UN The 2019 UK Local Elections megathread - This is a local election! For local issues!

Council elections are today and despite the protestations of the government, they are expecting an absolute bloodbath because of the forecast of people using this a Brexit protest vote.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48120274

Voters are heading to the polls for council and mayoral elections across England and Northern Ireland.
Elections are being held for 248 English councils, six mayors and all 11 councils in Northern Ireland.
Polling stations for the vote - spanning metropolitan and district councils and unitary authorities - opened at 07:00 BST and will close at 22:00 BST.
There are no local elections in Scotland and Wales.

• How the BBC reports polling day
• What can you not do in a polling station?
• Which elections are taking place in May?

This is the biggest set of local elections in England's four-year electoral cycle, with more than 8,400 seats being contested.
A further 462 seats are up for grabs in Northern Ireland.
Voters in 10 local authorities in England need to either show ID or produce their polling card before they can vote as part of a trial scheme.
Those in Braintree, Broxtowe, Craven, Derby, North Kesteven, Woking and Pendle have to show ID before they can vote.
Voters in Mid Sussex, North West Leicestershire, and Watford local authorities are required to show their polling card.
Everyone else in England can vote as usual, and do not need to take their polling card or any proof of identity with them.
But in Northern Ireland, voters need photo ID, the polling card received through the post being for information purposes only.
The weather forecast is for clear spells in the west and cloudier further east, with showers or more persistent rain.
Results for about 108 English councils are expected to be declared before 06:00 on Friday.
The remaining 140 are scheduled to come in throughout Friday, mostly between midday and 1800 BST.
The Northern Irish ones will take longer to come through because they have a more complicated voting system.

Any thoughts on how it will turn out? How small do you think the turnout will be? What about the body count? Will we see some dead councillor candidates this year?

 

[ulsterscotsman]

If I was English I'd vote UKIP as is the only decent party all things considered.
Don't trust Farage or his Brexit party just seem like a slimey tory shit.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Went to the Polling Station in my ward here in Pillockville (Drekton Heights Ward).

The Polling people had taken over the local hall as always, but unlike most other elections they had expected a hideously hideously low turn out and had put a single "stand" of three divisions on a single circular table.

At both the GE and EU referendums they'd put up around a half dozen such set ups, and they were needed.

I went at midday as I had shopping to do in the town centre.

I was voter number 24 that day.

The polls had been open since 7am.

There are 2,900 people in the Drekton Heights.

I also had nothing but crap to vote for, so just scrawled "All the same" across my ballot paper and chucked it into the box.

 

[Coccxys]

The election in my ward was super high turn out and hotly contested. The incumbent is a conservative who has been here since the arc. He is also the leader of the conservative controlled council. Since the other parties know they're aren't taking over our council no matter how unpopular the Tories make themselves they decided to try and take out the head and get a change that way. Since the Lib Dems usually come 2nd in my ward it's been an unusual case of the others bowing out to leave 2 choices, the Tory incumbent or the Lib Dem and then all campaigning against the Tory.

Those going on about Sargon and UKIP/Brexit party you're 3 weeks early.

As it stands Tories are taking a beating as expeted but Labour are not capitalising and are infact also getting slaughtered.

In fact in the lastest results it looks like the big two are losing control of council's to no overall control everywhere. Interesting times ahead.

Another loss to NOC.

Labour have lost more vote share than Tories in leave supporting areas.


----- update 2:11BST ----

Even the insufferable feminist who no one would even rape sees labour have screwed the pooch.

---- update 2:15 BST ----

Independents seem to be picking up the most, probably on local issues rather than the national issues associated with the main parties.

Turn out is not significantly down over previous local elections.

The LibDems are claiming their upturn is due to people opposing Brexit.

---- update 2:27 BST ----

Here's the latest gains/losses.

---- update 2:29 BST ----

Labour have lost Middlesbrough mayor to an independent with a majority of over 10k.

 

[Sanshain]

Boy oh boy can't wait for another fucking deadlock where absolutely nobody has enough power to get anything remotely productive done lol

 

[Coccxys]

Boy oh boy can't wait for another fucking deadlock where absolutely nobody has enough power to get anything remotely productive done lol

These are local elections not a general election. This won't change parliament seats.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Isn't it like two in the morning over there? Wow you guys take forever to announce results over there.

 

[Coccxys]

Isn't it like two in the morning over there? Wow you guys take forever to announce results over there.

We count more than 10 votes before announcing who won. The numbers are announced once all of the votes have been counted.

Latest score board

---- update 2:46 BST ----

Conservatives lose Worcester to NOC.

Other than the one Tory gain all council changes so far have been to NOC.

---- update 2:58 BST ----

Labour are losing lots of votes in the north while remaining steady/gaining slightly in the south.

As for the scoreboard, the Tories have just passed 100 councillors lost.

Labour are losing more vote share then the Tories in marginal constituencies which doesn't bode well for a Labour run at the next GE.

---- update 3:06 BST ----

Conservatives only just hold on to Maldon, a council they should have been easily safe for.

---- update 3:16 BST ----

Latest score board.

Latest changes, Tories gain another council from NOC.

And that's the last update from me for the night.

 

[Far Queue]

Others seem to be quite popular. Is there some actual party in there that constitutes a majority of the gains, or is it really just political anarchy over there with all kinds of shit strewn together to make up that category?

 

[CWCissey]

Others seem to be quite popular. Is there some actual party in there that constitutes a majority of the gains, or is it really just political anarchy over there with all kinds of shit strewn together to make up that category?

Some run as literal Independents, but there are a few parties that are classed as other (I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Loonies that are making the biggest gains)

 

[Coccxys]

Latest update

Plenty more councils changed hands since the last update.

And yes @Far Queue the major gainer is independent candidates.

It's much easier to get an independent candidate elected in the local election for various reasons. Usually they're someone of note in the area who is standing on local issues that either the main party candidate won't address or is just tainted by being from a party people are pissed off at.

For example in my area both main parties (Tory and LibDem here, labour don't do well round these parts) support the rapid housing developments that are being thrown up. Now these developments are very unpopular for myriad reasons. There are various people who have spent time trying to organise people to object to the planning permissions or just community groups who are running as the only alternative to those two who are the same on this one, very hot button, issue.

The super gains by LibDems at the expense of the Tories and Labour (and the death of UKIP) are already being touted as some huge mandate for remain/second referendum. The LibDems are the largest of the very vocal hardcore remain parties. Though I don't think this will be born out on the 23rd for the European election, if it is the shouts of remain will become much louder and more powerful in the msm and parliament.

 

[Inquisitor_BadAss]

Latest update

Ver archivo adjunto 745242

Plenty more councils changed hands since the last update.

Ver archivo adjunto 745241

And yes @Far Queue the major gainer is independent candidates.

Ver archivo adjunto 745240

It's much easier to get an independent candidate elected in the local election for various reasons. Usually they're someone of note in the area who is standing on local issues that either the main party candidate won't address or is just tainted by being from a party people are pissed off at.

For example in my area both main parties (Tory and LibDem here, labour don't do well round these parts) support the rapid housing developments that are being thrown up. Now these developments are very unpopular for myriad reasons. There are various people who have spent time trying to organise people to object to the planning permissions or just community groups who are running as the only alternative to those two who are the same on this one, very hot button, issue.

The super gains by LibDems at the expense of the Tories and Labour (and the death of UKIP) are already being touted as some huge mandate for remain/second referendum. The LibDems are the largest of the very vocal hardcore remain parties. Though I don't think this will be born out on the 23rd for the European election, if it is the shouts of remain will become much louder and more powerful in the msm and parliament.

At least Lib Dem’s were consistent from the get go about their position instead of the flakey pricks from the other parties.

 

[JosephTX]

Glory to the UK

Options from what I understand

Tories: exceptional moral busybodies that will defund social programs and make inefficient without actually abolishing them

Greens: Will actually fund shit but will be sjws

Labor: Will ignore actually governing and will focus on sjws shit

Lib Dems: Autistic Screeching

How did the greens become more logical than socialists?

 

[CWCissey]

How did the greens become more logical than socialists?

Fix up stuff gays from Brighton.

It's much easier to get an independent candidate elected in the local election for various reasons.

The main reason is more Indies can stand due to there being no deposit on running in the locals (£500 for Parliament, £5000 for Europe)

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Random Stuff from the same region as Pillockshire, the East Midlands.

Labour has lost control of Bolsover. Bolsover. Residency of the Beast Dennis Skinner Himself. I am shocked.

In Nottingham the Nottingham Independants are now the second largest party in the city.

Over in Ashfield the Independants took 30 out of 35 available seats.

In Broxtowe a staggering 1 in 20 votes were spoilt, or 5% of the total cast.

Derby City remains in NOC, with the Tories losing one councillor to an independant and gaining two leaving them the largest party but Labour was hit hardest in the election, losing over half its seats (6 out of 11) with two a piece going UKIP, Lib Dem and Tory.

NWL saw a very poor turnout, about 25% and sees the Tories keep control. Surprise there is despite it being a heavily leave area, Ashby Castle Ward has a Green Party councillor now who squeaked in by 2 votes.

 

[ignoramus]

I read that there were 800~ spoilt ballots in Basildon. The Beeb is really going for the "pushback against Brexit" angle in its coverage, so I doubt they will be paying much attention to things like turnout and spoilt votes. It is going to be the most interesting statistic, though (like the insanely high abstention rate in the 2017 French elections).

 

[CWCissey]

I love how the Lib Dems are acting really smug about this. They had some party bod on BBC Breakfast this morning saying about how this is a victory for Remain and how this is a supreme win for the party. Fucking Naga 'SHUT UP!' Munchetty slaughtered the guy.

Although they had a Labour guy on the couch too and he was simpering and Naga and her co-host, Charlie Stayt told him to accept they're the problem or piss off. They're taking no prisoners and it's amazing.

 

[ignoramus]

They are really pushing it. These are the same charlatans who've spent years claiming to care about local democracy and decentralisation, too. I voted for the Greens because I'm enough of a gullible democrat to treat council elections as votes about local issues, rather than as opportunities for morons like Caroline Lucas and Vince Cable to grandstand about national policies (which councillors do not and should not have any say over).

I'm very much looking forward to voting for the Brexit Party in the European election.

 

[KeyserBroze]

Just to remind everyone, with approximately 45% of the vote counted, we have yet to see most votes from rural england the Tory heartland.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

I love how the Lib Dems are acting really smug about this. They had some party bod on BBC Breakfast this morning saying about how this is a victory for Remain and how this is a supreme win for the party. Fucking Naga 'SHUT UP!' Munchetty slaughtered the guy.

Although they had a Labour guy on the couch too and he was simpering and Naga and her co-host, Charlie Stayt told him to accept they're the problem or piss off. They're taking no prisoners and it's amazing.

Timestamp that shit and send it my way. I could do with a laugh.

 

[Kuchipatchi]

I haven't heard any news about where I live yet.
There are a lot of vocal supporters of Labour where I live. They put the "Vote Labour" signs in their windows, wear the red ribbons and go around door to door asking for votes and support.
I can imagine that other party supporters didn't put signs up so they don't get Antifa commies throwing bricks at their windows.
If my city turns out red, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.