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Labour Representation Committee
We will be posting regular blogs on this page. Please feel free to comment.
01 May 2008
Elections 2008
8am update - the polls have been open for an hour now for local elections in much of England and Wales. Most of these seats were last contested in 2004, when Labour's national share of the vote sunk to just 26%.
Voters in London have three votes: one for Mayor, one for their local GLA member, and one for the top-up party list of GLA members. At the last GLA elections, the BNP came within a whisker of winning a GLA seat in the top-up category after polling 4.8% (5% is all they need).
As LRC Chair John McDonnell MP said: "These elections are critical to halt the fascists in their tracks, and to prevent further erosion of Labour support by the Tories.
"This is no time to stay at home"
3pm update - We're now over halfway through polling. Polls close at 10pm - be sure to encourage everyone to get out and vote - turnout is key to stopping the BNP. Likewise, if we want to avoid the nightmare of Boris being London Mayor, so encourage all your friends, family, workmates and neighbours to get out and vote.
6pm update - There are 159 councils holiding elections across England and Wales, with a total of 4,102 seats up for grabs. First results are expected shortly after 11:30pm.
Counting of the GLA and Mayoral vote does not start until Friday morning - with results expected to be announced from early afternoon.
8pm update - Great minds think alike! Searchlight's Hope Not Hate website will be hosting a live blog through the night too. Visit www.hopenothate.org.uk. They've also got an interactive map with the key BNP battlegrounds for the elections. If you, or anyone you know, hasn't voted yet - get to a polling station. Nothing beats the BNP like high turnout. Less than 2 hours to go.
posted by Lucy at
8 Comments:
said...
We haven't got elections in Bucks this time so I'll help in Hayes (if my husband can get home in tiem to have the children) as it's the nearest to me. I checked with Ealing/Hillingdon camapign centre and the main regional base is Southall but they have got lots of people there. See Ken Livingstone.com/events if anyone wants to know where to help out till the polls closse at 10p.m.
Interstingly I was initially emailed by Labour South East my home region to help out in reading and some from my CLP (Beaconsfield) have done but then they emailed the next week asking for help for Ken as it looks as if Reading, the last SE held Labour council will probabaly fall to teh Tories and the BBC Politics Show could hardly find anyone from nay party canvassing there last weekend. It's also where SE region's HQ are so it's not looking good. According to the LOndon free papers (not know for their high standards of journalism!) young people will vote Boris as he's "good on Have I Got News for You!" - this shows a serious need I think for young peole to do more politics/civics (not party political as such just topics such as how elections aer done, democracy etc, the differnce between capatalism and socialism , major issues of the day etc as fourteen year olds in Germany have once a week) as school as they say themselves tehy don't have tiem to examine the issues now. NOt just teh young of course, I'm sure lots of older "otherwise perfectly nice people with intolerant right wing views" as Andrew Collins puts it in "Where Did It All Go Right?" are voting Tory as well.....especially if they are dependent on teh price of fuel to ge tto work and so on.
If Ken pulls through Labour rebels should go for it and call for a leadership challenge and change of Labour's direction as how much more proof does Gordon need that people want these sort of politics not his! Things can move much faster these days than they did in the John Major situaiton where it all dragged on for ages with back bench rebellions etc and also we still have teh powere (just!) but Labour is in the wotsit as it's on 26% in th polls which is no way enough to form a government if this is repeated in the general election of course... need 40% odd in case anyone needs to know...
01 May 2008 11:59
said...
I can't get my name to go on with above cooment hence anonomous
Helen Ingram
01 May 2008 12:00
Duncan Hall said...
Our count (Craven District) isn't until tomorrow morning but will let you know how our candidates (including me) do.
Will happily comment on other Yorkshire/Northern results as they come in over night.
01 May 2008 19:42
said...
Apparently the turnout is very high (by modern standards)in the areas of East London that traditionaly vote Labour.
01 May 2008 20:23
Andrew said...
Good luck Duncan - our sources tell us results are expected from Craven at around 12pm tomorrow. Likely to remain NOC?
Dan - that's good news, Ken's going to need every vote he can get!
I was relieved to see the showers held off here in London most of the day. Has that been replicated elsewhere in the country?
01 May 2008 20:44
Duncan Hall said...
Yes - It will stay NOC (unless the Tories win every seat they're contesting which won't happen... well I hope not anyway!!!)
01 May 2008 21:47
said...
Thank you for the work you lot have done.
01 May 2008 21:52
said...
Been out canvassing with all shades of Labour opinion in our safe Labour area of London.
Looking for the hat-trick: Ken mayor, Labour GLA, no BNP on the assembly, but I'll settle for two out of three...
01 May 2008 21:54
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