Elections, Mandates and Community Leadership

So, as sort of expected, the yellow vote collapsed in North ward with only one out of three existing town councillors getting re-elected. However, since they took four seats in both Kirkhill and Stobhill wards – they have nine of the fifteen town council seats, and calculating that they took 51% of the total town council votes cast across the town, the yellows are claiming a significant popular mandate. I’m not so sure… 

In Kirkhill, they only had four relatively weak blue candidates and a red paper candidate opposing them. And in Stobhill, there were only six candidates for five seats – so four yellows were effectively elected unopposed and the blue paper candidate was elected rather than the fifth yellow. It is interesting to look at the proportion of town council votes not used…

Every voter had one county council and five town council votes: a total of 4669 county council votes were cast (about 40% turnout), implying a total of 23.345 town council votes available to those who actually voted. But very few voters used all five of their votes: in fact 8893 votes (38%) were not used. Breaking that down by division – in North ward, 27% of town council votes were unused; in Kirkhill, 32% of votes weren’t cast; and in Stobhill a massive 57% of town council votes were not used. Active voters were not voting for the town council candidates on offer – presumably because they didn’t like any of them. It is a huge vote for ‘none of the above’

Admittedly the yellows had 51% of the votes used, but they had twelve candidates – when you work it out on ‘votes per candidate’, they came third behind the Greens and Inds (two candidates each) and ahead of the reds (one candidate) and the blues (eight candidates). Not really that much of a mandate.

So overall – I reckon that politicians across the board let the voters down in offering a comprehensive choice of candidates and the Town Council as a whole has a lot to prove in terms its role as ‘community leaders’. But I’ll leave that for the next post.

It was a good result for us....

In the traditional words of the party hack "It was a good result for us"...

OK - it was slightly disappointing to get just half the votes I got at the last General Election, and slip back almost to my 1992 levels. And it was galling to be patronised again by the other parties - "You are doing a really brave thing - keep it up" - when I had graduated to being attacked and slated because I was beginning to make an impact. And - although I'm assured otherwise - I feel I've let down my supporters and donors by losing my deposit again.

Still and all, it was a good result for the Green Party - we've got an MP at long last! And media-willing, Caroline Lucas should carry the Green message into people's awareness. Her comment on the hung parliament and the FPTP voting system is a good beginning:

“The first past the post system has created a situation where people cannot vote positively for the candidate or party whose policies they most agree with. Instead, they are forced to vote in fear, working out how to vote to keep out the party furthest away from them in policy and values. This leaves us a grotesque democratic deficit and a poor basis on which to govern.”

Cameron and Clegg be warned!

Meanwhile - it's back to local activity and campaigning for me, but carbon emissions are still increasing - and at the risk of sounding like something from Flash Gordon - 'we've only three or four years to save the Earth'

"It was a good result for us"

Just in case you didn't hear... the Green Party got just over 34,000 votes in the North East in the Euro-election, up from 4.8% in 2004 to 5.8% of the vote this time. Best results were 6.9% in Northumberland and 7.5% in Newcastle. The three existing MEPs (one each Lab, Con & LibDem) were re-elected.

Nationally, the Green vote went up by 44% (relative) to 9% with our two MEPs being re-elected - and we missed out by a couple of thousand votes on getting MEPs elected in the North West and East of England.

Thanks to everyone who voted Green - and stick to the habit when it comes to the General Election!

Election News

Thanks to all 303 people who voted for me in Morpeth North. Sadly there just weren't enough of you to get me elected.

David Moore, the LibDem now represents Morpeth North on the new unitary authority - part of a 'clean sweep' which sees LibDems representing Morpeth in all three unitary authority seats. Good luck to them! (They'll need it)

Overall - the new authority comprises 26 LibDems, 17 Labour, 17 Tory and 7 Independents. Since you need 34 councillors to get a controlling majority - I'm watching closely to see what combination comes together to take control (if any).

Which reminds me - a sad farewell to Mark Henderson (Chief Executive of the old County Council) - sad because of all the Council tax money he's taking with him by way of bonuses etc. I gather he's setting up as a consultant - I only hope the new authority do not decide to 'outsource' the role of Chief Exec.

Election Outcome

Some big and (possibly) unexpected changes - with Independents and Labour losing out and the LibDems making some big gains.

The Town Council now has 13 LibDems 1 Labour and 1 Green (Nic) - but I'm sure there'll be no party politics played

The Borough Council has 12 Conservatives 12 LibDems 6 Labour 2 Independents and 1 Green (Nic) - and with 17 councillors needed for a majority coalition - we can expect to see Labour 'courted' by both Conservatives and LibDems - could be interesting. And who is going to be the next Mayor now that Geoff Proudlock has been voted off the Council?

I expect my Councillor Website will be re-activated soon - but I'll keep this blog going for the bits I'm not allowed to put on the website.