Great Western Coffee Shop

In our (Coffee Shop) area, local elections take place in a number of authorities including Devon and BaNES on 4th May.

Map from a BBC Article (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65387801)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/electmap23.jpg)

Are there local elections on your area?

Is public transport a concern in your area? 
Is it being talked about?

It seems that the voter id requests are way below the 2million needed, some quotes them in the 50,000s. It will be chaos, especially as in Norwich leaflets have been circulating in a Labour stronghold saying that it is not needed. It purports to be from the Conservatives but I cannot see this as official

Yes RBWM.

Most of the transport conversation seem to revolve around pot holes, cost of parking and the sorry state Broadway MSCP in Maidenhead Town Centre has got into resulting emergency closure and will have to be demolished.

Other issues is the plan to build 100's of house on Maidenhead Golf course.

RBWM could be one of the "Blue Wall" victims

There are likely to be teething problems with a new system.  I'm not sure why we needed a new system - the old one didn't seem broke (at least where I live) so why did it need fixing?

OK, I'll bite!    It didn't!  Just another ruse by the ruling party to prevent votes for the opposition

I'm glad I'm not alone in suspecting that.

events at the Seymour arms in Blagdon is getting some news coverage.

More details on Points West BBC1 local news at 13:30pm and 18:30pm on Thursday 27th April 2023.

Just a reminder that BBC local news is availble for TWENTY FOURS only after transmission,please don't shoot the messenger.

Thanks for this. My word... more here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65376581

Mark

Exeter has local elections for the city council (1 councillor out of 3 in each ward) but nothing at county level.

In my ward I have had, thus far, both leaflet drops and a house call by the prospective Conservative Party councillor but absolutely nowt from any of the other parties.

Bus services are on the agenda largely, I suspect, because of the earlier but now resolved poor performance by Stagecoach and the fallout from a recent service reorganisation. However bus services in Exeter are all dealt with by Devon County Council so good luck to any ECC reps looking to get anything else done.   

Lead item on the BBC1 Points west local news at 13:30pm on thursday 27 april 2023

Quite the opposite in Pinhoe. Leaflets and calls from all candidates with the exception of the Tory, from whom nowt has been seen, read or heard.

Could be seen in the same light as gerrymandering

It has been made incredibly easy to obtain voter ID, a "Voter Authority Certificate" free of charge for those who don't possess any of the numerous approved forms.

It might be easy but it appears that a lot of people have not done so.  It is unlikely that they are all planning to abstain.  Voting should be as easy as possible, and there is no evidence of voter impersonation.

To be honest I think the fact that mass postal voting represents more of a risk as has been demonstrated in certain communities.

I too am unconvinced as to the necessity of everyone producing ID in order to vote however the fact remains that it's been made very easy to obtain and if people have chosen not to bother..............well they clearly don't regard their opportunity to take part in the democratic process as very important.

How do you know that the new rules have reached those you refer to?

Some years ago, several thousand addresses in a certain Tory controlled District Council near me were identified as not being on the electoral register, but the Returning Officer (or whoever's job it was to oversee the Register) chose not to chase these addresses up. Similarly, this same District Council has chosen not to push the photographic Id requirement. It is widely assumed that the affected folk would be unlikely to vote for the ruling party.

To which Council are you referring?

East Devon

This East Devon?

https://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/

Really?

Relatively few people don't have photo ID they can use, but within that minority are some groups who are not finding it easy to get a Voter Authority Certificate. The biggest group of these are the oldest age group, who can't cope easily or at all with things that can only be done on line. Since this age group is statistically most likely to vote Tory, if it was all done for electoral advantage it may backfire.

Here is a thorough explanation of why from inews (https://link.news.inews.co.uk/public/31075231?ico=in-line_link). One unusual thing about this election photo ID requirement is that you can use an out of date passport, and another is the specific proviso in the advice that you should still look like the picture. This is a worse problem for driving licenses, which before the age of 70 last for ages. My sister wanted to get a certificate for that reason, and found exactly the difficulty raised by Paul Waugh in that article: you need to get an acceptable digital picture of yourself and upload it. That is not trivial to do, if you've never done it before, and especially is you were born long before computers became an everyday thing.

There was going to be an alternative, using a form and a photo on paper, locally. This too is now only explained (and the local addresses listed) on-line, and the form to fill in has to be downloaded and printed. Not only can those not on line not do that, obviously, but many who are don't have a printer. So you need to ask someone (e.g. a grandchild, if you have one handy) to do it for you.

Those who don't have a bus pass already (and are old enough) might be prompted to get one now (or have been prompted, as it isn't a quick process). However, in most places that still needs a digital photo to do it on-line. But surely in this case your local council office can do it with a form and photo on paper, can't they? Not in Reading - RBC closed their offices for Covid (as you'd expect), but they still have not reopened for bus pass applications!

Maybe we'll find out in a few days which predictions were closest to being right. But I suspect not - it's hard to get clear evidence of the causes of voting patterns, so more likely there will be several theories about whether missing IDs had much effect.

Alternative viewpoint (not that there's anything wrong about the one already posited) - polling stations are incredibly expensive things to run. Building hire, printing costs, wages for (usually) 3 staff at each, and literally hundreds of them in each electoral division. Discouraging people from attending by effectively disenfranchising the very demographic that most uses them (i.e. the elderly - spend a day in one if you don't believe me!) leads me to suspect that the whole thing is part of a concerted effort to do away with the expense of running polling stations altogether and encourage more and more voters to vote by post [and eventually online, that'll be next]

I’m sure that one is in the back of many leaders minds.

Something that can probably be taken forward once the current OAPs have passed on, so in around 25 years time shen the next ‘tranche’ of OAPs have been online for most of their adult lives

I felt that voter ID was not being taken seriously today.  On entering the polling station we showed our driving licences and the man checked the pictures against our faces, but there was no check of the name on the licence against the issue of a voting paper.

My Polling Station asked the usual things confirm name and address and they checked the phot against the ID and recorded the type of ID

I heard of one person who was turned away from my local polling station. He was an employee of the council and brought his work ID, which had a photo on it, but this was rejected. Apparently he didn't have any other ID.

I'm sure they used to have two poll clerks: the first ticked off the name and address I agave against the list, and the second one gave me the (freshly perforated) papers. This time there was a third one first, who looked at the picture, and the name and address I gave was used by him and by the one with the list. Seems pretty logical, though at the cost of an extra clerk.

Political Scientist Professor Sir John Curtice this morning on the BBC

"On the evidence of our key wards, turnout is only slightly down on both 2019 and 2022, while there is no marked evidence that turnout has fallen more in places where fewer people possess a passport"

I'm sure we are all relieved to hear that.

Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead has seen a seismic shift
Con minus - 13 seats
Lib Dem - plus 13
Independents have also increased in seats

There are still more result to come, but the Lib Dems have 20 out of the 41 seats at the time of writing.

The Conservative Leader of the Council substantially lost his seat, now "former leader"

That's incredible. Who knew that building all over the green belt could cost them so much?

I still struggle to see why local government is nearly always organised on party lines. The services they organise really needn't be defined by political beliefs, and it becomes doubly illogical when people vote based on how a party is governing nationally rather than on proposed local policies.

Well said that man!

I agree, I guess its the tribble / herd nature of us humans

In the RBWM the number of councillors of the party that was in power 7 is now less to the number of independent / small or non aligned councillors 12  so there is a place for independents

Taking a local look here at the parish I live in, in Wiltshire.   It is my view that the best service councillors can offer at our level to residents is by taking a town and independent view and looking at the good of the town in their activities, but interacting and partnering with one another as we work together with the town as our main objective.   However, standing as an independent is not the easiest way to stand, nor is it a way likely to get you elected or make for an easy time thereafter.   If you stand with an organisation and on an organisation's ticket:
* You have the marketing expertise and hype and perhaps funding of that organisation to help you
* You have a description attached to your name that makes voters think they know your policy inclinations
* You are saved the need to think for yourself, and can deflect difficult decisions and problems to your grouping
* You have others in your organisation you can turn to for advise and support rather than feeling very much alone
* You have others to pick up and carry your baton if you're ill, at work, on holiday, just need a break.
* You can choose if elected to be a lighweight (lobby fodder) councillor if you wish, and still have a good chance of re-election

Not up for election until 2025, our council was voted in with 8 "Together for Melksham", 5 "Conservative", 1 "Lib Dem" and 1 "Independent".  One of the "Together for Melksham" team left that grouping very early on and has been a really effective independent since, but has now stood down.  To quote her resignation letter which is in the public domain, "This decision comes after experiencing persistent bullying from some councillors and staff members of the Town Council, causing me significant distress.". And I know how she feels - I have experienced much the same, but there's a lack of duty-of-care from anyone (council staff or other councillors) once one has gone independent.

I note that one of our "Together for Melksham" has joined the Conservatives. He's also a Unitary Councillor and has said (published) that he believes he can be more effective for his electorate (and career) by joining the ruling group there.  I have yet to chat with the Conservative candidate he defeated in 2021, to see how she feels.  Some of the voters in his ward, certainly, voted for him on the basis of "anything but a Tory" and he is getting some local flack.

So that's why it's organised on party lines. Good for the political groups. Easy for individuals. Not best for the local area.

I wonder if this is a common problem as the independents on Didcot Town Council said the same and are no longer standing.


Edit to clarify quoting - grahame

Frome tends to do things differently (one of our slogans?). Frome Town (parish) Council has a full complement of Independent councillors. This has been the situation for a while now with the national party affiliations/candidates being pushed aside by the electorate. Although the councillors are independent they have an affiliation as "Independents for Frome." In my limited experience, they seem to work together harmoniously and with good support from the council officials. No sign of bullying here. 

Yes, there are such town.  Here, as well as the fifteen elected (just one independent), there were a further 8 candidates.   Each of the blocks ("Conservative" and "Together for Melksham") had one candidate who failed to be elected, and the other six who failed to be elected were all "independent", "independent candidate" or a blank on the affiliation.  I am under no illusions that my independent seat will be a hard one to defend in 2025 should I stand.

Excellent planning by someone (the ruling party?).
Date chosen two days before the Coronation.
Fridays news was all about the preparation for Saturday.
All the news on Saturday was the Coronation, no mention of election results.
Even the BBC website only had a few articles about them.
Today (Sunday) will mostly be able yesterday and Eurovision, so guessing nothing will be mentioned.  Looking forward to Laura's programme at 9am, as am hoping there might be more on the gains/losses/swings.

Local elections were on 6 May 2021, (I think) 5th May 2022 and 4th May 2023.  I would go more for the Coronation planned around local elections to local elections planned around elections.


Perhaps I use different feeds - I have seen coverage.  Conservative, Labour and Lib Dev leaders, some local stuff and greens.  Only UKIP an absence which (until I thought about it) I had not noticed.  True that a lot of the coverage was on Friday once the direction of the results was clear, rather than after all the final results were in. No elections in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. 

UKIP are no more - insufficient votes (only one candidate) to conginue as a party

Yes, the Tories didn't do well in Berkshire, with the most spectacular instance in Bracknell. I don't see that kind of news (the Wokingham News is really the Bracknell News, but with the pages swapped out for Wokingham content including the detailed politics), but I have now seen the explanation. It was a thorough LidDem/Labour electoral pact, with none standing against the other, though they are denying it was anything formal.

The result was that from 37 Tory councilors out of 42, the Tory group didn't get the 30 or more they told head office they expected, but only 10 (Labour got 22, and so control). The Tory ex-leader (and ex-councillor) even had the cheek to say "It's basically undemocratic. People were cheated out of their right to vote for the candidate of their choice."

The fact they were electing the whole council at once made this revolution possible; in Wokingham something similar is happening but in three acts. Last year the Tories lost 5 seats to the LibDems, and control to LibDem + Labour but only with the support (sort of) of two (very) independents. This year they only stood in 8 of the 11 wards open, lost four of them, and that leaves the LibDems with 26 out of 54, and presumably the same coalition. Next year (in fact 2025), the Tories will have 12 seats up for grabs, so unless things really do turn round we will move into LibDem sole control.

And the Tories wanted to change to a single all-seat election every four years, just before the got the boot!

The amusing thing in RBWM is the former leader of the council, Andrew Johnson, and now ex councillor lost his seat to a 22 year old Lib Dem, Mr Johnson blamed the defeat on "National headwinds" in other words not my fault mate for all the excessive building and selling off land.

A photocard driving licence is valid for 10 years, same as a passport. A lot of people don't know that. I used to see a fair few expired ones presented as ID, the reason usually being a change of address not being reported.

I saw one chap who didn't renew his because he didn't realise he had to. He also didn't mention moving house, which is why the speeding fine went to his old address, as did the subsequent summons. One of the police ANPR camera patrol flagged him up as wanted, and he was arrested for failure to attend court, spending the weekend in the cells at the police station. When the court opened again, he was dealt with for speeding, and also fined for not notifying his address, failing to surrender the out-of-date licence when required, and driving without insurance because not having the current licence invalidated his policy. He was banned for 6 months on the totting up procedure, so had to get the bus home, and get someone else to collect the car from the pound. A pretty penny in all, with worse to come when the ban ended and he needed insurance again, and a lot more than the £20 renewal fee.

The expiry date is field 4b on the front of the card. Check it now.

The good people of (almost bankrupt) Slough  in Berkshire would like a word with you!  :)

https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/governance-and-structure/tories-make-gains-as-labour-loses-control-in-slough-05-05-2023/

Good point though in my mind Slough is still in Buckinghamshire, in the same way that I was born in Berkshire even if that town is now in Oxfordshire. 

I see the Slough result as not so much the Tories doing well as the Labour group doing badly - and deservedly so.

Absolutely. Pretty much like the outcome in Windsor & Maidenhead largely being the result of poor management of local issues by the Tories.

It's good to see that in Berkshire at least, the results came about due to people voting primarily on local issues rather than simply being a proxy for the national situation.

Exeter City Council still has a majority Labour administration despite them previously overseeing the building of a new bus station which is not big enough for all the services that need to use it and being unwilling to say where roughly £25m of loans & finance to Exeter City Living, their pet but not very active social home building arm (cf. Croydon B2B), has gone.

While we continue to have party politics at local level, there will always be voting patterns that reflect how good or bad the national government is doing, or perceived to be doing. Over 1000 Tory councillors lost their seats in these most recent elections. Most, I suspect, were doing the best for their constituents and, where they were the majority on a Council, most of those Councils were being run properly. But, local and national are inextricably linked in the eyes of the electorate. Westminster sets the agenda, fiscal policy and laws that govern how Councils are run. If voters are unhappy about a local issue that ultimately the Government decides on, they will make their feelings known at the ballot box - each and every time the candidates are party political. That's the form of democracy we have in the UK.

An example from a previous local election of 'inextricably linked' is what happened in my home county - Somerset. In 2018 the Conservative run Somerset County Council started the ball rolling on 'unitarisation' with very strong support from central Government. The four district Councils were strongly opposed. Two were majority Liberal Democrat, one was no overall control with the Lib Dems as the largest party, and one was Conservative. The Conservatives, locally and nationally opposed a binding referendum on whether Somerset should become a unitary authority. The four district councils proposed an alternative change - merging Somerset West & Taunton with Sedgmoor, and merging South Somerset with Mendip. They put this idea to the electorate in a non binding referendum. It had to be non binding as neither the Tories at the County Council or in Westminster would support such a referendum. The result? 65% in favour of the District Councils' merger proposals.

The referendum result was ignored by the Tories. They pressed ahead with their 'One Somerset' proposal against the wishes of a large majority of the electorate. Big miscalculation by them. They thought they could gerrymander Somerset and take control of the whole county. The legislation was waved through by central Government and the district Councils were abolished and replaced by the unitary Somerset Council. At the subsequent local election in 2022 the Tories in Somerset were decimated. The Lib Dems comfortably won control of the new unitary authority. And just last week in Taunton, which had not had a Town Council since 1974, a new one was elected. 20 seats up for grabs. 19 Lib Dems, 1 Conservative.

Serves 'em right!

It can be more than inconvenient. A particularly contentious planning application in our village gave rise to an unprecedented number of objections. We villagers, some carrying pitchforks, had lobbied our local council, with particular emphasis on those members sitting on the planning committee. It was a Conservative majority and administration on 4 May, but the Lib Dems achieved a near total wipeout, with the planning committee members faring particularly badly. I voted for our local Tory candidate, not because I support Rishi Sunak or Cruella Braverman or want to see immigrants drown in the Channel or railway and NHS workers badly dealt with. I voted for him because he is was a reasonably competent councillor with the villagers' best interests at heart. And my neighbour's brother in law, who mows her lawn for her every week. To make matters worse, the planning officer left during purdah, so we have to soften up the new one as well as starting the whole lobbying process from scratch.

To quote Dick Tuck, "The people have spoken, the b*****ds". I have a feeling that none of this would have happened had all the candidates been independent, and nor would there have been any difference in the way the district was run previously. Local politics should not be party politics, although it is almost always the first step for the career politician. If you want the power to ruin the country, you must first show that you can ruin a local council. And say "run" instead of "ruin".