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[Iz 🌟]

Starting off the local elections thread (splitting off from the discussion at the end of the Tory thread) as it's a week out and we still don't have one of those. Even though I won't be voting. But then not everyone in England will be.

The main ones this year are
1) in Scotland and Wales for their local authorities.
2) in London
3) in a good swathe of other cities, particularly the ones that elect their councils in thirds.

This lot were last contested in 2018 and that was a very strong showing for Labour at the height of Corbynism, and these councils are naturally friendlier to Labour in general. However, Labour are still looking good ahead of the Tories this time.

Labour are ahead in the polls by upto 12 points at the moment but not sure how this will translate at local elections in terms of votes. I’m hoping the Tories will lose lots of seats but I’m not confident that Labour will do brilliantly. There is still an issue over how the party is perceived among the wider public in terms of their electability. Given we have had nearly 15 terrible years of the Tories, resulting in austerity, the cost of living crisis, partygate and the shambolic handling of covid, I would have expected Labour to be doing much better to be honest. I suspect it will be far closer at a general election and most probably result in a hung Parliament. One would hope if this was the outcome, Labour would forge an alliance with other parties to keep the Tories out.

Potentially, but also potentially not:

Labour are starting to do better than the Conservatives on everything, at least in how the wider public view them. I don't know any specific councils where they might gain control but Tory losses and Labour gains seem the likely outcome.