British Local Elections, May 2024

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The funniest thing about Canvey Island parochialism is that the paranoia that underlies so much of it even has a rational justification: we have learned from the archives that until the completion of the Thames Barrier in 1982, the official plan for the nightmare combination of a Spring Tide and an extreme storm surge from the North Sea sufficiently bad to threaten central London was to inundate Canvey Island in order to save the City and Westminster.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

One thing that is striking is that Galloway's outfit did not perform as well in Rochdale as various apparently and sometimes genuinely unattached independents did elsewhere: specifically, they were unable to pull off wins in any of the more mixed wards. I don't think this is coincidental: the Galloway brand presumably acts as a bit of an incentive for those not in the target audience to actually go and vote.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Oh there's always a fair amount of churn in local elections at ward level, even in years that are Bad for one party or other. Turnout would have needed to have been a bit higher across the board for a total steamroller effect.