It seems the Salford Labour website is stuck in a time warp on polling day. Perhaps they are sat in the Civic Centre trying to work out how to turn the clock back…
Archive for the 'Salford' Category
It was interesting to compare the attitudes of our local Labour MPs at the local election count last week.
Ian Stewart was his usual friendly self - I spoke to him briefly at the start of the night. It was very noticeable that he was the first person there to congratulate and commiserate Labour candidates (see the MEN video of the Irlam declaration) when the results were announced.
Barbara Keeley by contrast seemed almost invisible, maintaining a very low profile and being reportedly rude to any opposition activists who tried to say hello - something noted by Liberal Democrat Councillor Steve Cooke as well as at least one Conservative.
Yet Ian lost out to Barbara in the Labour selection contest for the new Worsley & Eccles South seat. Perhaps he will allow himself a wry smile if - as current polls suggest - Keeley is beaten by the Conservative candidate at the next General Election.
(Hazel Blears, incidentally, was not at the count, having been summoned to the television studios to give the view from the bunker)
Here’s a graph of the Citywide vote shares. It’s neck-and-neck between Labour and the Conservatives across the whole City of Salford.
Next year it’s the European Elections and there must be a real possibility that the Conservatives will outpoll Labour across the City. I doubt this has ever happened before - anyone care to let me know?
I know that your Conservative Councillors (now all 13 of them!) will continue to listen to the concerns of all local residents - from Kersal to Cadishead and from Langworthy to Little Hulton. Labour have no moral mandate to run this City any more and we will challenge their poor decision-making at every opportunity.
Interesting to listen to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg trying to spin the results yesterday - he talked about the Conservatives making no progress in (I paraphrase, I’ve been trying to find the video and haven’t yet succeeded) the “big important northern cities”.
Clearly the Liberal Democrat leadership do not feel that Salford, where we gained 3 seats and polled as many votes as Labour across the City, is an important northern City. Presumably the Liberal Democrats are happy to talk down to other northern Cities like Wakefield (7 Conservative gains) and Sunderland (5 Conservative gains).
The Salford Liberal Democrats had a decent night on Thursday, gaining 2 seats from Labour and holding on to the 2 wards they were defending, so it must be a real kick in the teeth to hear how dismissive their Party Leader is about the City in which we all live.
Just realised I never actually linked to the results… here they are…
http://www.salford.gov.uk/results
I’ll post a percentage breakdown when I get around to it!
It’s been a fantastic night for the Conservatives in Salford. We have three new Councillors - in Walkden South, Eccles and Cadishead wards - and our vote share is up all across the City.
Labour have lost 6 seats, 3 to us, 2 to the Liberal Democrats and 1 to Community Action - the latter in Irlam where GMPTA Chairman Roger Jones collapsed into third place. They have failed to win a majority of seats contested and they have lost their moral mandate to run Salford City Council.
Even more startling are the vote shares across the City:
Con 17472 (34.00%)
Lab 17899 (34.83%)
LD 10949 (21.31%)
Across the whole of the City of Salford, a Labour heartland Council which has had a Labour majority since it was created, the Labour lead over the opposition Conservatives was a mere 427 votes - 0.83%. It is a disastrous result for Labour. In the wards making up the new Worsley & Eccles South Parliamentary constituency, Conservatives lead Labour by a whopping 12%.
More tomorrow!
At Broadway polling station. Weather fine. Polling steady, becoming more brisk. No sign of Labour.
The weather is currently quite pleasant, but was a bit patchy earlier with some rain - a big improvement on the forecast which was not good at all.
Voting in Walkden South is steady with the best turnout at James Brindley (polling district JE).
Saw Barry the Anarchist leafleting for LibDem candidate Martin O’Neill on Folly Lane in Swinton while passing through. No sign of any other party here in Walkden or in Eccles where I popped by for an hour earlier in the day.
Having a (very) short break for breakfast after my dawn delivery, so thought I’d post a quick update. I’ll try to make a few short posts today and this evening on my phone but that is dependent on a) having a few moments to myself and b) the technology working properly. I don’t remember Pendlebury Recreation Centre being a mobile blackspot but you never know…
Is a Post Office near you closing?
On 10th June, the Post Office announces “Network Change” proposals for Greater Manchester. In real English that means “Post Office closures”. I’ll be taking a close interest in the proposals for Salford, as I’m sure will local residents across the City.
It’s interesting to look at the consultation programme on the Post Office website. With the solitary exception of Merseyside, all the English metropolitan areas have had the announcements on Post Office closures scheduled for this summer, after the local elections. What do all the metropolitan areas have in common? They all had local elections last week.
Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know about our spineless Labour Government?