UK Politics - Taking the Land Rover to Heaven

[Maltaran]

Burnham gets two thirds of the vote in Greater Manchester and is now the bookies favourite for next Labour leader

[mormont]

31 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Doesn’t look like the SNP can get a majority now. ( sorry Nicola)

I mean, the system is specifically designed to make it hard for any party to gain a majority: only once since 1999 has any party done it, and that was the SNP. They're projected to be 1 or 2 seats short this time and will form a coalition with the Greens, who are expected to get around 9 seats, meaning there's a comfortable pro-independence majority. They won't get many or possibly any list seats because they've taken constituency seats from the other parties, the only party to do so. They will have at least double the seats of the next largest party, And they broke their own record for the most votes received by any party in a Scottish election.

If this is a disappointment, I think Nicola can cope.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

@mormont

Looking at the constituency map. Aberdeenshire west looks a bit odd. That blue bit in the yellow sea. Care to elaborate on that. Also Eastwood, I suppose, but that's closer to the border, so presumably less friendly turf for the SNP.

No, need to explain Edinburgh, tho. That's Oil Industry and a more Union leaning city than, say Glasgow.

[Derfel Cadarn]

23 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

@mormont

Looking at the constituency map. Aberdeenshire west looks a bit odd. That blue bit in the yellow sea. Care to elaborate on that. Also Eastwood, I suppose, but that's closer to the border, so presumably less friendly turf for the SNP.

No, need to explain Edinburgh, tho. That's Oil Industry and a more Union leaning city than, say Glasgow.

I live in Eastwood area. It has a fairly large Jewish population who presumably aren’t big on Labour. Also quite affluent, which may explain wariness of SNP/indie movement.

[Werthead]

Strong analysis of the Hartlepool result by John Pienaar last night: "The Labour candidate lacked the tough working-class credibility of predecessor Peter Mandelson."

[A Horse Named Stranger]

20 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

I live in Eastwood area. It has a fairly large Jewish population who presumably aren’t big on Labour. Also quite affluent, which may explain wariness of SNP/indie movement.

Thought Jewish community was more Labourish pre-Corbyn.

[SeanF]

59 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

@mormont

Looking at the constituency map. Aberdeenshire west looks a bit odd. That blue bit in the yellow sea. Care to elaborate on that. Also Eastwood, I suppose, but that's closer to the border, so presumably less friendly turf for the SNP.

No, need to explain Edinburgh, tho. That's Oil Industry and a more Union leaning city than, say Glasgow.

West Aberdeenshire used to be solidly Lib Dem, until the SNP won it in 2011.  In 2016, and on Thursday, ex-Lib Dems voted heavily Conservative to keep out the SNP.  Across the North East, a lot of people who voted for the Lib Dems during the Conservatives' wildnerness years have now switched over to them.

[SeanF]

1 hour ago, Maltaran said:

Burnham gets two thirds of the vote in Greater Manchester and is now the bookies favourite for next Labour leader

That's all the more impressive when you consider that there are now nine Conservative MP's outside Greater Manchester, and the Conservatives picked up council seats in the boroughs that make up Greater Manchester.

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

@mormont

Looking at the constituency map. Aberdeenshire west looks a bit odd. That blue bit in the yellow sea. Care to elaborate on that. Also Eastwood, I suppose, but that's closer to the border, so presumably less friendly turf for the SNP.

No, need to explain Edinburgh, tho. That's Oil Industry and a more Union leaning city than, say Glasgow.

I think you've relocated the North Sea oil industry, financial services is traditionally much more Edinburgh's thing while the oil companies are mostly in Aberdeen. In particular, Aberdeenshire West will have a lot of well-paid management and similar roles in the oil industry who want to live in the country/small towns rather than the city.

The tourist industry in Royal Deeside might also have a vested interest in Unionism.

[SeanF]

My old stamping ground, Hertsmere, saw rather a poor Conservative performance,  in the County elections, going from seven Conservative to four Conservative, two Labour, one Lib Dem.  Again, very much a sign of the times, with the Conservatives slipping in better off areas (see Surrey, Worthing, Tunbridge Wells, South Cambridgeshire, London West Central) while knocking it out of the park in Leave-voting districts.

[Derfel Cadarn]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Thought Jewish community was more Labourish pre-Corbyn.

Not an expert, by my gut is that there’s still lingering suspicion about anti-semitism in the party even post-Corbyn.

[williamjm]

20 minutes ago, SeanF said:

My old stamping ground, Hertsmere, saw rather a poor Conservative performance,  in the County elections, going from seven Conservative to four Conservative, two Labour, one Lib Dem.  Again, very much a sign of the times, with the Conservatives slipping in better off areas (see Surrey, Worthing, Tunbridge Wells, South Cambridgeshire, London West Central) while knocking it out of the park in Leave-voting districts.

It is a similar story here in Cambridgeshire. The Tories of course never had a chance in Cambridge itself but they held the county council and Cambridge and Peterborough Mayor with the heavily conservative rural areas counteracting the urban vote. However, they lost both their majority on the county council (although they're still the largest party) and the mayoralty to Labour.

It isn't the most high profile of mayoral roles, I think the only time I heard about the previous Tory incumbent was when he was explaining his unlikely sounding plans to build an underground network in Cambridge.

In other news, Alex Salmond failed to win a seat so Alba look set to fade into a well-deserved obscurity.

[Denvek]

3 hours ago, Maltaran said:

Burnham gets two thirds of the vote in Greater Manchester and is now the bookies favourite for next Labour leader

Depends how soon that happens. Keir Starmer has started his role of taking full responsibility for Labour's performance by sacking Angela Rayner as party chair, so the left-right civil war within Labour is going to be kicking off again soon.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

18 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Not an expert, by my gut is that there’s still lingering suspicion about anti-semitism in the party even post-Corbyn.

Possibly, as it's kinda hard to root out the problem, that the Corbyn leadership had neglected, in such a short time span. But still interesting.

 

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I think you've relocated the North Sea oil industry, financial services is traditionally much more Edinburgh's thing while the oil companies are mostly in Aberdeen. In particular, Aberdeenshire West will have a lot of well-paid management and similar roles in the oil industry who want to live in the country/small towns rather than the city.

Oops, yeah, got the two cities mixed up in terms of industry it seems.

[john]

Good result for the Greens, no seats for Salmond, ok showing for the new Labour leader, first women of colour elected.  So a decent result for Scottish politics, despite the predictable Tory showing. The SNP were going to declare a new mandate for independence whatever happened so nothing changes in that regard but we get a slightly better makeup in the parliament.

[mormont]

Worth noting also that despite the furore (and the fairly large number of signs I kept seeing), the Alba Party didn't just fail to get a seat, they turned out to be a complete non-factor. 1.7% of the list vote, about 45,000 votes in the entire country. Even in North-East Scotland, where Salmond himself topped the list, they only got around 8,000 votes, around 2.2.%. (By contrast the SNP got about 147,000 votes in that regional list.)

[Derfel Cadarn]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

Worth noting also that despite the furore (and the fairly large number of signs I kept seeing), the Alba Party didn't just fail to get a seat, they turned out to be a complete non-factor. 1.7% of the list vote, about 45,000 votes in the entire country. Even in North-East Scotland, where Salmond himself topped the list, they only got around 8,000 votes, around 2.2.%. (By contrast the SNP got about 147,000 votes in that regional list.)

*Insert DiCaprio Django smirking meme*
Glad he got nowhere. Curious who is funding Alba. Particularly given Salmond’s prior employment for Russia Today.

George Galloway also failed to get elected. Heartened to see Scotland has largely not followed England’s example by electing complete bellends.

Lawrence Fox got more votes than Count Binface, but lost his deposit.

 

Piers Corbyn (and Gammon too I think?) lost to Binface.

[Denvek]

I think all the mayoral results are out now, and they're mostly good news for Labour - no losses, two gains (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, and West of England), and they also won the new West Yorkshire one. Slight downside with the two Tory holds (Tees Valley and West Midlands) increasing their majorities, but overall more good news than bad on that front.

[Which Tyler]

13 hours ago, Denvek said:

I think all the mayoral results are out now, and they're mostly good news for Labour.

Which, of course, means that the tories will have to change how the votes are counted, to make things a little less democratic.

Oh look: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/home-security-priti-patel-announces-new-voting-system-for-future-london-mayoral-elections/

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Home Secretary Priti Patel announces new voting system for future London Mayoral elections

Future London Mayoral elections will be decided by the first past the post (FPTP) voting system under new plans revealed by Priti Patel.

The Home Secretary yesterday announced that elections for the Mayor of London and all combined authority mayors would change to the FPTP system from 2024 as it “provides for stronger and clear local accountability”.
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ETA: Oh Look

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/10/queens-speech-photo-id-future-elections-social-care

Quote

Queen’s speech: voters will need photo ID for general elections

Britons will have to show photo ID to vote in future general elections, ministers are poised to confirm this week, as a means of tackling fraud which critics claim could deter poorer and ethnic minority voters from taking part in democracy.

The proposal is to be included in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech, which will set out the government’s post-pandemic priorities and the laws it intends to pass in the forthcoming parliamentary session.
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[Spockydog]

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