By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Independent on Sunday reports that the Liberal Democrats have struggled to recruit council candidates for next month's elections: "With the close of nominations last week, figures show that the Lib Dems are putting forward 1,552 candidates in England, compared to 2,120 for Labour and 2,151 for the Tories. In […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Yesterday Rob Hayward drew our attention to a House of Commons Library briefing paper, regarding the results of the local and mayoral elections in May. Summarised below are some key facts about the local elections contained in that briefing. Conservative council seat facts: The Conservatives won or retained 5,108 […]
Rob Hayward is an elections analyst and former MP for Kingswood Bristol. Rob was heavily involved in preparing the Coalition's legislation to reduce the number of MPs and has also proposed a marked reduction in councils and councillors in London. The shock waves of the recent elections will continue to be felt for a number […]
Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Lib Dem Group on the Local Government Association has evidently been busy. There is a letter (£) in The Times this morning from 88 Lib Dem council group leaders attacking the Government. The letter says councils are "being let down by the Communities and Local Government Secretary." It adds that […]
Tim Montgomerie The BBC's Peter Henley reported yesterday that three Lib Dem councillors in Chris Huhne's backyard have become independents: "Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is facing a revolt among Liberal Democrats in his constituency. Three councillors on the Lib Dem controlled Eastleigh Borough Council have decided to leave the party to become Independents, saying they're […]
By Jonathan Isaby All is not quite as the headline might suggest, but above is a picture of Giovanni Spinella, the victorious Conservative candidate in the recent by-election in the Frognal and Fitzjohns ward in the London Borough of Camden, along with some of his campaign team. As blogger Richard Osley points out, Giovanni is […]
Angela Harvey has been a Westminster councillor since 2002 and recounts here a positive experience of working with the Lib Dems. As a new Westminster councillor in 2002 I didn’t expect to lead the Conservative Group on London’s local government pay negotiating body, the Greater London Provincial Council (GLPC) but perhaps my experience setting global […]
Cllr Keith Mitchell, the Conservative leader of Oxfordshire County Council, has been writing an election blog. Very lively and hard hitting it is too. Here is a sample entry from yesterday. Sunday 24 May 06:00 pm I see the Liberals in Oxford West & Abingdon claim to be supporting the Gurkhas. I have got used […]
The Independent reports that Nick Clegg has been holding Town Hall meetings in Councils his party controls. In Northampton there was anger that Council leaders had refused to attend a public meeting to discuss proposed "improvements" to the Market Square. Clegg calmed the situation by announcing the Council leader would speak to them after the […]
Generally political coverage gets preoccupied with Westminster – with even the most trivial and speculative gaining attention so it is welcome that Total Politics magazine seeks to help fill this gap in their content (also their distribution list where they send councillors free copies.) The new issue arrived today with a piece about the Lib […]