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

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)

On point c: for lab councils there is a lot of centre Blair/Brown era sludge. When they campaign on a pretence to make the cuts not as hard or fast blah blah there is nothing to offer people.

There is plenty for the likes of The Green Party to work with.

bye tony!

I’ve left the Labour Party after nearly 45 years of service at Branch, Constituency and NEC levels,partly because of it’s continued duplicity on Brexit, partly because of it’s antisemitism, but also because its leadership is complete shit.

— Tony Robinson (@Tony_Robinson) May 3, 2019

Meltdown May is living up to its name!

CON net loss now at 600. LAB net loss holding at 75.

Can we have Barry G go on telly and say, "Yes, we have lost seats and that is regrettable but there is one bit of good news, Tony Robinson has quit".

lol.

rough times for the robinson brothers eh

I wish MeMeMe Phillips would either fuck off to the CuKs or walk from the party as well pls.

Thought Tony Robinson left aaaages ago? Or says he’s leaving more times than there are iterations of Baldrick.

biggest story of the night is the GRN surge

Tony R can spend more time checking the geophys to see if its picked up his conscience

But he later said that by “sort it”, he was not committing Labour to agreeing a deal with the government. He meant sort it “whichever way”, he said.

The ol' thinking Labour is inordinately or institutionally antisemitic but needing additional reasons to quit. So noble.

Re: the Green surge, obviously the environment has gone up the agenda in the last few months, but they've also presumably been able to make a lot of hay out of reminding people that a party does exist that is both anti-austerity and unambiguously anti-Brexit. I wouldn't expect that to translate to a GE where people are voting with the next govt at the front of their minds, but as sending a signal goes you could do a lot worse.