Friday, May 02, 2008

Friday Afternoon Live Blog



New thread about to start...

6.25 Fraser Nelson: "What strikes me is not just the scale of the results - although Labour's loss of 295 seats and Tory gains of almost 400 is certainly an unalloyed disaster. It's the way Cabinet members have nothing to say apart from "yes, really bad." The way Brown uttered some junk from the safety of No10 while Cameron toured his triumphant seats. The way rebels like Salter say it's their fault for not being so active. Labour just look and sound like a defeated party, like the fight has left them. And with zero leadership, no wonder."

6.18 Sky News and the BBC have very different figures for council seats gained and lost. I think this is because the BBC is not including the new Unitary Authority seats but Sky are.

6.17 Darren Lilleker, bless him, likes what I have been doing for the last 24 hours. Glad to be of service, matey.

6.01 Four Con gains in Newport in Welsh Wales.

5.47 You've got to laugh. LabourHome: Cameron Can't Win on This Performance.

5.34 The ferrets are at work. Read this quote from Derek Wyatt, MP for a key Kent marginal... "We have to clear out the crap in the cabinet. If he (Gordon) does not do that, to be honest we are not going to recover. He has until the conference season and if he is still 24 per cent down in the polls, the party will have to take some pretty brave decisions. The party is pretty stressed. It took a long time for Gordon Brown to say sorry for the 10p tax decision. I am a Labour man who believes in helping poorer people. If we do that once more, we will have had it."

5.05 From a correspondent... "Have been listening to BBC News via the Internet for much of the day - if I hear one more Labour MP saying that people will now start scrutinising the Tories more thoroughly, I'm going to scream. Couldn't these robotic idiots make it a bit less obvious that they've all had the same briefing notes?" Why on earth don't political interviewers pick them up on this?

5.04 It never rains... "Just had a text from my daughter: “Ken Livingstone was overheard saying: “Oh dear, I’m out of cash” near a cashpoint in Stratford yesterday”

5.01 Nine Tory gains in Denbighshire. Tory elected in Rhondda Cynon Taff

4.48 I have just had an email from MORI with a lengthy document on the London elections. I could now say some very unkind things, but you know what a charitable person I am. I don't wish to intrude on private grief.

4.35 EXCLUSIVE: It's a Two Horse Race! These are the Crewe & Nantwich provisional share of the vote figures...

Cons 31.15%
Labour 31.8%
LD 18.70%
Others: 18.35%

Now if that doesn't make this a tasty by-election, I don't know what does!

4.32 With 25% of the vote counted, GLA Member Brian Coleman looks set to double his majority.

4.29 Former Badger worrier Ron Davies has been elected to Caerphilly Council.

4.21 Sky reporting that the Mayoral count could go on until the early hours.

4.20 Two Conservative gains from the LibDems in Harrogate.

4.19 Two BNP councillors are ousted in Epping Forest.

4.07 For every one seat the LibDems have gained, the Conservatives have gained ten. That's something LibDems might want to think about when they are crowing about how well they have done. Not.

4.06 Just done a phone interview with a French newspaper about David Cameron. Interesting that I am getting a lot of foreign journalists ringing me nowadays wanting to talk about the Conservatives.

3.42 Seven Tory gains in Wakefield

3.41 Will on the BBC World Service at 5pm and Radio Kent between 5 and 6.

3.37 Dizzy reckons that just because the BNP are paranoid someone should be out to get them.

3.26 COMMENTING on the latest results in the local government elections, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan MP and Welsh Conservative Assembly leader Nick Bourne AM said: “This election has been a triumph for the Welsh Conservatives and an unmitigated disaster for Labour. While Welsh Conservatives have won seats on councils in every part of Wales Labour has been in meltdown. These results should serve as a warning to Labour MPs and Labour Assembly Members. “The impressive Welsh Conservative gains across the country send a clear message ahead of the next General and Assembly elections - no Labour seat in Wales is safe. People across Wales have said they’ve had enough of Labour, enough of higher council tax, enough of crumbling schools, enough of longer hospital waiting lists, and enough of the rising cost of living. These results are a disaster for Plaid Cymru too. They lost control in their heartlands and failed to make any significant inroads elsewhere... We fielded a record number of candidates at this election – and we’re on course to win a record number of councillors. Welsh Conservatives have won more votes and more seats at every national election in Wales since 1999. That impressive record has continued today. We have won seats from Labour and Plaid Cymru, we have won seats from the Liberals and the independents. We have won more seats in urban areas and in rural Wales. We have won in the valleys and on the coast. Labour’s stranglehold on Welsh local government has been broken forever. The Welsh Conservative Party is a serious force in local politics in Wales.”

3.25 Danny Finkelstein has a London rumours page. Well worth a look.

3.23 Guido Fawkes has been searching the Situations Vacant columns.

3.18 From my source at a London count: "There are a depressing number of spoilt ballot papers - mainly thanks to the complexity of the mayoral vote and the lack of clarity in the instructions to voters. I would say the majority of accidentally spoilt ballot papers are left of centre - with quite a few trying to give livingstone and paddick both thier first preference votes. However, there are also quite a few johnson and winston spolit votes. Some are deliberately spolit - with a few obscene comments, and others such as 're-open nominations', 'voting is a sham', and 'for the love of god - stop!' The actual figures for spolit ballot papers will be interesting. I suspect it will be a high percentage, with the majority of those being for the mayoral (as opposed to gla) contest."

3.12 Alan Duncan was excellent on Sky just now. In fact, I haven't seen a bad performance yet by a Tory spokesman today.

3.11 That was a joke, by the way.

2.59 A plane has been spotted at RAF Northolt ready and waiting to take Ken Livingstone into exile in Venezuela.

2.58 Labour gain Slough from NOC. What's that all about then?

2.57 Dizzy has further evidence of lower turnout in inner London boroughs.

2.49 Crewe North, also 2 Tory, 1 Labour. Augurs well...

2.48 In France it is St Boris's Day today. An omen?

2.45 Result from Crewe West, which is a three member ward - 2 Con, 1 Lab.

2.43 My fellow Hammer Tony McNulty is on Sky trotting out the "we must have more scrutiny of Tory policies" line. Is it me, or is that just a bit on the weak side?

2.42 One of the count officials in London has just (in jest) announced the winner of the mayoral contest - it is Robert Mugabe!

2.40 Chester & West Chester. C – 53, Lab – 13, LibDem 3. Think that one's ours too :)

2.39: My rather mildly worded CommentIsFree piece is causing the usual nutter comments. My favourite one is from someone who denies that there has been any poll in the last few weeks showing a Tory lead of more than 5%. The leftists are in complete denial, aren't they?

2.30 EXCLUSIVE: Huge news from Cheshire for the new Unitary authority (so hated by Gwineth Dunwoody). Results so far. 41 Conservatives, 7 LibDem, 3 Others (local group – Middlewich First). No results for any Crewe wards or Nantwich yet

2.26 Jonathan Isaby has spoken to Stanley Johnson, who confirms my story below!

2.25 Let's remember that one fifth of the 230 Tory gains so far have come from Wales.
A lot of people deserve a lot of credit.

2.24 Welsh Tories are hyper-ventiliating. Another 8 gains in Conwy.

2.22 Two by elections in Tower Hamlets last night. Labour gain one from the LibDems and the Tories won on the Isle of Dogs.

2.21 Inside info from the London counts...

City and East GLA seat: Labour leading 65:35
Greenwich and Lewisham: Labour leading 60:40
Bexley and Bromley: Con leading 80:20
Croydon & Sutton: Con leading 65:35

Livingstone running marginally ahead of GLA candidates, but only by 2%

2.20 Just received: "A friend who works in the Scotland Office was at the Excell Centre monitoring the electronic counting of votes to see how it was going (The Scotland Office is interested based on how badly things wen with electronic voting in Scotland). What they told me was that due to a lack of Tory agents large numbers of valid Boris papers were being classed as invalid. There are plenty of Labour people there." This is deeply worrying, if true. Why hasn't the Conservative Party got enough agents there to scrutinise properly?

2.18 Tony Sharp explains the Labour implosion in Crawley.

1.57. Wow. Yesterday the Conservatives had no councillors in Powys. Now they have nine. Go Matt Lane!

1.56 4 gains in Pembrokeshire push the Conservatives through 200 net gains, with more to come.

1.39 The count at Olympia is only 25% complete. Very slow.

1.38 Sky have London turnout at 45%. This is good for the Tories because it means that turnout in inner London must have been much lower than in the outer Tory boroughs.

1.37 Phil Taylor has news of a narrow Tory victory in an Ealing Council by election.

1.36 Brent and Harrow Gla seat, Bob Blackman is only marginally ahead.

1.29 Ken is ahead decisively in the North East London count - by as much as thirty per cent on first prefs.

1.26 Barnet and Camden mayoral first prefs Boris twenty per cent (approx) ahead.

1.25 Enfield and Haringey mayoral first prefs Boris about five per cent ahead of Ken.

1.13 Solihull is confirmed as a Conservative gain.

1.12 LibDems have overall majority in Sheffield of 6. The Conservatives lost their only councillor.

1.11 Incoming Labour General Secretary David Pitt-Watson confirms he will not be taking the post after all. He refused to take legal liability for Labour's finances. A bad day just got worse for Gordon.

12.59 Hot rumour is that Conservatives take control of Solihull and Redditch. Bye bye Jacqui Smith.

12.45 I'm not getting much news at all from the London count(s). Why not?!

96 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe Ken's doing a Mugabe?!

Anonymous said...

When do we see the Dale v Portillo video? I'm afraid I turned off in despair after Portillo, unchallenged, talked about how strange it was for David Cameron to prop Boris up as his candidate "after sacking him from the shadow cabinet". Er, no, Michael, that was his predecessor Michael Howard!

(Okay it wasn't really enough to make me turn it off. It was the cowboy segment that was too much for me.)

Anonymous said...

Eletronic counting. Takes time to get some results. We should get some GLA results by 3pm

http://www.londonelects.com/results.aspx

Mulligan said...

Unfortunately we have to wait 2 years before we can say goodbye to the real culprits like our hapless Home Secretary.

Anonymous said...

Aren't you watching the Beeb ? It has repeated the view [from J. Landale] that in the 14 counts for which there is information, BoJo is ahead in 10 of them...

But then they could save themselves a bit of time - PaddyPower are already paying out for Boris winning !!

John said...

Hello from the Outer Hebrides.

Some useful resources for London residents/voters in this blog posting.

See you soon.

Anonymous said...

I thin it is all a fix. There was no eixt poll. So how do we know the neocons have noy just fixed so it they can rid of the current PM. As they did in the 2000 elections and 2005 elections in the USA. Asprooved by Greg Palast who proved the necons stole 2004. Why was their no exit poll? Why were 3000 votes destroyed in tower hamelts. Why did one labour voting area run of ballot papers.
Well done London one fewer working class whote white running England well done. As Scot all I can say you must really hate. working clas people running you.

Anonymous said...

They are now suggesting a turn-out of only 45% in London. What happened to the earlier predictions of up to 75%?

Can anyone see a big bonfire in or around London?

BOF2BS said...

Comment on political betting - any contacts Iain


Am I the only person who is deeply frustrated that the live Mayoral tallies - which can be seen at the counts and by BBC reporters - are not available online? Why doesn’t Sky train a camera on them and run a live feed?
by Don May 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Anonymous said...

Dave Cameron has just referred to his party on sky as the "modern conservatives"

Are they now the "mod cons"

Anonymous said...

I doubt that the announcement of David Pitt-Watson's decision has really made Broon's day any worse. He (and we) have known for some time Pitt-Watson wasn't going to take the job.

The spin-meisters have put the story out today in the expectation that the story will be buried by the news from the local elections.

Bill Quango MP said...

Sky news says "if this was a general election the Tories would have achieved ALL their top 10 target seats"

Nice.

Anonymous said...

Labour, the lying bastards, have been stuffed. I shall celebrate by cleaning out the chicken house. It stinks in there, but it will be as nothing to the sweet smell of a victory over the egregious and putrid bogie man.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for Anne Smith in Sheffield but this is Clegg's constituency and he's done the dinner party circuit very well. However with a few boundary changes this constituency is there for the taking at a General. C'mon Sheff Tories get your act together!

Bill Quango MP said...

dirty europeasocialist said... I can say you must really hate. working clas people running you.

you can't keep up this 'poor injured working class hero against the rich act DES.
In case you hadn't noticed the poor have spoken. They said 'Piss Off'

if you don't like it just go to labourhome. over there its a big victory for Labour.

JuliaM said...

I think 'dirtyeuropeansocialist' has a sticky keyboard. What has he been up to...? :)

Anonymous said...

I'm chuffed that the Geordies of North Tyneside have gone Conservative!

Anonymous said...

JuliaM . Rude bully. You must have a low IQ and some defects to make comments like that to someone. Have you got a low mental age.

Bill Quango MP Once again another willy related post where you ask me to Piss off No thanks. I am not a tory cabinet man. I do spew out piss all time. The working and middle class of England must hate themslves. they have voted out one of the few English working class men who run the UK. As scot i laught at how much you hate your own people. Well donde the english are obvuously not competent enough to run their own country.

Anonymous said...

That Question Time exchange between Littlejohn and Toynbee is pure gold.

He was right...she did start it!

Old BE said...

Surely electronic counting should be very quick otherwise what is the point?

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that DirtyEuropeanSocialist must have hit the sauceboat this morning.

Obviously drowning his sorrows.

That's a slippery slope luv - don't do it.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that DirtyEuropeanSocialist must have hit the sauceboat this morning.

Obviously drowning his sorrows.

That's a slippery slope luv - don't do it.

Anonymous said...

Smashed through the +200 seat mark !!!

Benny said...

Is PB down for anyone else?

Anonymous said...

DES - stop spending so much time with your whippets and learn how to write basic English.

And get that coal out of your bath.

Anonymous said...

dirtyeuropeansocialist really has hit rock bottom now. DES - there really is nothing good you could possibly spin out of today's events - why don't you just take a break from commenting. Maybe pop down the shops and get a new keyboard ... and a dictionary. Roget's Thesaurus might also help to make your outpourings a little less monotonous.

Anonymous said...

Now the difficult part comes - making sure the next Conservative government is actually conservative:

- taking our country back from Brussels
- cutting taxes when possible
- ending the bullying, bossy nanny state
- providing decently for our armed forces.

There's no point in a 300-seat Tory mejority if all we do is ape New Labour.

Anonymous said...

dirty:

"I do spew out piss all time."

ho ho!

Anonymous said...

where can the current totals from the london count be viewed?

Anonymous said...

sherlock Do you LOL.
vervet My keyboard works. I am not spinning i am merely pointing out why was there no exit poll. It is democratic right there should an exit poll. To prevent corruption. Especially with conn that is electronic voting, which i in no way trusy. Especially when it has been found 3000 votes were destroyed in muslim rich tower hamelts. People have a right to look at the issues.
Explain how convenient it is that 3000 votes are destoyed in alargely muslim council. Wht?
Are you seriouslt telling me that if Barnet had 3000 votes destoyed you would not find that a bit odd.

Benny said...

Iain, I remember you saying about how many extra tory candidates were being deployed in Wales. This seems to have worked to their advantage tremendously.

I'm a proud tory in Wales :D

Anonymous said...

can i be pedantic

there are no GLA seats, there are only London Assembly seats.

GLA stands for Greater London Authority. the assembly is called the London Assembly and not Greater London Assembly so it is not abbreviated to GLA and so confuse it with the the executive branch.

Anonymous said...

(Re: 2.30 blog about Cheshire Unitary)

*Which* Cheshire unitary? :)

Anonymous said...

Newport, S Wales curently 12 Con; 18 Lab; 6 LibDem; 1 indie; 1 Plaid. Areas o/s look more likely to go Con or LibDem, probably LibDem.

Anonymous said...

If London elects Boris you will vbe the laughing stock of Europe.

Anonymous said...

Politics home reporting 333 losses for Labour

Anonymous said...

Two things: one, I've just got a really nasty feeling about London - not the way the votes were cast, but the way they'll be counted.

Two, why are the Beeboids and others letting the mindless ones blame it all on economics, 10p tax etc? I haven't heard anyone ask a direct question about GB's leadership (zip), personal authority (ditto), integrity (ha!), credibility etc. None of them is pointing out that actually no-one likes, trusts or feels any kind of affinity with Brown. This is the big difference with 1990 etc for the Tories: after Major took over, the Tories got a hard time on the doorstep in 1992, but it was because people trusted (hoped) that Major was a decent bloke, that they would listen and try to sharpen up. OK, Black Wednesday screwed up that little plan, but the fact is that Major was fighting Kinnochio, not Blair.

Brown's problem is that he hasn't got a single likeable gene in his body.

Anonymous said...

Your mate McNulty seems to be a bit off-message. I thought the Labour line was that the Tories didn't have any policies, so how can they be scrutinised?

Anonymous said...

I don't know why you didn't publish my comment about Tessa Joweell last night. It was true, if a little nasty. Surely you didn't feel upset on her behalf?

Are you sure you are not now subconsciously self-censoring now you are seen frequently on the MSM?

Anonymous said...

Love the thought of Labour losing Crewe and Nantwich and the council results indicate the Tories are doing well there. The unseemly haste with which they called this by-election might just come back and bite them in the back-side.

Iain Dale said...

I don't recall deleting a single comment last night. Most of the time I didn't even have time to look at them before I approved them.

Anonymous said...

If the 10% tax hike did it this time around then we have the Stealth Car Tax rise coming along in a year's time.

BTW Bean's U-turn on the 10% tax is no such thing - most on low income will still end up getting shafted.

Adrian said...

Cheshire East currently Con 45 LD 7 Lab 2 Ind 3

I'm with Gwyneth on this one - I'll even vote Tory in the GE if they promise to get rid of these new authorities.

Benny said...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bo5ABjnkBgA

You're famous Iain!

Anonymous said...

Iain, your twitters are starting to provide more amusement than your main blog.

Alex said...

St Boris' Day?:

Err. not quite. Boris was a saint of the Orthodox Church and they use the Julian calendar so their feast days are a few days off from ours. Then Boris actually changed his name to Romanus, so it would be saint Romanus, and finally it isn't his feast day, but the date of the celebration of the translation of the relics of Boris and Gleb, princes of Russia.

Apart from all that, spot on.

Anonymous said...

Please post more about London - there must be some inside info out there or just speculation would do... I want to know!!!

Anonymous said...

why are there no provisional London results? The "londonelects" website is a disgrace. I just wanted to slap that idiot emma cassidy when she was on bbc to tell us what a fantastic job they were doing when in an alledgedly digital age the best they could do was point a camera at a website which wasnt generally available. who do these arrogant w******s think owns this election? no dont tell me i think i know the answer.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else noticed that despite SKY showing that Labour are 300 seats down an hour ago, the BBC have yet to update their board to reflect this...never underestimate the power of denial

Anonymous said...

The reason for Slough bucking the national trend? Electoral fraud by the Tory deputy mayor:

http://www.thisisslough.com/live/stories/story.php?story_id=3362

It had been predicted before the election that Labour would win as a result of this, so it's no surprise.

Anonymous said...

Talk about some of the left in denial: pop over to YouTube, type in "Monty Python Black Knight" and enjoy watching the hubristic Nu Labour spin as the Black Knight has all his limbs cut off while insisting "It's just a scratch". Classic. They just don't know when it's all over.

Anonymous said...

I've just returned trying to traverse the QE2 bridge at Dartford which was closed. It was rumoured there was a jumper on the bridge.

Anyone know the whereabouts of Gordon Brown?

Bill Quango MP said...

DES I did not for mean you to Piss off. read again.I merely meant to express the views of the people of UK towards Mr Bean.

I encouraged you to go to Labourhome. You will feel much better there, They know how to look after like minders with lots of soothing reports of holding Tyneside and gaining a seat in Feltham. It will help you to calm down. I believe they are even linking to calming youtube vids of Atlee and Bevan and there is a gallery of pictures of mining towns and steel mills from the 1940's.
All very very reassuring.
Just stay there for a bit..

But for the sake of your health don't switch on SKY news or BBC..or C4.

really, it could tip you over the edge. They are saying a number of seats lost.
It got a three in it. But it isn't three.

Anonymous said...

Your correspondent in the ExCel is talking out of his backside. Labour activists are nowhere to be seen, there's a few Tories about. Truth be told it's all so bloody slow, and it's so incredibly difficult for count staff to muck it up, there's nothing really worth seeing. At any rate no-one's votes are going in the wrong piles.

Sir Humphrey said...

The results in Crewe aren't s bad for Labour as was expected. No voter Id for laour there though, so it's all about watching which ballot boxes appear to show the support.

Anonymous said...

There's the risk with a chronological blog that someone might be reading it in the normal top to bottom.

3.12 Alan Duncan was excellent on Sky just now. In fact, I haven't seen a bad performance yet by a Tory spokesman today.

3.11 That was a joke, by the way.

DES -the dreadful news seems to have given you a stroke, poor man. Try taking plenty less fluids. Hopefully Ken's Newt will be tomorrow's headline as well.

Anonymous said...

3.26 Cheryl Gillan MP "While Welsh Conservatives have won seats on councils in every part of Wales Labour has been in meltdown."

Currently, in Wales

Labour 261 seats
Conservative 138 seats.

Someone should explain to Cherry Gillan what 'meltdown' means.

Anonymous said...

monsieur le blogger speaks to monsieur le frogger

Anonymous said...

Someone on The Telegraph's Your View wrote that he was looking forward to Brown's resignation and suicide.

While agreeing with the concept, I wondered about the niceties of the protocol. I mean, is a resignation letter necessary when the suicidee has just resigned so dramatically not just from the job, but from life? It strikes me that a resignation letter under these circumstances would be de trop to the point of actually being in bad taste.

I wonder what Miss Manners would think.

Anonymous said...

"Sky reporting that the Mayoral count could go on until the early hours"

...followed by Boris supporters being beaten up and election officials arrested for not getting the "right" result.

In his way, Ken always was a despot and a tyrant. He has never taken to open governance or scrutiny by committee. He was a one-off, an anachronistic side-effect of what I hope we shall soon call "The bad old days of NuLabour".

It looks wonderfully as if Gordon will stay on and lead Labour to a devastating general election defeat.

Sir Humphrey said...

Two more lib dem gains?

They're taking seats left right and centre, which is incidentally also their political stance.

Anonymous said...

"4.21 Sky reporting that the Mayoral count could go on until the early hours."

Why? This isn't Harare is it?

Anonymous said...

RE your post at 4.07pm, Iain, it's not so much that LibDems are crowing about gains, so much as we object to the BBC portraying it as a bad night for us:

- our number of cllrs and councils are both up

- we have beaten the party of government for only the second time in our history

- in several southern seats, where we were meant to be doomed (e.g. Cheltenham and Colchester), we have seen off the Tories

- we remain the only opposition to Labour in several northern cities where there are still no Tories

- our vote share is well above our poll ratings (whilst the Tory vote share is within the current range)

I guess when the results don't match the BBC's narrative then they just ignore them.

Mostly Ordinary said...

I like Brian P but he's just made himself look an absolute cock on Sky suggesting London's will be asking what Boris knows about them - would these be the same Londoners that look like they voted him in?

Anonymous said...

Just seen Paddick on Sky claiming that Londoners can't possibly identify with Boris or be represented by him because he went to a public school and has a big house.

Be interesting to see what his reaction would be if some BNP idiot claimed that a gay man couldn't reperesent straight voters.

Anonymous said...

4.29 Former Badger worrier Ron Davies has been elected to Caerphilly Council.........
My God the sheep are going to be worried in Wales.

Anonymous said...

BAD NEWS FOR TORIES!

Labour are going to stick with the urbane, nimble-witted, charismatic, slightly sexy, self-deprecating, silver-tongued economic wizard and all-round intellectual genius who now presides over the happy team of workers at No.10 and has proved such a tower of strength over the last few months.

Anonymous said...

"It's a Two Horse Race! These are the Crewe & Nantwich provisional share of the vote figures...
Cons 31.15%
Labour 31.8%
LD 18.70%
Others: 18.35%
Now if that doesn't make this a tasty by-election, I don't know what does!"

Careful Iain - we are in danger of walking ourselves into an other 'Ealing Southall' of unrealistic expectations. Just like Southall, Crewe and Nantwich constantly voted Labour right through the 80s. If we get our by-election team in order there's a slim outside chance of win, but my money is firmly on a Labour hold.

Anonymous said...

RE your stats on Crewe & Nantwich...

If they are right, the LibDems only need a 6.6% swing to win, so we're certainly in the running.

Anonymous said...

"4.21 Sky reporting that the Mayoral count could go on until the early hours."

Plenty of extra time for the shredders to go into overdrive at city hall.

weggis said...

Yawn!
What's the forecast for tomorrow's result at old Trafford?
Will you be live blogging the Premiership?
At least we will know what the bloody scores are!

Anonymous said...

I had forgotten about those polls. Yes, YouGov right... yet again.

Anonymous said...

'4.48 I have just had an email from MORI with a lengthy document on the London elections. I could now say some very unkind things, but you know what a charitable person I am. I don't wish to intrude on private grief.'

Oh go on....please do

Anonymous said...

so the Returning Officer says 8.30pm earliest and therefore probably 11pm earliest - if anything is disputed perhaps another very long night and a lot of spoilt plans, what a shambles - can we get Mugabe in to advise on how to do it properly

Anonymous said...

Np PM has ever come back form mid term blues. We are in trouble. No chance of victory.

Anonymous said...

This truly is an orgy of smugness. Iain, you do you and your party a disservice by crowing in such an ungracious fashion. I'd thought it was possible to show politeness and respect towards those of a different political persuasion to your own. This appears to be too much to ask.

Mostly Ordinary said...

So is this when Gordon sits down and takes all the controversial issues of the table; ID cards, detention without trail, yet more feul tax. The worst that's going to happen is the Tories are going to hammer him for a few weeks and he can say 'I listened' he could then lay low play a quite game.

David Lindsay said...

When are the London media going to wise up to the fact that not everywhere in the North of England is a Labour stronghold?

They should be asking the Tories how they ever lost control of somewhere like Bury or North Tyneside (which is largely Tynemouth) in the first place, and why they are not even the largest party on the new unitary authority in Northumberland.

But they won't.

Just as, last year, they didn't ask the Tories how they had ever lost of control of Dover, Rugby, Windsor & Maidenhead, South Norfolk, Chester, or the East Riding of Yorkshire in the first place.

And just as, in 2005, they didn't ask the Tories how they had ever lost such parliamentary seats as Guildford and Wimbledon in the first place.

Tynemouth (Curly 15, take note) might as well be Guildford or Wimbledon.

Anonymous said...

meanwhile over on a Guardian blog the "berry" vs. "burry" debate has been raging but now resolved firmly in favour of "burry".

http://tinyurl.com/5zbbbo

Anonymous said...

Labour Home doesn't have the junk mail story on the front page as you imply.

Their front page stories are:

*We gained seats in St helens & Liverpool

*Crewe and Nantwich By-election - No AWS
NEC Selection process has started!

*Reshuffle speculation

I think you lower yourself Iain when you slip into this propagandistic tone, but it does perhaps show how the Conservatives intend to operate once in office. Despite all their allegations about NL spin.

You are normally very readable but I hate it when you score cheap points.

Anonymous said...

Jon Craig says Crewe and Nantwich is better for the Tories than you said Iain http://adamboulton.typepad.com/

Anonymous said...

Anyone know why Sky News and Beeb figure for gains/losses differ so wildly?

Who do we take as definitive?

For instance:
Sky: +294/-395 Con/Lab
BBC: +256/-331 Con/Lab

The Military Wing Of The BBC said...

I don't understand the logistics of the London count.

Why is counted today not on the night?
Why is the electric count taking so long?
Why are there rumours of ballot box seals being broken overnight?
Who is checking at the count, and who looked after the boxes overnight?
None of the ballot papers were folded - why is it taking so long?
Were there any international obsevers at the process

It all gives the feel that this is not government of the people by the people for the people.

Its a damed good job the swing is so large, otherwise ....

Anonymous said...

I forgot to say thank you for such an entertaining and informative election blog.

It has been so much more fun than the BBC and there have been some first class comments.

My comment about Tessa Jowell seems to have gotten lost, but it was something to the effect that she looked like a bulldog licking wee wee off a nettle. In fact all the Labour talking heads did. They looked shocked and done for. The rest looked like the proverbial rabbit caught in the headlights and it was no surprise that they only had lies and pathetic excuses to fall back on.

Whichever way you look at it, and I remind others that I am not a Tory, the Tories won and Labour lost. They are now trying to make out that the Devil made them do it. All respect, not that there was any, drained away from Nulabour last night. Hopefully Boris will stick the thousandth cut in by the end of today.

The Military Wing Of The BBC said...

Iain
The BBC have been repeating all day that this is the worst Labour result for 40 years.

Can this be true? Surely in the 60's (when the liberals were tiny) Harold Wilson did not see his share fall below 24% in a 2 horse race.

Isn't the reality that this is the lowest Labour share since the 1st World War?

Anonymous said...

David 5:17 writes some etiquette advice: "I'd thought it was possible to show politeness and respect towards those of a different political persuasion to your own. This appears to be too much to ask."

I agree! It was frightfully rude of us to bomb Hitler. And to go to the S Atlantic and pummel the Argies to bits. I thought we had learned a lesson in courtesy when dealing with people with destructive, dictatorial political tendencies. LIke the socialists, for example.

Anonymous said...

With all the results now in, Sky (and Politics Home) have very different figures to the BBC for seats won/lost. Any idea why?

Anonymous said...

"meanwhile over on a Guardian blog the "berry" vs. "burry" debate has been raging but now resolved firmly in favour of "burry"."

I don't accept that. "Burry" is how it is pronounced by the locals. Everyone else calls it "berry".

If we take local pronunciations as definitive then
"Harrow" should become "Arrer"
"Hammersmith" "Ammersmiff"
"Southwark" - "Suvk"
etc.

haddock said...

The predicted share of the vote figures are as calculated in the early hours of this morning; does anyone have the real results now that all results are in.
Colour me cynical but the BBC would only stick to the 44% figure for so long if the real figure was higher, if it were lower it would have been updated immediately.

Anonymous said...

To all those who say we should show a little decorum and not crow over our opponents, I say:

COCK-A-DOODLE-BLEEDING-DOO!!!!

Anonymous said...

I have just heard for the fourth time the BBC inform us that 'Brown is going to listen and learn' Sorry, but if you take the lowest tax level away from the lowest earners, there's not exactly a lot to learn is there? Those affected will not like you for doing this and those unaffected will despise you for robbing from the poorest to their advantage as it causes them to be part of something that they would never stoop to in their normal daily lives.

Cameron must continue to not gloat over this wonderful day, but seriously consider what his proposals must be to right all Brown's wrongs. He must think all proposals through - something Brown appears unable to do - and strive at all times to be fair and reasonable to everyone.

Anonymous said...

anon 6.30pm
I'm not sure I agree with your analysis but even a quick look back at the Guardian site shows the debate has started up again!

Even the Burymen seem divided on the issue. Something about "yonners" whatever they are.

I dont have Sky but apparently while the Beeb was saying "Berry" , Sky was saying "Burry".

But

Alderburgh
Norwich
Worcester
Leicester...

Laban said...

Maybe the count is slow because Ken's doing a Mugabe :

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-summers-guardian-today.html

"In an impassioned speech delivered at the Regents Park Mosque last week, Mr Livingstone denounced the 'British imperialists and their agents in this our city' before calling on his young militants, the so-called "war on terror veterans", to "smash the white colonialists once and for all". Two days later, in a sinister development, several articulated lorries containing what are described as "a few bits and pieces we forgot to decommission" left Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh, for London following a deal struck between Mr Livingstone and border farmer Mr Thomas 'Slab' Murphy. Trade unionists at Heysham have refused to unload the vehicles, and the vessel carrying them left last night for an undisclosed destination.

The Tory party headquarters was raided just before Mr Johnson was to hold a press conference about the rising number of abductions and beatings of opposition activists by squads of armed men loyal to Mr Livingstone."

Anonymous said...

Thank's Iain. A most excellent and bodacious (C bill & ted) bit of blogging. All the news that matters. Politics with humour and real intelligence. Bye bye looney left councils, bye bye Ken Livingstalin and Trafalgar err red square and Londograd. The only thing that would make this week perfect is 2 nil over the prawn sandwich eaters tomorrow.

Andrew (Claret and BLUE!)

Anonymous said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7377968.stm

BBC's interactive map where you can leave your marker in the political colour of the mayoral candidate you believe rill win.

If the link doesn't work, find it half way down the front page of the BBc News online website

Anonymous said...

.
Boris may be a buffoon, but at least he's not a communist one.

Bloody good news! Praise the Lord! Thank God! There is hope for Londonistan. What will Red Ken do next?

:)

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
elect a communist

someone who will work full-time
to destroy your country

.
http://haltterrorism.com

http://lulu.com/uspace
.