Local elections and UKIP

[northwichcat]

I've noticed the local election results so far sees UKIP having lost 93 local council seats and only retaining 2. It looks like the party is ready to come up a natural end when the rest of the local councils come up for election and MEPs are no more. Maybe then the BBC can stop giving air time to Nigel Farage.

There's been increases in the number of Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Independent councillors. The headline changes so far seem to be the Conservatives losing control of Trafford Council (Labour the largest party but 2 seats short of a majority) and the Lib Dems gaining control of Richmond council.

 

[The_Engineer]

Maybe then the BBC can stop giving air time to Nigel Farage.

I hope not! He is good entertainment value; unlike other politicians who spout nonsense most of the time......

 

[northwichcat]

I hope not! He is good entertainment value; unlike other politicians who spout nonsense most of the time......

BBC are supposed to overall be impartial (that doesn't mean every program has to be impartial but overall the BBC as a whole should be) so if UKIP are all but eliminated and the BBC give Farage 5 minutes on a program, to be impartial they'd have to give a lot of airtime to the Lib Dems, Labour, Conservatives and even the Greens to retain their impartiality. How much politics do you want on the BBC?

 

[nlogax]

I hope not! He is good entertainment value; unlike other politicians who spout nonsense most of the time......

He's been on tv so much this last five years he merits having his own platform on Freeview. At least then we'd know what channel to avoid so we never encounter that Stonehenge-toothed joke on our screens again.

UKIP were reaching their natural end in a financial sense anyway, having teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for months. Last night won't have helped.

 

[northwichcat]

There has been an increase in Independents winning seats on local councils in recent years. Election rules state that if someone is a member of a political party they have to declare it, even if they haven't been selected by the party to stand as their candidate, so the reality is even if the main political parties didn't choose candidates for local elections you'd end up with voting papers like

BOOTH Independent Lib Dem
COLLINS Independent
JONES Independent Labour
PETERS Independent
SMITH Independent Conservative

Only real difference would be two 'Independent Conservatives' (or members of any other party) might compete against each other.

 

[matt]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

 

[bramling]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

I was surprised to only have three. I must say out of all the elections I have voted in this one is probably the one where I have felt very disillusioned - the political climate at present is the most stale and underwhelming I have ever known.

As for the results, seems to largely mirror the last general election I’d say, and I remain of the view that a general election tomorrow would probably produce a similar result to last year’s. One should always beware of reading too much into local elections of course - my local area for example is likely to be heavily influenced by annoyance at changes to refuse collection arrangements!

 

[northwichcat]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

We didn't have elections this year but the last time we had elections for Cheshire East Council my ward had 3 vacancies and there were only 5 names on the ballot paper - 3 Conservative, 1 Labour and 1 Independent. The problem with instances like this is some people refuse to believe they can choose to only vote for 1 or 2 of the candidates.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

Yep. I had red, blue, green, HATE THE BROWNS, and a couple of independents who were ousted by HATE THE BROWNS for being too bilious.

Makes me wonder why I bothered, to be quite honest.

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

What I find quite funny is that though I’d been given more options than Labour or Conservative, not one of them was UKIP in my ward. I’m not surprised since here in Liverpool most of the people were Pro-Remain, but still I’d expect them to try and contend in a big major city. Doesn’t matter to me even cause I didn’t vote for either any of the major parties, so even though it’s just a local election it still felt like a wasted vote.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

What I find quite funny is that though I’d been given more options than Labour or Conservative, not one of them was UKIP in my ward. I’m not surprised since here in Liverpool most of the people were Pro-Remain, but still I’d expect them to try and contend in a big major city. Doesn’t matter to me even cause I didn’t vote for either any of the major parties, so even though it’s just a local election it still felt like a wasted vote.

At this point, UKIP are like a pigeon in the town square who's had his feet gnawed off by rats but is too stupid to realise it, so he hobbles about on his stumps not realising why he's moving so slowly or keeps falling over... all the people in the square are upset at seeing this tragic, pathetic pigeon struggling away, but the pigeon himself is too stupid to realise that his days are numbered as soon as a cat/hawk/fox/bloke with a shovel comes along.

Choices in my council seat yesterday were Labour, Tory, Green or "English Democrats" (whose candidate was a former UKIP candidate with a Polish name).

Labour gained overall control of Kirklees Council, previously NOC.

 

[Bromley boy]

At this point, UKIP are like a pigeon in the town square who's had his feet gnawed off by rats but is too stupid to realise it, so he hobbles about on his stumps not realising why he's moving so slowly or keeps falling over... all the people in the square are upset at seeing this tragic, pathetic pigeon struggling away, but the pigeon himself is too stupid to realise that his days are numbered as soon as a cat/hawk/fox/bloke with a shovel comes along.

I agree they are largely irrelevant now, but only because their primary political objective has been achieved, following 2016’s momentous referendum result .

 

[birchesgreen]

I hope not! He is good entertainment value; unlike other politicians who spout nonsense most of the time......

You don't think Farage spouts nonsense most of the time? Or all of the time?

 

[Domh245]

Would you prefer that all politicians didn’t tell you what their political leanings were?

Councils tend to be fairly removed from national politics though. Councils have little (no) say in Brexit policy for example and so (eg) voting for a Lib Dem councillor on the basis of the Lib Dems being anti-Brexit is a thoroughly stupid thing to do if the Labour candidate is going above and beyond them in terms of bin collections and other locally important matters.

 

[EM2]

I hope not! He is good entertainment value; unlike other politicians who spout nonsense most of the time......

I saw him in real life for the first time the other day. Suddenly, a lot of things make sense.

 

[edwin_m]

One of their prominent people (the term is relative) has compared them to the Black Death. I would have thought it was pretty difficult to think of something more noxious than UKIP, but he seems to have done it in one.

 

[bnm]

Black death is infinitely preferable to a world in which UKIP are anywhere near real power.

 

[northwichcat]

Choices in my council seat yesterday were Labour, Tory, Green or "English Democrats" (whose candidate was a former UKIP candidate with a Polish name).

The English Democrats - the party who called for a second EU referendum if the winning side didn't have a large majority but changed their minds when leave won with a small majority Apparently they also welcome former UKIP members as they as they claim they aren't racist.

 

[yorksrob]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

Mine did. Usual for local elections round my way.

 

[deltic]

Good day for Lib Dems gaining 4 councils, Labour may have gained a few seats but lost one council and Tories lost seats and 2 councils. UKIP virtually wiped out and the Greens continuing to pick up seats very slowly. In my neck of the woods the Greens are doing what I thought they would do after the Lib Dem collapse post 2010 and start to pick up quite a few seats but it has taken them a long time to make any progress.

 

[Dentonian]

Did anyone else it have a very small number of choices? My ballot only had a choice of Blue or Red.

For many decades, all three wards in my home town just had a straight choice of blue or red, and have elected nothing but red since Thatcher came to power. However, I gather we had a Green party candidate and the ward where I used to live had a Monster Raving Loony candidate. Had I still lived there, I probably would have voted for him!

FTR, I never vote at Local Elections (and rarely at general elections) for the following reasons.

1. This country is a centralist country, especially under the Tories, so local councils have their hands tied.
2. I don't agree with the majority of their policies/actions - even if they were in a position to carry them out.
3. They aren't interested in me/my household, so why should I support them. As mentioned before, my household has only been canvassed once in the 39 years I 've been enfranchised, and apart from one regular newsletter from the sitting (Labour) Councillor about a month ago, there has been no indication there has even been an election.
4. My vote won't make any difference. No matter how bad the Labour party may or may not be, they always win with a landslide because we are hundreds of miles beyond the M25.

There is NO "H" in Tameside!!!!

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, I might have been inclined to actually vote for one of mine, rather than write "none of the above" if one of them had actually bothered to put a leaflet through the door. The local supermarkets seem to be far more interested in the area than the parties.

 

[deltic]

Parties are not going to waste time campaigning in rock solid seats - 2015 general election was won by targeting a few hundred thousand people in a few dozen marginal seats. Until we get PR when every vote is worth chasing 80% of the electorate will continue to be ignored or treated as voting fodder. In every first past the post election my voting has been pointless.

 

[yorksrob]

Parties are not going to waste time campaigning in rock solid seats - 2015 general election was won by targeting a few hundred thousand people in a few dozen marginal seats. Until we get PR when every vote is worth chasing 80% of the electorate will continue to be ignored or treated as voting fodder. In every first past the post election my voting has been pointless.

Sadly true.

 

[matt]

Yes, I might have been inclined to actually vote for one of mine, rather than write "none of the above" if one of them had actually bothered to put a leaflet through the door. The local supermarkets seem to be far more interested in the area than the parties.

I did actually get a leaflet through the door from each candidate.

 

[StoneRoad]

In a way, I'm not surprised that ukip were wiped out. What I surprised at is the libdem vote resulting not only in councillors but control of councils.
And I would have thought that more of the minor / independent parties would have made a better showing this time around.
Interesting that some media were reporting (after about half the results had been declared) that Labour has taken a pasting, yet they had increased the total number of councillors ...

Been able to sit back and watch the circus as my home area is not having elections this year.

 

[yorksrob]

I did actually get a leaflet through the door from each candidate.

Count yourself lucky !

 

[Mag_seven]

Nothing came through my door despite Labour making a well publicised attempt take the council from the Tories (which they didn't).

 

[The Ham]

Parties are not going to waste time campaigning in rock solid seats - 2015 general election was won by targeting a few hundred thousand people in a few dozen marginal seats. Until we get PR when every vote is worth chasing 80% of the electorate will continue to be ignored or treated as voting fodder. In every first past the post election my voting has been pointless.

I always vote even though I live in one of the safest Tory seats in the UK.

Although your vote may not make any difference at a local level in the outcome of who your MP is the parties get funding based on the number of votes that they get (assuming that they get an MP) and so there's some benefit to voting web if the person you vote for doesn't win.

Also there's the point that if a candidate gets enough votes then they don't loose their deposit.

Both mean that it's worth turning out to vote for a party that you would like to do well.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

The English Democrats - the party who called for a second EU referendum if the winning side didn't have a large majority but changed their minds when leave won with a small majority

The English Democrats are the English version of what the Scottish National Party is Scotland and Plaid Cymru is to Wales. One of their policies is the created of a devolved English Parlament.