04.22
Right, think I am going to call it a night now. I don't think I can stand listening to Harriet Harman any longer. Sarah Teather is such an appalling performer for the LibDems. Thanks for the company - 18 Doughty Street will be back on air at 10am to have continuous live coverage throughout the morning and afternoon.
04.21 Conservatives gain Preseli. Fantastic.
04.14
Very odd result in Nottingham. Labour gained 5 seats from the LibDems. Conservatives unchanged.
04.11
I cannot believe that the BBC is saying a 41% vote share for the Conservatives is slightly disappointing. Actually, I can.
04.01
Huge swing to the Conservatives in Bournemouth. Con +24, LibDems -25. Wow.
03.55
Labour lost West Dunfermline to the LibDems - one in the eye for Gordon Brown.
03.54
News from the West Midlands Tories: 11 gains so far in Telford and Wrekin. 3 more still needed for overall control, still could happen. 3 gains so far in Herefordshire.
03.53
A Comment on ConHome from Chris: "In the scale of things, I'd actually say that the results so far are worse for the Lib Dems than they are for Labour. I'm just praying that Ming doesn't get shoved out, fighting Nick Clegg would be a million times harder!" I think I might have more to say on this later today!
03.51
Amazing result in Waverley. It's gone from Conservative 27 LD 28 to Con 49 LD 3 Ind 3
03.39
Result of the night so far. 25 gains in South Ribble for the Tories. LibDems down from 15 seats to 1. A tribute to the campaigning of local PPC Lorraine Fullbrook.
03.36
Ben Brogan reports that in Thurrock a woman teller for Labour ripped off her red rosette, threw it away, and started counting for the Tories.
03.30
Conservatives take control of Malvern Hills from the LibDems
03.29
Conservatives win a third seat on Norwich City Council in the Bowthorpe ward. They haven't had three councillors for more than 20 years. New council is 15 Labour, 11 LibDems, 10 Green and 3 Conservatives.
03.24
If these results translated into a general election Cameron would have a majority of 46 says Sky News
03.22
Conservatives gain Lincoln but lose Thurrock and Salisbury to NOC. Hmmm.
03.18
The Conservatives are only one seat off control of Malvern Hills.
03.17
Delighted that Ben Sherreard has won his seat in Maidstone from the LibDems. I went and delivered a few leaflets for him on Sunday. he's only 22 but will make a fantastic councillor. Well done Ben!
03.15
Looks like Alex Salmond was elected by Tory switchers!
03.14
Greens just fail to move into 2nd place on Norwich Council (by 1 vote) - they get more votes across Norwich South constituency than any other party. Astonishing.
03.10
ConHome reports that there are now 72 councils across the country with no Labour councillor. Tonight Labour have been wiped out in Castle Point, Maldon, Tunbridge Wells, Oswestry and Ribble Valley. Sam Coates asks: Why don't the BBC ever talk about Labour-free zones?
03.07
Alex Salmond wins. An astonishing turnaround for him. He has really grown in stature in this campaign. He doesn't frighten the electoral horses any longer. I think he will be quite a formidable Scottish First Minister.
03.06
Noerth West Leicestershire Con + 15 Labour -16. Amazing result. Almost on a par with Torbay
So much so that he's going to continue to represent Banff & Buchan at Westminster and Gordon at Holyrood as well as being First Minister
ReplyDeleteWell in the end I stopped up. (I drank to much Red Bull yesterday keeping myself awake while working) I have been blogging the West Midlands results and frankly fell of my chair at the Sandwell result. Total failure for the Conservatives. They were supposed to gain seats, with all the scandals on this Labour council the door was wide open and predictions good. In the end Tories lost 2 seats, Labour gained 1 and so did the Lib Dems. On a better note the BNP defied all the official predictions and failed badly.
ReplyDeleteNow where Glenfiddich, I need something to get over the shock.
You're up! I thought you were retiring hurt...
ReplyDeleteBob Pipers friend and fellow ward Cllr also managed to fight off a good Tory campaign. Bob will be pleased
ReplyDeleteNorth West Leichester +15
ReplyDeleteSouth Ribble +24
+ largest party in Birmingham
+550 new councillors on the night
Another "bad night" for the Cons its definitely time Cameroon does the same as IDS 4 years ago.
Tories have failed to capture Stirling despite a great campaign. SNP are going strongly up here; the Labour vote is depressed but not collapsing by any means.
ReplyDeleteHeadlines for tommorrow
ReplyDelete"Corrupt Postal voting system saves corrupt Tone from Humiliation and massive toe up arse as he leaves for a corrupt speaking tour of the USA"
According to the "nolongerTorygraph":
ReplyDelete"Tony Blair is to become a roving ambassador in Africa and the Middle East when he leaves Downing Street in an attempt to rebuild his tarnished reputation."
-Diplomatic immunity?
There's a lot of talk about this not being the worst Labour could have expected - their vote seems to have gone up 1%. But why are no pundits etc addressing the possibility that this is a last gasp result - this is the absolute most Labour can squeeze out...
ReplyDeleteThe assumption made by a lot of the TV pundits seems to be that Labour can build from this. I have a suspicion that this really is all they can muster, and it'll be further downhill from here.
How John Reid and his ilk can sit there saying this isn't anything but a good night for the Conservatives - projected 550 new councillors, 41% of the vote - is beyond me. Share of the vote transfered to a General Election - a Conservative majority of 96-100.
Bournemouth +24
ReplyDeleteStruth
I shall be providing alternative coverage to the Beeb tomorrow on 18 DS. Their *coverage* was way beyond a joke.
ReplyDeleteConservatives are coming close but not close enough in Wales.
ReplyDeleteThey've hammered down some Labour majorities, but each time they've just missed out.
Only gain so far: Plaid Cymru from Labour in Llanelli. And they stormed it.
Rhodri Morgan's majority sliced in half by a 21 year old Conservative.
Thanks for your help Iain. It has been an amazing night. South Ribble will now be known as William G. Stewart!
ReplyDeleteFair play to you. Have given up as well. Watched the BBC coverage while Dimblebore crapped on about 41 percent not being where the Conservatives want to be. Amazing that SKY gets to the point: 46 seat majority...sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteAm South Ribble native (Leyland etc) and can tell you they've divorced Blair. Very traditional area, v high home ownership. Older voters very trad and likely to vote. It's a swing state...results says a lot to me about 2009.
Morrocanroll
Great wins in Preseli and Cardiff North and recounts at 5.30am in Vale of Glamorgan and Carmarthan West and South Pembs. Tory gain in Roxburgh from LDs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a night for we political insominacs.....zzzz
Well it looks like the votes to be counted Friday won't be needed by headline writers. The newspapers are dire this morning - content-free.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that whole areas do not count until today makes all these conclusions somewhat premature
The fact that Labour are left feeling that they have not done badly is actually quite a good result. They are so bloody arrogant that they will believe that there is nothing relly to learn from this election and it it is just a mid term blip. As a result, their direction will not alter all that much.
ReplyDeleteThey are so blind they cannot see what is happening to them around the country. Keep it up Gordon you sad Git.
Well there was no way I was going to give up sleep to wait for UKIP's result! Nice and fresh this morning :-)
ReplyDeleteBest news for me is the failure of the BNP.
Real votes are the only indicators, so clearly it was a very good result for the Tories, not as bad as it could have been for Labour, and a shocker for the LibDems.
Nick Clegg will be quietly pleased this morning...
Whatever the final results of these local elections turn out to be - I don't believe them. There is no doubt in my mind that the 'nasty' socialist party has been BUSY rigging postal and other votes. Shame on the British political system!
ReplyDeleteThe impression I get from the results this morning is a steady gain for the Conservatives - but not yet reaching thresholds in various places to take complete councils.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the swing in number of councillors is outstripping the swing in the number of councils.
I planned on staying up all night, but got bored into submission circa 2ish. Ho hum.
ReplyDeleteIm still going.
ReplyDeleteI stayed up until one o'clock and then tuned in at 6.30 this morning. Lowest point for me was the ludicrous BBC graphics to demonstate any Lib-Dem gains which they called "Ming's Bling." They had an image of Ming in a track suit to remind people of his sporting prowess and then kept saying how he looked like Ali G. Then everytime the Lib-Dems gained, the Ming hologram did a rap dance which Jeremy Vine attempted to emulate. It was toe-curlingly awful.
ReplyDeleteYou asked, Iain,in your previous thread, WTF Andrew Neil was doing presenting on Sky? Pehaps he didn't want to be associated with this dumbed down, juvenile rubbish.
I just wonder what the BBC has in store for us at the general election. Brown's Clowns with Jeremy Vine being hit in the face with a custard pie every time Labour lose a seat?
Sir Robin Day must be turning in his grave.
Horsham, Great result
ReplyDeletewas maj of two now Tories 30 Lib Dems 12 ind 2, Maj 16
Good morning Iain - Its a bright blue dawn in Woking !
ReplyDeleteWoking is Conservative again - we have won back control of the council from the Lib Dems - despite all the high profile visits by Lib Dem MP's and their party political broadcast. The last Conservative majority was 1992. And this in a council were the result went against the running last year in favour of the Lib Dems.
Woking is also now a Labour free zone - though I felt some sympathy with the last Labour councillor to go' who has served well - and been sweeped out of office by the actions of his national party.
Forced myself to try to watch the leftoid crap that is 'Newsnight' but it was full of boring ugly people from Scotland so I fell asleep.
ReplyDeleteSwitched to bbc1 for even more ugly boring people from Scotland, so had a rest and then went to bed for a good sleep.
Radio4 leftoid propaganda this morning is (a) talk about some boring stuff in Scotland, (b) don't mention the counts not yet started, (c) say things don't seem too bad for nulab, (d) another big dose of indoctrination about the global warming scam.
Well all I can say is congratulations on making it to 4.22am. 3am was about my limit I'm afraid!
ReplyDelete"Sarah Teather is such an appalling performer for the LibDems"
ReplyDeleteI knew Sarah quite well at university - she was a close friend of my then girlfriend. She is a really nice person, very clever and pleasant, but utterly ill-suited to being a politician or to being any sort of leader if she ever had a responsible post. Lucky really she's a LibDem, so it's unlikely. I will not comment on her political opinions, as she is certainly no worse than the typical illiberal, undemocratic LibDem.
She always impresses me when speaking, but only because I know what she used to be like, and how hard she must work at it. In absolute terms she is hopeless. LibDems fielding people like her as a spokesman is a sure sign of desperation!
Seems harsh to kick the LD's while they're down, but the score includes a win by the LD councillor in Darlington who signed the nominations papers for his BNP opponent.
ReplyDeleteThey were unable to get this guy's nomination removed from the ballot papers, so they went ahead and campaigned for him anyway (despite "suspending" his party card).
Darlington Borough Council are reporting him as a LibDem winner, and the local LDs seem in no rush to object.
I cannot believe that the BBC is saying a 41% vote share for the Conservatives is slightly disappointing. Actually, I can.
ReplyDeleteSo, what exactly can we expect the Tories do about it when Dave is in Number 10? It's your party that gets the kickings off the Beeb.
Abolish the TV licence!