We'll end this splendid day with a summary from Ed Davey: This has been an historic victory for the Liberal Democrats with our best result in decades. It's little wonder Rishi Sunak is running scared of a General Election, because he knows the Liberal Democrats are set to take swathes of seats across the Conservative Party's former heartlands. The message from these elections is clear: people are fed up with being let down and taken for granted by this Conservative Government – it is time for a change. Voters have sent a political shockwave to dozens of Conservative MPs right ...
David Frum finds Britain is now paying the price for its decision to leave the European Union: "In March, the BBC reported that Britain's departure from the European Union has added 10 to 20 minutes of additional paperwork to every truckload of tomatoes shipped from Spain - longer if the truckload mixes different produce varieties. Ten to 20 minutes may not sound like much. But multiply that burden by thousands of trucks, squeeze the trucks through the bottleneck of the single underwater tunnel that connects Britain to freight traffic from Europe, and costs and delays accumulate. The result: winter tomato ...
After 18 years of Conservative control, the Liberal Democrats won control of West Berkshire Council in the most stunning fashion. Starting from a base of 16 seats, the Lib Dems leap frogged to 29 seats out of 43, winning in traditional Tory rural heartlands such as Bucklebury. Local issues included a saga involving Newbury's football pitch, potholes and the Local Plan. There was also a backcloth of local Tory in-fighting and the national picture. You have to go back 32 years in the district to when control of the main local council changed from Tory to LibDem hands – that ...
We are now on a net increase of 409 councillors, and the Conservatives have topped their worst case scenario of 1000 losses. In Surrey Heath – an archetypal Blue Wall area straddling the Thames – we have taken control with 14 new seats coming to us, giving us 21 out of 35. That will give Michael Gove a huge headache tonight as it pretty much covers his constituency of the same name. Wedged between Lib Dem Mole Valley and Chichester lies Horsham, newly turned bright gold with an increase of 15 councillors. And we have taken control in Guildford, although ...
Chris Twells, already a Liberal Democrat member of Salford City Council, was yesterday elected to Cotswold District Council. The Guardian says he was a paper candidate there, but the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard reports that he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service before last night's count that he felt he was in with a good chance of winning the Cotswold seat. And having won it, he has chosen to serve on the Lib Dem run Cotswold DC rather than in Salford. He told the Standard: "I am delighted to have been elected to represent Tetbury with Upton ward and I ...
Gold would have been a Liberal Democrat majority on Harborough District Council. We didn't manage that, but did win silver by depriving the Conservatives of a majority. The balance of the new council looks like this: Conservatives 15 (-7) Lib Dems 13 (+2) Labour 3 (+2) Greens 3 (+3) Two gains elsewhere in the town were balanced by our losing two seats to the Greens in Market Harborough Welland ward - they also captured the one Tory seat there. This was the result of excellent targeting and, in the longer term, of social and boundary changes. Meanwhile, Labour's residual strength ...
One of the ambitions of local cycling and walking infrastructure plans is to reduce traffic in residential neighbourhoods. Shropshire Council has suggested three low traffic neighbourhoods for Ludlow: St Julians Avenue and Livesey Road Steventon New Road Temeside between Weeping Cross and Steventon New Road. It has also floated the idea of closing Foldgate Lane to make it a cycle and equestrian route (not walking?). The obvious low traffic neighbourhood missing from LCWIP is Lower Corve Street. Although being access only, around 1,000 vehicles a day drive along Lower Corve Street. Most drivers are using it as a short cut. ...
As I write 179 Councils have declared out of 230, and the news is good! We have increased the number of councillors by 255 and the Conservatives have lost 741 to a mixture of Labour, Lib Dems and Greens. We have gained control of seven councils – Stratford on Avon, Chichester, Windsor & Maidenhead, Dacoram, Mid Devon, Teignbridge and South Hams, and increased our councillors in many others. A lovely orange banana is appearing down in Devon. At the top geographically is North Devon, where just one gain pushed us to over 50% of the seats. Next is Mid Devon, ...
Various reports have been coming in about the impact of Voter ID on the polls. The first thing to say is that almost all voters got the message and turned up with correct ID. But some didn't, and that is worrying. Worse still we don't actually know how many people were turned away in some council areas. I was telling yesterday in Elmbridge and the council had employed one extra polling clerk at each polling station this time. Their job was to greet voters outside as they arrived, check they had suitable ID and then point them in the right ...
History and ritual are much closer concerns for Conservatives than for Liberals. Faith, for many Liberals (and Socialists) is a positive turn-off. So the Coronation will leave many of our active supporters cold. But it shouldn't. Shared memories, myths and rituals construct a national community and hold it together. Shatter them, and the community falls apart. Politicians try to reinterpret them to support the messages they prefer - which is why arguments about history are contested so vigorously, and why we should engage actively in debates about history and national identity. The argument about Brexit was partly about whether we ...
Four years ago, the last time this May's seats were up for election, the election results really were quite something for the Lib Dems.
Victory gathering this morning in Windsor. The message from the British people today is clear: time's up for Rishi Sunak and his appalling Conservative government! pic.twitter.com/Q8OnNccnfe — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 5, 2023 * Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
As many predicted the requirement to present ID at polling stations in England yesterday did not just cause chaos in some areas but actually prevented people from exercising their democratic rights. And it wasn't just voters being turned away on the day. As the Metro reports, some councils actually rejected up to 15 per cent of applications for the new voter authority certificate. The paper says that data obtained through Freedom of Information requests found that there have been hundreds of rejected applications, with one local authority rejecting more than a quarter of the applications it received: 76 out of ...
The Guardian reports: Ed Davey has hailed what he called "ground-breaking results" for the Liberal Democrats in local elections, as party activists predicted they were on track to oust large number of Conservative MPs in so-called "blue wall" seats. In early results, the Lib Dems defeated the Conservatives to win control of Windsor and Maidenhead council, Theresa May's home territory. Across England the party had gained nearly 60 seats, with the bulk of the Lib Dems' target areas still to count, and maintained control of seven other councils. "These are groundbreaking results for the Liberal Democrats, far exceeding the expectations," ...
This is a groundbreaking night for the Liberal Democrats. We are exceeding all expectations. We have delivered a hammer blow to the Conservative Party in the Blue Wall ahead of next year's general election. That was Ed Davey early this morning BEFORE we heard the result from Windsor and Maidenhead. Yesterday's elections were built on the excellent results for the Lib Dems in 2019, so we were being somewhat cautious about our capacity to increase our wins this time. On the other hand the Conservatives had been managing expectations by making out that fewer than 1000 losses on the night ...
From the City Council : THE ROADS (SCOTLAND) ACT 1984 - SECTION 62 THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of the Trade Unions May Day March and Rally HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in: 1 Blackness Road (from Unite the Union car park to Hawkhill) 2 Hawkhill (from Blackness Road to West Marketgait) 3 West Marketgait (from Hawkhill to Nethergate) 4 Nethergate (from West Marketgait to High Street) 5 High Street (from Nethergate to Reform Street) 6 Reform Street 7 Albert Square This notice comes ...
It's just past 2am the 5th May and we're already seeing some impressive results coming in for Lib Dems all over the country! In many places even where we aren't winning we're seeing good increases in vote shares even in the face of lower turnouts which really speaks to the hard work being done by activists all over the country. The BBC is reporting we're up 2% in their key wards overall, 3% in high remain voting levels and 0.5% in high leave remaining areas with 189 of 792 counted While a lot of counts aren't happening until the morning ...
