English local elections 2011

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Southampton...



It's probably fair to say that the ideological gulf between the parties is now wider in Southampton than almost anywhere else in the country. As most British posters will know, the Tory council (elected in a massive 1968-style landslide in 2008) has been at war with its employees for a while now, while Soton Labour has mostly been on the party's Left since the early 1980s. This has produced levels of polarisation in local politics there not seen for decades; the LibDems, once an important player in local politics, have been bundled into irrelevance and saw their vote collapse and all their seats up for election lost, almost as if Soton were Rochdale or somewhere. The elections next year - which will probably see a change in administration as the councillors elected in 2008 are up - will almost certainly be unusually high profile.

[minionofmidas]

Interesting!

[Leftbehind]

In terms of seats the Tories didn't do too badly to get their six to Labour's ten - their two gains from the Liberals were won on low thirties, with Labour at late twenties and Green/TUSC vote surpassing 10%. Could've easily been 3/13 when you include the Freemantle seat.

How does Soton Labour differ from Labour as a whole? Are they backing the binmen etc?

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

In terms of seats the Tories didn't do too badly to get their six to Labour's ten - their two gains from the Liberals were won on low thirties, with Labour at late twenties and Green/TUSC vote surpassing 10%. Could've easily been 3/13 when you include the Freemantle seat.

Which is why Labour will probably take control next year - the Tories will be defending 14 out of 16.

[minionofmidas]

"Eager for sheep"? Have you gone all Newzealander on us?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How does Soton Labour differ from Labour as a whole?

The general default setting (in terms of internal Labour politics and all that) seems to be soft Left rather than traditional Right. I suspect that that mostly reflects the fact that Whitehead and Denham have been the Party's public faces in the city for nearly thirty years.

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I'm not sure of the details and haven't followed things all that closely. I know they want things resolved via ACAS, which (IIRC) is what the unions want and what the council doesn't.

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

"Eager for sheep"? Have you gone all Newzealander on us?

This is our team name for the upcoming European Quiz Championships.  (We wanted Cymdeithas Cwis Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch but it won't fit on the leaderboard.)  Blame the guy in my sig.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

"Eager for sheep"? Have you gone all Newzealander on us?

This is our team name for the upcoming European Quiz Championships.  (We wanted Cymdeithas Cwis Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch but it won't fit on the leaderboard.)  Blame the guy in my sig.

You could have shortened it to Llanfairpwll for such purposes?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Telford & Wrekin as a sort of New Year present. I can explain just about everything. But, damn, is that pretty.

[MaxQue]

TAWPA?

Telford And Wrekin Payers' Association?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Telford & Wrekin People's Association. Local populist outfit that started as a movement against parking charges in Dawley. Includes (or perhaps that ought to be included? They may have dissolved since May; I don't actually know) a fascinating mix of people, from Trots, local busybodies and people who could be described as crypto-fascist without any serious risk of libel. There was a degree of crossover activity and membership (I think) with UKIP. They won a seat off Labour in Dawley Magna ward in 2006 and won the other two seats there in 2007 (and polled very well in some other parts of Telford, including some areas not even in Dawley), but crashed and burned in May.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Slightly odd map from tehwiki which shows the different towns within Telford.

Pink = Wellington, Dark Grey = Dawley*, Brown = Madeley, Dark Green = Oakengates, Blue = Hadley, Ketley and Leegomery, Blue Grey = Donnington, Light Green = The Rock, Orange = Admaston (which is functionally part of Wellington), Light Blue = Broseley, Red = Shifnal (what the hell is that doing on the map?), and Yellow = places where there was nowt before the New Town. Including the 'town centre' and related hellholes, but also the rather posh suburb of Priorslee. Broseley and Shifnal are not covered by T&W (stupidly in the case of Broseley), while it also includes some areas that are clearly not part of Telford, notably the Newport area (the posh town in the north of the election maps).

*Though the south-eastern bit is really Stirchley.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The roughest city in the known universe, or 'Salford' as it's known to locals:



As astonishing as it may seem from the above maps, the LibDems were defending multiple seats in the city.

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

I get the impression that map isn't going to change much for a while.  The weakest Conservative ward - Walkden South - actually swung towards the Tories between 2010 and 2011.

The Tory strength in Kersal - at the top right - is explained by the very high Jewish population.  Eccles ward (in the centre of the map) has a middle-classish area in it called Monton, which may also explain the high UKIP vote.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, not a single close ward. Purely ritualistic elections ahoy!

Kersal is an interesting one; as well as including a massive Hasidic community, it is also very middle class (especially for Salford) though leaning professional rather than managerial (unlike the solid block of blue out west). Still can't decide whether it's Tory strength in that part of the conurbation that's the weird thing, or that Labour held the ward throughout 2006-2008.

Elsewhere the only odd thing (given the overall picture) is Tory weakness just north of Eccles which is comparatively prosperous, but that can be explained by (now former) LibDem strength.

No, not quite true. A fairly good showing for the LibDem candidate in Worsley.

[Pete Whitehead]

Telford & Wrekin as a sort of New Year present. I can explain just about everything. But, damn, is that pretty.

Can you explain the seemingly strange Labour strength in Ironbridge Gorge ward? Obviously it was historically an industrial area, but looking on Google maps it looks all very pleaseant, picture-postcard now.  Looking at the census stats its very owner-occupied, very middle class.
Muesli eaters?
I note there was a swing from Labour to Conservative in 2011, with a new Labour candidate, but still..

Incidentally I had a little discussion about this area recently in another place
htt p://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/thewrekin/
I'd be interested in any thoughts you have about that - its various posts from 12th March onwards (you'd have to sift through a load of crap about voting systems)