Seizing back control: The ILX lol brexit is how we're all gonna die thread.

turnout 25%? fs

You could say the focus is on the Euros, media-wise, but even so it's very hard to see what people can vote on wrt local govt.

I bet all those For Britain voters had strong opinions on bin collections and social care!

Greens preparing for government.

Barry Gardiner saying ‘we’re trying to bail you guys out’ to a Tory re: Brexit on the morning coverage isn’t helpful for the EUs, cue FBPEs flinging toys out of prams in Labour’s direction for the next few weeks.

Labour being seen as/promoting themselves as agents of change in all the things we want changed is not helped by the Brexit talks; they really need a pretext to say ‘fuck this’ and leave the Tories to it, otherwise there’s a situation where Corbyn winds up solely blamed for Brexit if it happens.

Why are they still sending Barry G out to talk to the media, foot conveniently in mouth?

I assume it's the mellifluous Glasgow High School accent.

Barry G is very good at distracting from other stuff, and he’s basically unflappable. The accelerationist choice!

Anyway Labour saying they’re invested in a good outcome in the talks, whether they mean that or not, is going to piss off Tory voters far more than their own and has done so already. Tory poll numbers have been in freefall since the talks started.

I'd much rather hear Barry G fumbling about with his foot in his mouth and winding up FBPEs than Andrew "flapper" Gwynne getting bullied by lightweights.

Am I going to have to wait till lunchtime to hear one of you claim that actually if you think about it, this is a good result for Labour?

It’s too early to tell. Don’t think anyone claimed otherwise.

Tory numbers going into freefall isn't necessarily a good thing if the message they take from this is 'Hard Brexit more racism now!!!'

Everyone's drawing their own conclusions from this based on their preexisting viewpoints but the pitiful turnout should be an alarm call to all parties.

Seems pretty obvious though 'constructive ambiguity' reached the end of the line as a viable strategy a while ago. TBH probably the stupidest people in politics right now are the ones saying Labour should take this as a signal to agree a deal with the Tories. When has being seen to be teaming up the Tories ever benefited anyone other than the Tories? The two most recent examples are Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems and we all know what happened there.

it’s clearly not a good result qua result. and it’s clearly not as bad as the CONs who are haemorrhaging seats AND lost overall control of several councils

I’d be reluctant to read too much into it, however, having been burned last time doing so for labour’s pretty bad local election performance... which was then followed by GE17.

a lot of the overheated nonsense I've heard on R4 seems to assume the electorate are so thick that they don't know the difference between GE/LE. I think the death of the 2 party resurgence might be being overstated a teensy bit by some.

I’d be very surprised if a deal emerges from inside that room - the political pain for each side is too high
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/02/tory-labour-brexit-deal-may-corbyn

Regardless it seems an odd take to be sneering at people contextualising these results?

I mean, I know I’m not paid 500k to be a politics and language understander, but... no it doesn’t

This is most significant political reaction to the local elections so far. It suggests Labour's leadership, led by @jeremycorbyn and @johnmcdonnellMP, are now keen to agree a Brexit compromise with @theresa_may. But not clear either Corbyn or May can carry their parties with them https://t.co/9RFXeReOnr

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 3, 2019

Today's News Confirms Everything I Already Believed, new column by me, on all platforms

lol the convergence here is the worst:

Idea: a social media platform where the Hot Takes of politicians and pundits are limited to admissions that emerging political news contradicted their pre-existing views.

— David Allen Green (@davidallengreen) May 3, 2019

mmmmmmmm fudge

I never thought constructive ambiguity would survive the white heat of the ballot box. Voters want to know what they're getting from a party. Fudge just sickens them.

— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) May 3, 2019

McDonnell tweet is just more ambiguity dressed up as a promise to be decisive.

all I want is a strong leader to come and tell me what's going to happen so I can sleep at night

are you FOR cooperative international institutions, or AGAINST them? 5 seconds - go

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2016/07/morris/lead_720_405.jpg

Before last night I thought Labour would abandon the talks next week and pivot because they shouldn’t want to own this.

BBCQT was surprisingly low on gammons last night...

james joyce weighs in:

Sure, that old humbugger was boycotted and girlcutted in debt and doom, on hill and haven, even by the show-the-flag flotilla,

— Finnegans Wake (@finnegansreader) May 3, 2019

FWIW the Greens making gains last night and polling at around 10% (more than the LibDems and CUK) in Euro election polls feels significant, especially in the light of Extinction Rebellion etc, and obviously no one in the media is talking about it.

Birkenhead is Green!

Speaking about the incident Mr Mahmud said, "I was in Warrington for a meeting and afterwards was on my way home. I had to pass this group of people.

"He just kept talking to me. I kept moving location. I was the only Asian guy there.

"I said to him I do not wish to speak to you on or off camera.

"I just got annoyed with him. A milkshake ‘slipped’ out of my hand.

"I had no intention of doing anything or reacting in any way. But he kept talking.

"I feel a bit shaken up and shocked to be honest."

He said he was apprehended by a police officer moments later.

He added: "I was taken off back to the train station."

I assumed the milkshake thrower was with the group, that he was alone vindicates his response even more - not that it fucking needed to be vindicated. I'd love that cunt try that intimidation game in Dewsbury, his Nuts in May alike henchman might not be able to save him from a certain arse-kicking there .. oh no.

mcdonnell tweet /is/ more ambiguity - labour are fighting on all fronts:

Sunderland, Final Result #LE2019:

LAB: 12 (-12)
CON: 5 (+4)
LDM: 5 (+4)
UKIP: 3 (+3)
GRN: 1 (+1)

Labour HOLD the Council. pic.twitter.com/vxV55ocar5

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) May 3, 2019

let’s not forget candidates are being punched and councillors’ houses shot at. if there was a lesson the leadership need to learn from GE17 in scotland it is not “pick a side” but “don’t fight on your opponents’ terrain”. if the next election is fought on remain/leave (like GE17 SCO was fought on yes/no) and not on many/few, then labour get a doing

I know that people love using Sunderland as a symbol of Brexit but local politics also exists innit. https://t.co/jbeiYlG21V

— Ana Oppenheim 🌹 (@AnaOpp) May 3, 2019

I know that people love using Sunderland as a symbol of Brexit but local politics also exists innit. https://t.co/jbeiYlG21V

— Ana Oppenheim 🌹 (@AnaOpp) May 3, 2019

lol that pic!

tory collapse continues in trafford as it moves from NOC to labour. there are now no tory councils in greater manchester, with bolton now the worst offender with lab/tory NOC. I think this is the most labour control of the NW since the 90s. not a lot of change though.

Mmm, the nonce councillor's seat went Green, which doesn't signify any problems on a macro scale for labour. But elsewhere in Sunderland Ukip did well, much better than elsewhere, which probably can't be put down to the bad publicity of a wrongcock in the council chamber.

But still fucking dumb to try and extrapolate from one city to the whole country, yeah.

Regardless it seems an odd take to be sneering at people contextualising these results?

I love contextualising - one of the contexts here though is that they thought they'd be up at least 100 seats and half way through they're over 50 down. It's true that the second half has a lot of Tory councils (unlike Sunderland, where kiddy fiddling aside the seats that were up were 24 Labour out of 25) so they might scrape back over the line, but no-one was saying "our goal here is keeping level".

Ian Lavery, the Labour party chairman, told BBC News this morning that Labour leader of Sunderland council was blaming the party’s support for the option of a second referendum as the reason for it losing nine seats on the council.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tbc in the NW labour have done better than they were expecting

we love constructive ambiguity up here though

they thought they'd be up at least 100 seats

ok but this isn't a fact, this is a tactic: it's what they SAID they'd be up not what they internally believed they'd be up -- we already know the corbzmilninator is uninterested in win-the-week tactics and as a result indifferent-to-poor at them (aka "let's send barry gardiner out to handle this")

Ian Lavery, the Labour party chairman, told BBC News this morning that Labour leader of Sunderland council was blaming the party’s support for the option of a second referendum as the reason for it losing nine seats on the council.

I liked him when he looked like he was going put Boris on the deck once.

shadow minister of state for canned mojitos iirc

People vote for all sorts of reasons. I spoke to a taxi driver the other day who said he hoped the council changed hands. I asked why and he blamed the council for failing to keep Uber out of the area. “Are the council responsible for that?” I said. “No, but I’m still angry about it.”

CON HOLD: A knife-edge but Stephen Hirst holds Tetbury Town.

He won by a majority of one, and was contested because one person wrote “I’m voting for Brexit” which was counted as a CONSERVATIVE vote

Con:232
Indy: 231
LD: 112

— Leigh Boobyer (@LeighBoobyer) May 3, 2019

Local democracy as strong as ever.

Bold (St Helens) result:

Grn: 34.9% (+29.7)
LDem: 31.0% (+24.5)
Lab: 26.2% (-35.1)
Con: 7.9% (-4.5)
UKIP: 0.0% (-14.5)

GRN GAIN from Lab.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 3, 2019

wild

yowch

not sure if this is legit, bbc say lab hold

green takes longstanding con seat near me

ppl voting to block building on the greenbelt