English Local Elections - Sunshine brings the voters out.

Blackleaf · English Local Elections - Sunshine brings the voters out.

Around 23 million people in England are eligible to vote in the English Local Elections. Today's turnout is expected to be around 40%, higher than expected. Maybe the sunshine and the fact that it's the hottest day of the year played a part. Conservatives are expected to get most votes, with Lib Dems in second place and Labour in third. Labour are expected to lose votes to the BNP and the Greens.

-------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunshine brings the voters out

Hélène Mulholland and agencies
Thursday May 4, 2006

Fears that even fewer voters than usual would turnout to vote in today's local election proved unfounded as projected figures suggest a turnout of around 40% once the polls close this evening.

With just hours to go until the polling booths close, voters came out in the early May sunshine to cast their vote across 176 local authorities.

Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, cast their vote at their local polling station in Westminster, while the Tory leader, David Cameron, and his wife, Samantha, attended a polling station near their west London home.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, has chosen not to vote in London, as his home address is in Scotland, where no elections are taking place [[Good. That would have caused more furore amongst the English if the Scots even had people voting in our elections]].

All three party leaders will be watching anxiously for the results as a test of their popularity on the national stage.

Though today's elections are local, many are watching to see how the Blair bounce will affect votes today, after one of the prime minister's worst weeks in office following the deportation scandal, revelations of deputy prime minister John Prescott's affair, and the NHS financial crisis.

A total of 4,361 seats are up for grabs in England, including all-out elections in the 32 London boroughs.

Allowing for the fact that half of those voting traditionally do so after 5pm, and taking account of postal votes, projected figures suggests a final turnout figure of nearly 40%.

This compares with just 31.7% when London boroughs last faced elections. Figures for the last local elections to take place across metropolitan and English shire districts two years ago were 41%.

Electoral officers are monitoring the number of voters turning up at the polls every hour as the local election voting hours were extended for the first time.

Traditionally, polling booths have been open from 8am to 9pm each day. This year, these have been extended by an hour each end in a bid to boost turnout and ensure everyone has a chance to vote.

Labour is braced for dismal results, with predicted losses of up to 400 councillors and the control of 15-16 councils.

The figures are significantly worse than officials had suggested only a week ago. A net loss of 400 seats - with 4,361 seats up for grabs - would represent a grievous blow and take the number of Labour councillors nationally down to around 6,000, the lowest figure since the 1980s.

Labour expects to lose half the boroughs it controls in London including Bexley, Merton, Croydon, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey and probably Camden. The predictions, based on the latest canvass returns and internal polling, show a dramatic worsening of the position due to the party's appalling recent publicity.

Nearly a quarter of the council seats in England - 4,361 out of 19,579 - are up for grabs in 176 authorities, including every borough council seat in London. 23 million people are entitled to vote.

Labour insiders report no great enthusiasm for David Cameron's Conservatives on the doorstep but acknowledge votes are ebbing away to the Lib Dems, the Greens and the BNP. The Lib Dems could come second to the Tories on share of vote, as in 2004.

The Conservatives were keeping expectations low but they need at least 100 extra council seats to claim some success.

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, moved yesterday to revive his campaign to reclaim the union flag from the far right. He said the flag had to be "seen as a flag of unity and inclusion, not divisiveness".

"The BNP should not have ownership of the British flag. It's a flag for the British people and when people think about the union jack it's a flag of inclusiveness and it's a flag of fairness and we should oppose the sectarianism and the racism of the BNP," Mr Brown said. "We have got to go out and explain to people that a party that is posing as a champion of British people is actually attacking the basic rights of a large number of people who are very much part of our country."

Mr Brown and Tony Blair linked up yesterday at Tooting and Mitcham United football club in Merton, south London, their first joint outing since the campaign launch at St Katharine's Dock in London last month. Their body language and smiles were warmer then, although they were separated by Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary. Mr Blair praised her so effusively that it is hard to imagine she will not survive next week's expected reshuffle.

Yesterday a third area was hit by allegations of electoral fraud, as police were called in to investigate voter registrations in Woking. Inquires have also been launched in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, east London.

Ray Morgan, Woking council's elections officer, said: "The nature of the allegations relates to intimidation and the mishandling of postal votes." Local police sources said one of the allegations, so far unconfirmed, was that blank postal votes had been handed over to community elders.

Police have also investigated six addresses in the Maybury and Sheerwater ward where it is alleged there have been multiple voter registrations.

guardian.co.uk
---------------------------------

Arsenal's stadium raises hackles in local election

David Conn
Wednesday May 3, 2006
The Guardian

Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium. Their last game at Highbury is on Sunday against Wigan Athletic.

Arsenal play their final game at their Highbury home on Sunday but the row over their new Emirates Stadium is tomorrow a local election issue in the London borough of Islington.

The latest in a catalogue of concerns centres on the decision to allow 40 coaches to park on residential streets rather than beneath the 60,000-seat stadium as agreed in Arsenal's 2002 planning proposal. Local residents, trade unions and other organisations complain that Arsenal, a private company, is being allowed to cause huge disruption to the area for a development the club concedes is motivated by its own commercial benefit.

Arsenal had promised £7.6m to upgrade the nearest stations, Holloway Road on the Underground and Drayton Park on the overground network. But instead supporters leaving the ground will walk through residential areas to the more distant Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington stations. The club will not now be building a new sports centre as agreed but will instead contribute £1m to as yet unspecified other facilities in the area. The location of affordable housing as part of the development has also been criticised.

"As a football stadium, it is wonderful," said Jeannette Arnold, a Labour Greater London Assembly member, "but many residents do feel alienated and Arsenal's board must understand that." But Steve Hitchins, Islington council's Liberal Democrat leader, insisted that keeping Arsenal in the borough was a coup, adding that "we have secured amazing community benefits, revitalising the whole area".

However, the only independent report into the development, by the government planning inspector Rupert Grantham, concluded that it would deliver "disappointingly low" community benefits, and called it "simply a redevelopment scheme" favouring Arsenal's "private interests".

guardian.co.uk

Reluctant Hero

It is a sad day for democracy when the turnout depends on what the weather is like.

Even is Bliar suffers heavy losses, does anyone expect him to jump? The conduct of this government is far worse than the Torries (and that is saying something), yet he still clings to power.

IF Convenor

I think still clinging to office would be a better description.

Does anyone else think Gordon Brown has blown his chance at the leader's job and that Blair's replacement will be from an English constituency?

Blackleaf

Labour takes a battering in the English Local Elections.

The Tories gain 249 seats in the English elections, while Labour lose 251. The Lib Dems gain 18.

The BNP also gained seats - 13 of them, and the England First Party gained seats in some towns.

Overall, Labour only finished THIRD - the main parties' share of the vote were projected at: Conservatives 40 per cent, Lib Dems 27 per cent, Labour 26 per cent.

Blair reshuffles Cabinet after drubbing in local elections
By Philippe Naughton and agencies

The new Conservative councillors in one of the big Tory gains of the night in London, Hammersmith and Fulham (Gill Allen/The Times)

Party: councils; change; seat change
Con: 63; +8; +249
Lab: 23; -15; -251
LD: 12; +1; +18
BNP: 0; 13; +13

Tony Blair began reshuffling his Cabinet today to put his Government back on course after Labour received a drubbing from the voters in local council elections.

The main victim of the reshuffle was expected to be John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister who has been embroiled in a public adultery scandal. Mr Prescott was widely expected to retain his title and his seat at the Cabinet table, but lose control of his department.

In Labour’s worst day at the polling booths since Mr Blair came to power, the party lost more than 250 councillors across England as well as control of 16 town halls.

The Conservatives won roughly the same number of council seats - their best showing since 1992 - while the Liberal Democrats picked up just 18 councillors. The main parties' share of the vote were projected at: Conservatives 40 per cent, Lib Dems 27 per cent, Labour 26 per cent.

It was a good night for the British National Party, which saw 13 councillors elected - although 11 of them in Barking, East London, where Margaret Hodge, the local Labour MP, has been accused of talking up the party's chances.

David Cameron said the vote had produced "very strong results" for the Tories in their first big test since he became leader. "We hit that all-important 40 per cent share of the vote," he said.

But Mr Cameron conceded that the Tories, who fared much better in London and the South than further North, still had a lot of work to do. "I’m not claiming that this means it’s going to be easy from here on. Of course it isn’t. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do, not least in places like Manchester and Newcastle," he told GMTV.

Labour's most damaging defeats came in London, where the party lost control of ten town halls including Camden, Merton, Lewisham and Croydon. The Conservatives gained control of Ealing, Bexley and Hammersmith and Fulham and for the first time since 1978 now control more London boroughs than does Labour.

Outside the capital, Labour's losses included Derby, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Crawley. Conservative success in London and the shires was not repeated in metropolitan areas of the North, with Mr Cameron failing in his effort to establish a toehold in places such as Manchester and Newcastle and coming fourth to the Greens in Liverpool.

The disastrous results for Labour led to calls from backbenchers for Mr Blair to set out a timetable to hand over the premiership to his presumed successor, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor.

Frank Dobson, the former Health Secretary, said that the reshuffle would amount to no more than "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic" and insisted the party needed "new management".

A close ally of the Chancellor, former minister Nick Brown, suggested Mr Blair may not be the man to stop Labour's woes. "We can’t drift on," he told the BBC. "It’s pretty clear what’s gone wrong and we need to address it."

The Times suggested today that Mr Prescott would publicly take the brunt of the blame for the electoral debacle. It said that Mr Prescott has been close to resigning several times since the disclosure of his affair with Tracey Temple, his assistant diary secretary, and has told friends that he knows he has damaged his party.

The Prime Minister has so far sought to portray Mr Prescott’s affair with a civil servant as "a private matter".

Mr Prescott was one of the first ministers to arrive in Downing Street this morning. He was whisked to the door in a silver car and entered without commenting to waiting reporters.

Also thought to be vulnerable in the shake-up of the Government’s frontbench team is Charles Clarke, despite Mr Blair’s repeated insistence that the Home Secretary should be allowed to stay on to sort out problems with the deportation of foreign prisoners.

Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, and Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary, who have both found themselves the subject of negative headlines in recent weeks, may be spared the axe. Mr Blair’s strong public expressions of support for them give them hope that they will keep their seats at the Cabinet table.

Ms Jowell said that "noise" from national controversies had drowned out strong campaigns on the ground, and suggested that local activists felt "let down" by Labour’s MPs at Westminster.

With some 23 million people - half the UK electorate - entitled to go to the polls in 176 local authorities in England, yesterday’s ballot was the largest electoral test ahead of the general election expected in 2009 or 2010.

Conservative success in London and the shires was not repeated in the large cities of the north, with Mr Cameron failing in his effort to establish a toehold in places such as Manchester and Newcastle and coming fourth to the Greens in Liverpool.

Senior Labour aides suggested the results showed a "north-south divide" in the political landscape of England, with the Tories failing to break out of their traditional heartlands.

But Mr Cameron rejected this charge, claiming: "The Conservative Party has broadened its appeal under my leadership and we’re making gains right across the country."

Francis Maude, the Tory chairman, said the party’s gains were "at the top end" of what had been expected.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor who is Mr Cameron's closest political ally, said that Mr Blair’s reshuffle was "an attempt to cover up very bad losses for Tony Blair and Labour in the local elections and very good results for David Cameron and the Conservative Party.

"We have had a fantastic night, gained councils we have never controlled before and a reshuffle is not going to hide the bad news for Tony Blair," he said.

Labour’s losses were more than double the level of 100 which the party had indicated it could live with in a mid-term poll. A Sky News projection suggested that the Conservatives would have a 10-seat majority in the House of Commons if last night’s figures were repeated in a general election - even though it is notoriously difficult to read across from local to national elections.

thetimesonline.co.uk

Blackleaf

Blackleaf

More news from the elections.

Tories snatch inner-city prize
By Alexandra Frean

The outgoing leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council , Labour's Stephen Burke (Gill Allen/The Times)

THE Conservatives received an early boost in the battle for London last night as they claimed victory in the key borough of Hammersmith and Fulham from Labour after 20 years in opposition.

Early indications just before midnight suggested a Tory victory in the inner city borough, giving a big fillip to Tory morale and suggesting that a nationwide breakthrough was on the cards.

The Tories last held control here with support from the Liberal Democrats in 1986, but have not had an overall majority since 1968, when Mr Cameron was only a year old.

Having taken the parliamentary seat of Hammersmith and Fulham from Labour in last year’s general election with a swing of 7.5 per cent, and having won a by-election in the council’s Ravenscourt Park ward last year with a 300 majority, Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of the Tory group on the council, said the party had needed only a small swing to take overall control.

“This is a historic night for the Tory party, we have not had control of this council for 38 years. It’s historic because it shows that the Tory party has a message for inner city residents, not just the residents of the leafy suburbs.

“We have reached out to people who traditionally do not vote Conservative,” Mr Greenhalgh said.

Early estimates put turn out at 40 per cent, rising to 50 per cent in the most marginal wards. This was comfortably above the 32 per cent of 2002, when the borough last held elections, and was the result of a frenetic last-ditch bout of canvassing on the streets and over the telephone yesterday by both sides.

Although the Conservatives and Labour had bussed in big hitters from the national party during the campaign (David Cameron visited four times, Jack Straw brought along his soap box), the candidates ran an intensely local campaign.

Mr Greenhalgh pledged to bring the council tax down, closer to the lower levels enjoyed by residents in the neighbouring Tory-controlled boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth.

“We find ourselves wedged between these two top-rated councils and people living here wonder why they are paying a higher council tax here in Hammersmith and Fulham for services that are worse,” he said. Crime had also been a core issue in his campaign. “We want to introduce a zero tolerance policy, similar to New York under Mayor Giuliani,” he said.

Mr Greenhalgh has pledged not to reverse the popular Labour policy of providing free home care to older and disabled people in the borough.

It is not clear, though, how the party intends to pay for its promised tax cuts.

Although the Tories nation-ally painted the victory in Hammersmith and Fulham as a win for David Cameron, many local Conservative members supported Liam Fox and David Davies in last year’s Tory leadership elections and Mr Cameron’s photograph did not appear on local campaign literature.

The local party’s victory was all the more remarkable given that it had been split by the defection of two of their councillors, Emile Al Uzaizi and Amanda Lloyd Harris, who both stood as independents.

-------------------------------

BNP claims: 'We're on our way'

Supporters of the far-right BNP claimed the party was "on its way" after picking up extra council seats across England. The British National Party's gains were most dramatic in Barking and Dagenham in east London where it became the second biggest party, seizing 11 of the 13 seats it fought with one ward still to declare. Barking and Dagenham is the first council in the country to have the BNP as the second biggest party. Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's London organiser, who gained one of the seats on the council, said voters had decided the time was right to choose the BNP.

-----------------

Hodge facing disciplinary action

Labour Party chiefs in east London are considering disciplinary action against their MP over comments she made about the number of voters likely to opt for the BNP. Barking MP Margaret Hodge said last month that as many as eight out of 10 voters in her constituency were contemplating voting for the BNP. Labour officials believe her comments damaged Labour and helped the BNP and they are now considering disciplinary action against Mrs Hodge.

thetimesonline.co.uk

IF Convenor

Aventinian

IF Convenor

Not fair! What if one of the candidates is a gifted artist? He or she would have an unfair advantage.

Pistols at dawn might have been better.

Blackleaf

Dr John Reid becomes Home Secretary.

Clarke Sacked in Cabinet Reshuffle

Charles Clarke has been sacked as Home Secretary in a drastic Cabinet reshuffle following Labour's heavy local election defeats.

Dr John Reid has been moved from defence to take over at the Home Office.

Jack Straw has been moved from the Foreign Office and the role of Foreign Secretary split into two. He will now become Leader of the Commons.

There will now be one Cabinet minister for Europe and one for the rest of the world.

Geoff Hoon has been given the Europe job and Margaret Beckett the brief for the rest of the world.

John Prescott has been spared the humilation of being sacked but his departmental responsibilities have been taken away.

The first changes to the Cabinet were announced by Downing Street after a string of ministers paraded into No 10.

They came after a bloody night for Labour at the polls as they surrendered more than 250 council seats in their worst electoral performance since Tony Blair took office.

The defeats in contests in 176 councils in England also followed some of the worst weeks of Mr Blair's premiership.

The highest price was paid by Mr Clarke, who had presided over the foreign prisoners fiasco.

Mr Blair's official spokesman made clear he had been fired.

He issued a statement from the Prime Minister saying: "I felt it was very difficult, given the level of genuine public concern, for Charles to continue in this post.

"I was keen not to lose Charles' talents from Government and offered him a number of other Cabinet posts.

"I understand his decision to leave the Government and he will continue to be a major figure in our party."

Mr Blair also praised him as a "tower of strength" after the July 7 bombings.

http://channels.aolsvc.co.uk/news/article.adp?id=20060505054009990013

Blackleaf

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is sacked and Defence Secretary Dr John Reid is the new Home Secretary. English voters made sure that he got the sack after he let foreign criminals loose on Britain's streets.

Des Browne becomes Britain's new Defence Secretary.
----------------

Democracy at work: Charles "Jug Ears" Clarke is no longer Home Secretary after English voters got rid of him.

Election results at 10.09am: Conservative 65, Labour 24, Liberal Democrat 13, Other 59

Charles Clarke has been sacked from the Government. The under fire Home Secretary lost his job this morning in Tony Blair's Cabinet reshuffle.

It comes following a dismal night for Labour at the local elections polls and a week of criticism over Clarke's handling of the foreign prisoners deportation fiasco.

Mr Clarke - not seen going into No 10 today - made clear his feelings.

He said: "The Prime Minister, as is his right and responsibility, has made the judgment that my continued occupation of the post of Home Secretary is likely to stand in the way of continued reform that remains necessary.

Mr Clarke added he did not agree with Mr Blair's decision but "entirely accepted his right to make it".

Shamed Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has managed to cling onto his position despite revelations of his affair with secretary Tracey Temple.

He will, however, lose his departmental responsibilities.

Mr Blair's spokesman said this had been discussed by the two men 12 months ago.

Mr Prescott will chair a "series of major Cabinet committees to deliver the efficient development of Government policy", said the spokesman.

He will also continue international work, with a focus on burgeoning economies such as China, and work on the environment in co-operation with the new Environment Secretary - yet to be appointed.

The reshuffle also saw Foreign Secretary Jack Straw demoted. He is now the new Leader of the House of Commons.

Mr Straw's move was said to have come after he made it clear to Mr Blair that after years at the Home Office and then the Foreign Office he wanted a different role.

Mr Straw will also have responsibility for House of Lords reform, party funding, and will chair the Cabinet's Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who has in recent weeks come under fire over comments she made about the NHS enjoying its best ever year, keeps her job.

Former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has been appointed the new Secretary of Europe while Margaret Beckett is now minister with Responsibility for the Rest of the World.

John Reid will become the new Home Secretary.

Tessa Jowell keeps her job as Culture Minister, and Peter Hain remains Welsh Secretary.

Jacqui Smith replaces Hilary Armstrong as the new Labour chief whip.

John Hutton will remain Minister for Work and Pensions.

It was confirmed that Hazel Blears has become party chairman, Alistair Darling is moving to the DTI and Alan Johnson is the new education secretary.

Ruth Kelly, who was the education secretary, is to take over some of John Prescott's responsibilities covering communities and local government. The department will be renamed and restructured.

The promotion to Defence Secretary of Des Browne, a staunch ally of the Chancellor, will be seen as further evidence of the emergence of a Brownite court in the Government.

Cabinet ministers were called to an hour-long meeting with Tony Blair this morning to find out if they would keep their jobs following the reshuffle.

The Prime Minister called the meeting after Labour suffered a drubbing in local council elections.

In Labour's worst electoral bloodbath since Mr Blair came to power, the party is expected to have lost more than 250 councillors across England as well as control of more than a dozen town halls.

Meanwhile, jubilant Conservatives were claiming that they were set to break through the 40 per cent level in overall share of the vote and gain well over 200 seats.

Supporters of David Cameron hailed the result as a vindication of his decision to reshape the party since he won the leadership last December.

The disastrous results led to calls from Labour backbenchers for Mr Blair to set out a timetable to hand over the premiership to his presumed successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown.

dailymail.co.uk

Babygael

Guid oan yer Englant! Only ae madman wuid let loose dangerous criminals oan the streets,regardless if they be foreign or no.

Bring back yon block

BG

Aventinian

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe these criminals had already served their time in prison...

SLG