English local elections

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

LD map is funny.

What's with the freak UKIP stronghold?

Not entirely sure.  It's St James's ward which is one of the few areas where UKIP actually have an elected councillor.  Al presumably knows more about it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Well, St James's in Dudley proper and Dudley is just weird. The ward had previously been one of less than a handful of what we might think of as 'authentic' Black Country wards to vote LibDem and one of the LibDem councillors elected in 2004 defected to UKIP at some point. He was defeated in 2007, but it seems that he was the core around which a proper local organisation was built (UKIP success - even relatively - is often started in this way; see also Newcastle-under-Lyme). In 2006 the BNP polled 20% in the ward; it's pretty clear where that vote ended up. As to why the ward was LibDem in the first place, I don't know. It is the most middle class of the Dudley town wards, but that's not saying a lot and it isn't middle class by any other standard. It's 'only' about 80% white, but, again, that's not unusual in Dudley town. May just have been the usual 'community Liberal' route; I do note that the Burts used to have council seats in that ward. Lorely Burt first won in 1998; I don't know if Richard Burt was on the council before.

[Hash]

[original post quoted Bradford map]

What's that Tory ward surrounded by Labour or LibDem wards? Middle-class island?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What's that Tory ward surrounded by Labour or LibDem wards?

Bowling & Barkerend

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No! It's an inner-city ward with a large Asian population (as this is Bradford, mostly Kashmiri). The Tory hold on the ward is mostly down to biradari stuff. Sort of funny that the last ward where that's true (Arshad Hussein (Toller) nearly lost in 2008 and later defected to Labour) is in Bradford North East and not Bradford West.

Btw, the sole BNP ward (Queensbury) is the most middle class ward in Bradford South by some distance.

[JoeBrayson]

Bowling & Barkerend is actually the 2nd most deprived ward in Bradford (behind the Labour stronghold of Little Horton) and until a few years ago was itself a safe Labour ward for years. The 2010 elections did see a reduction in the Tory vote though and seems to be treading back to Labour.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Bolton. Which also includes Westhoughton, Farnworth, Horwich, Blackrod and various suburbs and out-townships that were never part of Bolton CB. Hard not to note that Bolton North East is one of the most hilariously polarised constituencies in the country.

In Little Lever & Darcy Lever the incumbent (elected for Labour in 2006) ran as an Independent (the ward is the pink one in the sea of dark reds), while in Smithills the incumbent (elected for the LibDems in 2006) ran for Labour (the ward is the yellow one).

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Thanks for that Al.

Some trivia about Bolton's recent electoral history.  When the current ward boundaries were drawn up in 2004 the Iraq war effect produced some very weird results in the Asian wards (the Lib Dems took all three seats in Crompton, the Tories led in Great Lever); in addition Labour failed to win a single seat in Bolton West and the sixty council seats split C 19 Lab 20 LD 21 (in order of the popular vote).  Since then the Lib Dem vote has fallen back to earth and Labour have steadily gained seats - after this election they hold 30 out of 60.

The polarisation Al refers to is reflected in Bolton's voting patterns.  The Conservatives actually topped the poll in every election in the borough from 2004 to 2008, but most of their votes stack up in four very safe wards: Astley Bridge, Bromley Cross and Bradshaw (the three blue seats in the north of the town) and Heaton/Lostock (the very blue ward in the centre of the district).  Bromley Cross and Bradshaw were part of the old Turton Urban District and I imagine (but can't be bothered to check) that they would have been in the Darwen constituency before Greater Manchester was created.  Lostock has a large British Aerospace plant which manufactures missiles.  When I'm not researching elections I play for Astley Bridge Conservative Club's quiz league team.

The four Labour wards in Bolton NE are (from west to east) Halliwell, Crompton, Tonge with The Haulgh and Breightmet.  Halliwell and Crompton are heavily Asian areas, while Tonge and Breightmet are generally white working-class.  Breightmet in particular is known for its high crime rate - outside of general election time this ward is a key Lab/C marginal.  Crompton ward is named after Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule which was one of the machines that powered the Industrial Revolution in Lancashire, and is also the home of Warburton's bakery which David Cameron visited during the election campaign.  One of the councillors for Tonge is Frank White, who was Labour MP for Bury and Radcliffe on very tiny majorities until 1983.

Bolton SE is much more of a Labour monolith - the only Tory ward here this time was Hulton.  Outside general election time Little Lever (which was an independent Urban District) is another key Lab/C marginal, and the Lib Dems are competitive in the far southeastern ward of Kearsley (ditto).  The two wards west of Kearsley are Harper Green and Farnworth which cover the old Farnworth Urban District; the two very Labour wards north of those are Rumworth and Great Lever which are heavily Asian.

Bolton West: as Al says, the yellow ward is Smithills which is where I live.  The weird shape of the ward is basically caused by the old Bolton/Horwich boundary - most of the northern finger is moorland.  The ward is named after the old manor house of Smithills Hall, whose Wikipedia entry has been rather amusingly vandalised, and contains Smithills School which keeps winning international brass band contests (with good reason as well).  The LD->Lab defector who lost his seat this time, Richard Silvester, actually stood as an Independent Labour candidate against Speaker Betty Boothroyd in the 1997 general election.  Amusingly Richard's sister Julia was up for re-election this time in Westhoughton South as a Lib Dem - she lost as well.

Running south to north, the four westernmost wards are Westhoughton South, Westhoughton North/Chew Moor, Horwich/Blackrod and Horwich NE.  I don't know Westhoughton well but it's a typical small Lancashire town, while Horwich was a centre of railway manufacturing.  All these wards are three-way marginals except for Horwich NE, which is normally a LD stronghold and the only reason Labour took it this time was the general election turnout.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Running south to north, the four westernmost wards are Westhoughton South, Westhoughton North/Chew Moor, Horwich/Blackrod and Horwich NE.  I don't know Westhoughton well but it's a typical small Lancashire town, while Horwich was a centre of railway manufacturing.  All these wards are three-way marginals except for Horwich NE, which is normally a LD stronghold and the only reason Labour took it this time was the general election turnout.

Westhoughton used to be strongly Labour (and presumably still is in General Elections). When Labour lost control of the old council there one time in the late 1950s (because of a protest vote against Manchester's proposals to build a load of council houses there) local papers reported that it was the first time Labour had ever lost control; obviously untrue, but probably means it had been Labour for a few decades at least by that point. Not sure why it was put with Bolton and not in the Wigan district, but then there were a lot of weird decisions made during that process...

A piece of trivia you missed; the defendents in R v Brown were from Horwich.

[Serenity Now]

No party maps or lead map planned for now.. The data isn't presented in a great format for calculating percentages (I just clicked on each ward and added the percentages they give for each candidate on this map: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/borough-council-election-results-2010).

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

A piece of trivia you missed; the defendents in R v Brown were from Horwich.

I hadn't heard of R v Brown and had to look it up.  I now wish I hadn't.

[You kip if you want to...]

No party maps or lead map planned for now.. The data isn't presented in a great format for calculating percentages (I just clicked on each ward and added the percentages they give for each candidate on this map: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/borough-council-election-results-2010).

What party's is grey and what's with the random spot of red, within the sea of deep blue in south London?

[Verily]

No party maps or lead map planned for now.. The data isn't presented in a great format for calculating percentages (I just clicked on each ward and added the percentages they give for each candidate on this map: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/borough-council-election-results-2010).

What party's is grey and what's with the random spot of red, within the sea of deep blue in south London?

Grey is the Residents' Association. They have 13 seats in Havering.

The Labour ward is Fieldway in Croydon. Couldn't tell you why it's Labour, though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Council estate.

[Harry Hayfield]

London Boroughs 1986 - 2010
1986: Lab 957 Con 685 Alliance 249 Others 23
1990: Lab 925 Con 731 Liberal Democrats 229 Others 29
1994: Lab 1,045 Con 518 Liberal Democrats 323 Others 31
1998: Lab 1,050 Con 538 Liberal Democrats 301 Others 28
2002: Lab 866 Con 663 Liberal Democrats 310 Others 33
2006: Con 785 Lab 689 Liberal Democrats 317 Others 74
2010: Lab 876 Con 717 Liberal Democrats 245 Others 23

Change 1986 - 2010: Lab -81 Con +32 Liberal Democrats -4 Others n/c Councillors: -53

[YL]

Sheffield.  Lead of the winning party at the top, then maps for each of the four parties who stand everywhere.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sheffield's polarisation is hilarious. Presumably a lot of the Greenie vote in the new Central constituency went Labour for the Westminster fight.

[Хahar 🤔]

No party maps or lead map planned for now.. The data isn't presented in a great format for calculating percentages (I just clicked on each ward and added the percentages they give for each candidate on this map: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/borough-council-election-results-2010).

Is the white spot the City?

[Serenity Now]

No party maps or lead map planned for now.. The data isn't presented in a great format for calculating percentages (I just clicked on each ward and added the percentages they give for each candidate on this map: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/borough-council-election-results-2010).

Is the white spot the City?

Yes - they have separate, weird, elections.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wolverhampton - the nation's style and fashion capital!

[minionofmidas]

What's with the hard Tory area at the western fringe?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What's with the hard Tory area at the western fringe?

That's Tettenhall. Bourgeois white flight suburban hell. It's full of Enoch Powell's former constituents. The two blue wards south of Tettenhall are similar, but not so bad.

[Hash]

Is the LibDem stronghold based around a personality cult or...?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is the LibDem stronghold based around a personality cult or...?

Local activists drowning the people living their in focus leaflets every other day or so, basically. In that ward they actually appear on the ballot as 'The Liberal Democrat Focus Team'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Salford. Which, as well as including the roughest city in the known universe, also includes a lot of other places, such as Pendlebury (home of the matchstick men), Eccles (home of the cake), Swinton, Worsley, Walkden and Irlam.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Salford. Which, as well as including the roughest city in the known universe, also includes a lot of other places, such as Pendlebury (home of the matchstick men), Eccles (home of the cake), Swinton, Worsley, Walkden and Irlam.

Thanks Al.

Worsley and Eccles South, Salford's western constituency is even more polarised than Bolton North East.  The strongly Labour ward in the NW corner is Little Hulton which is serious council estate hell, while the two strongly Tory wards are Boothstown/Ellenbrook and Worsley which is a posh hell where all Salford's Tory voters who can afford to move move to.

The strong Tory ward in the NE corner is Kersal, which is probably the most Jewish ward in the UK.  The Tories have come very close to winning this ward in recent years.  

The two strong Lib Dem wards are Claremont and Weaste/Seedley which cover some of the relatively less dodgy parts of Salford proper.  The next strongest ward is Ordsall in the SE corner - this is the ward which includes the strongly redeveloped dockland of Salford Quays, but most of the people who live in the expensive dockside apartments don't actually vote.  The strong BNP wards are basically the dodgier parts of Salford plus Swinton and Pendlebury.