Tag Archives: local elections

Caron Lindsay

Labour candidate Shefali Begum wants “prosperous thieving” Rochdale

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th April 2012 - 10:55 am

I guess there always has to be some humility when you see that an opposition candidate has had a bit of a proof-reading failure. After all, it could just as easily happen to you.

That said, Labour candidate for the Spotland and Falinge ward of Rochdale Council Shefali Begum will no doubt be very embarrassed after reading her pitch on the Rochdale Online website in which she says:

  I believe to make a prosperous thieving borough we need united and strong communities which are dedicated and passionate about where they live and their future generations will reside.

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Labour’s not-so-very-local election broadcast shows how unimportant local decision-making is to Ed Miliband’s party

By Stephen Tall | Wed 11th April 2012 - 7:58 pm

Tonight’s Labour local election broadcast, starring telly’s very own Lord (Robert) Winston, climaxes with the rallying cry:

On Thursday May 3rd, vote NHS, vote Labour

Exactly how voting Labour then will help the NHS isn’t explored — not surprisingly, because it won’t. There’s a reason these elections are called local elections, after all.

Before highlighting Labour’s misleading tactics I thought I should first check out the Lib Dem record on fighting local elections. I have to say I was expecting to find comparable examples, times when the party leadership had called …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 23 Comments
Andrew Stunell MP

Andrew Stunell MP writes… Launching the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign

By Andrew Stunell MP | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 4:18 pm

Local Election Day is now exactly a month away for most of Metropolitan England as well as across the whole of Scotland and Wales. Nick Clegg was in my own area of Stockport earlier today to officially launch the Liberal Democrat local election campaign, visiting a local business and speaking with councillors, business owners and local people.

I’ve no doubt that many of you have been out on the doorstep over the last few months, talking to people and showing them what we are achieving both nationally and locally.

You will already have your big messages in place. Number one has got …

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Thompson

Opinion: How much does geographical accident influence politics?

By Mark Thompson | Tue 20th December 2011 - 4:23 pm

I have been wondering for a while how much of a role geographical accident plays in politics.

When I first decided to get involved with politics a few years back I chose the Liberal Democrats because they were the party that most closely matched my views. In my local area, the party did not have any council seats but there are a small group of very dedicated and experienced local members and campaigners who have fought a number of local and national elections with alacrity since I joined.

The situation, though, has got me thinking about how political careers are nurtured and …

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Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

“Thursday is decision day” – Charles Kennedy’s eve of poll message to members and supporters

By Helen Duffett | Wed 4th May 2011 - 5:53 pm

Charles Kennedy MP has emailed Liberal Democrat members and supporters with a “get out and vote” (and “get out the vote”) message, ahead of tomorrow’s elections and referendum:

Tomorrow you have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have your say on how we elect our MPs to Westminster. Important elections are also taking place across the country for the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament & local councils. Thursday is Decision Day.

When I was first elected in 1983, the idea of changing our voting system for Westminster elections seemed important, but the chance seemed remote. When the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were established, neither

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Nick T

Nick Clegg’s speech in Sheffield on the difference that Liberal Democrat councils are making

By Nick T | Wed 20th April 2011 - 12:55 pm

On Saturday, Nick Clegg delivered a speech to local party activists in Sheffield on the difference that Liberal Democrat councils across Britain are making. It’s a good speech which expands on many of the examples that we started to hear at conference in Sheffield last month about how Liberal Democrat councils are using innovative techniques to keep service and job losses to a minimum in these difficult financial times.

Here’s the speech in full:

The Liberal Democrats have a long, proud and successful history in local government.

We run some of the nation’s biggest cities and some of the most effective councils across

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Preparing for the AV referendum: standing more local election candidates

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th June 2010 - 9:50 am

The connection between standing local election candidates and the AV referendum may not seem obvious at first, so imagine this scenario…

It’s quite likely that the referendum will be held on the same day as local elections, such as the May 2011 local elections.

The arguments over electoral reform will attract to the ballot box some people who don’t usually vote in local elections. If the pro-AV campaign goes well (and it starts with a lead) many of those people will be well disposed towards Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

And what will they find when they get handed another …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 4 Comments
Helen Duffett

Local election roundup from ALDC

By Helen Duffett | Sat 15th May 2010 - 10:20 am

The Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors has reported back on last week’s council election results:

Just as the General Election produced a mixed bag of results, so did this year’s council elections. Although overall we had a net loss of 135 seats and control of a number of councils, the outcome was far more complex.

The results in metropolitan and London councils saw a net loss of 52 and 77 seats respectively losing overall control of Richmond upon Thames, Liverpool, Rochdale and Sheffield in the process. However, in unitary councils and the English districts we lost just 5 and 1

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

New figures reveal which candidates do the most campaigning

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th November 2009 - 11:50 am

Figures revealing which party’s candidates were most likely to do leafleting, canvassing, internet campaigning and a set of other activities have just been published by the Electoral Commission.

The Commission carried out a survey of local election candidates from the June 2009 campaign and found:

  • Conservative candidates were most likely to have produced a campaign leaflet (98% versus 70% for Lib Dems and 60% for Labour)
  • Labour and Conservative candidates were equally likely to have had telephone canvassing in their campaign (27% each, with 21% for the Lib Dems)
  • On average, Conservative candidates spent 21 hours a week campaigning during the campaign (excluding

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 16 Comments
Mark Pack

The mess enveloping the law over local election candidates

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th June 2009 - 8:50 am

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

The question of who can stand for election to a local council should be clearly defined and easy to understand – so that those new to politics can be candidates, so that voters don’t end up with a false choice where not all the candidates are actually allowed to be candidates and so that elections can be about choices between people and policies, rather than battles between lawyers.

In England and Wales the law was last codified and laid down in the 1972 Local Government Act. With the passage now of nearly forty years, plus frequent subsequent legislation which gave the opportunity to clarify any ambiguities, matters should now be clear.

Alas, though, a combination of poor drafting, changing interpretations and equivocation from the Electoral Commission has left part of the law in an ambiguous mess.

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

And the winners are…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th June 2009 - 12:00 pm

Back on 2nd June, LDV launched our election prediction competition, inviting readers to put their reputations on the line and tell us what they thought would happen in the 4th June English local and European elections. Here are the questions with the actual results in bold:

1. Predict the Liberal Democrat share of the vote in the European elections. 14%
2. Predict the turnout in the European elections. 34.5%
3. Predict the Liberal Democrat lead over Labour in the local elections (if you think the results will be LD 25%, Lab 22%, your answer is +3%. If you think it will be the other way around, your answer is -3%). +5%
4. Predict how many local authorities the Liberal Democrats will have majority control of on 5th June. 1 (Bristol)
5. Predict the net loss/gain of Lib Dem councillors. -2 (BBC figures)

I’ve now had chance to mark the competition, summing the differences between readers’ answers and the results, resulting in the following league table:

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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg in conversation with Iain Dale

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th June 2009 - 3:20 pm

Everyone’s favourite Tory blogger Iain Dale interviewed Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg on Friday morning about the party’s performance in the English local elections – you can listen to the 7-minute podcast version below:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

The Great Expectations Game

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th June 2009 - 1:45 pm

Earlier this week, I blogged about the ‘expectations game’, the way in which post-election analysis can be spun, and speculated that the Lib Dems were being set up for a fall. In fact, though, the reporting of the party’s performance has been generally fair. For instance, here’s Tony Travers in today’s Guardian:

The national equivalent vote share put the Conservatives on 38%, the Liberal Dems on 28%, Labour on 23% and “others” on 11%. Compared with 2008, the Tories are down five points, Labour down one point, the Lib Dems up one point and Others up by

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 29 Comments
Stephen Tall

Local elections ’09: the LDV verdict

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th June 2009 - 9:00 am

What to make of 4th June’s local elections in England, how to sum it up? The clichés are easy: a mixed bag, a curate’s egg, et bloody cetera. The reality is simpler, in my view: Thursday’s local elections were, generally, pretty damn good for the Lib Dems. That’s not to gloss over the disappointments – and, yes, there most definitely were some (of which more, later) – but nor should those setbacks allow us to discount the very clear successes which were achieved either.

Let’s start with the good:

  • 1. The Liberal Democrats came second, with a nationally projected vote according to

…

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 37 Comments
Alex Foster

BBC national projected vote share

By Alex Foster | Fri 5th June 2009 - 3:38 pm

Interesting set of vote share results from the BBC based on the first few hundred council seat results, where they are giving the following numbers:

Lib Dem – 28% (2005: 28% 2008: 25% )
Tory – 38% (2005: 31% 2008: 44%)
Labour – 23% (2005: 33% 2008: 24%)

Labour’s result is one of the lowest they have ever seen.

The context of those old results is all important. Labour have plumetted 10% from the last time these seats were contested, with the loss of the general election day boost hitting them as hard as the political climate.

The Tory vote share has …

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Posted in News | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Local elections – Friday open thread

By Stephen Tall | Fri 5th June 2009 - 9:47 am

English local election results will be pouring in throughout the day. Lib Dem Voice will try and keep you abreast of what’s happening across the country, as we did throughout Thursday night with our open thread – many thanks in particular to those commenting who were able to break the good news that the Lib Dems had taken majority control of Bristol City Council amid disastrous results for Labour. Please do keep the news coming in from wherever you live.

As at 9.50 am, the BBC results scoreboard is telling me that the Lib Dems are the only party showing …

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Posted in Conference, Europe / International, LDV Awards, News, Parliament and Party Presidency | 130 Comments
Mark Pack

Lib Dems gain control of Bristol Council

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th June 2009 - 3:03 am

The first big electoral news is good for the Liberal Democrats: four gains from Labour in Bristol have given the LibDems overall control of the council. Labour won just 2 wards out of 23 on the night, compared with 10 out of 24 in 2007.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 1 Comment
The Voice

Local elections – overnight open thread

By The Voice | Fri 5th June 2009 - 1:05 am

Most local election results won’t be declared until well into Friday, but a handful of councils are counting overnight – so please use this thread to update Lib Dem Voice readers with what’s happening near you, or links to emerging stories elsewhere.

Update 3: Looks like solid results Eastleigh (no scope for gains given how many seats we already hold!). Bristol looking good with several gains.

Update 2: News of gains against the Conservatives in Eastbourne and Norfolk.

Update: News from Bristol sounds very positive for the Lib Dems and absolutely disastrous for Labour, with Tories making little progress.

Posted in News | 59 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV election prediction competition: what you’ve said so far

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th June 2009 - 4:37 pm

On Tuesday we published our Lib Dem Voice competition to predict the results of the local and European elections taking place today, 4th June, and win a copy of LDV’s own annual, The Tangerine Book, and a limited edition LDV mug. The thread is here, and, to date, we’ve received 14 entries from LDV readers (who may or may not be Lib Dem members).

Here’s the average of what you’ve so far predicted:

1. Predict the Liberal Democrat share of the vote in the European elections. YOU SAID: 16.5%
2. Predict the turnout in the European elections. YOU SAID:

…

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Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 4 June 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 4th June 2009 - 4:00 am

Today is polling day, which means scores of Lib Dems across the country will be having an exhausting day from Good Morning leaflets before dawn right through to election count verifications beyond midnight.

Good morning!

We’ll be reminding people of the all important facts about the electoral process:

  • You do not need your polling card to vote (but it might speed things up a bit if you have it)
  • Polls are open from 7am to 10pm
  • If you had a postal vote, but haven’t returned it yet, don’t put it in the post, but take

…

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Official: Tory councils cost you more

By The Voice | Wed 3rd June 2009 - 7:12 pm

Whuch party costs you most in Council Tax? Well, according to the coming year’s figures, it’s Tory-run councils which are levying the biggest increases: a whopping 30 of the top 40 council tax rises have been imposed by the Conservatives. And one of the highest in the country was West Oxfordshire – where none other than David Cameron is the local MP!

And on what, you may ask, are these Tory councils spending these council tax increases? Here are a few choice examples:

· Conservatives on Leicestershire County Council spent £6,000 hooking up …

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Who’s winning the expectations battle?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 3rd June 2009 - 9:37 am

If there’s one thing which worries most party bosses before an election, it is how they manage media expectations of the results. For it is how the media reports this Thursday’s election results which will by and large determine whether the voting public believes the parties have achieved or failed.

Yesterday, PoliticsHome published its Phi100 Panel results of what a select group of politicians, journalists, think-tanks and bloggers think will happen on 4th June. You can see their findings here. I highlight it because it set some alarm bells ringing in my mind that the Lib Dems are being …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

“Taunton Conservative Candidate Forced To Apologise For Slurs Following Police Investigation”

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 9:43 pm

From AboutMyArea:

Taunton Conservative Candidate Forced To Apologise For Slurs Following Police Investigation

The Somerset County Council election took a step into the gutter today when Conservative candidate in West Taunton, Nick James, was forced to issue a public apology for personal attacks on his Lib Dem opponent, Alan Paul, and non-political officers of the Council. The apology came after Police had warned the Conservative agent that a last-minute Conservative leaflet was illegal.

Hat-tip: Liberal England

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

One of the very best Conservative leaflets ever

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 4:41 pm

Feeling tired as we near the end of a hectic campaign? Well, here’s something to bring a smile to your face. Quite simply, one of the very best Conservative leaflets ever (though it’s headline isn’t in this class). It’s from 2000 I believe:

Conservative leaflet(Click on thumbnail for larger version.)

Posted in Humour and News | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV election prediction competition: what will happen on 4th June?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd June 2009 - 1:45 pm

Just two days left ‘til polling day in what for many will be a double-election, with local elections taking place in much of England, and European elections being held across the UK. So what better time than now to launch our election prediction competition?

First let’s remind ourselves of the current state of play.

Local elections: Anders Hanson here on LDV has given a very useful synopsis of what to look out for, and which councils/mayors are up for re-election this Thursday. The last time local elections were held in most of these areas was on the same days the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
Mark Pack

Polly Toynbee: vote Liberal Democrat

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st June 2009 - 9:24 pm

Things are indeed achanging in the Guardian Media Group. Sunday say The Observer unequivocally urge its readers to vote Liberal Democrat for the first time. And now Polly Toynbee is urging a vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections and in many local elections too:

Throw out bad councils, and vote for Lib Dems in Europe…
The most consistently wise party on Europe, never flirted with Tory press populism, but that principled stand came at a high price. On the economy or crime co-operation, “stronger together, poorer apart” is a good Lib Dem pro-EU slogan. They best deserve

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
Mark Pack

Postal voting woes in West Sussex

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st June 2009 - 7:29 pm

Another tail of postal voting trouble; this time from West Sussex. In the Henfield ward ballot papers were printed and sent out to postal voters with the UKIP logo next to the Liberal Democrat candidate and with the Liberal Democrat logo against the Labour candidate. Corrected ballot papers have now been sent out.

UPDATE: Things also went wrong in Riverside ward, where the UKIP logo appeared next to the Peace candidate.

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Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: May ’09

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st May 2009 - 12:47 pm

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. (And how true does that sentence read after the contrasting results in successive days from Populus and ICM, the former showing the Lib Dems as laggards, the latter as the real opposition.) Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the …

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

The Observer says: vote Liberal Democrat

By Mark Pack | Sun 31st May 2009 - 9:17 am

From today’s leader:

Nick Clegg is the most instinctively European leader at Westminster. That is currently a lonely position, but the Lib Dems have a decent record of taking minority stands that are later vindicated. On the environment, on civil liberties and on the mounting debt bubble, the Lib Dems were quietly but consistently ahead of the Westminster curve.

Likewise on transparency. In 2007, they opposed the Conservative move, tacitly encouraged by Labour, to exempt Parliament from the Freedom of Information Act. The Lib Dems alone took a party line for openness…

While MPs from all parties are tainted, the parties themselves

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

How not to do postal votes

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th May 2009 - 3:15 pm

All things considered, not the wisest of choices by the new Wiltshire Council to send out examples of how to complete your ballot paper which show someone voting Conservative:

Wiltshire postal votes

A particularly odd decision given how common instructions are which show dummy party and candidate names.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
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