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

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

Tory nimbys gonna save us from the great dying.

ppl voting for the best party tbh

UKIP: 0.0% (-14.5)

you just love to see it, folks

It's legit xps

https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/17615822.st-helens-local-election-results-2019-ward-by-ward/

Calling themselves "Green Party - Save Our Green Space" on the ballot paper seems to have been a smart move.

one can only say: well-played

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7dmu4G8oc

Ouch, the Labour vote has fallen from 61 to 26 - that's voters not percentages, of course.

From the comments on the thread ogmor pulled out there is a comment or two around a build. There will usually be a local issue and lots of lab councils don't offer anything different to a Tory one.

No matter how bad things get we can at least enjoy these gammons having the thoroughly bad one they deserve, forever - https://www.westmonster.com/voters-spoil-ballots-with-pro-brexit-messages/

did u have to link to that website

Also pretty chuffed to find that the tories have lost control of Herefordshire

xp hm yeah i know, should remember that a hate-click is still a click

Steve Wilson (Angela Smith's husband and office manager) doing as badly as you'd expect without the Labour banner pic.twitter.com/f7VzgUZYkf

— jack (@jrc1921) May 3, 2019

There will usually be a local issue and lots of lab councils don't offer anything different to a Tory one

Labour (and Tories) are certainly committed to more housebuilding than Greens. Green policy on housing is, to be polite, muddled.

One of the reasons why turnout is so low is that local government has been so comprehensively neutered over the last decade that even more people just don't see the point of voting.

Muddled is sadly better than what's going right now! xp

what as in mud and straw:p

Heene (Worthing) result:

Lab: 39.2% (+23.1)
Con: 34.3% (-4.4)
Grn: 12.5% (-8.9)
LDem: 7.4% (-0.3)
Ind: 6.6% (+6.6)
UKIP: 0.0% (-16.0)

Lab GAIN from Con.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 3, 2019

xp hm yeah i know, should remember that a hate-click is still a click

Painful to see these contortions. But of course local issues and turnouts were going to be too difficult to deal with.

These numbers still have to be verified. But what is striking is that even in strongly Leave areas, there was a pronounced swing from Labour to the Remainy LibDems and Greens. Which gives the lie to view among Labour Brexiters that Labour did badly for not being Brexity enough. pic.twitter.com/vf2fgOfprH

— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 3, 2019

Pretending it isn't about Brexit at all and is all about local issues is as much of a contorsion as anything else fwiw.

that one worthing result that calz posted isn't really representative of the council as a whole - still remains tory central, albeit with a diminished majority

In other years this might be seen as in some way notable.

Moment PM told to resign at Welsh Conservative conference pic.twitter.com/2OXY7bPzvE

— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) May 3, 2019

If the turnout was high then that might be the case.

I think where Brexit is impacting is on the loss of Tory seats. But that is just as much about the competence of this government and a judgement on May. I'd need the people who say Brexit is impacting on Labour's position to show their working. Lab also performed badly at the lastly local elections when Brexit didn't play.

XPS to Matt

xxp

blame Chakrabortty for that one.

a: a LOT of local labour councils suck v v badly
b: this is partly bcz draconian govt imposed budget constraints mean they have little power to deliver what voters wd like (bins!) …
c: … partly bcz many of them are ancient tribal fiefdoms w.all the rotten-borough complacency and uselessness that arrives with this …
d: … partly bcz friends-in-the-north*-type property development solutions has been one of the few sell-stuff-off moneygathering solutions currently available …
e … and in addition party central has nothing like enough shake-up and deselect power to tackle all this
f: (not to mention – not to be mealymouthed abt it – is nowhere near attentive enough yet to the generation of politics in this sphere)

*(inc.north london) (also south london lol)