The Sunderland Liberal Democrats have done it again, giving the party a great start to election night: LIB DEM GAIN FROM LAB – Hendon (SUND) — Tyne and Wear Elects (@TyneWearElects) May 6, 2021 I'll be updating this post as more news comes in. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis Email* Enter Email Confirm Email Name* First Last What would you like to receive?* Liberal Democrat Newswire: monthly newsletter Polling UnPacked (political opinion polling news): max 1 email per day Mark Pack blog posts and council by-election results: max 1 email per day Lib Dem news from ...
In other years, it would have gone unnoticed: a political party offering lifts to people to get to the polling station. But this year it was a definite must-not-do because . Alas, Labour in Saltwell in Gateshead decided to ignore the restrictions on car sharing and giving lifts. As the above leaflet shows, Labour were offering lifts to voters to polling stations. We helpfully drew the attention
The results are in. By 21 votes out of almost 5,200 cast, I missed taking the "Cheriton, Sandgate and Hythe East" Kent County Council division from the Conservatives. Election of councillors to Kent County Council for the Cheriton, Sandgate & Hythe East division on Thursday 6 May 2021 Candidate Description (if any) Number of votes cast BINGHAM Paul Richard Labour Party 792 LOVE Rory Cassian The Conservative Party Candidate 2143 PRATER Tim Liberal Democrats 2122 SEGAL Eric Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts 91 Turnout: 34.95% The full results are at [IMG: Tim Prater] Actually, NOT This Time. So ...
Sat 8th
18:21
Local Elections 2021 - Shropshire council leader Peter Nutting voted out, Lib Dems march in to Copth...
March the bands. Bang the drums. Sound the trumpets. The Conservative leader of Shropshire Council has lost his seat to a wannabe Lib Dem councillor by a mile. The feedback on the streets of Copthorne in Shrewsbury for Rob Wilson, the Lib Dem candidate has been strong for weeks. And tonight, it has been confirmed. Rob has won the Copthorne Division in Shrewsbury by 519 votes. We done Rob! Welcome to what looks like being a very different Shropshire Council. I hope.... Peter Nutting, who has led Shropshire Council since May 2017 has been retired by the electorate. Thank you ...
There have been local elections in Buckinghamshire, which means we got a set of results from the wards that fall within the Chesham and Amersham constituency. They give a clear pointer as to to who the contest will be between when the pending Parliamentary by-election for that seat is called: Good news from the local elections in the constituency: @libdems finished in clear second (Greens behind LDs, Lab even further back). Also only party other than Tories to win a seat in the constituency, plus clutch of very close second places. https://t.co/6dBfROZlNo — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] (@markpack) May 8, ...
Sat 8th
13:24Local Elections 2021: Greens and Labour gain from Tories - Lib Dems waiting in wings (1pm)
This is proving an interesting election. No one is doubting that the Conservatives will form the next Shropshire Council administration from Monday. But there are strong messages coming from the electorate that they want more action on green matters and the climate emergency, and on areas outside Shrewsbury. For the first time, a Labour candidate has been elected for Bridgnorth following years of the town being badly served, some would say dissed, by its Conservative representatives. There is a kick in the whatsits for the Tory leadership in the county. David Minnery in Market Drayton was deselected due to a ...
I can't quite motivate myself to comment on Thursday's elections just yet, but the one trend that is clear is that voters lined up in their thousands to endorse the current governments, in what ever country they lived, and the way that the pandemic has been handled, thus accounting for the good results for the Tories in England, the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales. It was slightly more complicated than that of course, but in the face of countless lockdowns and restrictions on individual liberties most voters appeared to feel that we are beginning to move on and ...
The current state of play in Scotland is that the SNP is well ahead and will be forming the next government. We don't know yet whether they will get an overall majority on their own or will need to rely on the Greens for support. The Lib Dems ended last night on 4 constituency MSPs, with absolutely stonking victories by Willie Rennie and Alex Cole-Hamilton. Alex got the highest ever vote of any MSP in the history of the Scottish Parliament, a record that Willie had previously held for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. These are huge personal votes of ...
We will update this thread with Saturday's results from England. A heartbreaking result from Morecombe – we gained a swing of 32%, then lost by 3 votes. Morecambe Central (Lancashire) council result: Lab: 36.1% (-13.8) LDem: 36.1% (+31.6) Con: 19.1% (-14.7) Ind: 5.7% (+5.7) Grn: 3.0% (+0.3) Lab HOLD Three votes in it. More: https://t.co/laSaIRWUOf pic.twitter.com/JkFI5kxO4R — Britain Elects (@BritainElects) May 8, 2021
The count in London started yesterday in three very large venues across the city: Olympia, Alexandra Palace and Excel Centre. So far results have been declared for 7 of the 14 Assembly constituencies, all with no political change – 4 Labour and 3 Conservatives. We are hoping to win our first ever constituency in South West London but it will be close. Votes were also counted for the London Mayoral in those 7 areas and at the moment Sadiq Khan is ahead of the Conservative Shaun Bailey by 39% to 37% on first preferences. Lib Dem Luisa Porritt is lying ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @UrbanFoxxxx: A thread on ship/boat lifts. Starting with the prettiest — Falkirk Wheel, Scotland (2002) https://t.co/EJ6fQ8OchN Fri, 15:58: Hooray! https://t.co/I1mBXJ9gSE Fri, 16:05: RT @p_surridge: Shameless self promotion (that's what twitter is for no?) but since my timeline is full of people saying this is all about... Fri, 17:11: RT @NewYorker: The seven surviving chapters of Lee Atwater's unpublished memoir suggest that the nihilism, cynicism, and scurrilous tactics... Fri, 18:29: The Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells https://t.co/3rp74oYEwK Fri, 19:12: Friday reading https://t.co/ThZVnlaRtZ Fri, 20:48: MAGAworld pans Stefanik https://t.co/ZzHEED4KIS I met @EliseStefanik at a conference in Oxford in December ...
Sat 8th
10:46Local Elections 2021: Strong showing for Greens in Oswestry East but Tories win both seats - Labour ...
In the two seat ward of Oswestry East, Chris Schofield and John Price won for the Conservatives with a combined total of 1,556 votes. The two Green candidates, Jay Moore and Olly Rose, gained 947 votes. That's a healthy improvement the Green vote of 540 in 2017. There might be a couple of themes here. The Green Party is growing in confidence and strength here and across the country. And in Shropshire people are saying they that have had enough of the council leadership dragging its feet on the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. In another two-seater, Julia Buckley gained ...
Two important factors are being neglected in the instant political analysis of the Conservative victory in the Hartlepool by-election. First, it's not a story of something new happening. Rather, it's retelling of a story we've already had. The fact of Hartlepool having a Conservative MP is dramatic. But it's not surprising or telling us anything new. Rather, the Conservative victory in the by-election is the final act of the 2019 general election. The Conservatives won plenty of similar seats at that contest. It was only the quirk of an unusually strong performance by the Brexit Party that meant the Conservatives ...
Right on the western edge of Maghull, there's an industrial estate on one side of Sefton Lane and a waste disposal/recycling centre together with a garden centre and a few houses on the other. Leaving Maghull you go over a significant mound which is the remains of a railway bridge taking Sefton Lane over the former Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway, now the Cheshire Lines Path/Trans Pennine Trail. You then pass by the industrial estate (on your left) and recycling centre & garden centre (on your right) before a small bridge takes you over Dovers Brook, which is the ...
A number of independent commentators have looked at the election results with a huge amount of naivety and concluded that May 6th was a wasted opportunity for the Lib Dems who should have done better. Of course, we wanted to ... Continue reading →
One of this week's lesser-reported clashes was over water rights between the two impoverished Central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It deserved more attention. Central Asia lies at the heart of the Eurasian land mass. The headwaters of its rivers provide water to half of the world's population. But climate change and the consequences of the break-up of the Soviet Union are destabilising this strategic, and too often ignored part of the world. or centuries the five stans (as they are often called) were a prosperous key trading link in the Silk Road connecting China and Europe. The ancient ...
Sat 8th
08:41Local Elections 2021: Two Tory seats lost to Greens - the count resumed at 8am (updated 8.30am)
Most of Thursday night and yesterday was taken up with verification of ballot papers, aims to ensure that any ballot paper cast in a polling station is included in the count. Counting began at 7.30pm and nine seats were declared. It was a night of celebration for the Greens who gained two seats and have a high expectation of gaining a third. Five results I'll be looking out for today are: Bishop's Castle: Conservative David Turner who has long represented Much Wenlock has put himself up against Lib Dem Ruth Houghton, especially after his engagement in negative campaigning. Counting begins ...
i) births and deaths 8 May 1928: birth of John Bennett, who played General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and (shamefully in yellowface) Li H'sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) 8 May 1931: birth of Douglas Camfield, who directed the third episode of Planet of Giants (First Doctor, 1964), also The Crusade (First Doctor, 1965), The Time Meddler (also First Doctor, 1965), The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1965-66), The Web of Fear (Second Doctor, 1968), The Invasion (also Second Doctor, 1968), much of Inferno (Third Doctor, 1970), Terror of the Zygons (Fourth Doctor, 1975) and ...
So I updated the Welsh results post at 10:30 last night and went, exhausted, to bed. At that point, the Mid and West Wales result, our only hope of a seat in the Senedd, hung in the balance – and the mood music I was hearing was not positive. We were very worried that, for the first time in its history, there would be no Lib Dems in the Senedd. Just after midnight, though, everyone else breathed a huge sigh of relief. Extremely proud of our leader @DoddsJane who has been elected as MS in Mid and West Wales. Llongyfarchiadau ...
The Dundee Green Health Week 2021 managed by Green Health Partnership Dundee runs from today until 16th May and details can be found here. There will be over 50 activities all designed to improve people's mental, physical and social wellbeing. Green Health Week coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week. Activities will be online but also in person. All activities are free, booking is essential. Today sees the launch a series of self-led activities to download as well as a variety of videos about the health benefits of being outdoors created by NHS staff, how to form new health habits by ...
I have long regretted choosing 'Six of the Best' as a name for a feature on this blog. I mentioned this in a recent post and, thanks to a suggestion there by Epictetus, I have my new title. At least I can be confident that I will never come to regret using one based on a naff Seventies sex manual. So on we go... Shev Fogarty blames the Jersey government's new licensing system for the current fishing dispute. "Having spent time in 2005 asking people around Scotland how they planned to vote, and why, the most common answer to the ...
