2022 UK Local Elections

[Blindtraveler]

What every voter needs to remember is that today is not a referendum on Scottish independence, a judgement on how national government in which ever part of the country you live is doing or or a chance to yet again come out and support your favourite political party on party lines but instead this election is all about bin collections and potholes and how often your streets are cleaned and council houses maintained and if your local library is going to shut. Personally when I go to my polling place today I shall be doing absolutely everything possible within my power to remove the truly awful city council administration here in Edinburgh and ensure that whoever comes in next focuses on the priorities of people who still live here and also does not spend any more money than has already been committed on the White elephant that is the tram

 

[daodao]

I always take issue with any MP who doesn't live in the area he represents, how on earth can you be on top of local issues if you are not there to see then for yourself.
Down here in south Dorset our local MP, Richard Drax, lives outside the area he represents(in a large estate no less) and unlike our previous Labour MP, Jim Knight, hasn't been seen to really do anything for the area. Why care about an area who's fortunes don't directly effect you?, that just extra work.
Well he does have a column in the local paper but that seems more to be used to sprout his brexit nonsense than actually dealing with local issues.

I don't think its necessary for an elected representative to actually live in their constituency if they have close local links. Mr Drax lives in his ancestral Dorset home, and he and his family have had close links to the area for 500 years.

Brexit is irrelevant to local elections, but is not a "nonsense"; on the only occasions when it has actually been put to a vote (on 23/6/16) and de facto in GE2019, a majority has supported it.

 

[Bayum]

Front page of the Daily Fail website is chocka with anti-Labour news stories. The mud-slinging continues!

 

[duncanp]

One thing that's a bit curious is how the more opinionated parties (Sinn Fein and DUP) seem to have attracted more votes than the more moderate, and peace-brokering parties (SDLP and UUP) in recent years.

It doesn't matter to Starmer if people are disappointed.

As long as they put their cross in the correct place on the ballot paper, he couldn't care less about their energy bills.

Until the next election, that is.

 

[nw1]

I don't think its necessary for an elected representative to actually live in their constituency if they have close local links. Mr Drax lives in his ancestral Dorset home, and he and his family have had close links to the area for 500 years.

Brexit is irrelevant to local elections, but is not a "nonsense"; on the only occasions when it has actually been put to a vote (on 23/6/16) and de facto in GE2019, a majority has supported it.

It's simply a distortion of the truth that GE2019 showed a "majority for Brexit". For starters:

1. The combined "social liberal" vote (Lab/Lib Dem/Green/SNP/Plaid Cymru - apologies for initial incorrect info) exceeded that of the Tories; it's only the first-past-the-post system that makes it look if the Tories got a majority of votes;

2. You can't assume that people voted Tory in 2019 because they were Brexit supporters. As been discussed many times on here, people had other reasons for voting Tory. Maybe they were worried about the anti-semitism allegations of the Corbyn era. Maybe they were worried about being taxed too high. Maybe they were worried about Corbyn's competence.

I've got plenty of other things to say about making radical changes based on a wafer-thin majority in a flawed referendum, but there's another thread for that.

 

[Pinza-C55]

It's the case with a lot of MPs. These days they don't have to put an actual address on the ballot paper, just which parliamentary constituency it's in. Esther McVey reportedly rented a cheapish flat that she was only occasional making visits to, in order to get an address in Tatton when the (national) Conservatives decided they wanted to gift her George Osborne's old 'safe seat'.

My local MP is Rachael Maskell (Labour, York Central) and she has held the seat for 7 years having been parachuted in with no connection to the area. In those 7 years I have never seen her in the street even once.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

It's simply a distortion of the truth that GE2019 showed a "majority for Brexit". For starters:

1. The combined Labour/Lib Dem vote exceeded that of the Tories; it's only the first-past-the-post system that makes it look if the Tories got a majority of votes;

Ummm... umm....
2019 results (numbers of votes):
13 966 454 Conservatve
10 269 051 Labour
3 696 419 LibDem

Labour + LibDem 13 965 470

(Of course if you'd said the combined Labour/LibDem/Green/SNP vote, you'd have been correct). And your wider point is true that people voted for other issues not just Brexit, so you can't really say 2019 gave a majority for Brexit.

2. You can't assume that people voted Tory in 2019 because they were Brexit supporters. As been discussed many times on here, people had other reasons for voting Tory. Maybe they were worried about the anti-semitism allegations of the Corbyn era. Maybe they were worried about being taxed too high. Maybe they were worried about Corbyn's competence.

Very true. But of course, likewise you can't assume that everyone who voted Labour or SNP supported Remain. (I would imagine just about everyone who voted LibDem would've supported Remain).

 

[nw1]

Ummm... umm....
2019 results (numbers of votes):
13 966 454 Conservatve
10 269 051 Labour
3 696 419 LibDem

Labour + LibDem 13 965 470

(Of course if you'd said the combined Labour/LibDem/Green/SNP vote, you'd have been correct).

Ah ok, sorry. Yes, I was thinking of the combined "social liberal" vote in my head and replied a bit too fast (as I tend to do with any apparently pro-Brexit post), apologies for getting that mixed up.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Ah ok, sorry. Yes, I was thinking of the combined "social liberal" vote in my head and replied a bit too fast (as I tend to do with any apparently pro-Brexit post), apologies for getting that mixed up.

No worries. I was actually quite surprised when I checked the figures how close the Combined Labour+LibDem vs Tory votes were. Less than 1000 votes in it, out of nearly 28 million! (Or over 32 million if you include the votes for everyone else)

 

[LethalDrizzle]

... this election is all about bin collections ...

Thanks to Coventry's ongoing bin lorry driver strike and the council's handling of it, for me this is actually true this time around (for the first time ever), although the monument to human stupidity that is the Coundon segregated cycle lane comes pretty close to trumping it.

 

[Typhoon]

We need to be careful about expecting too much from these elections. According to Rory Stewart:

Downing Street is having a lot of fun briefing out that it's going to be a disastrous showing in the elections. In fact the likelihood is the Tory Party isn't going to suffer very much in these elections partly because in many cases they are actually going up against the 2019 Baseline, they are going to measured against the 2019 baseline, now 2019 was disastrous for the Tory Party. I think they lost 1500 local council seats. That was right at the heart of Theresa May at the end of her Premiership, failing to get Brexit through. Huge sort of rebellion against the Conservative Party in those local elections.

There is more about how Boris Johnson will claim success (but I had listened enough).
In at least some cases (eg London), they were last contested in 2018. In the capital, the Conservatives registered their lowest number of seats at 508. a loss of 92. I suspect our Prime Minister will have something to celebrate (even if it is an unfavourable election result rather than a calamitous one). Perhaps a reason for a party?

(Quote from 'The rest is Politics' podcast with thanks to those who recommended it)

 

[GusB]

I will be heading out to cast my vote a bit later on, and I'm still scratching my head as to which order I'll be ranking the various candidates (other than making sure that the Tories get the last two places).

It's looking very likely that it will be the Labour candidate who will be getting my first preference but, if I'm honest, not one of them really stands out.

 

[Cloud Strife]

I will be heading out to cast my vote a bit later on, and I'm still scratching my head as to which order I'll be ranking the various candidates (other than making sure that the Tories get the last two places).

Hang on, doesn't it actually help the Tories if you rank them? I thought the Scottish council elections allowed you to rank (or not rank) who you wanted, it isn't obligatory to rank every candidate...right?

 

[brad465]

My ballot paper didn't have a Labour candidate of the four: Conservative, Lib Dem, Green and 1 Independent, which suggests the trial Lab-Lib Dem election pact is in place.

 

[northwichcat]

My ballot paper didn't have a Labour candidate of the four: Conservative, Lib Dem, Green and 1 Independent, which suggests the trial Lab-Lib Dem election pact is in place.

I can't speak for your area but in my ward of Cheshire East it's rare for the Labour or Lib Dem parties to have three candidates to put forward. I think at the last election we could choose up to 3 from 3 Conservatives, 1 Labour, 1 Lib Dem, 2 Independents and I think one of the pro-Brexit parties had a candidate as well. It's also hard to vote tactically in instances like that because various factors effect which candidates are most likely to challenge sitting Conservatives. One of the independents dislodged a Conservative, while I think the other came behind both the Lib Dem and Labour candidates.

 

[geoffk]

I voted in Exeter this morning and the polling station was very quiet (meaning I was the one voter there). The poll clerks said they didn't like the idea of compulsory voter ID, if and when it happens, as it could reduce turnout. I didn't ask which party they thought that would benefit.

 

[northwichcat]

I voted in Exeter this morning and the polling station was very quiet (meaning I was the one voter there). The poll clerks said they didn't like the idea of compulsory voter ID, if and when it happens, as it could reduce turnout. I didn't ask which party they thought that would benefit.

I wonder if it would have affected the Brexit vote? Possibly some people who don't hold a passport were unlikely to be bothered about Brits having the freedom to move around Europe easily.

Maybe The Greens would be most affected? If you don't hold a driving licence and don't travel abroad then you don't have two forms of valid ID.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Hang on, doesn't it actually help the Tories if you rank them? I thought the Scottish council elections allowed you to rank (or not rank) who you wanted, it isn't obligatory to rank every candidate...right?

It only helps a party's candidates if you rank them higher than someone else who might get elected. It's not going to help them if you rank them below all the other parties.

And even if you completely dislike one of the main parties (such as the Conservatives, though it can work the other way round), if there is an unpleasant fringe party standing, you might choose to rank them above the fringe party in order to disadvantage the fringe party.

 

[nw1]

I've spotted something this afternoon that almost looks like it could be foul play on the part of the local Tory candidate.

Down the road are two blocks of 6 flats (separate blocks, not next to each other, separated by other housing). In one, there were two "Vote XXXX - Conservative" notices in the garden. In the other, a similar notice was stuck right in the middle of a pyracantha hedge. Both have appeared today.

Looks a bit suspicious to me; it seems rather unlikely that all residents of both blocks would agree to the notices, particularly as the flats do not seem to have residents of a typical Conservative demographic. So I wonder:

a) is it legal for candidates to randomly stick posters on private land without resident/owner permission, as long as there are no strong objections from residents/owners;
b) if the block freeholder is a supporter of a given party, but the flat owners/tenants are not, is it legal to put up such a notice possibly against the wishes of the flat owners/tenants?

One of the notices has a hand-written "Do Not Remove" notice on the wooden post it's attached to.

 

[dk1]

Just been down to vote & our memorial hall is all locked up. Is it not everywhere that’s voting?

 

[northwichcat]

Just been down to vote & our memorial hall is all locked up. Is it not everywhere that’s voting?

No. There's no local elections in Cheshire this year. I understand there's only elections in Cumbria this year as council reorganisation will take place next year so next year's elections are being held this year to create new 'shadow councils' in preparation for the change.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 May 2022 ==

One of the notices has a hand-written "Do Not Remove" notice on the wooden post it's attached to.

I'm sure someone will see that as an invitation to remove the notice.

 

[telstarbox]

Some councils in England aren't electing this time round - see here

2022 United Kingdom local elections - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[dk1]

No. There's no local elections in Cheshire this year. I understand there's only elections in Cumbria this year as council reorganisation will take place next year so next year's elections are being held this year to create new 'shadow councils' in preparation for the change.

Thank you. Good job I was on the way to the chippy or it would’ve been a wasted journey.

 

[adrock1976]

I have recently cast my votes for some of the candidates in Cumbernauld North ward, which has 4 places up for grabs (single transferable vote)

When I bumped into a few people I know, their strategy (and mine as well) is to choose a maximum of four except the two Labour candidates (2 SNP, 1 Lib Dem, 1 Green, 1 Conservative, 1 Scottish Family Party, and 2 Labour candidates who are standing) so as to try to oust the Monklands Mafia of the Labour Party from running North Lanarkshire Council, who have done so since it was created in 1996.

NLC was first ran by Jim McCabe (who was from Coatbridge), and since McCabe's retirement, it has been run by Jim Logue (from Airdrie).

A couple of disgraceful things NLC have done over the last year is they have removed recycling bins from residential flats (the cynic in me says that the Chinese Government have stopped accepting recycling waste as they have more than enough of their own as well as having the world's largest population), and have also removed a lot of bins along footpaths and replaced with great big monstrosities near to roadways, blocking parents with buggies and wheelchair users from passing by safely. Logue has probably never been to Cumbernauld in his life, as if he had visited, he would have seen that both pedestrians and pedal cyclists are segregated from motorised traffic as that was the principle when Cumbernauld was designated a New Town back in 1955.

 

[Scotrail12]

My council ward options are 3 SNP, 2 Labour, 1 Conservative, 1 LibDem, 1 Green and 1 Alba.

What a miserable selection. The 4 main parties, none of whom I can trust and the only outside choices are the wrong politics for me.

 

[Typhoon]

Just been down to vote & our memorial hall is all locked up. Is it not everywhere that’s voting?

There is a programme for elections for every council at https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...able-in-england/election-timetable-in-england

 

[dk1]

There is a programme for elections for every council at https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...able-in-england/election-timetable-in-england

Thank you.

 

[birchesgreen]

Had to smile, the Tory candidate on my ballot paper was for the "Local Conservatives", reminds me of the League of Gentlemen...

 

[Busaholic]

Before any results are announced, and with the proviso that so many English seats are not being fought, I think the Conservative share of the vote will decrease a lot more than is being predicted, in England at least.

 

[Gloster]

Before any results are announced, and with the proviso that so many English seats are not being fought, I think the Conservative share of the vote will decrease a lot more than is being predicted, in England at least.

One of those convoluted problems. If the Conservatives claimed that the results were going to be terrible, but expected them to be not so bad (because of the point in the election cycle they are being held at) and therefore thought they would be able to claim some sort of victory, what do they do if they end up being even worse than their worst nightmares. (Sorry about the long sentence.)