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All 36 metropolitan boroughs, 18 out of 55 unitary authorities, 74 out of 201 district councils, all 32 Scottish council areas, 21 out of 22 Welsh principal councils, and 3 directly elected mayors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. |
The 2012 United Kingdom local elections were held across England, Scotland and Wales on 3 May 2012.[1] Elections were held in 128 English local authorities,[2] all 32 Scottish local authorities and 21 of the 22 Welsh unitary authorities, alongside three mayoral elections including the London mayoralty and the London Assembly. Referendums were also held in 11 English cities to determine whether or not to introduce directly elected mayors.[3]
The BBC's projected national vote share put Labour on 38%, the Conservatives on 31%, the Liberal Democrats on 16% and others on 15%.[4] Rallings and Thrasher of Plymouth University estimated 39% for Labour, 33% for the Conservatives, 15% for the Liberal Democrats, and 13% for others.[5]
The inaugural election of police and crime commissioners for 41 of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales took place separately, in November 2012.
YouTube Encyclopedic
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1/2Views:6 136 86519 609 206
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Why the UK Election Results are the Worst in History.
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The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained
Transcription
Hello Internet The UK had an election we need to talk about because after the debates finished, the people voted and the ballots tallied the results were this: But parliament ended up looking like this: Which isn't, exactly, representative. And by not exactly, I mean at all. Red earned 30% of the vote and 36% of the seats, which is sort of close, but the rest is madness: Orange earned 8% of the vote but got one eighth of that while Yellow's 5% just about doubled, and purple earned 13% and got squat. Meanwhile blue's 37% of the people booted to 51% of the seats in parliament. The blue boost is even bigger when you consider that 51% of the seats gives basically 100% the control. How'd this happen? In the UK -- national elections aren't really national, they're a bunch of local elections. The UK is divided into constituencies, each of which elects one member of parliament (M.P.) to represent them. This local / national divide is where the trouble begins. Imagine a parliament with just three constituencies, and it's easy to see how it wouldn't always align with citizens. Some people think this sort of result is fine -- “it's all *about* winning local elections,” they’ll say. “Each M.P. represents their constituency.” And while the imbalance in this example is dumb, but it's the same problem in the real election and this same argument is given, but there are two more problems with it in reality land. 1) Few citizens have any idea who their MP is, they just know what party they voted for -- what party they want to represent their views on the national level. And pretending like it's a local election is a bit disingenuous. -- in practice it's an election for now the nation will run -- not really for who is going to represent a tiny part of it. and even if it were 2) The individual constituencies are worse at representing their citizens than parliament. Indulge this spreadsheet-loving nerd for a moment, will you? The difference between what a party earned at the polls and what they got in parliament is the amount of misrepresentation error. If we calculate all the errors for all the parties and add them up we can say the Parliament as a whole has 47% percentage points of misrepresentation error. That sounds bad looks like a utopian rainbow of diversity compared to any local election because the local elections have *one* winner. Out of the 650 constituencies 647 have a higher representation error than parliament. These are the only three that don't and they're really unusual for having so many of a single kind of voter in one place. Most places look the The Wrekin which is dead in the middle a mere one-hundred and one points off. Note that the winning candidate didn't reach a majority here. Which means more than half of constituencies elected their MP with a minority of voters. The worst is Belfast South at the bottom of the list. Hilariously unrepresentative. Less than a quarter of the voters get to speak for the entire place in parliament. This is the the lowest percentage an M.P. has ever been elected by. So when people argue that the UK election is a bunch of local elections 1) people don't act like it, and 2) It's even more of an argument that the elections are broken because they're worse on this level. These local elections are unrepresentative because of the terrible 'First Past the Post' voting system -- which I have complained mightily about and won't repeat everything here -- go watch the video -- but TL;DR it only 'works' when citizens are limited to two choices. Voting for any party except the biggest makes it more likely the biggest will win by a minority -- which is exactly what happened. That citizens keep voting for smaller parties despite knowing the result is against their strategic interests demonstrates the citizenry wants diverse representation -- but that successes is the very thing that's made this the most unrepresentative parliament in the history of the UK. People happy with the results argue the system is working fine -- of course they do. Their team won. Government isn't a sport where a singular 'winner' must be determined. It's a system to make rules that everyone follows and so, we need a system where everyone can agree the process is fair even if the results don't go in their favor. If you support a system that disenfranchises people you don't like and turbo-franchises people you do -- then it doesn't look like you sport representative democracy, it looks like you support a kind of dictatorship light. Where a small group of people (including you) makes the rules for everyone. But as it is now, on election day the more people express what they want the worse the system looks which makes them disengaged at best or angry at worst and GEE I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY. This is fixable, there are many, many better ways the UK could vote -- here are two that even keep local representatives. And fixing voting really matters, because this is a kind of government illegitimacy score -- and it's been going up and may continue to do so unless this fundamentally broken voting system is changed.
Electoral process
All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who were aged 18 or over on Thursday 3 May 2012 were entitled to vote in the local elections. Those who were temporarily away from their ordinary address (for example, away working, on holiday, in student accommodation or in hospital) were also entitled to vote in the local elections,[6] although those who had moved abroad and registered as overseas electors cannot vote in the local elections. It is possible to register to vote at more than one address (such as a university student who had a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) at the discretion of the local Electoral Register Office, but it remains an offence to vote more than once in the same local government election.[7]
The deadline to register to vote in the election was midnight on Wednesday 18 April 2012,[8] though anyone who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on Thursday 26 April 2012 to register.[9]
Results
Overall results - Great Britain
Party | Councils[10] | Councillors | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Change | Number | Change | ||
Labour | 75 | 32 | 2,158 | 823 | |
Conservative | 32 | 12 | 1,005 | 405 | |
Liberal Democrats | 6 | 1 | 431 | 336 | |
SNP | 2 | 2 | 424 | 57 | |
Plaid Cymru | 0 | 1 | 158 | 41 | |
Green | 0 | 26 | 5 | ||
Residents | 0 | 21 | 5 | ||
Scottish Green | 0 | 14 | 6 | ||
UKIP | 0 | 9 | |||
Health Concern | 0 | 5 | 3 | ||
Respect | 0 | 5 | 5 | ||
Liberal | 0 | 4 | 6 | ||
Others | 5 | 2 | 596 | 151 | |
No overall control | 51 | 18 | n/a | n/a |
England
The local authorities having elections in 2012 (excluding mayoral elections) covered about 40% of the total English electorate, with 15.9 million electors entitled to vote. Turnout overall was 31.0%.[2]
In summary, the accumulated local authority vote and seats won by political party was:
Party | Vote | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|
Labour | 43.1% | 49.4% | |
Conservative | 27.5% | 32.5% | |
Liberal Democrats | 14.0% | 11.9% | |
Green | 4.2% | 1.1% | |
Independent | 3.2% | 2.8% | |
Other | 8.0% | 2.3% |
Note the equivalent of these figures may not be commonly available for other election years. They represent the actual numbers of votes cast and should not be falsely compared to the more commonly available figures based on the projections for the whole of Great Britain.
Metropolitan boroughs
All 36 Metropolitan boroughs had one third of their seats up for election.
Unitary authorities
Whole council up for election
Two unitary authorities that would usually have had a third of their seats up for election, actually had elections for all their seats because of the implementation of boundary changes.
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hartlepool[11] | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Swindon[12] | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
One third of council up for election
In 16 English unitary authorities, one third of the council was up for election.
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blackburn with Darwen | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Derby | No overall control | Labour gain | Details | ||
Halton | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Kingston upon Hull | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Milton Keynes | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
North East Lincolnshire | No overall control | Labour gain | Details | ||
Peterborough | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Plymouth | Conservative | Labour gain | Details | ||
Portsmouth | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Reading | No overall control | Labour gain | Details | ||
Slough | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Southampton | Conservative | Labour gain | Details | ||
Southend-on-Sea | Conservative | No overall control gain | Details | ||
Thurrock | No overall control | Labour gain | Details | ||
Warrington | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Wokingham | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
District councils
Whole council up for election
Four district councils that would usually have had one-third of their seats due for election, actually had full council elections as a result of the implementation of new ward boundaries.
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Broxbourne[13] | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Daventry[14] | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rugby[15] | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rushmoor[16] | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
Half of council up for election
7 district councils had half of their seats up for election.
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adur | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Cheltenham | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Fareham | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Gosport | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Hastings | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Nuneaton and Bedworth | No overall control | Labour gain | Details | ||
Oxford | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
One third of council up for election
In 63 district authorities, one third of the seats were up for election.
Mayoral elections
Three direct mayoral elections were held.
Local Authority | Previous Mayor | Mayor-elect | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
London | Boris Johnson (Conservative) | Boris Johnson (Conservative) | Details | ||
Salford[17] | none | Ian Stewart (Labour) | Details | ||
Liverpool[18] | none | Joe Anderson (Labour) | Details |
Mayoral referendums
Referendums were also held in 11 English cities to determine whether or not to introduce the position of a directly elected mayor. These polls took place in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.[3] Of these 11 cities, only Bristol chose direct election (rather than council appointment) of a mayor. In addition, the citizens of Doncaster voted on the same day to continue electing their mayors directly.
Scotland
All council seats were up for election in the 32 Scottish authorities.
Wales
Party | Votes[19] | % | +/- | Councils | +/- | Seats | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 304,296 | 36.0% | 9.4% | 10 | 8 | 577 | 237 | |
Plaid Cymru | 133,961 | 15.8% | 1.1% | 0 | 158 | 39 | ||
Conservative | 108,365 | 12.8% | 2.8% | 0 | 2 | 105 | 67 | |
Liberal Democrats | 68,619 | 8.1% | 4.8% | 0 | 72 | 92 | ||
Independent/Others | 231,026 | 27.3% | 0.7% | 2 | 1 | 329 | 40 | |
No overall control | n/a | n/a | n/a | 9 | 5 | n/a | n/a |
In 21 out of 22 Welsh authorities, the whole council was up for election. On 17 January 2012, the Welsh Government announced that elections for Anglesey council have been postponed to May 2013.[20]
See also
References
- ^ "Local Elections 2012". Conservative Councillors Association. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ a b c Colin Rallings and Michael Thrashe (August 2012). Local Elections in England 2012 (PDF) (Report). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ a b "Greg Clark: Date set for elected city mayors". Department of Communities and Local Government. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ "At-a-glance: Elections 2012". BBC News. 4 May 2012.
- ^ "Local elections 2016" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
- ^ "The Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006, Schedule Part 1". Legislation.gov.uk. 13 October 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "I have two homes. Can I register at both addresses?". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 15 November 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
- ^ The deadline for the receipt of electoral registration applications is the eleventh working day before election day.
- ^ The deadline for the receipt and determination of anonymous electoral registration applications was the same as the publication date of the notice of alteration to the Electoral Register (i.e. the fifth working day before election day).
- ^ "BBC News - Vote 2012". BBC News. 8 May 2012.
- ^ "Hartlepool electoral review". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "Forthcoming Elections - Swindon Borough Council". Swindon Borough Council. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "Broxbourne electoral review". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "Daventry electoral review". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "Rugby electoral review". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ "Election News Summer 2011 - Rushmoor Borough Council" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011.
- ^ "Salford referendum votes for directly elected mayor". BBC News. 27 January 2012.
- ^ Bradbury, Sean (7 February 2012). "Liverpool Council passes motion to adopt elected mayor system". Liverpool Daily Post.
- ^ Excludes Anglesey in vote and seat data. See individual detailed articles below for the breakdown; this is a summary of the overall result.
- ^ "Anglesey council election postponed for year to 2013". BBC News. 17 January 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
Local government elections on Anglesey have been delayed for a year. It will mean people on the island will elect their new council in May 2013, 12 months later than in the rest of Wales.