My analysis of by-elections from yesterday (4/2/16) and other thoughts

Readers, the results from yesterday's local by-elections featuring Green Party candidates were as follows:

Northumberland UA, Hexham West: No Description (Derek Kennedy) 501 (36.6%), Conservative 454 (33.2%, -15.1%), Labour 200 (14.6%, -0.3%), Independent (Diane Pickering) 125 (9.1%), Green 89 (6.5%). No Description gain from Conservative.

Shropshire UA, Oswestry South: Green 518 (48.8%, +17.1%), Con 367 (36.4%, -11.4%), Lab 95 (9.0%), Liberal Democrats 81 (7.6%, +1.8%). Green gain from Conservative.

At last, my Green colleagues regain local representation in Shropshire, which we lost in 2009 when South Shropshire District Council, where we had one councillor at the time, was abolished under the Local Government Act 2007 that created the unitary authority of Shropshire Council in the first place. I am pleased for the hard work of now-Cllr. Duncan Kerr, who was formerly a Green Party councillor in Bolsover meaning he was from 2011 to 2013 one of a handful of opposition councillors in a near-monolithically Labour authority, in addition to becoming the first Green Party district councillor in the whole of Derbyshire.
We also achieved a respectable result in Hexham West from a standing start despite the fierce contest between the former Liberal Democrat leader of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the Conservatives.

However, I learned yesterday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership was signed by all 12 countries involved in it (the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia and Japan). If you are reading this blog and living in one of the 12 countries mentioned in the TPP, or have friends and family who will be affected by the TPP if it is ratified, please sign and share any anti-TPP petitions you can find and also take action to defeat this dangerous corporate power grab.

Finally, the Labour MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, Harry Harpham, has sadly died of cancer aged 61, just nine months after he was elected.

Alan.





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