Labour.

Despite only being 22 years old and doing absolutely no campaigning whatsoever she still got 13.33% of the vote and came third in the voting

We just elected a 21 year old Politics student, and anyone who knows how crap the local University is (it's not actually a university yet ) that was pretty scary. He was a Tory too.

Anyone who voted based on their opinion of the war was entirely missing the point, I think.

Very true, and I agree with your whole sentiment, however I'm betting that it did affect people. I don't have that much in why people vote, especially with an average turnout of less than 30%

How many seats are there in total? Could you please give percentages of before and after the elections?

Percentages wouldn't be that relevant IMHO, because it's all local. And to be honest, I haven't seen any. These results are from about 10000-15000 seats, and I think that's about half in so far. But before the elections, the BBC were saying that anything mroe than 500 losses for Labour would be a big problem, and more than 800 would be a disaster, and with only half in, looks like we'll get over 800. I thought the Lib Dems would have gained a bit more, but I'm happy with any Lib Dem gains, it shows we're going the right way. I may even stand next council elections.

I think about Iraq, it wasn't so much people being against it, but people seeing that Blair didn't listen to the will of the people, and thus didn't like him. He nosedived in the polls, and IDS gained, much though his losses, rather than people agreeing with him IMHO.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
I wasn't given a choice of any Labour candidates, so I was forced to vote for the Lib Dems.

Most of my friends didn't even have contested seats

Luckily, I had 2 Labour, 2 Conservative, 2 Lib Dem and a Green Party to choose from

[FrustratedPoet]

btw, the news this evening was referencing a total of around 20,000 council seats.

[Dauphin]

My council hasn't changed a bit. The Tories still have a more than comfortable absolute majority.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
My girlfriend was standing for election in the Shiplake constituency of South Oxfordshire.

Despite only being 22 years old and doing absolutely no campaigning whatsoever she still got 13.33% of the vote and came third in the voting: http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/NewHomeP...&Name=Shiplake.

Congrats to her BTW. 13.33% means she probably got neaer 25% of voters who supported her, since people have 2 votes (and by that website, most people used both). That's not bad, if she didn't campaign. I'm still shocked we elected a 21 year old Tory. He campaigned a lot, but he got almost 700 votes, the highest in his area.