Apparently - on Thursday 22nd May; there's a very real prospect that EVERY ONE (yes every single one!) of Manchester's 96 Elected Council Members could be Labour Party Councillors?
Currently, Labour have 86 out of the 96 Councillors, with the remaining 10 Members (9 Lib-Dem and 1 Independent) all being up for re-election on the 22nd.
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm a Labour politician, and being tribalist for a second, having 100% of Labour Councillors is an attractive prospect!
Problem is, Manchester Labour have 86 out of 96 (that's 90%!) of the Councillors on just 66% of the vote.
So - in a couple of weeks time, when Manchester goes to the polls for Local Government Elections; there's a very real prospect that Labour could end up with 100% of the City Council's Elected Members, on no more than two-thirds of the popular vote?
I'm sorry - but if ever there was a reason why England should follow Scotland, and legislate for STV-PR for Local Council Elections ... then this surely has to be it.
One can but hope that those responsible for drafting UK Labour's 2015 General Election manifesto are paying attention?
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**UPDATE**
Someone has made, and posted-up, a YouTube video of this event in Manchester - you can access it via this link ;-)
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4 comments:
Here, Here.
Thanks for the feedback.
The independent Henry Cooper is not up for election in 2014. He will be the only council member who is not a member of the Labour party. He was re-elected as Labour in 2012 he resigned from Labour because of a planning dispute.
Ah! - OK Keith ... thanks for the clarification, and apologies for the slight error in my blog-post :-(
Andrew
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