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Local Council Elections

Staffsknot

Student
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Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
44
With the polling under way, I thought it would be good to start a thread. Nothing really extraordinary just yet although Knowsley in Liverpool is now a one party (labour) council.
 
Where's a good website to check the results as they come in. I want to know what's going on in Wiltshire.
 
I still can't understand why anybody is voting Lib Dem. They've lost a fair amount of council seats by the looks of things but by rights they should be absolutely slaughtered.

Anyway, one former Lib Dem MP now says:

BBC said:
Former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik calls for his party's leader to resign. He says his messge to Nick Clegg is: "You can't be the deputy prime minister and the leader of the party, because you're not delivering the results."
Click to expand...

Mind you, he lost his seat in the general election, lost two bids to be president of the Lib Dems and lost out on being Lib Dem mayoral candidate so maybe he's just a sore loser. He can't even get a position of power with this lying, two-faced, corrupt bunch.
 
Listening to the radio today, everyone is claiming victory:

  • Labour, because they have significantly increased the seats they hold
  • Conservatives, because they're likely to retain the London mayor and because Labour have done well but not spectacularly
  • Libdems, because even though they have the lowest number of seats ever, they have won a couple of sets from the Conservatives

Politicians' capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me.

IMO LibDems are the big losers. For the first time they've had their hand on the tiller and have had to make unpopular decisions.


edited to add.....

I didn't get to vote, our Tory candidate was unopposed and so the election was cancelled. Her husband is a property developer, she's on the planning board and one of his controversial developments has recently got the go-ahead. I may stand as an independent next time 'round
 
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I think we're going to be the big losers here if the conservatives panic and lurch even more rightwards. There's already been MPs on the radio saying that this is all the fault of gay marriage.
 
angrysoba said:
I still can't understand why anybody is voting Lib Dem.
Click to expand...
Couple of reasons:

1--If one believes that going into coalition with the tories was a better decision than being party to the once discussed "coalition of progressives"

2--If one believes that many of the policy promises they had to break actually improved their policy mix.

Plus--of course--if one believes they run local councils better than the others.

I only had the Mayor/London Assembly elections where I am, and voted Boris (1) and Ken (2) for mayor (voted Ken in 2000 and 2004, Boris in 2008), and voted Labour for constituency assembly member and LibDem for London-wide assembly member.

ETA: Islington council has been Labour (now) and LibDem as long as I've lived there.
 
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The Don said:
Listening to the radio today, everyone is claiming victory:

  • Labour, because they have significantly increased the seats they hold
  • Conservatives, because they're likely to retain the London mayor and because Labour have done well but not spectacularly
  • Libdems, because even though they have the lowest number of seats ever, they have won a couple of sets from the Conservatives

Politicians' capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me.

IMO LibDems are the big losers. For the first time they've had their hand on the tiller and have had to make unpopular decisions.


edited to add.....

I didn't get to vote, our Tory candidate was unopposed and so the election was cancelled. Her husband is a property developer, she's on the planning board and one of his controversial developments has recently got the go-ahead. I may stand as an independent next time 'round
Click to expand...

I prefer to think of them all as losers. I think that really the only thing that the two coalition parties can cling to is the fact that they weren't as thoroughly refudiated* as they ought to have been while the Labour Party can't really claim it is that much of a winning party when it lost councils such as in Bradford (I think) and they probably won't win London.

Ha ha! Just seen Ed Miliband saying, "We have to think of ways to convince more people to vote for us!"

I can think of one thing right now.
 
Francesca R said:
Couple of reasons:

1--If one believes that going into coalition with the tories was a better decision than being party to the once discussed "coalition of progressives"

2--If one believes that many of the policy promises they had to break actually improved their policy mix.

Plus--of course--if one believes they run local councils better than the others.

I only had the Mayor/London Assembly elections where I am, and voted Boris (1) and Ken (2) for mayor (voted Ken in 2000 and 2004, Boris in 2008), and voted Labour for constituency assembly member and LibDem for London-wide assembly member.

ETA: Islington council has been Labour (now) and LibDem as long as I've lived there.
Click to expand...

Well, I would have voted Boris if I had the chance and that would have been my one and only Tory vote so far if I had done.

Is London mayoral elections on AV? In that case, my second vote probably would have been LibDem. So that contradicts what I said earlier.

I suppose that sometimes the personality of the candidate may be important as well. With council elections there is less suspicion that the person you are voting for is only off to Parliament to get a second home paid for and take trips to exotic places on some lobbyist's expense account.
 
The mayoral election is "AV-lite"; you only get two choices and all but the top two candidates are knocked out after the count of first choices.

ETA: Boris has been my only tory vote to date as well, though I'm not as opposed to their platform as that may suggest.
 
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