Council Elections

[OneTealShaker]

The first declared seats going to Reform.

Reform +2
Labour -1

Buckle up people.

Sounds great. The numbers and data will be useful for Labour too. Swings away are pretty big.

Yes, because so many people are really, really stupid.

Hasn't one reform council said 'don't send em here' to the current labour governemnt or something like that?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/06/reform-lancashire-county-council-to-quit-refugee-resettlement-schemes-elections

Of course there should be talks about immigration. The numbers under Labour have halved last time I heard.

But Reform are more harmful than that. They literally are spelling it out but immigration remains the number 1 attraction to voters and it's based on lies. What worries me is all the rest, the nasty, the losing human rights, they want to scrap the Equality act, losing the freedoms, rights and ability to live in this country with a sense of fair play towards women, disabilities, gay etc. To be protected when the chips are down. To be able to access an NHS. It's losing the very things that makes the UK a great country to live in.

Brexit was based on lies, much like Reform now.

Three years (+) is a long old time in politics.
It will seem shorter if Labour spend 12 months fighting about a new leader!🙂

I actually made that very point above. Yes, some voters might regret it. It doesn’t change the fact that Labour are the biggest loser of the night .

Reading what you respond to might help you avoid unnecessary rudeness. Unless you enjoy being rude to people with political views different from yours.

Explain a reason why anybody would vote for Reform that isn’t racist or stupid that is rationally coherent and doesn’t conflict with the objective facts of reality.

Greens have voted with Labour to build on greenbelt and 5 farms in Sheffield! They are not very green, it's shocking.
We need these farms.
The lib Dems were against it.

It was the same with ours. I've been politely contesting every post I've seen on local Facebook groups.

But that’s not what I was talking about in the comment of mine that you replied to. I was talking about the VOTERS, not the political parties, in terms of who would be the “winners” and “losers” and pointing out that the biggest losers out of the electorate will be those who have voted for Reform counsellors for themselves.

What else are they supposed to base their vote on?
The candidates standing are all wearing a rosette of one colour or another, indicating they are members of a particular political party. We know bugger all else about them.
So people vote for those with the colour of rosette they feel most reflects their views of the world.

I totally understand how politics works. I work for a local council, know what councils are responsible for and what a government is responsible for, know the difference between councillors and officers, MPs and civil servants.
Yesterday I had to vote. I don’t know the candidates. The only information that came through my door was political party based info/propaganda. That is all I had to base my vote upon.

We need to stop patronising people, suggesting it’s their fault they are voting in a way you don’t agree with. They are uneducated, or stupid or both. Just stop it. Accept that people have different views and politics, and consider how to persuade them to move to your point of view rather than just bashing and dismissing them.

Can you please provide some examples of ‘the full of hate’? Only because I find it hard to comprehend that any political party would send out a leaflet that the majority of people could/would consider to be purporting hateful statements.

It hasn't actually been passed by the Council / Cabinet - so it's just a dog-whistle prior to the local elections.

It also means they will end up using existing council housing stock and their own budgets to house asylum seekers. It's absolute stupidity.

Government sets the targets for housing.
Local councils have no choice, they cannot just refuse for no real reason, developer just goes to appeal.

Another reason not to vote for Labour, their housing policy is utter nuts.

It spills over actually, in most local High streets now are full of vape shops and barbers, all run by immigrants, all money laundering, some drug dealing. Local issues resulting from poor migration policy. I'd like my local councillors to press the police to take some action on this.

You’re just proving my point about how obnoxious it is to call people racist or stupid just because they vote differently to yourself. I didn’t vote Reform by the way, but I absolutely defend everyone’s right to vote as they see fit without being branded racist or stupid.

And if you want an example, many many people support the cutting of benefits to people with minor MH conditions, and I agree that this has got completely out of control over the past 15 years. That’s one of Reform’s flagship drums to beat, so there you go… People are sick and tired of both main parties failing to tackle that issue.

And ‘stop the boats’ is so low down in immigration figures. Makes no sense.

Students and working are the highest groups by far coming to the UK (Home Office data set)

I agree that many new won councils will be worse under Reform, but we are where we are because of Labour’s U-turns, indecision and bad leadership.

This is my post.

Ummmm… a vote for local representatives should be based on the things that local representatives have power over.

Does this really need explaining? To adults?

Other posters have already explained this several times in the thread. Do you really not understand that there’s no point voting for a local representative expecting them to change something totally outside their remit or power and irrelevant to their job role?

It’s would be a bit like me criticising my postman for not emptying my bins. Totally irrelevant.

You say “we need to stop patronising people”. Meanwhile we have other posters on the thread who have explicitly stated that allegedly it’s the job of people who aren’t totally thick to educate those who are. If they tried to do so they’d no doubt be accused of being patronising (all the “had enough of experts” nonsense i.e. “we’d much rather wallow in ignorance”), so people can’t win whatever they do, can they? Apparently it’ll always be the fault of the people who aren’t stupid and didn’t vote for Reform/ Brexit that the stupid people did so.

The only thing left at this point is to leave the idiots to carry on until they figure it out for themselves and decide they’re bored of making themselves continually poorer year on year.

Yes, which you posted in reply to my post which wasn’t about which parties “won” but the effect on VOTERS. And the losers will be those who elected Reform counsellors.

Yes they will be.

The biggest loser is still Labour.

It is not "hate" to recognise and call out a grifter like Farage. The hate is all on his side.

Amazed anyone over the age of 6 is taken in by his divisive, self serving shite.

What saddens me the most is that a lot of this is the fault of my generation (early 60s). My daughter's ward in Salford has just gone to Reform and she said she was the youngest person at the polling station by decades.

I live in Scotland thank fuck. If it wasn't for proportional representation Reform would get nowhere here. The UK is royally fucked if this lot get anywhere in the next election. Look at the US folks that's where we are heading!

Looks like the winnners so far are Reform and the Libdems. Labour and Conservative are losing seats everywhere. So much for the Green surge. Libdems hoovering up a lot of Green-wavering voters and one nation Tories I suspect.

Yes, it is an issue. But is it worth losing all our rights over? You know, our freedoms as women for an example?

And she wasn't proving your point, was simply asking you to find voters who are voting on facts.

Well we live in a democracy so should respect the votes of others. I did not vote Reform but clearly there are a log of people unhappy with the status quo.
This has been a protest vote. Everyone who voted reform are not bigots and racists. They are protesting.
It gives mainstream political parties time to get their act together before the next general election because that’s where it will really count.