Uk Elections today

"The introduction of widespread Reform candidates, and particularly if they win, has widened the gender gap.

This varies by local authority, but Reform have less than a fifth (20%) of women standing for them in nine councils.

In Doncaster this is 15 per cent and in Leicester 11 per cent. Labour are nearly 50/50 in Cornwall and Doncaster, the Greens hitting that in Doncaster and very close in Nottinghamshire

Terrific step forward, huh?

For "LizzieDrip" (beyond parody) - and that "People have short memories; they’ve been indoctrinated by a constant barrage of right wing media & SM against Labour; people expected the new Labour government to change the country overnight; issues such as immigration have been blown out of proportion by SM, MSM & Reform." of yours.

"RW Media against Labour"? Huh? That was the same media that lampooned BoJo for several years, and highlighted his (many) failings, and the same media that happily exposed the sad joke that is Liz Truss (& continues to expose her occasional excuses)? THAT "RW Media"? What ARE you on about?

IF by "barrage" you mean the airing of the complaints by several hundred thousand pensioners who had no reason to expect an attack on winter fuel payments, plus the vast number of disadvantaged poor and disabled that Labour have also attacked (arguably their core support) - then what would YOU expect any media to write?

NB -- the allegedly "RW Media" have very little influence, if you research actual newspaper sales (go on, try it for once) you'll see they are a tiny fraction of what they were 20 years ago. TV news is far more influential, but both BBC and ITV bulletins just report what's happening.

I'll direct your strange fantasy world to consider a key Starmer campaign point, re Immigration boats, having (rightly) slaughtered the Tories for doing next to nothing over several years, he confidently promised to reduce the numbers right down, a 'Trump-esque' day-1 promise. All the TV firms and press have done is to report that the actual figures are the WORST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN. That is NOT a "RW Media barrage" -- it's just accurate reporting. If you happen to think that viewers shouldn't mind that the situation has worsened, feel free to stand at the next by-election on EXACTLY that point -- let us know how you get on? I'd suggest that one reason for Reform's success is on just that policy issue, so it's more important than you think?

Those of us who knew Starmer from his (hopeless) CPS days didn't expect much, but after the shambolic Tory tailspin of recent years we had a few hopes of seeing some degree of Govt competence. It takes a special degree of political stupidity to contrive policies that have alienated so many folk so quickly, especially after that landslide win, but Starmer (+ Reeves & cohorts) has managed just that.

NB >>> as I've stated on here several times, I have no great hopes of competence from any party, how much evidence do you need? The sudden upswing for Farage & his Reform opportunists will soon be tested, the councils they now control will be quickly under the spotlight. One such is Kent, which has gone from complete Tory control to almost all seats being Reform. When interviewed, the new Leader clearly hadn't the slightest idea what to implement, other than "looking at the Chief Exec's salary". That council spends over £2.5 BILLION per year, so finding an exec £20K or so cheaper isn't going to make much difference??

Kent is the biggest county council in the country.

To place it in Reforms control, seems folly indeed.

But we shall see.

I live in Kent and a disproportionate expenditure of the council is the SEND budget, plus social care. This is largely historic- Kent coastal towns had special schools established here and people chose the seaside for their retirement.
Kent County Council has always been Conservative,since it's inception in 1974, so I wonder how much money the new Reform Group will find " wasted" on DEI initiatives?
It will be interesting to see how the ( largely untested) group manage the budget.
Did I read that there was talk of cutting the budget for children's transport to special schools? That might be a tough sell.

Our county council has Reform with the largest number of councillors but not an overall majority. Frankly this is a huge worry as all of them are completely new to the role. My local councillor has thankfully been re-elected, he's Green party, really knows and works for the local community and has been politically active for many years. Where have all these new people come from and what do they offer their local communities? Why have people voted for them? 66% of voters didn't even bother to vote I hope they don't regret their complete lack of interest in their local services.

Plans to cut SEND transport has been going on in my council for months, nothing to do with reform in that case.

Galaxy

Plans to cut SEND transport has been going on in my council for months, nothing to do with reform in that case.

Indeed! SEND transport is statutory up to the age of 16, but after that, parents have to pay, as they do for all sixth form transport.

However, from what Farage has been saying, he's looking to cut actual SEND provision, which he can't unless he's willing to break the law.

Chocolatelovinggran

I live in Kent and a disproportionate expenditure of the council is the SEND budget, plus social care. This is largely historic- Kent coastal towns had special schools established here and people chose the seaside for their retirement.
Kent County Council has always been Conservative,since it's inception in 1974, so I wonder how much money the new Reform Group will find " wasted" on DEI initiatives?
It will be interesting to see how the ( largely untested) group manage the budget.
Did I read that there was talk of cutting the budget for children's transport to special schools? That might be a tough sell.

Every council spends the majority of its budget on social care, with education a close second. For a number of reasons, more children are now eligible for SEND provision (5% of the total) and it's bankrupting councils.

ifs.org.uk/publications/spending-special-educational-needs-england-something-has-change

Mt61, so annoying isn't it, when the words go up before you get a chance to finish your post. You were about to give some examples of how Farage was more patriotic than Starmer.

He has Union Jack socks.

He's earned approximately £250,000 in less than a year from foreign companies whilst the MP for Clacton. No doubt promoting Clacton to the wider world, or perhaps not!

As an aside, just seen on my local Facebook page someone bemoaning the low turnout.

Another jumped on saying she was ‘gutted’ to have missed the chance to vote as she was an ‘avid’ voter, but sadly had no idea an election was happening as she doesn’t watch the News or listen to the radio!

And another said she had absolutely no interest in politics.

Young people, the future.

Another jumped on saying she was ‘gutted’ to have missed the chance to vote as she was an ‘avid’ voter, but sadly had no idea an election was happening as she doesn’t watch the News or listen to the radio!

Well, that's really weird. Presumably she never gets any post? Or if she does she doesn't read it. We had polling cards sent out well in advance with date and polling station details. Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform 😱

Kent will be interesting indeed! On the frontline for boats, campaigns run on boats, but it's not a council matter, expectations have been raised.

As DrWatson said above,
"When interviewed, the new Leader clearly hadn't the slightest idea what to implement, other than "looking at the Chief Exec's salary". That council spends over £2.5 BILLION per year, so finding an exec £20K or so cheaper isn't going to make much difference??

In terms of brand new councillors with no experience, I suppose there will be a difference between councils overwhelmed with "no experience" and those with remaining councillors from other parties who do know the ropes and understand relationships between the council and all the different functions they carry out -very very complex.

MaizieD
Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform.
Not in our area they didn’t.
Greens, LibDem and Labour sent leaflets and one of those also sent a letter.

MaizieD

^Another jumped on saying she was ‘gutted’ to have missed the chance to vote as she was an ‘avid’ voter, but sadly had no idea an election was happening as she doesn’t watch the News or listen to the radio!^

Well, that's really weird. Presumably she never gets any post? Or if she does she doesn't read it. We had polling cards sent out well in advance with date and polling station details. Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform 😱

Perhaps there were no elections in her area! 😁

Allira

MaizieD

Another jumped on saying she was ‘gutted’ to have missed the chance to vote as she was an ‘avid’ voter, but sadly had no idea an election was happening as she doesn’t watch the News or listen to the radio!

Well, that's really weird. Presumably she never gets any post? Or if she does she doesn't read it. We had polling cards sent out well in advance with date and polling station details. Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform 😱

Perhaps there were no elections in her area! 😁

I have to say that that could be a distinct possibility, judging from some of the things I've read...

Mollygo

MaizieD
Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform.
Not in our area they didn’t.
Greens, LibDem and Labour sent leaflets and one of those also sent a letter.

I think they were concentrating on the Red Wall areas. Especially ours, which went tory in 2019 and back to Labour last year.

Ironically, the county council has been filling in potholes for many months and we have a very low percentage of immigrants... It wasn't Labour controlled, either.

‘In Doncaster this is 15 per cent and in Leicester 11 per cent. Labour are nearly 50/50 in Cornwall and Doncaster, the Greens hitting that in Doncaster and very close in Nottinghamshire’

Actually it’s Leicestershire, it’s important to make the distinction as Leicester City Council is Labour controlled and there was no vote on Thursday.

Thanks J52 - blame my source, which was from an analysis was carried out by Dr Hannah Bunting, who runs the University of Exeter’s Elections Centre!

(for others, this was about % of women candidates in Reform being very low compared with mainstream parties)

MaizieD

Allira

MaizieD

Another jumped on saying she was ‘gutted’ to have missed the chance to vote as she was an ‘avid’ voter, but sadly had no idea an election was happening as she doesn’t watch the News or listen to the radio!

Well, that's really weird. Presumably she never gets any post? Or if she does she doesn't read it. We had polling cards sent out well in advance with date and polling station details. Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform 😱

Perhaps there were no elections in her area! 😁

I have to say that that could be a distinct possibility, judging from some of the things I've read...

There weren't any elections in Essex - the powers that be decided it wasn't worth it because local government is being re-organised next year and there will be elections then. I understand it was the same in a number of other counties.

MaizieD

Mollygo

MaizieD
Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform.
Not in our area they didn’t.
Greens, LibDem and Labour sent leaflets and one of those also sent a letter.

I think they were concentrating on the Red Wall areas. Especially ours, which went tory in 2019 and back to Labour last year.

Ironically, the county council has been filling in potholes for many months and we have a very low percentage of immigrants... It wasn't Labour controlled, either.

Ironically, some of the so-called red wall areas (especially the rural ones) have a low percentage of recent immigrants. The reason is obvious. Unemployment in many of these areas is high and immigrants want to work, so go to areas with high numbers of vacancies.

Wyllow3

Thanks J52 - blame my source, which was from an analysis was carried out by Dr Hannah Bunting, who runs the University of Exeter’s Elections Centre!

(for others, this was about % of women candidates in Reform being very low compared with mainstream parties)

👍

growstuff

MaizieD

Mollygo

MaizieD
Also, every voter got a personalised letter from Reform.
Not in our area they didn’t.
Greens, LibDem and Labour sent leaflets and one of those also sent a letter.

I think they were concentrating on the Red Wall areas. Especially ours, which went tory in 2019 and back to Labour last year.

Ironically, the county council has been filling in potholes for many months and we have a very low percentage of immigrants... It wasn't Labour controlled, either.

Ironically, some of the so-called red wall areas (especially the rural ones) have a low percentage of recent immigrants. The reason is obvious. Unemployment in many of these areas is high and immigrants want to work, so go to areas with high numbers of vacancies.

Also, and this was pointed out during the lead up to the referendum, people in areas with low immigration can be scared into thinking that their area would be much worse if they did have an influx of immigrants.

fancythat

I am loathe to put too much identifiable info on social media.

But I will say this bit. For some reason, I have no idea why, there are no conservative and no labour canditates on our ballot form.
I wonder if it is to try and help liberal get elected?

I have been away for a long weekend.

To my surprise, Reform got elected!
I wouldnt have thought it was because of the immediate local area. This area has a history of voting Liberal.

Congratulations to Hellogirl1's grandson.