When it comes to results, local elections in England can be frustrating as it often takes a long time for the details to come through and the early returns from super-keen places like Sunderland are not necessarily representative. But now that all but one Council has declared, the pattern is clear. UKIP has had an [...]
Before I say anything else, I just want to send a virtual hug to all those valiant Lib Dem campaigners who put their heart and soul into their wards and didn't win. Unlike many others in recent years, though, you can see a glimmer of hope for the future. I hope you can see that you'll get it next time. There will be many who like Claire who lost by 2 and Elspeth who lost by 90 ish for whom there is a way in. Even in my wildest moments of optimism, I didn't envisage us gaining quite as many ...
I mentioned to Lord Bonkers this morning that the general secretary of Ukip had likened his party to the Black Death. It prompted the old boy to recall this episode of East Midlands history. In 1664 the villagers of Eyam in Derbyshire began to succumb to a terrible illness. They turned purple in the face, their memories became unreliable and they insulted their neighbours until they expired from apoplexy. Their vicar (a sort of Revd Hughes of the 17th century) divined that this was a plague of ukippery and had been brought to the village by a visitor from London. ...
Despite the local elections, there has been proper news this week too. Take the Shropshire Star, which prints a photograph of mysterious lights in the sky: The image was captured by a Shropshire Star reader in Habberley, near Pontesbury, on Monday evening. He said: "They were not aircraft of any kind and having served in the forces for over 30 years I can bet my pension they are not known to the military. "They moved slowly around the back of Pontesbury Hill and out towards Eastridge Woods and the Stiperstones."
Our new expanded team of 7 Lib Dem Councillors will find it it easier to hold Mayor Anderson and his team to account. A committed and experienced Group of people that I am proud to work with. People always ... Continue reading →
Bill Newton Dunn, Bill Newton Dunn, Furnish'd and burnish'd by Lincolnshire sun.One of the minor pleasures of yesterday's local elections was the success of Bill Newton Dunn in the Liberal Democrat landslide in Richmond upon Thames. He was elected for the South Richmond ward, one of two covering the town centre. It proved a rare area of strength for the Conservatives in the borough last night: two of them topped the poll in this three-member ward. Bill squeaked home in third place, beating the final Conservative by six votes. Still, four years ago the Tories were more than a thousand ...
I was seven years old. I was a sicky child. In the proudest moment of my life up to that point, an ambulance drew up outside our council house. Instead of being the undoubted weakling on the street, kids rushed to wonder at my sudden importance. I was taken to somewhere that seemed so far away. There I made my first black friend, a friendship that endured for years and widened my perspectives. Joe came on a boat from Jamaica. The Windrush Generation. Of course, at the age of seven I had no idea about the Windrush Generation. I grew ...
The best set of local election results in a decade. The Lib Dems won in Leave areas, Remain areas. These results show there is a bright future for the Liberal Democrats. #LibDemsWin #WinningHere pic.twitter.com/rw8xdTaBd5 — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 4, 2018 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
From the BBC summary at 18:21 with 149 of 150 councils declared: Labour 2296 up 55 Tories 1330 down 26 Lib Dems 536 up 75 Greens 39 up 8 UKIP 3 down 123 Others 142 up 11 We have gained control of Richmond, Kingston, Three Rivers and South Campbridgeshire. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Kingston LD Gain – 39 out of 48 councillors – 21 gains – best result ever for Lib Dems in Royal Borough of Kingston. Thank you! @KingstonLibDems @LibDems pic.twitter.com/wSoO2u9eBb — Edward Davey (@EdwardJDavey) May 4, 2018 As we reported earlier, we have also taken control of Three Rivers, South Cambridgeshire and Richmond. (This has been repeated due to an earlier tweeting snafu while walking the dog!) * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
As intimated in my earlier post, it has now been confirmed that the Lib Dems have taken control of Kingston from the Tories – we won 39 seats to their 9! As we reported earlier, we have also taken control of Three Rivers, South Cambridgeshire and Richmond. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Second paragraph of third chapter: Breakfast was not a meal to linger over. There was too much to be seen, and in two hours the anchor would be dropped. Because I needed advice and also liked and trusted him, when M. Perier appeared on deck, I confided my feelings about Dorn to him; and he, like Islata Soma, advised me to write at once and not to worry about our different views. There was something very friendly in his manner, and my cup of gratitude was full when he offered to take me in hand when we went ashore, suggesting ...
Extremely grateful to residents in the new #Borough and #Bankside ward @lb_southwark for electing @AdeleCathedrals @cathedralsdavid and me as your local councillors. I look to working with and for you! Thanks so much for your confidence in me #LiberalLondon pic.twitter.com/HcKNXhXnat — Victor ChamberlaIN (@VMMChamberlain) May 4, 2018 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
The Conservatives in Wandsworth know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That isn't a quote from this year's council elections in Wandsworth, where Labour gained 7 seats, but fell 5 short of what they needed to take control of the council. It comes from Labour's final week literature in their campaign in ... Continue reading Complacency undoes Labour in Wandsworth
I held you in my wallet, to keep you safe from harm in a dimming store of memory, with our devalued currency that was a little worn with use and age, but easy to access; You formed an aperture into a version of our past, beyond revision once framed by shutter speed, in silver salts [...]
So proud of my lovely wife Emily – elected by a landslide in Norbiton! With 2 lovely people – Dave and Olly. Thank you to the wonderful people of Norbiton @KingstonLibDems @LibDems @FocusNorbiton @ollywehring pic.twitter.com/XK0LOgDFFH — Edward Davey (@EdwardJDavey) May 4, 2018 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
*** UPDATED 4TH MAY *** As many people will know, BBC TV's Casualty programme has been filming on the Road to Nowhere. The storyline involves a motorway crash and a petrol tanker blaze. The climax of their filming will involve one, or maybe two large explosions by 10.30 pm this coming Wednesday, May 9th (Not Saturday 5th - they're running behind schedule) More details and photos of the set are on the Gazette website
As I am beginning to write the first tentative words of my Masters' Dissertation, I am leaning heavily on my core source text, Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World;[1]a literary critique of much earlier work by François Rabelais, a French Renaissance writer. The text, despite being weighty and seemingly rather niche, has lent us phrases and ideas which exist today, such as the terms 'Rabelaisian' and 'Bakhtinian'; and an analysis of the political potential of the carnivalesque. Image Source: merriam-webster.com Michael Holquist in his prologue to the edition writes that 'carnival was a kind of safety valve for passions the ...
Fri 4th
14:06
It appears that the way to avoid being surprised by election results is, ahem, to read me
Regular readers may recall that ahead of the 2017 general election I pointed out how the polls weren't really all over the place and the range of likely results they pointed to included the Conservatives losing their majority. And ahead of this year's local elections? Lib Dem Newswire readers got the scoop on how a cool look at how support has changed since 2014 meant it was possible it would be Jeremy Corbyn, not Theresa May, under pressure as the election results come in. The mistake, of course, would be trust me to get it right next time. But just ...
Well, to hardly anyone's surprise, I lost. And the least objectionable of the sitting tory councillors retained his seat with a comfortable majority. BUT! - I came a comfortable third, rather than fourth or fifth. - My vote went up by a third. OK, only from ~100 to 134, but still. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me, and I'll probably see you again next time :) Overall, the Calderdale results were not too bad. A massively increased majority for Marilyn in Greetland and Stainland is very welcome indeed, as is Amanda taking Warley to make it ...
Home Office official tells man facing deportation: 'My job is to piss you off' I have patients with incurable brain tumours, psychosis and Parkinson's - and all of them were declared fit for work by the DWP ID cards are a short-sighted, stupid, and counter-productive solution to the Windrush scandal There is virtually no dataset to which the government has access which it has not then used to harass people in the name of controlling illegal immigration, even when doing so could prove hugely damaging to the wellbeing of the people concerned and to the public at large. Local election ...
I can't remember the last time any election result in Britain didn't make me thoroughly depressed, or at the very least, dismissively irritated (like that feeling you get when watching England play football, and the keeper falls over and accidentally throws the ball into the net). But today, I feel pretty good. Everyone is going to spin this every which way, but make no mistake about it, this was a bad result for Labour. Had I had no source other than Corbynistas on my Twitter feed, this would have been obvious; man, I've never seen them so riled. The Tories ...
Thu, 12:47: RT @FaullJonathan: @Jacob_Rees_Mogg I should be obliged if you would name two countries in different customs territories with no infrastruc... Thu, 12:56: The Tragic Case of Alfie Evans https://t.co/35mx1k4qHw A good summary. Thu, 16:05: The Long Way Round: The Plane that Accidentally Circumnavigated the World https://t.co/RwDIte3wYg A fascinating story. Thu, 18:37: The Missy Chronicles and The Legends of River Song https://t.co/XKNkNpEqYn Thu, 19:33: RT @philipdsjones: Important letter from @jontwood about @gollancz with apologies from me that the obituary gave out the impression it di... Thu, 20:48: 43-year-old Australian trapdoor spider was world's oldest known spider https://t.co/lmIxGFbnxd Awww. Thu, ...
Ooooh, look at the swing on that as the 2018 local election results get off to a great start for the Liberal Democrats: Pallion (Sunderland) result: LDem: 60.1% (+57.0) Lab: 29.4% (-18.4) Con: 7.3% (-7.0) Grn: 3.1% (-1.7) LDem GAIN. No UKIP (-30.1) as prev. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 3, 2018 * The national vote share calculations are adjusted to allow for which wards are up each year, making them comparable across years.
Former Torbay Conservative Councillor Mark King has joined the Liberal Democrats. He left the Conservative group on the Council 6 months ago and has now joined us. From Devon Live: He said: "It is about the failures of the Conservatives to understand the impact of their policies on the bay and the fresh start the Liberal Democrats promise in Torbay and across the UK. I want to see them take control of the bay in 2019. "I am very concerned about the increasing economic decline of the resort, the increased poverty and deprivation and the growing housing crisis I have ...
The place names making headlines in today's British local election results are Nuneaton, Derby, Swindon and the London boroughs of Westminster and Wandsworth. But perhaps the most significant story is buried in another London borough, Richmond.The headline is that the Lib Dems took it from the Conservatives, but there's more to it than that. In the 2014-18 council, the Conservatives had 39 seats and the Lib Dems 15 - this time the Lib Dems have 39 seats, the Tories 11 and the Greens 4. That's a remarkable symmetrical turnaround, but it's the story behind the Greens' four seats that matters. ...
Modern Mersey Ferry Royal Iris but why its called Royal is in this blog posting The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above It's 100 years since the Mersey Ferries Iris and daffodil were involved in the Zeebrugge raid and the short Echo article is well worth reading.
The Daily Telegraph has the article on its web site – see link above My dear friend Cllr. Charles Walker, who died in January 2017, devoted quite a bit of energy into trying to push Railtrack/Network Rail to kill off an infestation of Japanese Knotweed in Maghull's Foxhouse Lane. It seemed to be a tough task which needed deep invasive treatment of the ground on a yearly basis and he had to keep on at them to do the work. I guess from what we now read, getting rid of Knotweed is all but impossible?
When the UK Government first proposed piloting a requirement for voters to present an ID at the polling station I compared it to the voter suppression techniques used by Republicans in the United States. Republican controlled US states such as Florida have introduced barriers to voting for ethnic minorities and poorer communities with decisive effects in close elections. As the Mirror reports, indications from yesterday's local council elections appear to support that conclusion. They say that a one volunteer group estimates that more than one in five polling stations turned away voters for not having ID in trial areas. Five ...
"I don't understand how a computer can not function." That was a comment by Patricia Minchin, a 75 year old nurse who was one of the tragically unfortunate people who was missed out of breast cancer screening and now has untreated advanced breast cancer. Yet another NHS fiasco. The Secretary of State has blamed it [...] The post Algorithms are as fallible as the people who write them appeared first on Radix.
What makes us human? When do we cease to become human? Or, to put it another way, when do we die? The questions are becoming an increasingly important as cases such as Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard grab the headlines and pull at the world's collective heartstrings. Fifty years ago a group of scientists gathered at Harvard Medical School to discuss the issue. Up until then it hadn't been an issue. If your heart stopped beating and your lungs stopped breathing, you were dead. But then along came modern science with its ventilators and heart pumps. So the Harvard scientists ...
So said the BBC News website first thing this morning. I'm become very used to writing "Oh my days, how awful" posts after local elections. This morning, the picture is much more positive. We've ended the night, with two thirds of results in, on +41 councillors which compares to 31 for Labour and 3 for the Tories. We've retained control in places like Cheltenham, Eastleigh and, after a few wobbles, Sutton. We gained Richmond on Thames pretty handsomely. I was being told in the run-up to the election that it was on a knife edge. We ended up gaining 24 ...
Liberal Democrats have gained control in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, leaping from 15 seats to 39. This is in spite of the deal with the Greens which allowed them to take 4 seats. Richmond upon Thames, vote share: LDem: 46.7% (+19.9) Con: 37.6% (-1.8) Lab: 10.4% (-0.7) Grn: 4.5% (-8.2) Seat results: LDem: 39 (+24) Con: 11 (-28) Grn: 4 (+4) LDem GAIN from Con. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 4, 2018 Historically we controlled Richmond from 1986 to 2002, then from 2006 to 2010. Meanwhile, in nearby Sutton, which we have controlled for the last 28 ...
There were no elections in Northumberland yesterday ( well, unless there were by-elections that I'm unaware of ) However, former Blyth Town Councillor Peter Lovatt was elected to Newcastle City Council yesterday. Congratulations to Councillor Lovatt !!
Just a quick update of where we are at 2am. We are currently on +14 seats and generally doing a little better than expected. Every English local election night since the formation of the Coalition has been an absolute nightmare to sit through. Tonight is much more pleasant. John Curtice says that we are having our best night at local elections since the formation of the coalition. We look like we might gain Richmond, though it's going to be close. We'll take a bit of a hit in Sutton and party sources are less sure than they were earlier that ...
