German state and local elections, March 26th

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Yay!

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Nellist did worse than expected in Coventry NE. Or am I missing something? Or do you mean the fact that he's still a counciller there or?...

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The fact that here's someone who once was someone in a mainstream party, though out on the extreme end, who's now got his/her own club, whom noone outside his/her hometown cares about, but who still has a small vote base and a lot of name recognition in that place.

Ah yes, I get it now. Makes sense. He certainly has a lot of name recognition... none of it *good* but everyone knows who he is... he's basically the only ex-Militant politician (with the obvious exception of a certain former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council...) that anyone can recognise these days. Or remember the name of. He might be up for election this year; will check the Council's site...

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Nope, he's up for re-election in 2008. St Michael's ward (the city centre and the Hillfields area; which is a complete dump). His party used to hold all three seats in the ward; they lost one in 2004 to Labour. Odd thing is that St Martins is in Coventry South not Coventry NE (and Nellist's old seat was the former Coventry SE o/c).

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I hear that when Tony Blair was first in the Commons, he and Nellist shared an office.

Yeah, I heard that as well
Not sure if it's true or not, but back in those days they did try to keep new M.P's (as both were in '83) together...

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Rödelheim Independents is possible (ala East Cleveland Independents, South Shropshire Independents etc, etc...) but it might also be the Rödelheim Residents Association.

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I always felt "Residents Association" has a very rightwing sound.

There's a reason for that...
Until the Poll Tax they were usually called Ratepayers IIRC. Some old duffer on Shropshire County Council (who is now, quite improbably, a LibDem) tried to keep that badge alive for a while and ran as a "Council Tax Payer"... which just doesn't have the same ring to it does it?
There are some very strong Residents Associations in Surrey.

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In which case, Rödelheim Independents is much more likely. O/c other expressions might be used (Progressive Independents, Community Group, Idle Toad...)

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What are all these cities like?

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Interesting. Thanks

Hmmm. Rüsselsheim is easiest. Home of Opel (which has long been a wholly-owned General Motors subsidiary.)

Ah; is it more Dagenham than Longbridge? (ignoring the terminal decline of car manufacturing in both of those places) Or not like either?

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The suburb bit or the working class bit?

And why are there cannibals in Hersfeld-Rotenburg?

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What's Dagenham like?

Working class London suburb waaay out East (was once in Essex and many locals still regard it as being such), lot's and lot's of council housing, used to have a big Ford factory but they closed it a few years ago (although some stuff is still made there IIRC). BNP have become active in the area, but haven't done nearly as well as in neighbouring Barking (Labour is better organised in Dagenham than Barking) and haven't had any councillers elected from there so far.
Generally a very safe Labour area though (constituency has been Labour since it's creation in 1945).

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Working class suburb at the southernmost point of Birmingham, economy traditionally based around the (former) Rover plant at Longbridge, but has since diversified (not had much choice in that o/c).
It's what is sometimes described as an "affluent working class" area and is usually Labour at local level (although the odd Tory wins now and again, this is Birmingham after all) and is strongly Labour nationally. Forms the emotional core of the Birmingham Northfield constituency (Labour from creation until 1979, then Tory until a by-election in the early '80's, Labour until they lost it again in 1983, Labour again in 1992 and from then onwards. Is now a safe seat again).

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So it's like Smethwick and Birmingham?

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Yes, but the media here never said quite where he was from.