Cont: General UK Politics III - Dumb and Dumber

[The Don]

IMO a terrible showing for Labour and not as bad as it could have been from the Conservatives.

I know Labour were coming off the historically good 2019 local elections but since then the Tories have been returned with a whopping majority and they've hardly made any headway at all, their gains have ben very modest indeed.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Starmer as the election approaches and people forget how royally screwed they've been over the last 13 years.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Council election prediction - not quite as bad as the Tories feared, and they'll somehow manage to portray it as a good result. Hope I'm wrong and they get stuffed.

"We feel we've done quite well considering that we're grifting lying bastards who've spent the last thirteen years lining our own pockets and running down anyhing publicly owned a hat we can't sell"?

 

[P.J. Denyer]

For the Tories it's Whine-Time Friday.

 

[Vixen]

Lovely to see my close relative's constituency in Hertsmere, Tory MP (Oliver Dowden), lose control of the Town Hall.

In Hertsmere, where Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is MP, the Conservatives lost overall control of the town hall, with 13 councillors voted out while Labour gained seven and the Lib Dems six.

ES

 

[zooterkin]

Well went to vote and of course took photo ID, and I ran into a fairly obvious issue, I don't look much like the photo on my driving license, which was only taken in 2020. I had to take my glasses off for the photo, I had a beard, and oh yeah I weighed about 127kg at the time and now I weigh 73 after some very successful dieting. From what the people at the polling station said I was hardly alone in having photo ID that doesn't look much like the person presenting it. The friendly pair at my polling station were fine, but I dread to think what some jobsworth 'guardian of democracy' could get up to.

A similar thought crossed my mind when I presented my driving licence, and I think I saw a brief look of doubt cross the face of the polling station volunteer. I think my photo is over ten years old, and I was wearing glasses then, which I don't now. (I do have other photo ID I could produce to show it's me, with much more recent (and better, since I took them) photos, but none which are on the official list.)

 

[GlennB]

IMO a terrible showing for Labour and not as bad as it could have been from the Conservatives.

I know Labour were coming off the historically good 2019 local elections but since then the Tories have been returned with a whopping majority and they've hardly made any headway at all, their gains have ben very modest indeed.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Starmer as the election approaches and people forget how royally screwed they've been over the last 13 years.

??
"Labour on 35% and Tories 26%, says BBC - highest Labour lead over Tories in local elections since 1997

The BBC has now released its projected national share (PNS) figures for the local election. This is the estimate of what the share-of-the-vote figures for each party would have been if elections had taken place in the whole of Britain." Guardian

 

[jimbob]

A similar thought crossed my mind when I presented my driving licence, and I think I saw a brief look of doubt cross the face of the polling station volunteer. I think my photo is over ten years old, and I was wearing glasses then, which I don't now. (I do have other photo ID I could produce to show it's me, with much more recent (and better, since I took them) photos, but none which are on the official list.)

I always think you look remarkably like James Randi

 

[Garrison]

Almost a shame the tory losses can't remain at the number they were a couple of minutes ago on the BBC. 666 seems like an very appropriate number for the Tories.

 

[Darat]

IMO a terrible showing for Labour and not as bad as it could have been from the Conservatives.

I know Labour were coming off the historically good 2019 local elections but since then the Tories have been returned with a whopping majority and they've hardly made any headway at all, their gains have ben very modest indeed.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Starmer as the election approaches and people forget how royally screwed they've been over the last 13 years.

How?The swing to Labour is even in the South East of the country: https://twitter.com/drjennings/status/1654535277333954565?s=20

 

[Lothian]

How?The swing to Labour is even in the South East of the country: https://twitter.com/drjennings/status/1654535277333954565?s=20

I was busy in meetings today but this morning the results and headlines looked better or less worse for the Tories than they did later.

Even now the lib dems and greens have gained more than labour in absolute terms, 567 to 462 and relatively :- 1/5 of Labour councillors are gains, 1/3 of libs are gains and 1/2 of greens are gains.

 

[Lothian]

Almost a shame the tory losses can't remain at the number they were a couple of minutes ago on the BBC. 666 seems like an very appropriate number for the Tories.

Would be nice if it can get to 4 figures.

 

[GlennB]

How?The swing to Labour is even in the South East of the country: https://twitter.com/drjennings/status/1654535277333954565?s=20

And

"Local elections 2023 live: Labour becomes largest party in local government, going past Tories for first time since 2002"

 

[Garrison]

Would be nice if it can get to 4 figures.

And it just has, though the BBC is doing its best to play this down:

We are still waiting for a dozen councils to declare, but latest figures show the Conservatives have lost 1,000 seats across England.

The Tories could well make these seats back up in the remaining dozen or so councils, but currently look on course to hit the losses projected by experts before the election.

 

[dudalb]

How?The swing to Labour is even in the South East of the country: https://twitter.com/drjennings/status/1654535277333954565?s=20

If you have not noticied, some people love to be Cassandra.

 

[jeremyp]

IMO a terrible showing for Labour and not as bad as it could have been from the Conservatives.

I know Labour were coming off the historically good 2019 local elections but since then the Tories have been returned with a whopping majority and they've hardly made any headway at all, their gains have ben very modest indeed.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Starmer as the election approaches and people forget how royally screwed they've been over the last 13 years.

What? The Tories have been absolutely spanked.

 

[The Don]

What? The Tories have been absolutely spanked.

But still Labour have only just squeezed past in terms of the number of councillors and come the general election they need a big majority in England because they won't get many seats in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland.

If Labour had gained, say, 1,000 Council seats and were well ahead of the Conservatives then it'd be a good night's work.

 

[Garrison]

IMO a terrible showing for Labour and not as bad as it could have been from the Conservatives.

I know Labour were coming off the historically good 2019 local elections but since then the Tories have been returned with a whopping majority and they've hardly made any headway at all, their gains have ben very modest indeed.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Starmer as the election approaches and people forget how royally screwed they've been over the last 13 years.

You do understand that the local elections last year were largely in Labour heartlands where it was impossible to make major gains and this time it was heavily weighted towards Tory areas? So the idea that they got a lower share of the vote than last year is meaningless nonsense. If there's a message to be taken from these results its that people will vote for whoever gets the Tories out in their council ward. I'm a solid Labour supporter but if the Lib Dems had been the ones with the chance to oust them locally I would have voted for them. Also in a lot of those no overall control councils Labour made significant gains.

 

[Garrison]

But still Labour have only just squeezed past in terms of the number of councillors

In what were previously pretty solid Tory areas, for goodness sake! Of the seats being contested over 3000 were Conservative and 2000 Labour.

 

[catsmate]

But still Labour have only just squeezed past in terms of the number of councillors and come the general election they need a big majority in England because they won't get many seats in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland.

If Labour had gained, say, 1,000 Council seats and were well ahead of the Conservatives then it'd be a good night's work.

Local election patterns don't map to Westminster.
Outside of Scotland and Norn Iron the 'Others' will be fairly non-existent in a parliamentary election; damn few Greens or Independents. I don't see the Asgfield Independents going to Westminster. Though I wouldn't actually rule it out....

 

[jimbob]

But still Labour have only just squeezed past in terms of the number of councillors and come the general election they need a big majority in England because they won't get many seats in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland.

If Labour had gained, say, 1,000 Council seats and were well ahead of the Conservatives then it'd be a good night's work.

The BBC has.

LAB
2,657
+527
Labour 2,657 councillors 527 councillors gained
CON
2,282
-1,061
Conservative 2,282 councillors 1,061 councillors lost

Which is quite a lot more than the Tories

LD
1,608
+416
Liberal Democrat 1,608 councillors 416 councillors gained
IND
867
-81
Independents 867 councillors 81 councillors lost
GRN
478
+240
Green 478 councillors 240 councillors gained
RA
88
-24