Local by-election results from 7 November and other thoughts

The results of local by-elections that took place on 7 November which featured Green candidates are as follows:

Durham, Crook: Labour 741 (40.4%), Independent 496 (27.0%), Wear Valley Ind 360 (19.6%), Lib Dem 145 (7.9%), Con 54 (2.9%), Green  40 (2.2%).

Nottingham, Dales: Labour 1644 (66.4%), UKIP 364 (14.7%), Con 220 (8.9%), Green 99 (4.0%), Lib Dem 78 (3.1%), TUSC 72 (2.9%)

Nottingham, Radford and Park: Labour 1146 (65.2%), Con 355 (20.2%), UKIP 123 (7.0%), Green 80 (4.6%), Elvis Loves Pets 31 (1.8%), TUSC 22 (1.3%).

Sefton, Derby: Labour 903 (64.7%), UKIP 293 (21.0%), Ind E 97 (7.0%), TUSC 48 (3.4%), Ind B 29 (2.1%), Green 25 (1.8%).

West Oxfordshire, Chipping Norton: Labour 810 (57.0%), Con 500 (35.2%), Green 58 (4.1%), Lib Dem 53 (3.7%).

One worrying aspect I have noticed is that Labour, with the large swings towards it from the Lib Dems and with UKIP damaging the Conservatives' vote in Nottingham further, could soon have control of every single council seat in the city of Nottingham, which has a population of 310,000 people. This has serious implications for the people of Nottingham.

Interestingly, in the Sefton local by-election, the Independent candidate, Juliet Edgar, posted election leaflets which would sound quite in place at a local TUSC meeting-anti-bedroom tax, anti-cuts, anti-establishment etc. Those leaflets might explain the socialists' poor result in that by-election.

In other news, the 'gagging law' (aka the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaiging and Trade Union Administration Bill, to give it its proper title) has been delayed, thanks to pressure on peers, by five weeks. However, this is not good enough- part 2 needs to be scrapped, part 1 needs to be reformed, and this, as the Electoral Commission has said, needs months, not weeks, to deal with properly.

Thank you for reading, 

Alan.





 

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