By-election and local authority results.

DiamondLily

I hoped Khan would be out, as I find him useless in all things. And don’t even get me started on extended ULEZ, with the costs of repairing all the lights..

But, Hall wasn’t a feasible alternative either.🤷‍♀️

I agree with you. I did not want Khan. I am totally against ULEZ.

DiamondLily

I hoped Khan would be out, as I find him useless in all things. And don’t even get me started on extended ULEZ, with the costs of repairing all the lights..

But, Hall wasn’t a feasible alternative either.🤷‍♀️

I agree with you, quite useless is how I'd describe him too. I'm glad I've moved away from London, but the alternative, well who is she?

The Mayor of London is in control of 30% of the Metropolitan Police’s budget, along with many decisions made concerning operations.

Anyone waiting on the WMidlands result?

Richard Parker (Labour)has won West Midlands

My goodness that was tight. I thought it would be given the protest vote - Gaza. If Labour could have attracted back just half if those votes it would have increased it’s margin considerably.

It is certainly that they may have to look at.

Many people in favour of ULEZ. A lot of people want cleaner. Greener policies and to stop our roads getting clogged up with cars. I am happy Khan has won. I’m not sure how anyone can say he is “useless”- I wonder what one word label you would give to this current government?

I didn’t realise that Andy Street and Michael Fabricant are partners. They seem such an unlikely couple.?

I thought Street conducted himself well in his defeat speech, as did Parker in his acceptance speech.

Wow - seismic result in the West Midlands

Whitewavemark2

My goodness that was tight. I thought it would be given the protest vote - Gaza. If Labour could have attracted back just half if those votes it would have increased it’s margin considerably.

It is certainly that they may have to look at.

Precisely.

Another mayor who did incredibly well was Andy Burnham, he got 420,749 votes, almost two-thirds of those available, which was more than 350,000 more votes than the Conservatives' who came second with 68,946. Wow! 😮

A wow indeed. Labour Party have to ask how he held the protest vote (mostly) when others didn't.

(The Independent candidate Nick Buckley - can't make him out at all (can you?)
nickbuckley4mayor.co.uk

More concerning is the low turnout for elections. Burnhams was 32% but some wards in my local mayor elections were 21%.

No, Nick Buckley stood for Reform previously, I don’t know much about him at all.
There was apparently no Muslim/Gaza alternative candidate in Manchester, I wonder if Burnham has taken a different stance to the official Labour Party line on that, and has managed to retain the Muslim vote?

Whitewavemark2

I didn’t realise that Andy Street and Michael Fabricant are partners. They seem such an unlikely couple.?

I thought Street conducted himself well in his defeat speech, as did Parker in his acceptance speech.

He put Hall to shame didn’t he.

Casdon

No, Nick Buckley stood for Reform previously, I don’t know much about him at all.
There was apparently no Muslim/Gaza alternative candidate in Manchester, I wonder if Burnham has taken a different stance to the official Labour Party line on that, and has managed to retain the Muslim vote?

Hmm, that figures. (looking at NB's list)

There was no Independent on that POV in Oliver Coppard's (S Yorkshire) election but have been in local council wards.

But Andy Burnhams area includes Rochdale (as in George Galloway, who I won't comment on as unprintable)

To find out what has happened to the Tory party, you only need to look at two of the prospective mayoral candidates and their speeches yesterday.

Andrew Street - a speech of grace, humbleness and inclusion. Contrast that to Susan Halls speech of rudeness, arrogance and division.

People with the integrity, and intelligence shown by Street are as rare as hens teeth in the Tory party now, instead they have been replaced by the Susan Hall types who drag hate and ugliness around with them.

MaizieD

Sarnia

MaizieD

Sadiq Khan has been officially declared the winner in London.

No solution to knife crime any time soon then.

So, if you were Mayor of London, Sarnia, how would you cut down (no pun intended) on knife crime?

Knife crime has increased by almost 40% on his watch and gun crime is increasing. With every stabbing Khan comes out and wrings his hands and says measures must be taken to prevent the sale of zombie knives but there has been no progress on that front. It is a complex issue to tackle and needs more stringent law enforcement and punishment, community co-operation and preventative measures which Khan drags his heels on implementing. He much prefers to spend £6m on 'woke' renaming of stations.

Sarnia

MaizieD

Sarnia

MaizieD

Sadiq Khan has been officially declared the winner in London.

No solution to knife crime any time soon then.

So, if you were Mayor of London, Sarnia, how would you cut down (no pun intended) on knife crime?

Knife crime has increased by almost 40% on his watch and gun crime is increasing. With every stabbing Khan comes out and wrings his hands and says measures must be taken to prevent the sale of zombie knives but there has been no progress on that front. It is a complex issue to tackle and needs more stringent law enforcement and punishment, community co-operation and preventative measures which Khan drags his heels on implementing. He much prefers to spend £6m on 'woke' renaming of stations.

Rationally Sarnia he hasn’t caused, and can help mitigate, but can’t solve knife crime. It’s a UK wide problem, London doesn’t even have the worst statistics. It’s very easy to blame, as was evident last week when that machete attack which killed the schoolboy happened, but the man was not previously known to the police as it transpired.
Like him or not, Khan was elected with an increased percentage of the vote, so Londoners obviously think he was the best of the anvailable options.

The Tories were obviously very disappointed by the overall result they lost a lot of votes to smaller parties, BUT despite all the hype at high profile gains Labour only achieved a 3% increase in the vote on a very low turnout

This is nothing like the landslide that Blair had before his GE victory, a good working majority has still got to be won and 6 months is a very long time in politics.

As I see it, the Met police has lost Londoners' trust under Sadiq Khan’s leadership. Isn't it now in special measures for the first time ever? I don't blame Khan personally for everything, but he needs to toughen up on this issue and get real.

Joseann

As I see it, the Met police has lost Londoners' trust under Sadiq Khan’s leadership. Isn't it now in special measures for the first time ever? I don't blame Khan personally for everything, but he needs to toughen up on this issue and get real.

It does seem from what we read that the problems in the Met have been endemic for decades, and have all surfaced in the last couple of years Joseann. I guess it’s probably hit the bottom now, and needs to be supported to rebuild.
The mayors also act as the Police and Crime commissioners in their patches, whereas where there are no mayors the post is separate - rather than special measures I wonder if the need is for more dedicated commissioner time? I don’t know enough to comment on what would work, but something is needed other than government intervention I think.

Andy Burnham is very popular throughout Gtr Manchester. He’s grown into his role as Mayor and clearly loves our city. He was MP for a Gtr Manc area and is a northern man. His politics are good. In October 23, he called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Like Jess Phillips he’s strong enough to express his views without falling out with Keir Starmer.

Turn-out for local and by-elections is typically always low, and not a reliable indicator of GE voting. However I doubt very much that even a hardened Tory optimist would put money on anything but a good kicking for the blues in the next GE.

I don’t expect anything to improve very much in a hurry, though - it’ll be the usual story (whoever is in power) of blaming everything on the last X years of the other party’s misrule.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Iam64

Andy Burnham is very popular throughout Gtr Manchester. He’s grown into his role as Mayor and clearly loves our city. He was MP for a Gtr Manc area and is a northern man. His politics are good. In October 23, he called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Like Jess Phillips he’s strong enough to express his views without falling out with Keir Starmer.

I think Starmer’s difficulty is that he needed to distance himself from the Corbyn era, and in doing so has managed to alienate the Muslim base.

But I think he can very well pull that back without at the same time losing the Jewish vote. It looks very much as if a ceasefire is now possible and Starmer now needs to support a two party state (which he does) and the rebuilding of peace.