Redwash the third
We did it again! Another Manchester redwash, with Labour winning 32 wards out of 32, as in the previous two council elections! Since the Liberal Democrats entered the coalition government in 2010, all their councillors have been knocked out - the last nine fell yesterday, the ones who had come in on the same day as the general election.
That means Manchester City Council is now composed of 95 Labour councillors and one Independent Labour (Henry Cooper, who walked out of the main party because he opposed FC United's new stadium being built in his ward). In the popular vote across all 32 wards, Labour won a 58.2% share, and the Green Party (12.5%) knocked the Lib Dems (11%) into third place, with the Tories (8.2%) and UKIP (7.5%) trailing in their wake. Obviously the Lib Dems campaigned against the one-party state, but it's been a startling vote of confidence in the ruling administration.
When we swept the board in 2011, I think we were flabbergasted; the next year, we were hoping for it but not sure; now it's reached the stage where we'd have been disappointed to lose one ward. But it could very easily have been my ward. The Liberal Democrats clearly thought it was the one they had the best chance of hanging on to, and poured everything into it. When I arrived at the count in the early afternoon, my comrades were looking grim and told me it was too close to call on the sampling. Our candidate was quite sure she had failed.
"But where are the Liberal Democrats?" I asked.
"Oh, they've gone. They think they've lost. Mark shook my hand and then left."
"So, you think you've lost, and he thinks he's lost, and I don't suppose the Greens or the Tories are very confident... Someone must have won, though!"
And, suddenly, it turned out it was her, though it was indeed very close - a majority of 162, which is tight at this level. (I'm aware of one closer result this year - in Moston, where Labour held off UKIP by 137, and bizarrely we probably owed the victory to the BNP, as it was one of the wards where they still stood, and they got 153. Neither UKIP nor BNP bothered with our ward.) The Liberal Democrats never reappeared, and I'm not sure the Tories ever showed their faces, so the declaration was attended only by the Labour candidate and supporters and an amiable Green candidate. (They didn't win anywhere, but are very pleased with their second place in the popular vote. It will be interesting to see how they do in the European election.) I think it was extraordinarily defeatist of the Lib Dems to concede so early. They were right, of course, and we've always thought they're very good on sampling. But 162 votes in a turnout of 3,767... I'm wondering if they're not quite as good at counting as we think, and they've become too pessimistic - I remember they initially thought they'd lost the 2010 general election (in fact they'd won with a majority of 1,894 in a turnout of 45,174). And we thought we might have lost this one, but that meant we were standing over the counting tables watching every vote in case of an error.
Anyway, our new councillor eventually stopped hyperventilating, and we took lots of team photos, and then she had to go home, because her family are going on holiday in the morning - if she'd lost, she'd have gone with them, but now she has to stay to be inducted. So most people went to the pub, but it was very stuffy, so I went home and updated the branch website.
In other news, I am aghast to hear of the fire at the Glasgow School of Art, though relieved to hear tonight that most of the structure and more than half of the contents may be saved. Only a few weeks ago I was sitting at the cafe next door and remembering my visit there.
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That means Manchester City Council is now composed of 95 Labour councillors and one Independent Labour (Henry Cooper, who walked out of the main party because he opposed FC United's new stadium being built in his ward). In the popular vote across all 32 wards, Labour won a 58.2% share, and the Green Party (12.5%) knocked the Lib Dems (11%) into third place, with the Tories (8.2%) and UKIP (7.5%) trailing in their wake. Obviously the Lib Dems campaigned against the one-party state, but it's been a startling vote of confidence in the ruling administration.
When we swept the board in 2011, I think we were flabbergasted; the next year, we were hoping for it but not sure; now it's reached the stage where we'd have been disappointed to lose one ward. But it could very easily have been my ward. The Liberal Democrats clearly thought it was the one they had the best chance of hanging on to, and poured everything into it. When I arrived at the count in the early afternoon, my comrades were looking grim and told me it was too close to call on the sampling. Our candidate was quite sure she had failed.
"But where are the Liberal Democrats?" I asked.
"Oh, they've gone. They think they've lost. Mark shook my hand and then left."
"So, you think you've lost, and he thinks he's lost, and I don't suppose the Greens or the Tories are very confident... Someone must have won, though!"
And, suddenly, it turned out it was her, though it was indeed very close - a majority of 162, which is tight at this level. (I'm aware of one closer result this year - in Moston, where Labour held off UKIP by 137, and bizarrely we probably owed the victory to the BNP, as it was one of the wards where they still stood, and they got 153. Neither UKIP nor BNP bothered with our ward.) The Liberal Democrats never reappeared, and I'm not sure the Tories ever showed their faces, so the declaration was attended only by the Labour candidate and supporters and an amiable Green candidate. (They didn't win anywhere, but are very pleased with their second place in the popular vote. It will be interesting to see how they do in the European election.) I think it was extraordinarily defeatist of the Lib Dems to concede so early. They were right, of course, and we've always thought they're very good on sampling. But 162 votes in a turnout of 3,767... I'm wondering if they're not quite as good at counting as we think, and they've become too pessimistic - I remember they initially thought they'd lost the 2010 general election (in fact they'd won with a majority of 1,894 in a turnout of 45,174). And we thought we might have lost this one, but that meant we were standing over the counting tables watching every vote in case of an error.
Anyway, our new councillor eventually stopped hyperventilating, and we took lots of team photos, and then she had to go home, because her family are going on holiday in the morning - if she'd lost, she'd have gone with them, but now she has to stay to be inducted. So most people went to the pub, but it was very stuffy, so I went home and updated the branch website.
In other news, I am aghast to hear of the fire at the Glasgow School of Art, though relieved to hear tonight that most of the structure and more than half of the contents may be saved. Only a few weeks ago I was sitting at the cafe next door and remembering my visit there.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.