The counting of the Beast
May. 3rd, 2025 05:28 pmYesterday they counted the votes. The good news is that ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
durham_rambler was elected, and handsomely so, coming fourth out of eight successful candidates (behind our two current county councillors and a previous county councillor). This is the good news.
The Could Be Worse news is that the Parish Council is again dominated by Liberal Democrats, with a minority of Labour members, and withdurham_rambler as the only Independent. Neither the Green Party nor Reform stood for the Parish Council. County Councillors elected within the City of Durham are all, as previously, LibDem. Just outside the City, the Green Party has doubled its representation, since the previous Green Councillor has held his seat, and his wife has been elected to join him, so that both councillors for the ward are Green. This is not the only place in the county where I see two candidates with the same name and think They may both be terriic, but it suggests there wasn't a huge supply of candidates..., which takes some - but not all - of the gilt off the gingerbread.
The Really Bad News is that Reform have taken a majority of the seats on the County Council: we were afraid they would do well, but not that they would gain overall control (previously No Overall Control, after a long history of Labour dominance). It seems to me that there are two ways that this could now go horribly wrong: either they will turn up full of ideas and impose their horrible policies on Durham; or they have a number of debating points they want to score, and no real idea how they might apply to County Durham.
The post, containing our accreditation for the count, arrived at ten to two, and we set off for the leisure centre in Spennymoor at two, very relieved. The reception desk checkeddurham_rambler's papers, found him at number 665 on their list and fastened his wristband: wait, if he's number 665, does that mean I'm 666? Yes, it does. We were given a list of where each parish was being counted, and directed into the main hall, but after following the numbered desks right across the hall, we discovered that Neville's Cross was actually being counted in a separate room. After this, things went more smoothly...
durham_rambler was elected, and handsomely so, coming fourth out of eight successful candidates (behind our two current county councillors and a previous county councillor). This is the good news.The Could Be Worse news is that the Parish Council is again dominated by Liberal Democrats, with a minority of Labour members, and with
durham_rambler as the only Independent. Neither the Green Party nor Reform stood for the Parish Council. County Councillors elected within the City of Durham are all, as previously, LibDem. Just outside the City, the Green Party has doubled its representation, since the previous Green Councillor has held his seat, and his wife has been elected to join him, so that both councillors for the ward are Green. This is not the only place in the county where I see two candidates with the same name and think They may both be terriic, but it suggests there wasn't a huge supply of candidates..., which takes some - but not all - of the gilt off the gingerbread.The Really Bad News is that Reform have taken a majority of the seats on the County Council: we were afraid they would do well, but not that they would gain overall control (previously No Overall Control, after a long history of Labour dominance). It seems to me that there are two ways that this could now go horribly wrong: either they will turn up full of ideas and impose their horrible policies on Durham; or they have a number of debating points they want to score, and no real idea how they might apply to County Durham.
The post, containing our accreditation for the count, arrived at ten to two, and we set off for the leisure centre in Spennymoor at two, very relieved. The reception desk checked
durham_rambler's papers, found him at number 665 on their list and fastened his wristband: wait, if he's number 665, does that mean I'm 666? Yes, it does. We were given a list of where each parish was being counted, and directed into the main hall, but after following the numbered desks right across the hall, we discovered that Neville's Cross was actually being counted in a separate room. After this, things went more smoothly...
