Chris Whiteside's Blog

 Rishi Sunak has written this in The Times:

"It was great to attend the big protest on Whitehall against anti-Jewish hate and racism.  It was attended by many British Jews but also many many British friends and supporters who are alarmed as we are by the darkening horizon here.   The Chief Rabbi spoke very well.   The biggest and warmest cheers were when Kemi Badenoch took the stage and her unvarnished passionate support for British Jews and against extremism racism calumnies and violence that the community faces.  She really has shown great leadership and courage here.    Thanks to other speakers from Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform. Thanks for everyone who came especially non Jewish friends: you are so appreciated." Simon Sebag Montefiore on yesterday's rally against antisemitism.

"With all 136 English councils counted: Reform gained 1,451 seats Labour lost 1,496 seats  Tories lost 563 seats Greens gained 441 seats LibDems gained 155 seats  In other news north of the border: The SNP won 58 seats with a 33% share of the vote (need 65 for a majority).  In the previous 2021 Holyrood elections they won 64 seats with a 44% share of the vote.  So down six seats and 11 percentage points on five years ago.  Not quite the momentum for independence the Nats are claiming. Will be quite easy for Westminster to bat away calls for another Indy ref." Andrew Neil on X (formerly Twitter) today Let's compare with the Peter Kellner table: The figures given by Andrew Neil at the top of this post are seats gained and lost. As a reminder when the pollster More in Common compared votes gained with the polls they found this:

"Labour: losses everywhere. Reform: good gains made by burning thru ~£8mn (10x what you usually spend on locals) yet did worse than last year. Conservatives: progress on last year, losses in counties set to be abolished but best London results since 2006. Read more below👇 in my Telegraph article where I explain why, despite the setbacks, I'm encouraged with our results this week. The Conservative Party is rebuilding steadily, seriously and with purpose. We are not asking people to forget the past but to judge us by what we do next." Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch Link to Telegraph article: The Conservatives’ green shoots of recovery are clear. Judge us by what we do next

"Why would the Tories get into bed with a party with which, immigration aside, they have about as much in common as with Labour?  It would not 'unite the right'. It would be an incoherent mess and disintegrate within about ten minutes." Matthew Syed points in an article in The Times out one of the many reasons why a Tory/Reform pact - which I am certain is not on the cards - would be a mistake.

I am not a huge fan of using local elections as a measure of the strength of national political parties instead of a mechanism for picking the best people to run local services. I am convinced that local services would be run far better and people would have a higher quality of life if they more often voted for the person who would make the best local councillor instead of using the local elections to reward or punish whoever is in government. But if people ARE going to use the local elections as a guide to the state of the parties, they might as well be given the right information to do it. There have been a lot of misleading posts on social media about the "National Equivalent Vote" shares, many of them based on preliminary or out of date numbers, or just made up! These are the final / definitive figures (via @EdConwaySky) 👇 Reform 27% Conservatives 20% Labour 15% Greens 14% LibDem 14% Other 10%

Yesterday's music spot was Vivaldi's concerto for four violins, This is what Bach did with it ...

 Patrick Maguire in The Times

This is the current numbers of councillors elected and net gains and losses, with results from 12 of 136 councils declared (so thirteen councils to go and numbers will rise slightly): This is what Peter Kellner suggested a week ago would be the reaction of the parties to various results: So with a few councils to go, the Conservatives have passed the level Peter Kellner thought would be "Relief,"  Labour, the Lib/Dems and Greens are respectively just on, a little above, or a little below what he suggested would be "Disappointment." And Reform have not quite hit the number of gains Peter Kellner marked down as "Disaster." Kellner himself admitted that in a normal year these assessments would be ridiculous, but this is NOT a normal year, There have been enough Conservative holds - and a few quite significant gains - that I think "Relief" is a pretty accurate assessment of the reaction of most Conservatives. It could have been so much worse. And if ...

 

Kemi Badenoch writes "I know everyone is poring over election results, but let’s not forget… Today is VE Day. It’s still living memory and being able to have elections is one of the freedoms fought for. That freedom was bought by men and women who served our country. Even now our veterans need defending. The battles are different…like stopping brave veterans being dragged through the courts for vexatious claims in their old age. Conservatives continue to fight.  Just yesterday, the Supreme Court reinstated immunities after my Shadow Attorney General, Lord Wolfson stepped in, acted pro bono for veterans, and won. We’re the only party doing the work. On VE Day, we remember their sacrifice. But remembrance is not enough. We should also honour our veterans by looking after them and defending them in Parliament, in the courts just as they defended us."

This is Vivaldi's original - Bach's arrangement of Vivaldi's music tomorrow

Based on the overnight results, here is an extract from what Peter Kellner wrote about wat the elections say about support for the various political parties. "Welcome to multiparty politics. The overnight results from English councils confirm the story told by recent polls: Reform UK is out in front, Labour is in deep trouble, the Conservatives may have begun to recover, the Greens have gained ground, and the Liberal Democrats are doing well where they have a chance of victory. "This morning we can go further. The results so far add new information, and also provoke questions about how politics might evolve between now and the next general election. 1. Behind the impressive tally of Reform’s gains – likely to end up well over 1,000 – Nigel Farage should be privately worried. In last year’s local elections Reform won 41 per cent of all seats contested across England. On the basis of the overnight figures, this year’s tally is around 33 per cent. If there were no polls, and the...

Luke Tyle of he pollster "More in Common" has published a chart on witter showing how the five main parties performed in yesterday's local elections on results declared by 8.25 am this morning  compared to the current opinion polls. It shows the Conservatives outperforming the polls by about 6%, and Reform UK by about 3%, while Labour scored about what you might expect from the opinion polls, the Greens underperformed by about 2% and the Lib/Dems underperformed by about 5%. All the parties seem to have done well in particular places with excellent results for the Conservatives not just in traditional areas of strength such as Westminster, where the party took back overall control from Labour, and Wandsworth where seats regained from Labour have again made the Conservatives the largest party, but also places like Harlow council, which I remember as a former Labour stronghold although the Conservatives have been running it in the recent past. Reform UK were claiming they ex...

The Conservatives have retaken Westminster City Council from Labour.

“I do not know a greater shame and ‘national humiliation’ in all of Russian military history than this current war. And when someone tries to compare it to the Great Patriotic War — despite all the horrors, bloodshed, and butchers on both sides under Stalin’s totalitarian regime — such a comparison is a sin. Because that was a defensive war. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, will always be proud of this current war — for them, it is their Patriotic War, the Great Patriotic War of the Ukrainian people against the invader. Unfortunately, in this case, the invaders are our [Russian] people.” (Prominent Russian historian Yuri Pivovarov )

Polls are now closed for the local elections. To all our volunteers, canvassers, doorknockers, activists, members, supporters and voters... Thank you!

Polls have now closed in the elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd, and for many, though not all, councils in England. Results will come in through the night beginning in the early hours of tomorrow morning. If you stay up to watch a results programme, here is a reminder of what some phrases you are certain to hear from various political guests actually mean.  

 If you are planning to vote in today's local elections, the polling stations are open until 10pm

 

 

REMEMBER - in local elections in England YOU WLL NEED PHOTO ID such as a passport or drivers' licence to vote. Polls are open 7am to 10pm.

Not everywhere has elections tomorrow: Cumbria and North Yorkshire are among the places which don't. But here are elections for the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd, and a large number of areas in England are electing councillors, mayors, or both. Here is Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's take on them. " Today I have been from Wandsworth to Croydon, Bromley to Enfield, and Barnet to Harrow and Hillingdon, and one thing is clear: only the Conservatives have a serious plan to get Britain working again. Tomorrow, vote Conservative for a stronger economy and a stronger country. " Kemi Badenoch

“Today’s guilty verdict is a significant step toward justice, but it does not undo the life-altering trauma inflicted upon Kate. No officer should go to work simply to uphold the law and return home with a fractured spine.” Tom Gent, chair of Avon and Somerset Police Federation, referring to the guilty verdict yesterday against Palestine Action terrorist Samuel Corner who was convicted of causing grevious bodily harm to police sergeant Kate Evans, whom he hit in the back with a sledgehammer.

Four members of Palestine action who broke into a factory in Filton near Bristol and smashed the place up with sledgehammers have been convicted of criminal damage. Charlotte Head, 29; Samuel Corner, 23; Leona Kamio, 30; and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were all found guilty on Tuesday of smashing up property, including drones and computers, manufactured or used by Elbit Systems at its factory in Filton, near Bristol, on 6 August 2024. The jury at Woolwich crown court heard that the activists used sledgehammers and crowbars they had brought with them to destroy computers, drones, and other equipment, and used fire extinguishers to spray red paint across the walls and floor. Corner was also found guilty by a majority of 11 to one of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Police Sergeant Kate Evans, whom he hit in the back with a sledgehammer. Deanna Heer KC, for the prosecution, told the court that Corner hit Evans in the back with a 7lb (3.2kg) sledgehammer – while she was on all fours facing away ...