UK Local Elections, 4th May 2017

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Premature? Maybe, but these should provide a few cheap thrills. Ideas for drinking games:

- shot every time PASOK Scottish Labour say something like "well there's no way to go but up from here" while looking like they want to shoot themselves
-  every time you realise how incomprehensibly stupid the new regional mayors are.
- every time a pundit suggests this will finally be the time South Wales Labour is finally dislodged by Plaid/Lib Dems/UKIP/Tories/Greens/Caerphilly Residents For Regular Bin Collections etc.
- why does the "Solent" region contain Portsmouth and Sothampton, but none of their suburbs?
- every time somebody remarks upon an amazing Lib Dem revival because they pick up seats in Cornwall on some esoteric local issue nobody can fathom.
- was there really a huge demand to revive the defunct counties of Avon and Cleveland?
- every time somebody gloats/panics about Labour "underperforming" (this always happens when the Shire counties are up.)
- why has South Yorkshire swallowed up half of Derbyshire?
- every time you read some half-baked analysis about the rural/urban divide and metropolitan elitism that somehow patronises both rural and urban people. Bonus points if they try and make a comparison to Donald Trump.
- seriously why the  is there a mayor of Lincolnshire
- finish your drink if a county in North Wales has a mad result.
- "Hello, I'm the Mayor of East Anglia! That is a real job!"

[joevsimp]

Premature? Maybe, but these should provide a few cheap thrills. Ideas for drinking games:

- shot every time PASOK Scottish Labour say something like "well there's no way to go but up from here" while looking like they want to shoot themselves

I think the damage has been done as far as ScotsLab are concerned and the should hold on to what they've still got, barring some sort of disaster in Glasgow.

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they should've gone with Sheriff instead
 

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sweeping gains accross the Valleys for No Overall Control

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because Hampshire's districts are so outdated and perversely arranged that you'd have to go to within ten miles of the Berkshire border to include them. or just give this power to the county council instead.

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cornwall yes, I'd be more interested in what they manage in and around Guildford, and whether they carry on losing seats in the north

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apparently, at least its not Humberside

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on the whole yes, but look at specific areas like Harlow, Basildon, Hastings etc

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why indeed? and where does that leave High Peak?

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well they've got to do something to fill the hours

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see above, sheriffs ftw

- finish your drink if a county in North Wales has a mad result.[/quote]

I personally welcome the new Ukip/Llais Gwynnedd coalition

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again, Sheriff, or possibly Ealdorman in that case


anyway, the thing that most interests me is that this is the first election where Ukip will be fighting  mostly on the defensive

[Gary J]

What are these strange county elections? We do not have any in Berkshire, as our County Council was swept away in 1998.

[Pilchard]

- "Hello, I'm the Mayor of East Anglia! That is a real job!"

The East Anglia devolution deal failed to pass, as did Norfolk and Suffolk. Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is going ahead though

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why indeed? and where does that leave High Peak?

As far as I understand it, the area covered by the "Sheffield City Region" mayor is South Yorkshire plus Chesterfield and Bassetlaw (Notts), and the other three Derbyshire districts involved - Bolsover, Derbyshire Dales and NE Derbyshire - are non-constituent members

edit:

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because Hampshire's districts are so outdated and perversely arranged that you'd have to go to within ten miles of the Berkshire border to include them. or just give this power to the county council instead.

Solent is in an early stage of consultation and any mayoral election isn't likely to take place until 2018 or later - apparently suburban district councils like Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Havant would have required county council consent to sign up at this stage but may be invited to join later if/when it all gets approved

edit2:

- seriously why the  is there a mayor of Lincolnshire

Looks like the Lincolnshire devolution deal has also failed to pass, so Mayor of Lincolnshire will not be happening

[joevsimp]

Solent is now "dead In the water" according to the councils involved. Local Tories on the island baked out

[Phony Moderate]

Lists of candidates come out today, at least for the county council elections.

[Clyde1998]

This is a map of what's up based on previous (overall) control; anything black is 'no overall control', grey is independent and light pink is not up for election.


Based on what I can work out, this is the situation following the previous elections in each area up:
Lab - 1,544 councillors
Con - 1,338
Ind - 648
Lib - 504
SNP - 425
Plaid - 170
UKIP - 138
Grn - 34
Oth - 99 (Others may include some independent candidates that use 'party-type' descriptions)

England: Con 1,118; Lab 570; Lib 360; Ind 154; UKIP 136; Grn 20; Oth 52
Scotland: SNP 425; Lab 394; Ind 196; Con 115; Lib 71; Grn 14; Oth 8
Wales: Lab 580; Ind 298; Plaid 170; Con 105; Lib 73; Oth 39

[Clyde1998]

The local elections are on Thursday. Will probably be our first indication of what will happen in June's general election.

[Hnv1]

Labour to bring home all the new Mayoral elections bar for Cambridge? does anyone predict a coup in the West Midlands run off?

[Terry the Fat Shark]

So this is tomorrow...

[vileplume]

Labour to bring home all the new Mayoral elections bar for Cambridge? does anyone predict a coup in the West Midlands run off?

They won't win the ludicrously named West of England either, the bookies think it's a Con vs. Lib Dem battle. The Tories will win (the again ridiculous) Cambridgeshire and Peterborough while according to the bookies at least they also have a shot at the West Midlands (urban metro). Labour should comfortably win the other three, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Tees Valley, if they somehow manage to lose one (it would be Tees Valley if the unthinkable happens) then they would have truly earned joke party status (though losing the West Midlands would be bad enough).

[Tintrlvr]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

[Phony Moderate]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

You can always expect "exceptionally low turnout" for local elections regardless of whether they're held on the eve of a GE or not. If anything the turnout for these might be slightly higher than is usual for locals as people's minds are, obviously, geared to politics right now with a GE on.

And yes, both the 1983 and 1987 GEs were held in June, a few weeks after the locals. Thatcher in fact used them to assess her party's chances.

[Tintrlvr]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

You can always expect "exceptionally low turnout" for local elections regardless of whether they're held on the eve of a GE or not. If anything the turnout for these might be slightly higher than is usual for locals as people's minds are, obviously, geared to politics right now with a GE on.

And yes, both the 1983 and 1987 GEs were held in June, a few weeks after the locals. Thatcher in fact used them to assess her party's chances.

By "exceptionally low," I of course meant "lower than usual." No need to be rude about it. Obviously turnout is always quite bad for local elections.

[Clyde1998]

It's been ten years to the day since the SNP won their first election in their history. It seems likely that Labour's last bastion, Glasgow, will fall to the SNP tomorrow. A lot has changed in Scottish politics in the last ten years. The results in Scotland could give a major indication of whether the Conservatives have a realistic chance of winning a large number of seats from the SNP in June's general election.

[Phony Moderate]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

You can always expect "exceptionally low turnout" for local elections regardless of whether they're held on the eve of a GE or not. If anything the turnout for these might be slightly higher than is usual for locals as people's minds are, obviously, geared to politics right now with a GE on.

And yes, both the 1983 and 1987 GEs were held in June, a few weeks after the locals. Thatcher in fact used them to assess her party's chances.

By "exceptionally low," I of course meant "lower than usual." No need to be rude about it. Obviously turnout is always quite bad for local elections.

Didn't mean to come off that way. But we can at least be sure that they'll get a higher turnout than those pointless PCC elections we have.

[Bono]

I cast my vote for the local Conservative candidate about an hour ago despite having seen no campaigning whatsoever by her. In fact, barely saw any campaign from anyone. There were a few leaflets from the Labour incumbent, as well as from UKIP, whose candidate my fiancee thought was extremely good looking. I also got an extremely creepy personally addressed mailing from the lib-dems, clearly targeted at me because they saw a foreign sounding name on the electoral register, with some claptrap about the EU. Needless to say, it sound found itself in the recycling bin.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/local-election-results-night-2017-10226506 Mirror has a rough hour by hour guide on when to expect results, not sure how trustworthy but I'll go with it

[Phony Moderate]

Just voted. People on the tables were pretty downbeat, as usual. Turnout seems sh**t, unsurprisingly.

[Clyde1998]

The polls have closed.

[Clyde1998]

It's been suggested that the first ward level results from England and Wales should start coming in within the next 20-30 minutes. Haven't heard anything about Scotland, but the results will probably be longer, due to the differences in the voting system.

[IceAgeComing]

I'm pretty sure we're counting in the morning - that's what they've always done ever since they brought in STV.  I believe that its a computer count though so it should be relatively quick: just a job of scanning the papers for all of their preferences; double checking any that the thing doesn't read in case they have valid preferences on them and then press the button and see how everything works out.  Even if they do it by hand it ought not to take very long; there aren't that many votes being counted after all...

[Clyde1998]

I'm pretty sure we're counting in the morning - that's what they've always done ever since they brought in STV.  I believe that its a computer count though so it should be relatively quick: just a job of scanning the papers for all of their preferences; double checking any that the thing doesn't read in case they have valid preferences on them and then press the button and see how everything works out.  Even if they do it by hand it ought not to take very long; there aren't that many votes being counted after all...

That makes sense, I was wondering why there was no talk of the Scotland results anywhere. It shouldn't take so long, as long as the electronic counting system works, unlike in 2007.

[Clyde1998]

First result of the night:

@britainelects: Labour HOLD Queensferry (Flintshire).

[Clyde1998]

@britainelects: Independent GAIN Rhosnesni (Wrexham) from Labour.