English mega-local elections, 2021

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Due to the suspension of the 2020 elections due to Covid, we have a bumber crop of them this year. in addition to the Scottish + Welsh parliaments (which have their own threads, that's why this is called the "English" elections) every area of England has at least one election going on, including:

- all 24 county councils (down from two: as per the agonisingly slow procuedure by which two-tier councils are being phased out by some sort of perverse Battle Royale/last man standing tournament, both Bucks and Northants have been eliminated). Aside from Cumbia (Lab-Lib coalition) this is all Tory territory, having clawed most of them back from their Major nadir during the Blair years and holding them since. Given the crippled Lib Dems, the continued failure of whatever Farage is calling himself this week to set down instititional roots and a chastened Labour, I doubt this will change much. For Labour in partiular, the counties they traditionally have performed best in are Derbyshire, the aforementioned Cumbria, Northumberland, Staffordshire, Notts and Lancashire; not exactly Labour's friendliest turf at the present (county councils exclude cities and large towns, who are given their own unitaries, hobbling the party). Lib Dems will try and build back their presence in the West; if any of the other southern Tory councils have done something stupid, we'll presumably find out in the protest vote.

- Perhaps more interestingly, mayoral elections are up as well: this includes Sadiq Khan's probable re-election in London. Say what you like about him, he is popular (read: not despised as Ken) in the suburbs and the Tories have not salavaged their reputation in the capital amonst the voters they depend on. Other than that, there are seven combined authority mayoral elections: (note, for those unaware, these are largely Mickey Mouse jobs with mysterious  powers beyond appearing on TV a lot, but they are interesting nonetheless)

• Manchester and Merseyside, which should be safe Labour short of an disaster for the Party
• the West Midlands, which is new, and should be a slamdunk for Tracy Babin MP (Labour)
• three Tory-held Mayoralties of note - the West Midlands, the West of England (the old Avon council) and Tees Valley. I hazard Andy Street in Birmingham will be favoured against Liam Byrne MP. LAbour should hope to win Tees and the West of England, but these are weirdo seats
• "Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough" which is a) a FAKE JOB and b) safe Tory

There are also a gaggle of "normal" Mayors, of which the only interesting race is Liverpool because the incumbent, Al's fave politician Joe Anderson, has been arrested for corruption.

Next there are the beloved institutions known as the Police and Crime Comissioners. I won't overexcite you by talking too much about them.

This post is getting quite long, but there also races in all 36 metropolitan boroughs, 28 of the 58 unitary councils, and 62 of the 182 non-metropolitan districts; as well as the mysterious City of London corporation and the council of the Isles of Scilly, which apparantly counts as its own distinct type of government.

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And apparently they may be delayed again till summer.

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The Liverpool Labour selection has become quite the mess.

Somerset County Council election is also off, as unitarization looms.

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https://mobile.twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1371428500637417474

There's something really funny about the idea of London being chock a block full of statues. Best of all, if people are trying to push the envelope you'd get endless submissions for totally batsh**t reasons ("What do you mean, you're rejecting my statue of Hoxha?!!")

Sadly though, Fox is a hypocrite. He claims he doesn't want an ideological prism for his statue garden, and yet he wants people "we" (read: "he") can respect.

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Apparently, the Tories are going to ditch SV in favour of FPTP for the mayoral elections.

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Question about Sunderland: why has Labour's vote held up relatively well in the non-sunderland parts of the eponymous district like Washington, but collapsed in the city proper?

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I always talk about my home borough, but Enfield was the only borough to be Khan '16 - Bailey '21. Quite interesting, especially as the borough has largely moved Labour in recent years at both the local and parliamentary level. They also lost a by election in Chase ward (apparently the election was entirely based on the future of a local golf course), and have been suffering several defections, including a new Green.

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Local coalition situation:

County Councils:

Cambridgeshire: Tory => Lab-Lib Dem-Ind
Notts: Tory/Mans Ind => Tory majority
Oxfordshire: Tory/Ind => Lib Dem/Lab/Green

metropolitans:

Bolton: Con minority with Lib Dem/UKIP/Ind support => same minus Libs
Dudley: Tory minority => Tory majority
Sheffield: Lab majority => Lab/Green

Unitaries:

Bristol: Lab majority => Lab minority
Cornwall: Lib Dem/Ind => Tory majority
Durham: Lab majority => Tory/Lib Dem/Green/Ind (lol)
Hartlepool: Tory/Ind Union/Veterans => same, minus the veterans party
Isle of Wight: Tory => Independent/Green/Island Independents/Our Island/Lib Dem/Labour/Vectis Party coalition
Northumberland: Tory minority => Tory majority
Milton Keynes: government is pretty similar but Lib Dems moved from external support for Labour to formal partners
Plymouth: Lab => Tory minority
Portsmouth: Lib Dem minority => Lib Dem minority with Labour/Progressive Portsmouth People support
Southampton: Lab => Tory

districts:

Not going to through them all, but the Labour led councils that were flipped to Tory include Gloucester, Pendle, Basingstoke, Basildon, Nuneaton, Amber Valley, Cannock Chase, Colchester and Harlow. In addition Labour lost their majorities in Rossendale and West Lancashire. lib Dems lost Maidstone, Tories lost Tandridge and Tunbridge Wells.

Labour are doing really badly in the South tbh.