By-election results from 9/1/14 and 16/1/14-also other thoughts

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you have not heard yet, here are January's local by-election results involving Green candidates:

Tonbridge and Malling DC, Borough Green and Long Mill: Ind (Mike Taylor): 692 (38.9%), Con 588 (33.0%), UKIP 349 (19.6%), Lab 84 (4.7%), Green 68 (3.8%).

Trafford MBC, Broadheath: Lab 1377 (44.6%), Con 1258 (40.8%), UKIP 234 (7.6%), Lib Dem 150 (4.9%),Green 67 (2.2%).

The Trafford contest has seen some of the lowest local by-election swings (and for all parties that contested as well) I have seen in over a year, particularly as the UKIP vote was squeezed (as was ours) about by the tense Labour-Conservative battle that often goes on in Trafford contests-Trafford is one of only two Conservative-controlled boroughs (the other is Solihull, where we Greens have strong support) but nonetheless has significant Labour support as well. By contrast, many metropolitan councils are Labour strongholds through and through.

There are sadly no other local by-elections this month which we Greens are contesting, but I will cover the Cowdenbeath (Scottish Parliament) by-election anyway.

In other news, I am glad the disciplinary case against the 'Sussex 5' students has collapsed after Sussex deputy vice-chancellor, Michael Davies, stepped down when accused of political bias in the case. However, the case still has not concluded, and thus I ask you to keep supporting the Sussex 5 until they are finally cleared.

 Alan.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My analysis of local by-elections from 22/11/18

Readers, the results of this week's British local by-elections were as follows: Enfield LBC, Bush Hill Park: Conservative 1540 (52.4%, +12.7%), Labour 828 (28.2%, -8.3%), Liberal Democrats 313 (10.7%, -0.8%), Green 127 (4.3%, -6.6%), WEP 79 (2.7%), Independent (Oyaloyu) 50 (1.7%). [UKIP did not stand] Westminster LBC, Lancaster Gate: Conservative 913 (47.2%, -1.5%), Labour 684 (35.4%, -1.0%), Liberal Democrats 275 (14.2%, -0.7%), Green 62 (3.2%). Windsor & Maidenhead UA, Datchet: Conservative 525 (56.0%, -3.1%), National Flood Prevention Party 223 (23.8%), Labour 121 (12.9%, -9.1%), Liberal Democrats 48 (5.1%,-13.8%), Green 21 (2.2%). Wirral MBC, Upton: Labour 1490 (61.3%, +3.1%), Conservative 705 (29.0%, +0.4%), Green 151 (6.2%, -0.5%), Liberal Democrats 83 (3.4%, -0.8%). [TUSC did not stand] All changes are since May. The open divisions in the Conservatives, which resulted in a failed attempt to call for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May by the European Researc...
Read more

On the 2020 Serbian election: Why a boycott will only worsen things there

First of all, I apologise for the recent hiatus; however elections are still postponed or on hold in many countries, including the UK. Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation. Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian ...
Read more

On the French local elections of 2020: Vive le surge de vert!

The French local elections finally concluded yesterday, having been originally scheduled to take place on 15 March; they were postponed due to the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  The most sensational story of these elections was the many triumphs by the main French Green Party, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV). In major French cities (those with more than 100,000 people), EELV captured the mayoralties of Annecy, Besancon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, and Tours. They also performed impressively in the munciipal elections for those cities as well. However, in the midst of all this triumph there was one notable setback for them: Eric Pollie, the first Green Mayor of a major French city, decided to contest the mayoral election there as an "Independent Left" (divers gauche) candidate instead. Furthermore they narrowly missed out on unseating former PS leader Martine Aubry from her post as Mayor of Lille; in the second round she held on by 227 votes, a sig...
Read more