Local Election Maps

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In the case of Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire actually winning no seats where they won two last time...

...anyways, St Andrews also stands out.

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Right click for a proper sized image. Outline map nicked from someone believed to be residing somewhere in the western outskirts of Bolton. Errors possible, etc.

Anyways. A key would be an idea, wouldn't it?

Red = Labour, Grey = Independent, Green = Plaid, Blue = Tory, Yellow = LibDem.

So far, so simple.

Dark Grey = no election, that other Green = Llais (and a Plaid breakaway near Llanelli that I've trollishly given the same colour - they only won a single ward, shared with Labour), Purple = UKIP (only two of those; one in Merthyr - an incumbent originally elected as an Independent - and one in the Vale of Glamorgan), Pink = Continuity SDP (just a single councillor this time, again in Port Talbot). I think that's all.

Anyways, I can explain most things.

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Winning party by ward for all the old West Midlands Met County boroughs:



Massive Labour landslides in Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley. Brum provided a classic of its type in that Labour missed out on a couple of wards it really ought to have won, but won a couple of others that no one had thought likely. Also, Sutton Vesey. A very strange result in Walsall with Labour making impressive progress against the Tories in places, but also losing a couple of seats to assorted hard left weirdos (including one from Citizen Dave's bizarre outfit). The Greens did very, very well in Solihull again, and a Residents Association appears to have won a seat (oh dear). In Coventry, Dave Nellist was defeated by a taxi driver running for Labour. Many of the Labour percentages in Sandwell are hard to believe; the government is as unpopular there as in Liverpool, Glasgow or Ebbw Vale. Also, Sutton Vesey. In Wolverhampton the Tories failed to win a single ward inside the boundaries Enoch Powell's old constituency (which did not include Tettenhall). And then there's Dudley, where Labour won a logic-defying landslide (including seats in Kingswinford, Halesowen and Stourbridge proper!) and the Greens won a seat with UKIP losing theirs. Also, Sutton Vesey.

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Not entirely sure, but then Doooodloiiiiiiiiiyyyyy is a very strange place. I'm guessing probably nothing to do with environmentalism, though.

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Question regarding Coldfield - if you'd have been told before the election that Labour would win a seat in Sutton, would you have guessed Vesey as the least unlikely of the four? Or not even that?

Vesey would always have been the most likely Labour win; it's basically humdrum suburbia these days rather than bourgeois clichéland, there's an increasingly public sector feel to the especially affluent bits (which obviously matters a great deal right now; see also the semi-hilarious emergence of Red Harborne), and Labour have run the same candidate (Rob Pocock, who's well known and well liked) for ages. This is like 70% a personal triumph for him or something.

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Also, as an aside, I am also shocked by the newly learned fact that Wolvo SW did not contain Tettenhall until 74. For such a Safe seat (66% for Powell at one point) not to include one of the Conubations wealthiest areas is weird.

A lot of Powell's constituents moved to Tettenhall during his tenure, of course...

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Judging by the Election Maps in the gallery, Most of them moved to what is now South Staffordshire. Safe Labour till 1970, then safe Tory ever after.

What's now South Staffs was only created for 1974: before then the area covered by it was split between Brierley Hill (Labour until 1959, Tory afterwards even in 1966) and Cannock (Labour - with Jennie Lee - until 1970).

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West Yorkshire. Too tired to point much out, but, Christ, when did Labour last win Luddenfoot?

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So, anyway, Labour landslides in Leeds and Wakefield, impressive Labour showings in Calderdale and Kirklees, and an even weirder set of results in Bradford than seemed likely (which is saying something). Perhaps not quite so utterly catastrophic for the LibDems as last year, but still catastrophic. Really quite consistently awful results for the Tories, reduced for the most part to absolutely base wards. Continued slow (but seemingly secure) progress for the Greenies. Pattern of Respect success is a mixture of effort and ethnic composition (but like 80% the latter or something). No BNP or other openly far-right councillors elected this year.

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There used to be three wards in Sutton Coldfield, now there are four. The old Vesey was fairly similar to the current incarnation, though it was a bit larger. The areas lost in the rewarding are more middle class than the rest of the current ward, unless my memory is faulty (which is possible; don't know Sutton as well as the rest of Brum). But, yeah, they never lost any of them.

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South Yorkshire SSR. Not entirely sure if there's much need to say much more, though, yeah, Labour won Penistone.

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Glasgow, obviously. Will update for the recount in the one ward if that changes a seat, obviously. Wards have been coloured in based on the party that won the most seats in them first, and the most first preferences if there's a tie in the number of seats. Might be a few errors, but hope not.

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Map of greatness is great. Will fix the error in the Glasgow thing whenever I get time tomorrow or something.

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It's strange that the weirdest detail of 1977 isn't actually all the blue (even if their last hurrah in Dennistoun is at least mildly amusing), but Drumchapel et al. Local issue?

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Interesting that such a fundamentally dull area could have such wacky politics.

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Swung, Liam, swung.

He's from Preston. Be gentle.

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Sort've OT, but while we're on county councils, what're people's thoughts about this May and the county elections? How are things gonna go?

Labour will make significant gains basically everywhere and will take control of most of the remaining county councils where such a thing is plausible under non-extraordinary circumstances. I suspect that matters between the National Government parties may be surprisingly fluid. UKIP will probably lose most of their current unty councillors, though (who knows) might pick up elsewhere.

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I don't quite know about that...  Taking the recent Police commissioner elections as current (if rather turnout and LibDem poor) examples, the Tories could end up holding non-safe counties like Staffordshire , Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, and Yorkshire East Riding.

Would suggest that it's an error to use those joke elections as an example of anything.

Though I was careful to write most. Staffs wouldn't require an especially great night in theory (even if it doesn't include Stoke these days), but Labour have certain serious organisational difficulties there - which showed up in a set of genuinely catastrophic results in 2009 - and I would be very surprised at a Labour majority there. At least right now. I would love to be wrong, obviously.
Demographic changes mean that Northants is basically out of reach exception of a great night, Leicestershire CC is safe Tory barring utter catastrophe, and E.R. Yorks is actually a UA not a CC. And is certainly safely Tory.

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'I don't want someone of your class voting for me!'

If that isn't true, it should be.

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Though I've never bothered to find out the first thing about how cricket is organized below the national teams level...

Are you familiar with the Gormenghast novels?

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It's going to look rather different next year, methinks.

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To risk understatement, yes.

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Harold Macmillan was MP for Bromley when he was PM.

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Excellence

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I have very fond memories of Scarborough.