Council Elections in England

Labour: + 534

Conservatives: -328

Liberal Democrats: -190

Green: +5

Without a doubt Labour did fantastically in England as a result of Thursday’s council elections, Labour gained control of 22 councils and held 39. Labour did very well in its heartland areas around Manchester and Liverpool where it added more councils, Labour also gained Carlisle in the north and Birmingham in the midlands. The great success for Labour was in the south, although the south is still Conservative the Labour party managed to attract many votes. Most importantly, Labour managed to attract votes from places that once voted Blair, but turned their backs and returned to the Conservatives in 2005 and 2010. This was something people thought “Red Ed” could never do. In the south Labour gained Southampton, Plymouth and Exeter and took four councillors in Cameron’s backyard of West Oxfordshire.

What Labour gained, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lost. The Conservatives lost ten English councils, bringing their total to 42 whilst that Liberal Democrats lost one and held six. This hides just how devastated the Lib Dems were, they lost a total of 190 councillors across England. Does this mark an end to the Liberal Democrats in England? Who knows, the rise of the Greens and UKIP could facilitate a Lib Dem decline.

Council Elections in Scotland

Labour: +58

SNP: + 57

Conservatives: -16

Liberal Democrats: - 80

Greens: +6

Scotland went well for both Labour and the SNP, both parties made significant gains. Thankfully for Labour they managed to retain Glasgow council amongst widespread fears that they would lose overall control of Glasgow, even if the SNP didn’t manage to take control.

Labour managed to gain 58 councillors and the SNP 57, since Labour started out with fewer councillors, the percentage increase was better than the SNP. The system by which councils are elected in Scotland makes it hard for one party to gain overall control, meaning that most councils do not have one-party rule. Previous to Thursday’s election Labour had overall control in only two councils, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, both remained under Labour control, Labour also managed to gain Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire. The SNP started off with no overall control of councils but managed to gain Angus and Dundee, much to Alex Salmond’s delight. The SNP made good gains in Aberdeenshire to strengthen their role as biggest party, but in Aberdeen a good night for Labour meant that they overtook the SNP as the council’s biggest party.

Alex Salmond was publically delighted with this result, but in private I’d imagine it would be a different story. Although Thursday was a success for him, many people, including those in his own party, predicted significantly better results than this.

The Liberal Democrats have much to feel upset about, losing 80 councillors, reducing them to just 71. The Conservatives lost 16 councillors but are happy with the result as they are now the third party in Scotland, having overtaken the Liberal Democrats.

Council Elections in Wales

Labour: +231

Conservatives: -61

Liberal Democrats: -66

Plaid Cymru: -41

Wales is undoubtedly the best result for Labour, Labour managed to gain Swansea, Cardiff, Newport and the Valleys to come out top in Wales. The Conservatives lost their two councils and Plaid Cymru lost their only council. Labour is now the only party in Wales to hold any councils, all the rest are controlled by independents or have no overall control. This has been the best council election for Labour in Wales since the system was reformed in 1996.

The election is worrying for Plaid Cymru, the party has declined over the past few years and Thursday results are devastating for them. The newly elected leader Leanne Wood has many challenges ahead for her. 

Assembly & Mayoral Elections in London

London Mayor (1^st preference)

Boris Johnson (Conservative):                  971,931                  (44.01%)

Ken Livingstone (Labour):                       889,918                  (40.30%)

Jenny Jones (Green):                               98,913                    (4.48%)

Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat):           91,774                   (4.16%)

Siobhan Benita (Independent):                 83,914                    (3.80%)

Lawrence Webb (UKIP):                        43,274                    (1.96%)

Carlos Cortiglia (BNP):                           28,751                    (1.30%)

(+2^nd preference)

Boris:     1,054,881   (51.53%)

Ken:       992,273     (48.47%)

London Assembly

Labour: 12
Conservative: 9
Liberal Democrat: 2
Green: 2

It was a mixed result in London for both Labour and the Conservatives, Boris narrowly beat Ken to be London's mayor. This result will help to ease the painful night the conservatives had on Thursday. Despite Boris' success, the Conservatives went from being the biggest party in the London Assembly to second, losing two seats to Labour. Labour now is just one seat shy of a majority in the assembly, meaning that they only need one vote from the other parties to block bills proposed by Boris or to push through their own.

It was a good night for the Greens, they became the third largest party in London, Jenny Jones, the Green candidate received 7,139 votes more than Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem candidate. As well as this the Greens have two seats in the Assembly, tied with the Liberal Democrats.

It was an excellent night for the independent Siobhan Benita, who came from nowhere to take 83,914 votes, more than UKIP and the BNP combined! For someone who nobody knew about before this election and with very little TV appearances this is very impressive. After the results came in Ms Benita said that this would not be the last we see of her and she will continue to play a part in the capital's politics.

Election Night

Yesterday was election night, but what will the results mean for the country?

There are a number of different elections going on across England, Wales and Scotland (no voting in Northern Ireland). What the majority of people consider the most important is the mayoral election in London. The mayor of London is arguably the most powerful politician outside of the cabinet in the UK and so it is very important to both Labour and the Conservatives. Last time Boris Johnson won due to his “doughnut strategy” this was whereby he targeted the London suburbs where there are more Conservatives to be found. Now aware of this strategy Ken Livingstone has also targeted these areas, his promise to cut rail fares pleases many voters in places such as Bexleyheath.

Outside of London there are also very important elections in Birmingham and Glasgow. Currently one party does not control the Birmingham city council; instead it is ruled by a coalition between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. To win Birmingham outright Labour need a swing of just 2.5%, for the Labour Party this would be particularly important as it would send out a message that the tide is turning against Conservative-Lib Dem coalitions. The results in Glasgow could be extremely important, if the SNP manage to take control of Glasgow, or at least make sure no party gets an overall majority, then it would prove a devastating blow for Labour. It would also be a phenomenal victory for the SNP and give them hope for the 2014 referendum.

Wales is looking likely to go Labour’s way, Labour hopes to prise the likes of Swansea away from the Liberal Democrats and outright win Cardiff, Labour has called on the Welsh people to “send the vicious government a message”.

If the elections were to be a great night for Labour, they’d win London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Wales outright, on an alright night they might lose London and on a bad night Birmingham would not fall there way. If Glasgow or Wales were not to vote for Labour it could mark the beginning of the end for Labour, if an alternative party were to rise.

"Murdoch Not Fit to run a Global Company"

A damning report was published today by the Culture Media and Sports Select Committee which accused Rupert Murdoch of not being a fit person to run a major global company. The report was even harsher on three of Murdoch’s “underlings”, Colin Myler, Tom Crone and Les Hinton who were accused of miss-leading MPs and could have to face the House of Commons.

Although the report is extremely damning it did not receive unanimous support from the committee, the four Conservatives voted against the report due to harsh attack on Murdoch. The report was able to pass as the five Labour members and the one Liberal Democrat member voted in favour of it. Louise Mensch is a Conservative member of the committee, in defending her decision to vote against the report on Newsnight, she appeared to think that the public would agree with her. Has she got any idea of public opinion? There is a massive anti-Murdoch swing in the general public and most people will be delighted with the report that so vilifies Murdoch. At a time when the fallout from the Jeremy Hunt scandal is deepening, this will harden the view that the Conservatives have become the party for Murdoch and could deal another blow to the Conservatives.

Although the Conservative members did vote against the report, they actually agreed with everything in the report apart from the one line. The rest of the report deals less with Murdoch and more with the lies told by Myler, Crone and Hinton to Parliament.

Murdoch must leave the UK once and for all; he still controls large parts of BSkyB and our press. The hacking scandal has created a very rare chance, for us to seize our democracy from the hands of Murdoch and return them to the people. His International Empire was founded in the UK with the Sun newspaper (which he took over), and we will be the ones to end it. Murdoch has had his time in power, the time for people power has returned.

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee releasing the report yesterday

A Hollande Europe?

Hollande is likely to become France’s next President after Sunday, but wider implications could a socialists rise to power have on Europe, particularly the Eurozone countries. The Dutch government has already fallen, the Spanish government is experiencing serious protests and Greece is approaching elections.

So what does Hollande have to offer to a Europe still in crisis? Most importantly he offers an alternative to fiscal austerity; he says that he will re-orientate the European economy to growth and jobs (much like what the Labour Party advocates here as well as an Obama-style stimulus) and away from harsh, growth killing budget cuts. Although he disagrees with Merkel and other north-European leaders on the policy of austerity he does believe firmly in fiscal responsibility and the Euro project. The key difference on fiscal responsibility is that Hollande believes that it should come later, that the European economy is already on a path to recovery before the government reigns necessary spending.

The centre-right currently have control over the vast majority of the European Union, they have failed epically to deal with the financial crisis. One important part of Hollande’s vision for Europe is stimulus, which is funded by borrowing. This poses one major problem; the Mediterranean countries cannot borrow at a cheap rate and would be unfeasible for them to do so. On the other hand, north European countries such as Germany and Finland have low interest rates and can borrow cheaply. I find it difficult to imagine the Germans borrowing more money to facilitate a Greek stimulus; it would be political suicide for Merkel. So although the vision of growth would be perfect for northern Europe, it would still leave the question of what to do with the Mediterranean countries and Ireland. Hollande will need to think about this if he is to solve Europe’s difficulties!