#Lewisham2014

[SquashedCommuter]

Does anyone know where to get a breakdown of the vote share over Lewisham for the council elections?

I can only find the winners here (http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcoun ... -2014.aspx) but want to see how many votes the losers got as well. I also want to see things like the number of spoilt ballot papers and turnout in each ward.

Does this get published online? If not, I would like to request this information to be publically available on the Lewisham Council website.

[Eagle]

lewisham.gov.uk have all the numbers you are requesting.

[Manwithaview1]

The lewisham website still isn't working but it looks like we now have an almost totally red council aside from one green.

Alex freaks lost his seat, which I find surprising as I thought he was a really good local representative.

I find it odd that in a local election people vote for party over person. I'm also not so sure how healthy it is to have a council dominated so heavily by one party, especially one that it's own mayor says has a problem with bureaucracy.

I was shocked that Alex lost his seat as well. He had my vote as he was excellent. Once again a decent councillor loses their position because the national party are hopeless.

[Eagle]

MWAV

I have to agree with you. What is the point of any local councilor going the extra mile when they know that it is not them that get judged.

So sad people cannot vote on purely local performance.

Amazing all but one seat Labour. The Kim's would be proud.

[Chris Best]

Lewisham Euro results published on the web site - turnout 38.9% - Labour 32,507 followed by the Greens 10,228 then UKIP and Tories. Good to see support for the Greens as the second party under this PR vote.

[Robin Orton]

I see that even London now has a UKIP MEP (plus four Labour, two Tories, one Green - no Lib Dems, of course).

[Eagle]

I am not a supporter of UKIP but guess good they are represented in London as many share their views.

The fact that many other parties across the EU are calling for change is very positive.

Even Sarko calling for reintroduction of border controls.

[SquashedCommuter]

lewisham.gov.uk have all the numbers you are requesting.

I checked again and couldn't find them. Which page are these on? I want the vote share of all the candidates who stood in Sydenham including the losers. Thanks.

[leenewham]

I wonder why the overwhelming majority haven't bothered to vote and if the surge of UKIP are connected?

Listening to many phone ins there seems to be a common theme. The main parties aren't listening or they feel disconnected from the main parties who they feel are all the same or UKIP seem to speak their language.

It seems as if voters from all parties have switched to Ukip, not because they want to see a UKIP vote, but because they want a real change. The Lib Dems haven't seemed to deliver this in government, and I think a lot of people patience has run out.

I'd say that vast majority of People don't bother to read manifestos either, otherwise I'm sure they wouldn't have voted for Ukip.

Hopefully the big parties including Labour wont just say 'we did OK' and carry on regardless, but will sit down and say 'we have a real problem, we have lost our voters trust, how can we change this'. I don't think the solution has got anything to do with UKIP, it's about being a party that passionately believes in something and comes up with a plan to make it happen. It needs politicians that have a story, something that made them this way, and a leader that can deliver the promise and communicate it.

It's rather odd that the electorate had a great chance to change the status quo by voting for PR, but instead rejected it out of misplaced fear and seems to have replaced it by voting purple.

Obviously this has nothing to do with Lewisham, which is a borough that is so definitively controlled by one party that unless the election is some form of PR, if you don't vote red you may as well not bother. Which I believe is wrong and rather sad…

…but that's just my view and how I feel and think.

[SquashedCommuter]

There was a vote for do you want a mayor but it was worded in such a way that I thought it sounded bias towards having one. I did call the council and tell them my thoughts on their pro's and con's of having one and basically got told I where to go.
I voted against and would love another opportunity to get rid of the Mayor. Total waste of money in my opinion.

I voted People Before Profit for the Mayor mainly because they were offering a referendum on whether we have a mayor. I don't think any of the other parties offered this.

They did quite well, I thought, considering they don't have a National well-known brand name (i.e. like Labour, Conservatives, Lib Dem, or in other words anti-Conservatives, anti-Labour, anti-both respectively) to associate peoples mind with.

I think they could come the official opposition to Labour in Lewisham come the next council elections.

UKIP need to get decent candidates in London before they can be seriously considered. I like Winston McKenzie from Croydon. He says things how they are. If we could get someone like him in Lewisham it would be interesting.

[marymck]

I think if we had a "none of the above" option, turnout would be much greater. I believe low turnout is not because the majority of people are apathetic; it's largely because many find it difficult to passionately support ANY of our main parties.

Lewisham is perhaps an exception on the apathy stakes ... so unhealtily skewed towards one party domination for so long that many feel there's no point voting unless you vote Labour. Whatever the colour of one's politics, if there's not a mix in the debating chamber there's no debate and no representation for a swathe of the population. That can't be a good thing.

I can understand why many don't vote under our system. Surely it's hypocritical to support a party or candidate unless you believe in what they stand for and believe in their integrity?

I did vote. But I have never found it so hard to decide where to put my various crosses.

[Tim Lund]

Lewisham is perhaps an exception on the apathy stakes ... so unhealtily skewed towards one party domination for so long that many feel there's no point voting unless you vote Labour.

Actually, there's just as little reason for voting Labour if you are sure they are going to get in, as I was. I still did, for reasons it's unnecessary to go into here.

Whatever the colour of one's politics, if there's not a mix in the debating chamber there's no debate and no representation for a swathe of the population. That can't be a good thing.

I agree. It would be good to see Councillors explain more of what they do.

[admin]

I checked again and couldn't find them. Which page are these on? I want the vote share of all the candidates who stood in Sydenham including the losers. Thanks.

Full Sydenham Ward results are now here: http://sydenham.org.uk/council-election-results-2014/
BTW Eagle I don't recall your Kim dynasty having No Overall Control between 2006 and 2009

Admin

[Tim Lund]

And Perry Vale ward?

[robbieduncan]

Disappointed to see the complete one party result. Whether a Labour supporter or not a diversity of opinion has to be better than a mono-culture

[SquashedCommuter]

Disappointed to see the complete one party result. Whether a Labour supporter or not a diversity of opinion has to be better than a mono-culture

This is what the electorate democratically elected.

I agree that it is not a good result.

But you can also democratically prevent it happening next time.

We have four years to change it.

I plan to do some analysis on the results for Lewisham identifying who could get in next time and can post them up here in a few weeks. People are more likely to vote against the party in power. More people voted Labour because the Conservatives and Lib Dems are in power. It is likely that by the next council elections we will have a Labour government in power and possible we will be back in recession. This will be an opportunity to get other candidates elected.

There is already a party focussing on Lewisham (People Before Profit). However I think we could concentrate on just Sydenham and get an independent candidate elected to represent just Sydenham. We could create a "Sydenham Party" with just one candidate. We would need to start now and communicate with people. You would need to get around at least 1700 guaranteed Sydenham voters. Lets say 2 voters a day for the next 4 years. We could create a kind of petition of people pledging to support the "Sydenham Party" and have an email list to update people once a month. This would encourage people to get other people to sign up. We could focus on non-voters (the majority).

I'd be willing to pay the deposit for a person willing to put the work in to do this (if I agree with their policies).

It would be a breakthrough in Lewisham to get an independent person elected who doesn't belong to a mainstream political party.

[Manwithaview1]

MWAV

I have to agree with you. What is the point of any local councilor going the extra mile when they know that it is not them that get judged.

So sad people cannot vote on purely local performance.

Amazing all but one seat Labour. The Kim's would be proud.

Do you say that about all blue councils?

[robbieduncan]

MWAV

I have to agree with you. What is the point of any local councilor going the extra mile when they know that it is not them that get judged.

So sad people cannot vote on purely local performance.

Amazing all but one seat Labour. The Kim's would be proud.

Do you say that about all blue councils?

I voted Conservative (for the council) but I'd feel the same way about an all Conservative council. Having all one party leads to poor controls and oversight. It's made worse by the Mayor having executive powers.

[Manwithaview1]

MWAV

I have to agree with you. What is the point of any local councilor going the extra mile when they know that it is not them that get judged.

So sad people cannot vote on purely local performance.

Amazing all but one seat Labour. The Kim's would be proud.

Do you say that about all blue councils?

I voted Conservative (for the council) but I'd feel the same way about an all Conservative council. Having all one party leads to poor controls and oversight. It's made worse by the Mayor having executive powers.

Absolutely. That's why I always split my vote for councillors. We didn't see any Conservative presence on the Sydenham Hill Estate bar Polish leafleters...

[SquashedCommuter]

Hello,

Some time back I said I'd do some analysis on the council results. I done this a couple of weeks back or so and plan to post the results up here bit by bit.

I mentioned that I thought it will be a really good idea for the next elections to get some independent candidates or a candidate representing just Sydenham (and not representing national party politics) to stand for election. There is no rush to have candidates right now, so at this stage I am just posing the idea for people to have a think about it.

So, to start with, I've calculated the average number of votes a candidate standing for each party got.



This shows how Labour dominate in Lewisham. They have more votes per candidate than Green, UKIP and Conservatives combined. There has already been concern expressed on this forum of the power this gives to Labour as they do not have a healthy opposition.

The main interesting point is the results for Lewisham People Before Profit. Their candidates got more votes than either of Greens, UKIP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats! They represent Lewisham only.

More later...