UK local elections, May 2012

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Leader of Cardiff City Council seems to be in trouble.

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Tories may have lost their majorities in Monmouth and the Vale of Glamorgan. Just rumours, mind. The former would be a huge blow.

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Lab gain Chipping Norton

hahahahaha

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Labour seem set for a majority on Duuuudlooooyyiiii council.

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Labour gain Birmingham.

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Labour gain Sutton Vesey, Birmingham!!!!!

Yeah, that's pretty huge. Also, a great example of a frequent candidate hitting the jackpot.

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Cannock and Carlisle have Labour majorities; not sure if that's been mentioned yet.

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A Plaid majority likely in Ceredigion; an excellent result for them given the ghastly Westminster result and poor Assembly one.

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Nigel Dawkins goes down in Bournville.

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Early results in Caerphilly are strikingly good for Labour.

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Labour gain Sutton Vesey, Birmingham!!!!!

Another "not even close" moment.

Lab 3,231
Con 2,426
Green 285
LD 241

Fycking hell.

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Labour have made large gains in Wrexham and are now the largest group with 23 seats (more than double the result in 2008). Independents have basically held their ground, as have the Tories. Plaid wiped out and big LibDem losses.

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Remarkable news from Merthyr: according to the BBC Jeff Edwards (Council Leader and longtime fixture of Independent politics in the Valleys) has lost his seat.

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Early results in Caerphilly are strikingly good for Labour.

Rumours that the Leader of the Council has lost his seat (not a good night for people in that post, is it?) along with Ron Davies.

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Labour gain Blaenau Gwent. I'm sure that this news will come as a great shock to all.

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Labour gain Merthyr Tydfil. But a bizarre detail: a seat for UKIP in Penydarren. Candidate in question is yet another former member of Forward Wales and has run in Westminster and Assembly elections before and was an incumbent councillor (elected as an Indy).

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Would be pretty funny if they held Llandaff while losing certain other wards.

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LibDems wiped out in Merthyr. And another shutout in Manchester, it seems.

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Anyways, time to call it a night.

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Looks like Labour majorities in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

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And it seems that the defeat of Ron Davies can also be filed under 'actually, not close at all'.

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Gwynedd does what Gwynedd does best and provides a bit of a surreal result. Results last time: Plaid 35, Independent 18, Llais Gwynedd 12, LDem 5, Labour 4

Results this time: Plaid 37, Independent 18, Llais Gwynedd 13, Labour 4, LDem 2

And what's so surreal about that? The massive turnover in seats between the two elections, despite the overal numbers being so stable. Anyway, the big story is the failure of Plaid's attempt to destroy Llais. They're here to stay, it seems. So I'll just drone on about Arfon for a bit. Don't think much changed in Caernarfon, as I'd expected. In Bangor the big story was the success of various Local Candidate For Local People Independents (one of which was elected in 2008 as a LibDem) who gained a seat off Plaid in Upper Bangor, held Hirael (see earlier), and gained two seats in Maes-G, one off Labour and one of a different Independent. Plaid, meanwhile, have gained a seat in Upper Bangor off the LibDems, while Labour gained the infamous Deiniol ward off Plaid. In the old slate communities things went pretty badly for Plaid and its possible that they were lucky to have so many seats there uncontested (and functionally unconotested in one case where the only opponent - who still mananged a respectable poll - was from the SLP). They lost Deiniolen (and by miles) to an Independent and lost Bethel to Labour (and that wasn't close either). The longtime Labour incumbent in Tregarth & Mynydd Llandygai somehow mananged to win again, this time by four votes (I think it was two in 2008). Tregarth is much larger than Mynydd Llandygai and is the Plaid bit. The Independent in Talysarn held off a very still challenge from Llais.

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It has been confirmed - after two recounts - that Rodney Berman (Leader of Cardiff City Council) has lost his seat. Berman is a prick, so I'm currently grinning.

But it's part of a general pattern in Wales: apparently one of the least secure jobs here is being the Leader of a council. Hilariously the leader of RCT managed to lose his seat despite Labour winning a landslide there.

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LIB 3 (-13)

You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh.

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