Still lots more results to come, but now that the rush of headlines has slowed, what to make of the results so far? As of Saturday morning, the results look pretty good. Before getting into that, it’s important to recognise that’s not the same as universally good. There are, for example, two wards I campaigned in this time around which we lost out on by very small margins. Defeats like those, or losing your seat while others are gaining those on the same council, are in some ways made all the worse by most other people around you celebrating. I hope though that our overall progress means those ..read more

It is going to be a long couple of days as the elections come in, so let’s start with perhaps the most important thing: And thank you too to all the family, friends and colleagues whose support, love and encouragement is essential for all our candidates, agents and campaign managers and staff to play their part. https://t.co/i4zaM4RawG — Mark Pack (@markpack) May 2, 2024 And a reminder why all that campaigning matters: Successful start to door knocking earlier as third person I spoke with interrupted me to say, "What? It is today?" pic.twitter.com/HG1eSHcKRM — Mark Pack (@markpack) May ..read more

If leaflets had a smell, this one would come with a whiff of desperation I reckon (with overtones of sewage, of course): Hat tip: James Heale. As Rob Wilson points out, this isn’t the only example of Conservatives giving up on the government: “We can’t carry on living hand-to-mouth, we really cannot." Conservative councillor Lezley Picton told a heated full meeting of Shropshire Council the central government settlement for the next financial year was not enough. FULL STORY https://t.co/kjxcWUYkvD pic.twitter.com/x2PeiNj0IS — BBC Shropshire (@BBCShropshire) March 1, 2024 Sign up to get t ..read more

Ed Davey puts it well in his reaction to the sad news about the death of former MP turned peer Andrew Stunell: A lovely and kind man, Andrew’s dedication to his constituency and to the party more widely helped so many, and always made working with him on something a pleasure. Many others have also being paying their tributes, including: Given the sad news about Andrew Stunell, one of the warmest, kindest people I have ever met, I wanted to share some memories. He was the kind of person you want on your team. Hard working, honest and kind. He helped me work out what it was to make a differen ..read more

Only the two principal authority council by-elections this week as contests have generally been scheduled for next week. In the first, Plaid and the Greens ran a joint candidate again, as they had the last time around in this ward: Grangetown (Cardiff) Council By-Election Result: LAB: 47.5% (-5.6) PLC/GRN: 18.5% (-9.3) CON: 12.5% (+3.5) PRO: 9.4% (+6.2) IND (Samater): 6.6% (New) LDM: 4.0% (-0.9) IND (Hovord): 1.4% (New) No TUSC (-2.0) as previous. Labour HOLD. Changes w/ 2022. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) April 26, 2024 Thank you to James Bear for being the Liberal Democra ..read more

A long-running debate in political science is the extent to which the political leanings, or cheerleading, of media outlets ends up influencing how people vote. One reason for this not being a simple question to answer is that people choose their media outlets, so if there is high level of support for the Roundabout Lovers Party among readers of the Thursday Chronicle, is that because of the Chronicle editor’s passionate promotion of the virtues of roundabouts as a greener, safer form of road interchange, or is it because those who already quite like roundabouts choose to read the Chronicle? B ..read more

Liberal Democrat Newswire #183 takes a look at both lessons from the 1920s for the Liberal Democrats, and what a successful general election looks like for the party. You can now read it in full below, but if you’d like the convenience of getting it direct by email in future just sign up for it here. This time I’m taking a rummage around the wild story of British politics in the 1920s to find some lessons for the next general election. Regular readers will also notice a change in format for the ‘Lib Dems in the news’ section. Feedback very welcome. Meanwhile, cong ..read more

New research from More in Common includes this question about what people are interested in seeing people running for Parliament mention in their leaflets: The reason for that list of categories is that the polling is part of wider research into what the public makes of culture was issues. As it concludes: An election strategy based on culture wars is more likely to cause voters to “tune out” of political debates, further increasing cynicism in politics. Voters perceive the focus on niche dividing-line issues as a distraction from their everyday priorities… Voters see politicians’ engaging i ..read more

Letters sent to voters by the Conservative Party fail to mention their own Mayor candidate (except in the imprint) and admit they think they are not going to win. Instead they ask people to vote Conservative to reduce the scale of their defeat: New: A letter issued by Susan Hall's campaign and written by Tory MP Steve Tuckwell urges Londoners to ensure Sadiq Khan "wins by a smaller margin than he's expecting". It suggests voting for "someone else" than Khan, without naming Hall (except for in the imprint). pic.twitter.com/nRi4CgSYxb — Noah Vickers (@noahvickers14) April 19, 2024 All the m ..read more

Only two principal authority council by-elections on Thursday. Both had Liberal Democrat candidates, which is one up on last time around. The result in that ward which the party fought this time after a no show last time shows the value of expanding the number of wards the party fights: Farnham Castle (Waverley) Council By-Election Result: FR: 32.5% (-17.6) LDM: 29.6% (New) LAB: 23.0% (-11.7) CON: 14.9% (-0.2) Farnham Residents HOLD. Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) April 18, 2024 Congratulations to Theresa Meredith-Hardy and the team for beating both Labour and t ..read more