UK Local Elections, 4th May 2017

[Phony Moderate]

Lists of candidates come out today, at least for the county council elections.

[Phony Moderate]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

You can always expect "exceptionally low turnout" for local elections regardless of whether they're held on the eve of a GE or not. If anything the turnout for these might be slightly higher than is usual for locals as people's minds are, obviously, geared to politics right now with a GE on.

And yes, both the 1983 and 1987 GEs were held in June, a few weeks after the locals. Thatcher in fact used them to assess her party's chances.

[Phony Moderate]

Should we expect exceptionally low turnout as everyone is paying attention to the GE and ignoring the locals? Has there in the past ever been a GE so close after the locals without coinciding?

You can always expect "exceptionally low turnout" for local elections regardless of whether they're held on the eve of a GE or not. If anything the turnout for these might be slightly higher than is usual for locals as people's minds are, obviously, geared to politics right now with a GE on.

And yes, both the 1983 and 1987 GEs were held in June, a few weeks after the locals. Thatcher in fact used them to assess her party's chances.

By "exceptionally low," I of course meant "lower than usual." No need to be rude about it. Obviously turnout is always quite bad for local elections.

Didn't mean to come off that way. But we can at least be sure that they'll get a higher turnout than those pointless PCC elections we have.

[Phony Moderate]

Just voted. People on the tables were pretty downbeat, as usual. Turnout seems sh**t, unsurprisingly.

[Phony Moderate]

Conservatives gain Lincolnshire (England)

And UKIP absolutely wiped out in the county that includes Boston and Skeggy.

[Phony Moderate]

He'd likely have done even better in Liverpool though.

[Phony Moderate]

So why did turnout in Scotland increase substantially?

Similar reasons to the big increases in 2015 and 2016 - the 2014 referendum tuned people into politics.