UK local by-elections 2011

[minionofmidas]

I suppose the turnout - and the previous Labour result, and, actually, the new Labour result too - is just too low for us to draw any such conclusions... but this is the first result (that I noticed) of it looking like LibDem voters going over (back) to Labour even in the True Blue places - we've seen plenty of it in places where Labour and LDs are the only parties that matter, but in these kind of places Labour had seemed as dead as ever since 2005 so far.

[minionofmidas]

Presumably we're dealing with the kind of "working class" area you expect amid wealthy tourists and retirees... service sector that is, plus perhaps some more working class retirees as well (who wanted to move to the Welsh Coast but could only afford Junction)?

[minionofmidas]

Well yeah, construction is a word that's just plain missing from my post.

With a name like "Junction", you'd figure it's a railway town. And there is a railway junction there. Of sorts. But I don't suppose it still employs anybody of note.

[minionofmidas]

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Woah.

[minionofmidas]

According to their own website, the council has 23 Conservatives, 21 Labour, 3 independents and 1 vacancy... so unless exactly one of the independents is allied with the Tories, I don't see how having the seat declared vacant ended the Conservative majority.

[minionofmidas]

The Labour Party 521 (43.1%)
British National Party 288 (23.8%)
Liberal Democrat 261 (21.6%)
The Conservative Party 81 (6.7%)
Independent 58 (4.8%)

Found the result... on... Stormfront. Lol.

[minionofmidas]

I find the Labour result in Burnley somewhat underwhelming, actually.

[minionofmidas]

Yes - these are third count vote totals (except for the two candidates eliminated after the first and second counts.)

It seems that the 202 vote independent's vote was not redistributed - he merely would have been next in line had any further eliminations been necessary. It's worded a bit sillily.

[minionofmidas]

TAIN AND EASTER ROSS, Highland Council. Tain is a town on the east coast of Ross and Cromarty

The grammatically correct way to phrase that is "Tain is a town in Easter Ross".

[minionofmidas]

Partly because half the ward's population is in Tain, and partly because the term Easter Ross sometimes is understood to include Dingwall, which is not in the ward.
The Black Isle, though also strictly speaking on the east coast of Ross & Cromarty (and more or less including the long-suppressed tiny county of Cromarty), is not in Easter Ross.

[minionofmidas]

Yah, most of the territory was over in Wester Ross actually. I thought the populated bits were mostly the ones in the Black Isle, though.

Of course, Cromartyshire was created out of the landholdings of this horrid person. Not only the most
bizarre, but also (until 1974) the newest county to have existed in Britain.

[minionofmidas]

Both the notion that the council can coopt members in certain circumstances, and the notion that party politics "should not" play a role in that, are so alien to my understanding of representative democracy as to make it impossible to have an opinion. Though neither is as outlandish as the notion that councillors should not discuss who to vote for before the meeting - wtfh?

[minionofmidas]

Let me guess, the LD in Kesteven whose vote total was non-joke was their incumbent.

[minionofmidas]

Oh well, so he was locally known for some other reason... and the other two were not.

[minionofmidas]

Both the notion that the council can coopt members in certain circumstances, and the notion that party politics "should not" play a role in that, are so alien to my understanding of representative democracy as to make it impossible to have an opinion. Though neither is as outlandish as the notion that councillors should not discuss who to vote for before the meeting - wtfh?

Town Councils can be Serious Business, you know.

That's why I don't get it.

[minionofmidas]

They don't seem to like outside candidates. The 3rd Tory candidate was also from outside the ward and he polled behind a Green.

The existence of the two strong indies plays a role here. People voting for 1 or 2 of them having 2 or 1 votes to potentially give to the major party candidate(s) they like.

[minionofmidas]

I remember the story about the Llais guy, but what's with the indirectly caused by-election?

[minionofmidas]

Certainly didn't expect an LD hold in Warrington.

[minionofmidas]

Detailed map of the Edina ward? I want to see for myself what all is in it.

[minionofmidas]

Cuts out the Old Town'S southern fringes, then. Goes further west than I would have expected, too.

[minionofmidas]

Detailed map of the Edina ward? I want to see for myself what all is in it.

[now screenshotted as suggested by Al]

Cuts out the Old Town'S southern fringes, then. Goes further west than I would have expected, too.

Basically everything to the south of Princes Street and beyond (basically the 'red road' that cuts down the middle) was won by the SNP in 2007. Labour won in the north east of the ward, at the Calton Hill area while in the north west in the New Town and towards Haymarket you found people who voted Lib Dem 'nationally' but Tory locally.

Which is as things should be, yeah. Though "Calton Hill area" may be a misnomer, I think "Holyrood area" probably covers it better. (Google map) Ooh, wait a second. That little council estate right by Holyrood appears to be the very northern tip of Southside/Newington ward. Nevermind then.

[minionofmidas]

Gedling's a bit of a surprise. Then again, so is the extent of LD collapse in guardianland.

[minionofmidas]

BISHOP'S CASTLE, Shropshire; caused by the resignation of a Lib Dem councillor.  One of Shropshire's tiny market towns, and until 1974 the smallest borough in England,

False. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10153700&c_id=10001043

(But I would have mispronounced Bisster. I'd have guessed at "Beester".)

[minionofmidas]

A separate but related meaning would be a place it was (back in the day) impossible to move to 'cept maybe as a woman marrying in - which of course is a subset of the first definition as it would be due to the landlord's policy not to take on any new tenants.

[minionofmidas]

Thanks. One of the benefits of the Land Acts is that all of this is a foreign concept to us.

It is to modern England as well...