Local Elections 2023

[Bus Honeygun]

Exeter remains solidly Labour with 25 of the 39 seats on the council (five Greens, five Tories, two LDs and two Inds) and I don't see any upset in the grand scheme of things. They even managed to gain a councillor in lah-dee-dah Topsham recently, so may even increase their majority.

Only shift that could be of interest is if the Greens build on their recent gains over Labour or have already plateaued. There's a lot of dissatisfaction about student housing, which the Greens capitalised on.

My part of town has been Labour forever, but there is a Lib Dem who, to be fair, is certainly putting in the effort on the ground, presumably with an eye on the fact that one of the three Labour councillors for the ward doesn't seem to do much. Not sure if it will be enough to get him on the council, though.

 

[Elpenor]

Think the local council is NOC but don’t know and don’t care.

I’ve had a thing through for the door from a Tory so far. I probably won’t bother voting as I’m going to be away for the day and not sure I can even be fucked to do a postal vote

 

[King Biscuit Time]

This seems to be gaining a fair bit of traction in Sheffield. I think it's been organised by the people who are upset about street trees rather than a front from the Lib Dems/Greens who obviously stand to gain massively.

The main thing I'm interested to see is whether the huge number of cranks I've been seeing posting on the anti ULEZ and anti LTN Facebook groups actually turn into any votes for Reform or other loons. I hope it's just a small gang of very noisy retired people but we'll see.

 

[belboid]

This seems to be gaining a fair bit of traction in Sheffield. I think it's been organised by the people who are upset about street trees rather than a front from the Lib Dems/Greens who obviously stand to gain massively.

The main thing I'm interested to see is whether the huge number of cranks I've been seeing posting on the anti ULEZ and anti LTN Facebook groups actually turn into any votes for Reform or other loons. I hope it's just a small gang of very noisy retired people but we'll see.View attachment 370431

32 Facebook likes does not imply its getting anywhere. Only popular amongst the now minuscule number of tree wankers who still go on about it. Dead issue. They'll make next to zero difference.

 

[BusLanes]

LTNs didn't seem to impact our elections in Lambeth, Southwark or Haringey last year despite massive light and noise by anti campaigners.

It's possible they did elsewhere in London but I don't follow it closely enough to be sure

 

[PR1Berske]

A portrait from Oldham:

First there were conspiracy theories, then there were social media mobs. What would it take for Labour to win Oldham?

Trust has been lost. Amanda Chadderton hopes to win it back

open.substack.com

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Seemingly the worst insult you can use about Maidenhead at the moment is "it's getting just like Slough!"

It isn't but as such comments tend to be against the current Tory administration I don't complain

 

[Dom Traynor]

Is this the first elections where people will need photo ID? If so any indication this will have a noticable negative impact on turnout generally or Labour specifically?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Is this the first elections where people will need photo ID? If so any indication this will have a noticable negative impact on turnout generally or Labour specifically?

at national level, yes

there were a few trial areas a year or two back

thread all about it at

Photo ID now a requirement to vote in the UK

Now, unless I've got this massively wrong (delighted to be corrected btw) It would appear that at the next round of elections, March 2023, there will be a requirement before being handed your ballot paper, to produce "photo ID" https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9187/...

www.urban75.net

 

[PR1Berske]

 

[Bus Honeygun]

My part of town has been Labour forever, but there is a Lib Dem who, to be fair, is certainly putting in the effort on the ground, presumably with an eye on the fact that one of the three Labour councillors for the ward doesn't seem to do much. Not sure if it will be enough to get him on the council, though.

He's stuck another leaflet through the door reminding me why I hate the Lib Dems, essentially saying to Tory voters 'you don't stand a chance here, vote for me - I'm the only one who can defeat Labour'. Of course, were we in some other part of Devon where it's Tories v Lib Dems he'd be saying the same thing in reverse to Labour voters. Unprincipled opportunists.

 

[MickiQ]

I have submitted my postal vote for the LE, Mrs Q was going to submit hers but alas our eldest daughter choose to ring whilst her mother was in the process of exercising her democratic right and being distracted Mrs Q put her coffee cup on the ballot paper thus spoiling it. She did consider sending it in anyway since the coffee stain was clearly a superior candidate to any of the others on the paper but ultimately decided against it.

 

[Leafster]

I've just realised these elections are next week. I've only received two leaflets and both of those were for the Libdems (I think the first one was probably just a regular newsletter). I've not seen any posters or boards out either.

It's all very low key around here.

 

[BusLanes]

He's stuck another leaflet through the door reminding me why I hate the Lib Dems, essentially saying to Tory voters 'you don't stand a chance here, vote for me - I'm the only one who can defeat Labour'. Of course, were we in some other part of Devon where it's Tories v Lib Dems he'd be saying the same thing in reverse to Labour voters. Unprincipled opportunists.

I think all parties do that, if they think it's useful.

Labour did that around here against the LDs and Greens in two wards where it was clearly those two Vs Labour. The Tories did it another ward in a similar way

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Wokingham is currently lib dem minority administration (with labour support), local ward is now fairly solid lib dem (it's the sort of council where there's an election 3 years out of 4 rather than 1 every 4 years)

possible strengthening of lib dem base?

dunno

not sure i want to encourage any of them - or the voter suppression measures - by voting.

meh.

There is currently a fantastic frothing at the mouth thread on NextDoor about the lack of St. George's Say bunting in Wokingham!

I'd link to it but I don't seem able to.

Did I mention one of the Tory candidates here likes to use the sayings of Yoda as part of his campaigning? I like Star Wars but Yoda can be a right knob plus he's not fucking real!!

Mind you this person's latest posting didn't go down well, I along others pointed out that especially as a local councillor people should be the basis of really every discussion!!

 

[teqniq]

This may be of interest:

StopTheTories.Vote

Your vote is your power. Find out how to use it tactically to Stop The Tories and influence the next government.

stopthetories.vote

 

[Leafster]

This may be of interest:

StopTheTories.Vote

Your vote is your power. Find out how to use it tactically to Stop The Tories and influence the next government.

stopthetories.vote

It's not very useful for a council like mine (Tandridge). For 10 of the wards with elections it just says it's 'hard to call' and to vote for the progressive candidate of your choice. The reason appears to be because independents won the seats last time. Most of those independents won them from the Tories. I don't think any of those independents would be considered progressive. Most of them would best be called NIMBYs. So, voting for a progressive candidate (if there was one) would most likely result in Tory wins and them regaining control of Tandridge.

 

[redsquirrel]

This may be of interest:

StopTheTories.Vote

Your vote is your power. Find out how to use it tactically to Stop The Tories and influence the next government.

stopthetories.vote

Who is actually behind this and why are there politics?
Looking at their twitter feed I see a bunch of closet LibDems and Starmer supporters.

 

[teqniq]

Who is actually behind this and why are there politics?
Looking at their twitter feed I see a bunch of closet LibDems and Starmer supporters.

It was tweeted by Carol Vorderman. It may well be backed by the above but does that actually matter that much? I have no great liking for their politics but if people use the site and make their own choices based on the information provided is that a bad thing?

 

[redsquirrel]

It was tweeted by Carol Vorderman. It may well be backed by the above but does that actually matter that much? I have no great liking for their politics but if people use the site and make their own choices based on the information provided is that a bad thing?

But the information being presented to them is not neutral.
For a start is it making the LDs part of a progressive coalition - that is an explicitly political choice.

I've not gone into it in depth, and frankly cannot be bothered to, but I'm suspicious that will not be some seats where their 'advice' is partisan.

 

[MickiQ]

Performed Similarly is code for failed miserably.

 

[BusLanes]

My memory of 2017 and 2019 was that the tactical voting websites always had questionable assumptions built in.

But I think that's just the way it is. These are pretty simple tools with no deep analysis because the UK is huge, 650 constituencies and god knows how many local authorities. No one's got the time or energy to do this properly

 

[cupid_stunt]

But the information being presented to them is not neutral.
For a start is it making the LDs part of a progressive coalition - that is an explicitly political choice.

I've not gone into it in depth, and frankly cannot be bothered to, but I'm suspicious that will not be some seats where their 'advice' is partisan.

I've check a few wards here where the Tories currently hold the seat, in every one they are suggesting the pervious second place candidate as the most likely to win, so mainly Labour, and with one for the Greens.

 

[Serge Forward]

It's total bobbins. My ward is solid Labour but it can't even call that.

 

[Serge Forward]

Acherly, scrub that. The current councillor who got purged from the party is standing, so it probably is hard to call.

 

[redsquirrel]

I've check a few wards here where the Tories currently hold the seat, in every one they are suggesting the pervious second place candidate as the most likely to win, so mainly Labour, and with one for the Greens.

Yeah looking at Leeds the default seems to be to suggest to vote for whoever was closest last time(s).
So it is suggesting a vote fro Greens in Wetherby, based off two (anomalously) good results in the last two yearfs. But are Tory leaning swing voters in 2023 really more likely to switch to Green than Labour. Possibly, but I'm skeptical.

And if you are basically defaulting to just the 2nd highest placed party in 2021/22 then people may just as well as use wikipedia, which has more info.

 

[Dogsauce]

But the information being presented to them is not neutral.
For a start is it making the LDs part of a progressive coalition - that is an explicitly political choice.

I've not gone into it in depth, and frankly cannot be bothered to, but I'm suspicious that will not be some seats where their 'advice' is partisan.

The LDs did the ‘only we can win here’ crap in 2019 in the Kensington seat where Grenfell was located, when they really didn’t have a chance, and the resultant rise in their vote led to Labour losing the seat to the Tories. They’ve form for this sort of misleading shit.

 

[PR1Berske]

 

[Nine Bob Note]

I genuinely don't know what I'm voting for (I'm not voting) this time as we've been recently (as of last month) been subsumed into a new UA dominated by Tim Farron's acolytes. I've heard talk of a "parish council" which only reminds me of the Vicar of Dibley.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I genuinely don't know what I'm voting for (I'm not voting) this time as we've been recently (as of last month) been subsumed into a new UA dominated by Tim Farron's acolytes. I've heard talk of a "parish council" which only reminds me of the Vicar of Dibley.

there's actually an election for parish council where i am this year - think it's the first time in the 20 years i've lived here that they have needed one rather than 'elected unopposed' - i don't think i even knew they existed for the first few years i was here (don't think i'd lived anywhere with a parish council before.

i'm also not voting this time - i have got a photo driving licence, so i could, but i'm not going to.

and for those in urban areas without parish councils - they are not anything to do with the church and boundaries may or may not match. civil parish (or town) councils do a few lowish level things, like some parks, bus shelters, public bogs and so on, and while they don't make final decisions on planning etc, they do have some level of input in to what the local districts / boroughs do.

i'm no sort of expert in things religious, but believe that the C of E does have parish church councils, which are not no longer the same thing. (although the concept of local government in england has some of its roots in church parishes and the local parish 'vestry' which used to have some responsibility for public services outside the church itself.)