Friday, May 03, 2013

Observing oddities III...


Nothing much to say about the local elections except perhaps I was very surprised that the 'council' country is still largely black and blue. The South Shields by-election however had a few interesting points: hardly a surprise that Labour won: with only one non-Labour MP since 1929 and no Conservative EVER it was a foregone conclusion. They say turn-out was low but that doesn't tell the whole story: it was 39% turnout but actual real people visiting the polling booth was a mere 25%: postal votes boosted the turnout massively: 58% of the total vote were postal votes! I have called the graph double dip because Labour polled just over double UKIP (2nd) who polled just over double Conservative (3rd) who polled just over double Ahmed Khan (Independent, 4th) who polled just under double the votes of Independent Socialist (5th) and BNP (6th) who polled just over double the Lib Dems (7th)... 

2 comments:

Paul said...

I think Gildy or Shy would know more about 'Shields' demographic than me but 58% is quite significant in a relatively small area.

Like the double dip concept, appeals to the accountant in me!

We now need to know what UKIP's positive policies are rather than the Vicar of Dibley, no, no, no approach - I'm still waiting for the yes on the end of that sentence.

Span Ows said...

Apparently the first time EVER that postal votes have outnumbered 'live' votes.

hahaha...yes, now are they a protest vote or a contender. And this makes the Euro elections next year even more interesting as not just disgruntled Conservative choose UKIP.