So, no real surprises in Thursday's local elections, though most of the government's worst fears were fulfilled. Ken is Mayor, the Tories are back in business in local government. More surprising, the Liberal Democrats gained their first parliamentary seat under Charles Kennedy's leadership in the Romsey by-election.
Next Thursday will see local government elections being held in most of England, both the high profile contest for London Mayor and the much less heralded contest for more than 3,300 seats on around 150 district and borough councils. Turnout will almost certainly be dire, as it nearly always is these days; last year it was 36% in the shire districts, 31% in the unitary authorities and just 26% in the metropolitan boroughs.
How well do you think London's voters understand the complexities of the electoral system, with which they will be faced for the first time in the London Mayor and Assembly elections next month?
Earlier this week Peter Kellner in his column in the London Evening Standard strongly criticised two aspects of BBC coverage of the London Mayor and other local elections to be held next month. First, he complained that the BBC's political journalists in London, who had commissioned a poll on the election from MORI [BBC London Live poll] had been prevented by Corporation policy from including any questions on voting intention; this is merely the continuation of a policy which we have criticised for a number of years. Secondly, he has pointed out a new restriction, which will lead to all the parties being required to run their election broadcasts before Easter, a full ten days before polling day. This, arises from the introduction of pilot schemes in a number of councils across the country, whereby a few polling stations will be open early, on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the normal polling day, so that electors who cannot vote in the usual way will be able to cast thei...
People want key public services to be available into the evenings and at weekends according to research published today by Cabinet Office Minister, Ian McCartney. He said that work was now underway to develop plans for meeting that need.
What is "Britishness"? Is there some common national identity that all of us, or most of us, in these islands share? And are there common characteristics which we tend to assume other Britons are likely to have? The question poses itself in the week in which Tony Blair and William Hague, in their own ways, tried to make political capital by appealing to British voters' instincts of national identity.
