Local Election Maps

[minionofmidas]

You know that you can easily find maps of Roman provinces with a 2-second Google search, right?

yes of course, but they are not, how can I say that... "empty", you know ?

The correct term is "blank".

[minionofmidas]

Cartogram of the 2011 results (showing each ward according to its voting power).  It's strange how homogeneous in geographical size Dudley's wards are, I have trouble telling the difference between the map and the cartogram:

Except for the northwest corner that's true of Coventry as well. Add the city's amusingly rounded overall shape and...

[minionofmidas]

You really need to see it in isolation to notice how odd the boundaries are.

[minionofmidas]

In the case of Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire actually winning no seats where they won two last time...

...anyways, St Andrews also stands out.

The Party of NE Fife Interests?

[minionofmidas]

Question regarding Coldfield - if you'd have been told before the election that Labour would win a seat in Sutton, would you have guessed Vesey as the least unlikely of the four? Or not even that?

[minionofmidas]

Why are the Western Isles White?

[minionofmidas]

Swung, Liam, swung.

[minionofmidas]

Swung, Liam, swung.

He's from Preston. Be gentle.

Of course, if English speakers still understood the logic behind their few remaining strong verbs (at least to the just-barely-there extent that German speakers do) it would be "swang".

[minionofmidas]

Can anyone spot the former fishing port?

The industry still employs almost a thousand people, actually. Though mostly in processing rather than in actual fishing crews, nowadays - because the infrastructure is there, North Atlantic fish destined for the British market is landed at Fleetwood.

[minionofmidas]

Further south, Oval ward in Vauxhall is known throughout the world as the location of the [insert sponsor's name here] Oval cricket ground, home of Surrey cricket club and traditional location for the final Test match of the English cricket season.

Pro hint: The vast majority of those people who don't care about cricket have never heard of it. Most people around the world have barely even heard of cricket. 

[minionofmidas]

Further south, Oval ward in Vauxhall is known throughout the world as the location of the [insert sponsor's name here] Oval cricket ground, home of Surrey cricket club and traditional location for the final Test match of the English cricket season.

Pro hint: The vast majority of those people who don't care about cricket have never heard of it. Most people around the world have barely even heard of cricket. 

That's not exactly true. Around here, no one cares about cricket, but it's still reasonably known as a weird sport played by Englishmen.

And do you know anything about it? 'Cause otherwise that's basically what I meant by "barely heard of".

[minionofmidas]

I did, for one. I've spent time in India, I know (most of) the rules laws.
Though I've never bothered to find out the first thing about how cricket is organized below the national teams level...

[minionofmidas]

Are you familiar with the Gormenghast novels?

No. (Except reading up on it on wikipedia when you mentioned it recently.)

[minionofmidas]

Though Penge was, of course, in Beckenham back when Labour came close there. Couldn't have happened otherwise, the Beckenham part of Beckenham is ultraposh IIRC.