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Westminster Politics

Compton22

Knows that he knows nothing.
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Frosty said:
Labour's Kim McGuiness elected North East mayor, seeing off challenge from former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll

Labour’s Kim McGuinness has comfortable won the contest to be the first North East mayor. She had 41% of the vote, beating Jamie Driscoll, who was on 28%. Driscoll was Labour’s North of Tyne mayor but was blocked by the party from standing to be its candidate for the new post because he was perceived as too leftwing, or insufficiently loyal to the Labour leadership.

The new North East mayoralty is a larger version of the North of Tyne one, which is replaces.

Here are the results in full.

Kim McGuinness (Lab) 185,051 (41.27%)
+Jamie Driscoll (Ind) 126,652 (28.24%)
Guy Renner-Thompson (C) 52,446 (11.70%)
Paul Donaghy (Reform) 41,147 (9.18%)
Aidan King (LD) 25,485 (5.68%)
Andrew Gray (Green) 17,631 (3.93%)
Lab maj 58,399 (13.02%)
Electorate 1,459,195; Turnout 448,412 (30.73%)
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That's actually quite impressive from Labour
 

Dumbstar

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Frosty said:
That quote above is from The Guardian.

The BBC is carrying a slightly different quote from a 'party source'. It is amazing:

"It’s the Middle East, not West Midlands, that will have won [Conservative candidate] Andy Street the mayoralty. Once again Hamas are the real villains."

@Dumbstar
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We're living in really dangerous times. I'm too old to care but I fear for my children. As Muslims (brown ones at that) there's some tough times coming up whether we live in the UK or Saudi Arabia. Both countries are following identical agendas. But its written these times will come so it's not a shock for us, just sad.
 

TheGame

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Frosty said:
Counting starts tomorrow at 9am. From Labour canvassing, reportedly much lower turnout in the inner cities in areas where Khan's vote was strong; generally the same levels of turnout in Outer London which voted blue last time. We should have the first districts reporting tomorrow lunchtime with confirmed figures.
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They have verified the votes today so they are verified face up so you can get a good idea of how the voting is. Lots of reports the Muslim community hasn’t voted for him and turnout is low. It remains to be seen tomorrow but Susan Hall is a total nut job so Londoners are going to regret that.
 

TheGame

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Dumbstar said:
We're living in really dangerous times. I'm too old to care but I fear for my children. As Muslims (brown ones at that) there's some tough times coming up whether we live in the UK or Saudi Arabia. Both countries are following identical agendas. But its written these times will come so it's not a shock for us, just sad.
Click to expand...
 

DavelinaJolie

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Tim Montgomerie is a twat. On Sunak: "We don't really know what he would do with a majority."

Yeah. No evidence of that whatsoever.
 

Rolandofgilead

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TheGame said:
One for @Pexbo


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I watched the start of the BBC coverage last night and lasted about 11 minutes before having to turn it off. How on earth a blatant conservative supporter can front a BBC results show I'll never ever know. Everybody is entitled to their political opinions but she could at least try and hide who she supports.
 

Maticmaker

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TheGame said:
When someone submits a postal vote they need to sign it and put their date of birth. It must then match the ones the Council have on file for them when they registered. That’s how you check it’s from them. If they mark their date of birth or signature incorrectly, they get written to after the election saying their vote was rejected and to provide fresh identifiers. Having worked in elections for many years, it’s a secure way to vote.
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Thanks for your information.

With all the technical capabilities to obtain DOB and reproduce signatures available these days, it still doesn't sound to me like the absolute proof provided by a 'face-to-proven photograph' comparison, at the point of voting intention being actually made on the ballot.

Suppose its something we have to live with to try to ensure everyone eligible to cast their vote can do so?

Incidentally, has the amount of postal voting taken up, been rising in recent times?
 

TheGame

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Maticmaker said:
Thanks for your information.

With all the technical capabilities to obtain DOB and reproduce signatures available these days, it still doesn't sound to me like the absolute proof provided by a 'face-to-proven photograph' comparison, at the point of voting intention being actually made on the ballot.

Suppose its something we have to live with to try to ensure everyone eligible to cast their vote can do so?

Incidentally, has the amount of postal voting taken up, been rising in recent times?
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It’s very handy for people when they can’t vote in person for a reason, are either away etc. It’s worth noting that signatures have to be refreshed every so often so people with postal votes get written to for that.

In respect of voting face to face, when I ran elections there were hardly any cases of voter fraud because there were already safeguards in place. Introducing ID is clearly a political decision.

Yes postal voting take up has definitly increased as people tend to be away for specific elections or find it easier to vote that way. The turnout for postal votes is always higher as well.
 

Maticmaker

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TheGame said:
It’s very handy for people when they can’t vote in person for a reason, are either away etc. It’s worth noting that signatures have to be refreshed every so often so people with postal votes get written to for that.

In respect of voting face to face, when I ran elections there were hardly any cases of voter fraud because there were already safeguards in place. Introducing ID is clearly a political decision.


Yes postal voting take up has definitly increased as people tend to be away for specific elections or find it easier to vote that way. The turnout for postal votes is always higher as well.
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Thank you for your reply.

Yes, that would seem logical, but IMO once ID becomes part of the validity checking process for voting (whatever the motivation) then the same absolute proof demanded at the Polling Station, should also be in play for postal voting. Given the reasons for postal voting may be varied, and this method of voting seems to be on the increase, can you (or anyone) say with confidence, that the instances of voter fraud will remain low.....how would you know?

I suppose I'm of the old school and was brought up to believe the biggest single freedom we have is to vote.
My father was always proud of this 'freedom' indeed he use come home from work, wash and change into his best suit to go and vote. I remember once he told me nothing would stop him voting, he would 'crawl over broken glass' to do so (he had probably downed a few pints on the way home), but it stuck with me.

I feel we have to protect this freedom even more so now, that in any time in the past, we just cannot take any risks, with the process being discredited... yet this seems to be happening now!
 

groovyalbert

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decorativeed said:
It really is. I saw a quote from Tice saying they were now the main opposition to Labour, but so far they've not got a single councillor into a seat, while the greens have added another 36, almost doubling theirs.
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It's weird isn't it? I turned on BBC coverage this morning and they were interviewing some guy from Conservative Home who was explaining (not with much conviction) how Reform's positive results didn't follow the same protest vote trends of other parties.

I do wonder if we could see a number of Tories jumping ship to Reform ahead of the GE, it's not like they've got much to lose. Hope that voters stick with them and not the party and all the baggage they've amassed over the last ~15 years. It would be a fitting and failing Hail Mary in equal measure.
 

4bars

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Kaos said:
Imagine not securing a majority against this dumpster fire iteration of the Tories.
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Imagine the Tories might win again as Starmer is alienating its voters more and more to vote green and libs
 

Abizzz

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It's weird how voter fraud is only a problem in western democracies that Rupert Murdoch owns media companies in. Coincidences.
 

Smores

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Sweet Square said:
Somewhat meaningless I guess but might be interesting


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Yeah I'm always sceptical of using locals as the basis of projection. No way Labour don't get a majority.

Be nice if they upped their appeal though.
 

TheGame

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Maticmaker said:
Thank you for your reply.

Yes, that would seem logical, but IMO once ID becomes part of the validity checking process for voting (whatever the motivation) then the same absolute proof demanded at the Polling Station, should also be in play for postal voting. Given the reasons for postal voting may be varied, and this method of voting seems to be on the increase, can you (or anyone) say with confidence, that the instances of voter fraud will remain low.....how would you know?

I suppose I'm of the old school and was brought up to believe the biggest single freedom we have is to vote.
My father was always proud of this 'freedom' indeed he use come home from work, wash and change into his best suit to go and vote. I remember once he told me nothing would stop him voting, he would 'crawl over broken glass' to do so (he had probably downed a few pints on the way home), but it stuck with me.

I feel we have to protect this freedom even more so now, that in any time in the past, we just cannot take any risks, with the process being discredited... yet this seems to be happening now!
Click to expand...
Fully understand what you are saying and having worked in polling stations, I have still seen people eager to vote in person.

In terms of postal voting, my experience is that there are already safeguards in place when voting whereas when you come to a station, you can say ID can verify the person voting. For postal voting, matching the signatures and DOB of the person verifies it is them voting. Not sure where in that process you would introduce ID as you have regular checks of who lives at the property anyway. Personally for me, like I said, it’s a very secure process and enables a lot more people to vote.
 

Frosty

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Party campaigners in London said Gaza had driven voters in the inner city away from the party, while the controversy over the clean air ultra-low emissions zone had cost it in outer boroughs. A shock Conservative win in London would dominate the political agenda for days, renew questions over Labour’s environmental policies and provoke anger from the left of the party. One senior Labour source said: “Losing London would be devastating, but most of the country is fine and this won’t affect the general election.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...oses-ground-in-urban-and-heavily-muslim-areas
 

Buster15

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TheGame said:
Fully understand what you are saying and having worked in polling stations, I have still seen people eager to vote in person.

In terms of postal voting, my experience is that there are already safeguards in place when voting whereas when you come to a station, you can say ID can verify the person voting. For postal voting, matching the signatures and DOB of the person verifies it is them voting. Not sure where in that process you would introduce ID as you have regular checks of who lives at the property anyway. Personally for me, like I said, it’s a very secure process and enables a lot more people to vote.
Click to expand...
Good points.
We use the postal voting system and am quite happy with how it operates.
 
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