Westminstenders: Local Elections Madness

[RedToothBrush]

This week has gone from banging your head against the wall to wanting to bang your head through it.

Labour have voted to support a 2nd ref as their EU election campaign strategy. Only for Corbyn to ignore it. And a row has broken out.

Change UK seem well on track to make everyone else look professional and to look as 'liberal elite' as humanly possible in a real life reverse paraody of themselves.

The Brexit Party is going from strength to strength with the most wtf candidates imaginable and Farage is happy cos his mate is coming to tea with the Queen.

The Liberal Democrats have decided that anti semitism is OK in an effort to keep Labour seats.

And the Conservatives. Where to start? Probably with the Tory Leadership Election infighting which looks suspiciously as if its now breached national security.

As for Brexit. No one really wants to talk about it. Local elections are next week. May is now apparently supporting the Malthouse Compromise. Be warned, it is difficult to see it as anything but a Trojan Horse for No Deal. Not that everyone has worked this out yet. But until we have the blood bath of the local elections over and done with on Thursday, don't expect much to happen.

Then expect the Tories to lose their minds...

Nose holding is a HUGE issue
One of these people
sedorset.greenparty.org.uk/2019-candidates.html
Has been a Parish Councillor under a UKIP flag for many years
but in fact was barred from UKIP for being a BNP member
and now is standing as a Green

Holy crap, that’s dreadful (ex -UKIP/BNP guy standing under Green banner).

For local and European elections I'm happy to overlook gender nonsense and pretty much everything else. These two votes - for me - are all about brexit and voicing my opposition to it. Literally nothing else matters - I have every other election I will ever vote in to fight for policies that matter. But in the event of hard brexit - none of those policies would ever see the light of day. Brexit HAS to be stopped before anything else can move forward. Or at least - it has to be enacted in a sensible and rational manner.

So I'm voting Lib Dem in the locals - they do OK in my area, better than labour in local elections (though not national ones).
My only problem with who to vote for in the European elections (assuming they go ahead) is which to choose. For maximum effect and best chance of blocking UKIP/ Farage's new lot from getting a seat. My problem isn't that I don't like any of them (though, brexit policy aside, I'm not keen on any of them) - it's that I've got three equally valid parties to vote for and no idea which is the best one, tactically. So I'm really hoping that remain voter website comes through and just tells me.

The greens are like every other party...totally lost their way and taken over by loons.

Which loons to vote for?

The choice where I am is very restricted re local elections.
A choice of 3 conservatives, 1 independent and one labour. We are supposed to be choosing 3 candidates.....

My vote is very clearly going against the conservatives so it will be labour and independent. No possibility to vote for someone I want iyswim....

Whichever loons are best placed to thwart Brexit. And if it’s really not clear, use your best judgement.

Always research Independents, because they could be eg UKIP but too extreme or deranged even for them.

very late pmk
thanks red

Worth voting, everytime.

Far-right Vox turnout below expectations

Guardian, just now:

It’s all gone a bit quiet in Margaret Thatcher plaza in Madrid, where Vox supports have been watching the election results trickle in. Polls released immediately after voting closed indicated that the anti-feminist, anti-immigration party would win as many as 38 seats in parliament. But with two thirds of votes counted, Vox are on track to win nearly half of that, with 23 seats.

I had a leaflet from the tories today. No mention of brexit 🤷🏼‍♀️

Me too and me neither.

Always research Independents, because they could be eg UKIP but too extreme or deranged even for them.
Too right
many independents are people sacked from saner parties

but I'm still shocked that the Greens are allowing in racist bigots (who have been featured in the Daily Heil)

Councillors have no influence on Brexit, so that's not surprising.

But....labour are pro Brexit

Iambuffy
a small part of the Labour leadership are pro Brexit
and Tuesday afternoon will decide which side of the party has control

Just reading about what someone like Farage has achieved in such a short time, It occurred to me that those well informed people on this thread could have formed a party.
Politics seems to be falling apart so maybe it’s an opportunity.
I don’t count myself among the well informed, although I have learned so much from these threads, but would happily do the grunt work and would have more faith in you lot than any other party.

I'm lucky. Lib Dems are the biggest party opposing the Tories in the local elections so I will vote for them.

Molly (Green) is good and probably the most likely to get a seat so I'll vote Green in the EU elections unless things change.

I agree that voting to avoid hard Brexit should be the priority. I think that you should vote for the least worst candidate.

Woodpigeons
Farage has not achieved anything other than shit loads of self publicity.
He has failed to be elected to the UK parliament multiple times
His party / parties fall apart all the time

So. Looks like the pro EU PSOE socialist party has won a working majority in Spanish elections, their mainstream right wing party has been decimated and VOX have polled less than 10%, when predicted to get 12%.

^Spain votes 2019: socialist PSOE will be biggest party in parliament
Sunderland South, are you watching? Less then two hours after polls closed on the Spanish mainland, more than 90% of votes have been counted. The seat share in parliament looks pretty steady with over 24 million votes counted. The socialist PSOE have won 122 of 350 seats, the mainstream conservative People’s party win 65, the Citizen’s party gets 57, Podemos win 35 and the far-right Vox party gain 24^

Imagine if anyone in Labour emulated PSOE's example..............

Are you hopeful tip?

I'm not:(

Brexit is so useful.

That's France, Netherlands, Germany and now Spain who have held in check at least, neo fascist parties in their elections.

Brexit is an excellent exemplification of the dangers of letting the far right get a toe in the constitutional door.

PmK - havent caught up..!

It's very evident the Tories have run out of money. Local elections leaflets used to be glossy and plentiful. This year weve had two, both of which look as though they've been run off a students printer. They have also been delivering them to the wrong wards.

Our Tory leaflets have the local candidates added in biro. (The focus is on the mayoral election). The handwriting isn’t terribly legible.

Just reading about what someone like Farage has achieved in such a short time, It occurred to me that those well informed people on this thread could have formed a party.

There are remarkably few actual members of any of our political parties these days. We should just pick the least toxic one and stage a takeover. 50,000 people would probably swing it even for one of the big parties..

TiP so far FPTP and Farage's much lower % vote in GEs has prevented more than 1 UKIP MP being elected
Let's hope BREX's honeymoon period ends before the next GE and they meltdown like UKIP

He pressures the main parties, especially the Tories, into pandering to the far right
Without him, we wouldn't have had this Brexshit.

He scared Cameron enough to call his bloody stupid referendum

If his new party wins the most seats in the EP elections

• and takes too many Tory votes -

he may scare the Tories enough to replace May with Boris and the EU will be less likely to grant a further extension in October

Boris has been writing again

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/28/would-wrong-take-brexit-frustrations-hard-working-tory-councillors/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Don't take out your Brexit frustrations on our hard-working Tory councillors

Nope. Take them out on workshy careerists MPs who quit cos their mate did and it would bad if they didn't too.