Saturday, May 4, 2019

England Local Elections

Local elections have now completed counting in England. Some areas - such as London or Cornwall - did not have local elections this year, but much of England did. These figures are only for those areas that held general elections on the 2nd.

Results are as follows.
Results Party (Seats gained or lost) [Seats 'last time'] {pop vote}

3562 CON (-1334) [4896] {28%}
2023 LAB (-82) [2105] {28%}
1350 L-D (+703) [647] {19%}
265 GRN (+194) [71]
31 UKIP (-145) [176]
1179 IND (+ 662) [517]

Note that "seats last time" is simply derived from the seats this time, with the seats gained or lost removed or added back. Since some councils were merged or changed sizes, this does not equal the actual number of councillors elected in 2015. I'm showing these numbers to help you get a grasp of how drastically some parties moved. I've also included popular vote figures where available.

Note that I've included the 15 seats won by "smaller parties" in with the Independents.

Lastly, note as well that the figures reported are a bit weird. I merged the "Residents Association" grouping with "Independents" as a number of "Independent Groups" were included in there as well. My understanding, and opinion, is that a "Residents Association" just a group of Independents, and thus, identical to an "Independent Group" regardless of what name it uses. Some, including the BBC, apparently felt otherwise. As such, I combined the two for these figures to reduce confusion. If and when possible, I will separate these out into two groups; Groups and Individuals, to show the seat totals for each.

As I understand things, and my opinion is; a "Group of Independents" be it under the name "Residents Association" or "Free Voters" are Political Parties, equal to any other political party, and simply have chosen a geographic limitation for themselves (IE their council area and no more) and/or limitations on free voting in their various assemblies and legislatures. They are thus distinct and different from true "Independents" who run on no common slate, and stand for themselves, and their on records alone.

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