English politics special – Local elections 2023 (unbiased thread, for real)

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Congratulations to those who voted for 1,000+, and particular congratulations to Qikz, who is now officially crowned as our Politics Oracle .

GRacle, surely? Can we get him a special logo?

Qikz is the King now... he may decide!

[Qikz]

Congratulations to those who voted for 1,000+, and particular congratulations to Qikz, who is now officially crowned as our Politics Oracle .



#CharlesNotMyKing
#StayDeadMyKing

I've never been so glad to have so close. When I said more than -1,000 I was being hopeful for Tory destruction and that's what we ended up getting.

Congratulations to those who voted for 1,000+, and particular congratulations to Qikz, who is now officially crowned as our Politics Oracle .

GRacle, surely? Can we get him a special logo?

GRacle depending on how you read it sounds like Grackle which sounds weird

[SEP]

Congratulations to those who voted for 1,000+, and particular congratulations to Qikz, who is now officially crowned as our Politics Oracle .

GRacle, surely? Can we get him a special logo?

GRacle depending on how you read it sounds like Grackle which sounds weird

We've been posting on Grrrcade for 14 and a half years, I think it'll be fine.

[rinks]

Congratulations to those who voted for 1,000+, and particular congratulations to Qikz, who is now officially crowned as our Politics Oracle .



#CharlesNotMyKing
#StayDeadMyKing

Where was my award when I predicted, three days in advance, Truss’s resignation to within 75 minutes?

[Oblomov Boblomov]

I suppose a fight to the death between rinks and King Qikz is the only possible course of action here.

[Green Gecko]

twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1654547219108835331

Holy strawberry float

Haha! My hometown so quite pleased there are zero county councillors anymore.

There might be some town ones but I doubt it.

[Dowbocop]

twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1654547219108835331

Holy strawberry float

Haha! My hometown so quite pleased there are zero county councillors anymore.

There might be some town ones but I doubt it.

I legit don't understand the whole town/county councillor thing. Are they mutually exclusive? Is one above the other? It's not been a thing anywhere I've lived, in Liverpool we just have the City Council and councillors thereon (and in our case a mayor). In London there's the London Assembly but I didn't actually do very much voting in London because I was under 18 for most of my time there.

Then you go on holiday to Little Upper Macklingham-on-Sea and they have a frigging Parish Council, what the strawberry float is one of those?!

[Hypes]

twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1654547219108835331

Holy strawberry float

Haha! My hometown so quite pleased there are zero county councillors anymore.

There might be some town ones but I doubt it.

I legit don't understand the whole town/county councillor thing. Are they mutually exclusive? Is one above the other? It's not been a thing anywhere I've lived, in Liverpool we just have the City Council and councillors thereon (and in our case a mayor). In London there's the London Assembly but I didn't actually do very much voting in London because I was under 18 for most of my time there.

Then you go on holiday to Little Upper Macklingham-on-Sea and they have a frigging Parish Council, what the strawberry float is one of those?!

In most of the UK, Parish Councils are the lowest tier of local government. They deal with things like , benches, toilets, and parks. Parish Councils can also be called Town Councils.
Next tier up is the District (may also call themselves Borough Council) (often a sub-division of a county or a large town). These deal with things like refuse collection, car parks, housing, and the electoral roll.
Finally you have County Councils, generally covering the administrative counties. These deal with things like highways, education, libraries, social services.
In most of these places a mayor is just ceremonial and has no power beyond them often being a parish/town councillor.

You now often get unitary authorities which combine both district and county councils and their functions. Confusingly these may be entire counties or large towns/cities which may also either call themselves borough or city councils.

[Rex Kramer]

What confused me last week is that one of our councillors sits on three of those (parish, borough and county) so you can never remember what you're voting for.

[Green Gecko]

twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1654547219108835331

Holy strawberry float

Haha! My hometown so quite pleased there are zero county councillors anymore.

There might be some town ones but I doubt it.

I legit don't understand the whole town/county councillor thing. Are they mutually exclusive? Is one above the other? It's not been a thing anywhere I've lived, in Liverpool we just have the City Council and councillors thereon (and in our case a mayor). In London there's the London Assembly but I didn't actually do very much voting in London because I was under 18 for most of my time there.

Then you go on holiday to Little Upper Macklingham-on-Sea and they have a frigging Parish Council, what the strawberry float is one of those?!

In most of the UK, Parish Councils are the lowest tier of local government. They deal with things like , benches, toilets, and parks. Parish Councils can also be called Town Councils.
Next tier up is the District (may also call themselves Borough Council) (often a sub-division of a county or a large town). These deal with things like refuse collection, car parks, housing, and the electoral roll.
Finally you have County Councils, generally covering the administrative counties. These deal with things like highways, education, libraries, social services.
In most of these places a mayor is just ceremonial and has no power beyond them often being a parish/town councillor.

You now often get unitary authorities which combine both district and county councils and their functions. Confusingly these may be entire counties or large towns/cities which may also either call themselves borough or city councils.

Same in Lewes but there town councillors who are elected in various wards (three, Bridge, Castle and Priory) and also some nearby villages that have parish councils. The town council is concerned with Lewes. The county council covers East Sussex where Lewes is the parliamentary town (even though it isn't the biggest, it's the most, erm, historical) where the MP typically has their office and represents the whole Lewes District (which is within East Sussex, that also includes places like Brighton and Newhaven for example), but in Parliament. But East Sussex recently merged administration with Eastbourne to become Lewes District & Eatbourne Borough Council(s), they just have both logos on everything which isn't remotely confusing.

Afaik there are local elections at both Town and Country level and the general election would elect the MP for "Lewes District", which is most of East Sussex apart from Brighton, which has two MPs, as Brighton is part of the city of Brighton & Hove, and Hove also has an MP being two seaside towns that sort of merged together.

Here is a map I designed for the Lewes Green Party.



Yup it's definitely not complicated. Oh and we have to elect a Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner as well, but I don't know at what level because strawberry float is there room in my brain for any more. Plus, I moved out of Lewes for a second time about two years ago (after being there for about 8 or 9 years, which probably wasted half my 20s and wrecked my relationship by being so strawberry floating depressing), because it's insular, classist, pretentious and quasi-academic-cliquey as strawberry float. It was pretty much impossible to meet an adult who didn't ask how my father was.

I don't strawberry floating know, he lives in France since at least 10 years ago. Maybe I am an actual person who isn't intrinsically a subsidy of their father, who strawberry floated off from where I was living 29 years ago. It's that sort of town, because he is/was a professor. And of course my mother just doesn't exist, despite living in the same place for my entire life (at least 36 years).

It's a town you can completely disappear in and the only thing that changes is the shops endlessly on rotation or being turned into residential because nobody can afford them unless they are paying to live in them and/or upstairs and set up vanity bullshit shops for towels, candles, plates and that sort of thing that people in Lewes are willing to pay a premium for (because they're from Lewes).

About the only thing I give a strawberry float about is my mum and Bonfire night, which I'm slightly losing interest in too because it's not that fun without friends and my partner isn't fussed.

Edit: And yes we can elect someone to both Town and County Councils. It's taken me at least 30 years to understand any of this.

[Lotus]

Lib Dems hold, around here. They've been awful for the last few years, so expecting more of that. Joy.

[Garth]

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1655892445928869889

[Moggy]

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1655892445928869889

So Staydead was incorrect. Ban him.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

The twatty corrupt husband and wife combo got sent packing .

Congratulations again to Qikz, for predicting just 6 away from the correct answer! He will almost certainly wear the crown until next May at least, when we will probably be in the runup to the big one – a bona fide General Election . (There is a small chance everything could kick off earlier than that – and yes, I was thinking about big bonas when I was typing this.)

Obviously we all wished for a glorious Dowbocop victory, but it wasn't to be. Perhaps he will inspire us to true greatness next time!

Thanks, all – it's been a blast!

[DML]

Its incredible to think Sunak is over 1,000 seats MORE UNPOPULAR THAN THERESA MAY.

[Moggy]

Its incredible to think Sunak is over 1,000 seats MORE UNPOPULAR THAN THERESA MAY.

At least she could dance.

[OrangeRKN]

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1655892445928869889

When I look at this tweet all I see is that "Labour" (6 characters) has been shortened to "LAB" (3 characters), but "Liberal Democrats" (17 characters) has been shortened to "LIBDEM" (6 characters). So he should have just written "LABOUR" in full

[Moggy]

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1655892445928869889

When I look at this tweet all I see is that "Labour" (6 characters) has been shortened to "LAB" (3 characters), but "Liberal Democrats" (17 characters) has been shortened to "LIBDEM" (6 characters). So he should have just written "LABOUR" in full

And they could have written the full name of CON because banana splits is only 5 characters.

[Tomous]

Its incredible to think Sunak is over 1,000 seats MORE UNPOPULAR THAN THERESA MAY.

It's not really comparing like for like, we've had a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and Brexit since May was in power.


Also, Sunak is brown.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Its incredible to think Sunak is over 1,000 seats MORE UNPOPULAR THAN THERESA MAY.

It's not really comparing like for like, we've had a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and Brexit since May was in power.

Also, Sunak is brown.

While I agree it is daft to compare the two by this metric, it is important to bear in mind that Sunak doesn't have the powerful wheat field bloc lobbying against him, as May did during her ill-fated time in the job.