Local/devolved elections 2016

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Gutted that our local Labour guy lost his seat to the Scottish Numpty Party.

Well our local guy dispatched Johnny come latelys army last night as at least he comes round and listens to voters concerns much more then the opposition do.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Hugh

it's been nothing but bad news for the Government, internal arguments tearing the Tory Party apart, seemingly endless bad press and bad feelings towards government initiatives (Doctors strike, EU Referendum, Universal Credits, Disability Living Allowance changes, etc. etc.)

and you still support them

Originally Posted by Hugh

btw, winning the by-election in Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough was a bit a foregone conclusion, wasn't it, what with it being a very safe seat, and the widow of the previous incumbent standing for Labour?

An increased majority in Sheffield, and increased Labour vote nationally (btw, the widow mention is a bit low for you Hugh..).

Not pretending it's a fantastic night for Labour, just not the meltdown some were predicting/hoping for. I get the feeling Jezza might be a bit of a slow burner - some on the right seem to be obsessed daily with him, suggesting he's more of a threat than they let on.

There's nothing low about pointing out Sheffield Brightside's new MP is the widow of the old one. The BBC did likewise in the 1 o'clock news.

Originally Posted by Mr K

and you still support them



An increased majority in Sheffield, and increased Labour vote nationally (btw, the widow mention is a bit low for you Hugh..).

Not pretending it's a fantastic night for Labour, just not the meltdown some were predicting/hoping for. I get the feeling Jezza might be a bit of a slow burner - some on the right seem to be obsessed daily with him, suggesting he's more of a threat than they let on.

An increased majority?

2015 election, Labour majority of 13,807
2016 election, Labour majority of 9,590

You obviously subscribe to the Ed Balls school of counting...

Originally Posted by Hugh

An increased majority?

2015 election, Labour majority of 13,807
2016 election, Labour majority of 9,590

You obviously subscribe to the Ed Balls school of counting...

He could mean majority in terms of share of the vote. I have seen majority used in both contexts.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Chris

There's nothing low about pointing out Sheffield Brightside's new MP is the widow of the old one. The BBC did likewise in the 1 o'clock news.

Well that's just typical of the right wing media.

Originally Posted by Mr K

Labour hasn't done well in Scotland but that's thanks to the SNP, and this was happening before JC became leader. Elsewhere they haven't had the major losses predicted, won a by election in Sheffield with an increased majority, and look likely to have the next Mayor of London (despite a disgraceful racist Tory campaign). There will be certain Labour mps devastated that they haven't done more badly. However fair enough to give JC another year I think (during which time the Tories will have gone into post-referendum meltdown).

How was it disgracefully racist ? or is that just another one of your over emotive remarks like the other one about the widow

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by martyh

How was it disgracefully racist ? or is that just another one of your over emotive remarks like the other one about the widow

By trying to link Sadiq Khan to terrorists because his religion. There was a delightful newspaper article by Zac on Sadiq with the picture of a bus blown up to go with it, nice....

Thankfully it's backfired and the only thing that's blown up is the election in Zac & Dave's face....

Originally Posted by martyh

How was it disgracefully racist ? or is that just another one of your over emotive remarks like the other one about the widow

It was skirting with racism imo. The Sun article with the exploding 7/7 bus was absurd.

[denphone]

Personally l don't like any of the two London mayoral candidates but Goldsmith has certainly shown himself in a lesser light if you ask me out of the two with some of his behaviour during the campaign.

[papa smurf]

my local candidate [ukip] came in second -voter turn out only 23% i guess people had more important things to do .

[denphone]

Turnout has always been pretty low from what l hear PS for local elections.

Turnout in Scotland was around 55%, which is high compared to a council election but really quite disappointing considering we were told 2014 heralded a new age of political engagement in Scotland.

Mind you, on the plus side it does suggest that more than a third of the people who voted Yes in 2014 were not sufficiently motivated to secure a second referendum by going out and voting SNP.

Originally Posted by Damien

He could mean majority in terms of share of the vote. I have seen majority used in both contexts.

It just seems strange that someone who got less votes than the previous election, and a smaller amount of votes more than the next candidate than in the previous election, could be described as having a larger majority...

Originally Posted by Hugh

It just seems strange that someone who got less votes than the previous election, and a smaller amount of votes more than the next candidate than in the previous election, could be described as having a larger majority...

I can't recall where exact but I saw this exact same debate elsewhere last year and the upshot of it was that it depends on what you mean by majority. I think that it is number of votes rather than percentages though.