Friday 10th November 2017

[PorFavor]

Here!

Edited to add - with some help

[HindleA]

[youtube]CTsB-llTzyc[/youtube]

[PorFavor]

To answer you now disappeared question -

Because I don't think they'd have me anywhere else.

[RogerOThornhill]

Take a look at how many followers this chap has managed to get...and his bio.

https://twitter.com/johnlewis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AngryAsWell]

Top Tory has family link with offshore banker who gave party £800,000
Financial services minister Andrea Leadsom's brother-in-law also gave £1m to other rightwing causes

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ons-tories" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-41945719" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


RHI inquiry: 'Conspiracy of silence' around scheme


(Renewable Heat Incentive)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38307628" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

Five local council byelections this week:

High Peak DC - Tory hold with over half the vote and a modest increase since two years ago, meaning they hold onto their narrow majority here despite losing the Westminster seat (with identical boundaries) earlier this year. That was the first post boundary changes, but the predecessor ward had only not voted Tory when Labour won it in their annus mirabilis of 1995 - and Labour's share now (roughly half the Tory score) was almost unchanged on 2015. LibDems got just under 12%, this was enough for third but some way short of the 40% plus they got in a straight fight with the Tories in the "old" ward back in 2007. Greens last with 7%.

Flintshire - Labour hold in a contest which attracted some media interest because it was within the Assembly seat of Carl Sargeant, who died in tragic circumstances just days before. This ward split 1Lab/1LD earlier this year, as it has done in all elections for this authority since it was first elected in 1995, and indeed the LibDem was first elected for the predecessor district council (as a Liberal) from when it was set up in 1973. This time round, though, it was an easy Labour win with over half the vote and a double figure increase since May - two Independent candidates took the next two places but they would still have lost by 2 to 1 even had their votes been combined (and it was only a modest increase from a single Indy candidate six months ago) LibDems showed the intensely personal nature of their support here as they slumped from a good second last time (their veteran incumbent comfortably beat the second Labour candidate) to a poor fourth now, not far ahead of the last placed Tories with 8%.

Camden - Labour hold with an increase of around 10 points since 2014, taking them into the high 50s. This ward has normally returned three Labour councillors, except in 2006 when there was a Tory clean sweep, and has also seen two previous byelections - in 2013 and May this year - both of which saw easy Labour wins. An interesting development in the most recent vacancy was the LibDems moving into second place, and they built on that this time round with a quarter of the vote in a ward where they had finished 5th behind the Greens and UKIP three years ago. Neither of those stood this time and whilst the former absence seems to have benefited the LibDems (though there was still a small pro-Labour swing from six months ago) no UKIP candidate did little to help the Tories who now have just 15% in a ward they represented less than a decade ago. The only other candidate this time was an English Democrat, and this somewhat quixotic choice to contest was reflected in a score of under 2%.

Fareham DC - LibDem gain from UKIP, though the previous incumbent had gone over to the Tories last year. For several years after 2002, when all out elections returned 2 LibDems here, this was essentially a fight between them and the Tories - Libs winning in 2006 and 2010, Tories in 2004, 2008 and 2012. In that last contest, though, UKIP finished a strong second in their first outing - and this foreshadowed wins in both 2014 and 2016 (when the Tories and LibDems, unusually, tied for second place) But this time round the LibDems made no mistake, winning with 55% - a full 25 point increase on last year. Tories managed a more modest increase, as UKIP collapsed from 35% last year to just 5% now - spectacular even by their recent standards. Labour have never done much here, and were squeezed to under 4% this time.

Wandsworth - Tories duly held one of their strongholds in this flagship borough (which is speculated to be under threat next year) with almost half the vote - little changed on the most recent contest in 2014 - and actually improving slightly on a previous byelection in 2011 which remains the closest Labour have come here in recent memory (and even then it wasn't very close) Whilst Labour improved by around 10 points on last time, number crunchers were quick to point out the swing of around 5% would leave the Tories still in control if repeated next year - this is a very polarised ward even by Wandsworth standards, though, so nobody should be counting chickens just yet. The swing to Labour might have been bigger had not an energetic LibDem campaign taken 16%, a healthy increase on last time. Greens last with 7%, down 10 points.

Next week is a busy one - ten contests.

[citizenJA]

Thank you, AK

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone
love,
cJA

[PorFavor]

@citizenJA

Night!

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... are_btn_tw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Martin Rowson on the Tories' terrible week

[frog222]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... are_btn_tw


Martin Rowson on the Tories' terrible week

Not being a brilliant Rowson interpreter i rely on the Old Reliables --

mschin1 3h ago 20 21

M. Barnier looks on in despair as the (quick)sands of time are running out for Brexit Britain and May’s hapless government. Always good to see our esteemed Foreign Secretary being statesmanlike on the world stage, leading our govt from the back.

to interpret for me .

[PorFavor]

Night night.