please empty your brain below

Interesting fact that I heard on the radio earlier on, though this is nationally not just in London; there's been a big thing about how many seats/boroughs/etc that UKIP are getting... yet (when I heard it earlier this evening, around 6pm, though it might have changed by now) the Green party had more...
Good summary. Just one pedantic point - Kingston will end up with a handful of Labour councillors. The Norbiton ward where Labour has a presence has been subject to endless recounts as to whether Labour gets two or three seats there. They've now given their exhausted counters a break and are going to do it again when they come back to count the European Parliament votes on Sunday.
The old fashioned manual count of votes , the monochrome non-branded signage for polling stations, the pencils in the polling booths, the declarations by the returning officer - the character of British polling days is one of the few areas of life that doesn't seem to have changed in the last 50 years.
kissenme, I like those pencils in the polling booths, I am always impressed by how well they make a dark X. I think they might be a soft type of lead pencil.
Kissrme you're so right. The typeface of the polling signs looks the same as it did when I was a child. Have ballot papers always included party logos or is that a more modern turn of events?
RG - er, I think about 15 Greens were elected across England. UKIP have over 150. But even though they lost dozens and dozens of seats, and received fewer votes overall, more Lib Dems were elected than UKIP.
Boroughs with a Green opposition, just!

Lewisham:

Labour: 53 seats
Green: 1 seat

and

Islington:

Labour: 47 seats
Green: 1 seat
And a Labour hold for Southwark. Another four years of misery then...
politics...let me go and check if the paint is dry
Still wet, raining!
But they don't have the old tin ballot boxes with wax seals any more, whichnis a shame.

Party symbols are a relatively recent addition to the ballot paper, introduced after the 'Literal Democrat' episode I think, when a candidate so styled took about 10000 Lib Dem votes and cost the Lib Dem their seat.
And party affiliation is an addition in the last generation or so. At one time just candidates' names appeared, along with (I think) their address. No sign of who they represented. Parties were not recognised by the electoral system.
As one of the army of casual labour employed on these occasions, I am delighted with the party emblems on the ballot papers. They come into their own in the council elections, where they make it easier to identify votes for 3 candidates from the same party. Previously we were provided with a board with a raised edge marked out to correspond with the names on the ballot paper and colour-coded for the different parties.
Now confirmed that there will be two Labour councillors on Kingston council, representing Norbiton, after the nth re-count. Missed out on a third by three votes.

dg writes: Cheers, I've updated the data.
Too much politics beware










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