Council by-elections tell an interesting story
Full marks to Cornwall Councillor for crunching the numbers - there's nothing quite like election results (as opposed to opinion polls) to tell us which way the wind is blowing. Of course, local council by-elections are full of anomalies, such as bizarre local issues, candidates known better for personality than policy etc, but give me results rather than forecasts any day. The numbers don't add up to 100% because not all parties (including Independents) contested every by-election, but tell us the average vote share when candidates entered the field.
Independents: 40%
Labour 36%
Conservatives 34%
Lib Dems 24%
Greens 18%
Mebyon Kernow 11%
I'm ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 4th Aug 2011, Rob wrote:To be fair it should be pointed out that this is for by-elections in 2011 and doesn't include by-elections from last year, which at a guess would paint a slightly different picture.
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Comment number 2.
At 5th Aug 2011, Kevrenor wrote:Might want to check all your calcs Graham!
MK stood in 3 elections, for 373 votes out of 2857 who voted = 13.5%
Just saying
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Comment number 3.
At 5th Aug 2011, Tynegod wrote:Makes no difference to the bottom of the pile.
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Comment number 4.
At 6th Aug 2011, Dave the rave wrote:Well with the Celtic League now over running the "ThisisCornwall" site with its "news" we should see a terminal decline in MKs fortunes. Who in their right mind would support nationalism after that bunch of nutbags has been shouting the odds everywhere.
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