Local elections, 4th May 2023

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I see the Slough result as not so much the Tories doing well as the Labour group doing badly - and deservedly so.

[TaplowGreen]

I see the Slough result as not so much the Tories doing well as the Labour group doing badly - and deservedly so.

Absolutely. Pretty much like the outcome in Windsor & Maidenhead largely being the result of poor management of local issues by the Tories.

It's good to see that in Berkshire at least, the results came about due to people voting primarily on local issues rather than simply being a proxy for the national situation.

[Bob_Blakey]

Exeter City Council still has a majority Labour administration despite them previously overseeing the building of a new bus station which is not big enough for all the services that need to use it and being unwilling to say where roughly £25m of loans & finance to Exeter City Living, their pet but not very active social home building arm (cf. Croydon B2B), has gone.

[JayMac]

I see the Slough result as not so much the Tories doing well as the Labour group doing badly - and deservedly so.

Absolutely. Pretty much like the outcome in Windsor & Maidenhead largely being the result of poor management of local issues by the Tories.

It's good to see that in Berkshire at least, the results came about due to people voting primarily on local issues rather than simply being a proxy for the national situation.

While we continue to have party politics at local level, there will always be voting patterns that reflect how good or bad the national government is doing, or perceived to be doing. Over 1000 Tory councillors lost their seats in these most recent elections. Most, I suspect, were doing the best for their constituents and, where they were the majority on a Council, most of those Councils were being run properly. But, local and national are inextricably linked in the eyes of the electorate. Westminster sets the agenda, fiscal policy and laws that govern how Councils are run. If voters are unhappy about a local issue that ultimately the Government decides on, they will make their feelings known at the ballot box - each and every time the candidates are party political. That's the form of democracy we have in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

An example from a previous local election of 'inextricably linked' is what happened in my home county - Somerset. In 2018 the Conservative run Somerset County Council started the ball rolling on 'unitarisation' with very strong support from central Government. The four district Councils were strongly opposed. Two were majority Liberal Democrat, one was no overall control with the Lib Dems as the largest party, and one was Conservative. The Conservatives, locally and nationally opposed a binding referendum on whether Somerset should become a unitary authority. The four district councils proposed an alternative change - merging Somerset West & Taunton with Sedgmoor, and merging South Somerset with Mendip. They put this idea to the electorate in a non binding referendum. It had to be non binding as neither the Tories at the County Council or in Westminster would support such a referendum. The result? 65% in favour of the District Councils' merger proposals.

The referendum result was ignored by the Tories. They pressed ahead with their 'One Somerset' proposal against the wishes of a large majority of the electorate. Big miscalculation by them. They thought they could gerrymander Somerset and take control of the whole county. The legislation was waved through by central Government and the district Councils were abolished and replaced by the unitary Somerset Council. At the subsequent local election in 2022 the Tories in Somerset were decimated. The Lib Dems comfortably won control of the new unitary authority. And just last week in Taunton, which had not had a Town Council since 1974, a new one was elected. 20 seats up for grabs. 19 Lib Dems, 1 Conservative.

Serves 'em right!

[TonyK]

While we continue to have party politics at local level, there will always be voting patterns that reflect how good or bad the national government is doing, or perceived to be doing. Over 1000 Tory councillors lost their seats in these most recent elections. Most, I suspect, were doing the best for their constituents and, where they were the majority on a Council, most of those Councils were being run properly. But, local and national are inextricably linked in the eyes of the electorate. Westminster sets the agenda, fiscal policy and laws that govern how Councils are run. If voters are unhappy about a local issue that ultimately the Government decides on, they will make their feelings known at the ballot box - each and every time the candidates are party political. That's the form of democracy we have in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

It can be more than inconvenient. A particularly contentious planning application in our village gave rise to an unprecedented number of objections. We villagers, some carrying pitchforks, had lobbied our local council, with particular emphasis on those members sitting on the planning committee. It was a Conservative majority and administration on 4 May, but the Lib Dems achieved a near total wipeout, with the planning committee members faring particularly badly. I voted for our local Tory candidate, not because I support Rishi Sunak or Cruella Braverman or want to see immigrants drown in the Channel or railway and NHS workers badly dealt with. I voted for him because he is was a reasonably competent councillor with the villagers' best interests at heart. And my neighbour's brother in law, who mows her lawn for her every week. To make matters worse, the planning officer left during purdah, so we have to soften up the new one as well as starting the whole lobbying process from scratch.

To quote Dick Tuck, "The people have spoken, the b*****ds". I have a feeling that none of this would have happened had all the candidates been independent, and nor would there have been any difference in the way the district was run previously. Local politics should not be party politics, although it is almost always the first step for the career politician. If you want the power to ruin the country, you must first show that you can ruin a local council. And say "run" instead of "ruin".