4 replies to this topic

[Eddie]

The Conservative party has lost overall control of Gloucester City Council, just one year after winning its first majority for more than 20 years.
Ten seats were up for election and there was just one change with Labour taking the Grange ward from the Tories.
That cut the number of Tory councillors to 18 but they are still the biggest group and told the BBC they are likely to remain in control of the council.
Labour now has nine seats and the Liberal Democrats remain on eight.
'Fairly satisfied'
Council leader Paul James, said: "It's disappointing in the sense that we lost the one ward to Labour which was my deputy leader Steve Morgan.
"On the whole we can be fairly satisfied that we managed to defend the four other seats that we held.
"Given that we fought the election against a difficult national backdrop I think we can be fairly happy with what we have achieved."
Elsewhere in the county, there has been no change at Cheltenham Borough Council.
The Liberal Democrats' vote has held up there where they lost one ward but gained another to retain overall control of a council they have now run for four years.
Half of the 40 seats in the borough were up for grabs and the night ended with 11 seats for the Liberal Democrats, seven for the Conservatives and two for the People Against Bureaucracy group.
Votes at Stroud District Council are being counted from 09:00 BST. There were no elections in the Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury, or the Cotswolds.

BBC

[Barry Kirby]

Not quite right, liberals have 9 seats, so its exactly split.

It was a really interesting night last night, seeing just how the votes were coming down and also to see quite a few votes having a low turnout.

[AlexMcKee]

It was very poor turnout in many Gloucester wards. Matson & Robinswood was well below national average. It often is below average turnout but it appears to be getting worse.

[Barry Kirby]

Yes your right Alex, and I think that everybody needs to recognise that. We hear a lot of people say that they think all politicians are the same and therefore not voting, but having seen so many on the day who just could not give a toss, it really is disheartening. Also many people saying comments along the line of "well they didn;t knock on my door, therefore they are Lazy and not worth my vote" - one candidate and over 3000 houses (approx) per ward - there is a good chance they missed you! Why not take some responsibility and find out about them!

The way Im now beginning to see it is that if you really htink the Politicans are not for you, then do something about it. A lot of what we are seeing is the product of lazyness and apethy. And more directly about many people thinking that someone else will do it! f we want to have better and effective representation, then we have to do something about it.

The main parties have to do something radical too, the same old election machines are not as relevent in todays working world. We have to work harder at becoming relevent and useful to people. A good dose of actually using the flaps on the side of the head, rather than just pretending to do so!

[Eddie]

The main parties have to do something radical too

To my mind that is the big problem. The old party structure is not relevant in todays Britain. Indeed, I think it does individual politicians a great deal of harm. I always try to vote for the man in local and national elections, but what is the point when he has the ultimate get out ? ", Yes, I know I campaigned on ********* , but the party whip made me vote against it.

Combine that wih the zoo we all see at pm question time and it is no wonder people are sick of them all.