A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Council by-elections

Belatedly, Thursday's council by-election results - I'm still in hospital and typing is difficult:

Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside Ward, Aberdeenshire Council. LD gain from Con. 1st preferences (LDs won on STV transfers): Con 1144 (31.5%, -18.3), LD 969 (26.7%, +0.6), Ind 842 (23.2%, +23.2), SNP 617 (17.0%, -3.1), BNP 44 (1.2%, +1.2), Ind 19 (0.5%, +0.5). Swing of 9.5% from Con to LD since 2007.

Derby Road West Ward, Erewash BC. Lab gain from Con. Lab 696 (39.0%, +6.7), Con 584 (32.7%, -12.7), LD 301 (16.9%, -5.4), BNP 205 (11.5%; +11.5). Swing of 9.7% from Con to Lab since 2007.

Inverness West Ward, Highland Council. LD gain from Ind. 1st preferences: LD 1503 (59.6%, +34.5), SNP 556 (22.0%, -6.8), Lab 210 (8.3%, -7.7), Christian People's Alliance 115 (4.6%, +4.6), Con 111 (4.4%, -2.5), Solidarity 27 (1.1%,+1.1). Swing of 20.7% from SNP to LD since 2007.

Wanstead Ward, LB Redridge. Con hold. Con 1300 (37.3%, -5.6), LD 1030 (29.6%, +17.9), Lab 694 (19.9%, -7.7), Green 256 (7.3%, -10.5), BNP 171 (4.9%, +4.9), UKIP 33 (0.9%, +0.9). Swing of 11.8% from Con to LD since 2006.

Alfold, Cranleigh Rural and Ellen's Green Ward, Waverley BC. Con hold. Con 429 (64.3%, -5.9), LD 238 (35.7%, +13.5). Swing of 9.7% from Con to LD since 2007.

Totteridge Ward, Wycombe DC. LD gain from Lab. LD 733 (54.1%, +36.5), Con 408 (30.1%, -10.9), Lab 214 (15.8%, -25.6). Swing of 19.2% from Con to LD since 2007.

11 Comments:

Blogger Mark Still News said...

Its a disgrace that the government bailed the banks out, with our hard earned money that should really go to things like schools and hospitals, The banks created this problem in the 1st place!

The trouble is to the ordinary person on the St out there, (probably facing redundancy and eviction) is it looks like this is a generous hand out to the banks.

If we stand to get dividends and revenue out of this in the long term then why is not this explained? Our money of some trillion or so pounds really does look like going down some black hole doesn't it?

The government is failing to communicate with us all adequately while they give away what belongs to us to some fat capitalist banker!

11:50 am, April 28, 2009

 
Blogger Merseymike said...

Sorry to her that you are still not well. Hope you make some progress.

The Wycombe result is atrocious, but it may have some local factors attached. The two Labour county councillors in the ward both defected to the LD's (and one of them is a libertarian left-winger) and the PPC resigned - I was brought up there and the party organisation was always pitiful. It seems as if nothing has changed

4:48 pm, April 28, 2009

 
Anonymous ben said...

well at least it wasnt a rout from labour per se, just a terrible local machine

anyone know anything abiut ereshaw?? seems BNP were drawing voters from cons and LDs rather than labour...unless anyone knows better??

5:29 pm, April 28, 2009

 
Blogger Duncan Hall said...

Ben - that is what we tend to find in large parts of the country. Most BNP people around me are ex-Tories or ex-non-voters: the Labour-to-BNP thing doesn't sound very familiar around here.

9:11 pm, April 28, 2009

 
Blogger Hughes Views said...

Thanks for soldiering on with your result service, consistently the most interesting posting in the political blogosphere.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

9:45 pm, April 28, 2009

 
Blogger Chris Paul said...

Mark Still News? Twaddle. The economy was bailed out by taking a grip on the banks. There will be glory to come from this strategy. the Tory alternative of letting the banks crash and burn doesn't bear thinking about.

Merseymike. Also spent a good long time in Wycombe. That is a very strange result indeed on the bare numbers. Was the winner one of the Labour defectives?

Exclusive story on my blog about that other Lab to Lib Dem defective of the week.

8:25 am, April 29, 2009

 
Blogger Chris Paul said...

PS Agree with Duncan. Except don't even know about ex-Tory switchers to BNP. The entire BNP vote in Moston b/e can be explained by non-voters getting off their asses to protest. The t/o went up 4% instead of more typical down 4% and the BNP polled 8% of the electorate. Go figure. They're unlikely to bother to do that again in the same numbers.

8:27 am, April 29, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

Chris Paul said...

Mark Still News? Twaddle. The economy was bailed out by taking a grip on the banks.

But its taken a trillion pounds of our money that should go on schools and hospitals and the government have failed to explain what is happening to the money and how much we stand to get back in return.

The Illegal wars and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan have also cost us huge amounts of money by backing up the imperialist USA. Both Labour and Tory are the same anti working class pro capitalist parties and all work together to keep the working classes down!

8:32 am, April 29, 2009

 
Anonymous ben said...

well thats an obvious explanation, in my experience its been sweeping leabour loses that have fueled BNP growth, but of course that doesnt stop the BNP being a drain on all incumbents and a major draw for non-voters

5:25 pm, April 29, 2009

 
Anonymous Andrew Lomas said...

As the new PPC in Wycombe, I can say we were all fairly gutted at the result: the Lib Dems, in fairness put up a good candidate (their PPC who had been running a lot of local campaigns). On top of that, the defectors seemed to have an uncanny knack for remembering where the Labour promise was and I've heard various tales of 'pressure' put on our supporters. Obviously, as a bottom line, out vote shouldn't have collapsed as completely as it did and I'm left scratching my head over the result. For those interested, I wrote an article on LabourList talking about some of the factors as I see it... On another note, I hope you get better soon Luke.

3:12 pm, May 04, 2009

 
Anonymous Michael Edwards said...

Dear Luke, Best wishes for your recovery and I'm sorry that no-one has posted a comment on the Erewash by-election which I attended.
There are a number of reasons for Labour's victory which included a good candidate, some local issues that gave the campaign some focus, good literature, a good MP with decent track record on contact work, good contact work during the campaign and on the day.
The Labour Party can take tremendous heart from this victory in a constituency that has been a key marginal.
The lessons should not so much be learnt as known already.
Twice now in by-elections in this area, the BNP have not done much better than fringe candidates would, despite bringing extra resources that such by-elections allow (and despite standing in numbers at times around the polling station and in Erewash, parking a trailer advert outside the polling station).

5:01 am, May 07, 2009

 

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