Some familiar names making a return after a disappointing performance No, not the Tories now standing as Reform candidates, Stokes and Brook are both playing today

Big day with Essex v Hampshire The election results or the cricket?

New Reform Councils next week:

Results so far: • We don't know much yet • Bad but not worst-case scenario for Labour • Good for Reform, but in line with polls • Too early to say much on Greens • Don't jump to conclusions on Lab/Reform switchers • These are bad results for Tories! Whatever they say! • We don't know much yet

Ozzy on the windowsill

A guess a lot people will be spending a lot of today checking some slowly changing numbers on a BBC webpage. If you enjoy that sort of thing and want it to be a more than annual occurrence - can I recommend getting into county cricket?

Daphne is ready to step up

YES YOU DO, YOU DO ACTUALLY DO THAT, ESPECIALLY ON LONG FLIGHTS. CHANGING PILOTS DURING A FLIGHT IS A THING THAT REGULARLY HAPPENS, DAVID

Well that’s enough politics for now Back to something that makes more sense* like trying to understand topic modelling using BERTopic *it does not yet make any more sense

We *know* Reform is up ++ on 2022, Greens are main threat on left to Labour, the age split means left parties have a turnout challenge and Labour under-performs its polling in locals, Lib Dem’s over perform. What we don’t know is the relative efficiencies and splits.

If Steven Finn has not been made an England selector, he should be offered the Chief Political Editor role on the BBC as a compromise.

We know what the vote flows are from extensive survey data. We *dont* know the turnout story. It’s mad to draw vote flow inferences from seat changes.

Great headline from BBC News

waking up and reading about the results of the locals and feeling very

Important data point here: “A sharp fall in Labour's performance is accompanied more often by an above average Green performance than it is by a strong Reform performance”. The Greens have already hurt Labour even before any direct gains.

I'm not sure why Facebook thought I'd want to see a post from a Reform candidate accusing the Lib Dems of bullying voters, but it did cheer my morning up. Imagine being bullied by the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems!

I propose a split between Stephen and Jo’s proposals. Main commentary done by the Test Match Special team. Expert summary/ debate from a panel of psephologists and, yes, lots of nerdy detail about the nuts and bolts of procedure at the count.

I feel that we need a Day Today style graph that plots "Bins emptied", "Flags", "Incompetence" and "Forced resignations" against each other.

Badenoch’s reaction is going to be the most unexpected result of the night The performance art must continue

2024: Anyone but the Tories 2026: Anyone but the Tories or Labour 2028: Anyone but Reform?

Here’s a chart using a selection of seats that shows you just how strong the gravitational pull away from the two traditional main parties has been in this election, a consistent pattern of flight from the Tories and Labour to ‘everyone else’.

*let's out breath* Happy Birthday to Sir David (not Beckham). 100 today 🥳🥳🥳

Pigeonism is grey and flighty. It sees stray cats everywhere and relies on the generosity of passing tourists.

Well I guess it’s Friday

These dreadful election results for Starmer and Labour demonstrate the essential truth of the classic political science theory of Pigeonism.

Morning. That it is Marvin, that it is

That, and compulsory voting (ducks for cover).

I know we all know that the police could, in fact, track down mobile phones if they thought it was worth their time, but it is nonetheless galling to have it confirmed.

Reminder that the actual Conservative Party put out a press release suggesting that this theft was actually part of a government "cover up". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you want to watch them like a pro then don’t call them midterms

Don’t be backwards about coming forward

‘Thanks, or just a voucher is fine’

Took my 5 month old baby to vote. She's registered baby. Which box to use clubcard points to buy formula, she asked. A cheer went up from the waiting voters.

Only to those working them. One shot per voter through the door

Remember...

As an example of everything deficient with the “focussed on winning” Starmer project, there are so many to choose from. But today’s is that they went into their first set of local elections with first past the post still in place for mayorals and went into the second with voterID still in place.

"The Tory Party knows it made mistakes in government and has put those rows behind it, but also I want to be clear that Kemi is committed to keeping Dom's seven-year-old grudge fights going."

My hope is everyone will unite to embarrass Reform My fear is most won’t vote at all and a small group of enthusiastic supporters will dictate politics Reform and the Greens for those who want to give Labour and the Tories a kicking and Lib Dems for those who don’t believe in kicking people

If you call them midterms you are immediately ineligible to vote

No these are not “midterm” elections, thank you for your attention to this matter

The gap between how much I enjoy voting and my happiness with the available options gets wider every time.

“No, no look I can’t give you a discount on your phone and internet package, but I can tell you a story about my dad who was a toolma… oh they’ve hung up”

Morning No voting round here so don’t blame me if it all goes wrong.

Voter ID laws are stupid and this fucking government couldn't even be bothered to abolish them

Most people working at polling stations or in council electoral services seem fantastic in my experience But this just goes to show how daft the mess around ID requirements and voting is

Arrived early to vote, and there's a Skoda with steamed up windows in the car park #doggingatpollingstations

The shart of the deal. Some expected his hot air would be fairly benign, but he tried to pull out too late and we’re all left with a lot of shit to clear up

Wonder where all those town centre post offices are going to go if and when that happens?

On the eve of a momentous set of elections, step away from the polls and predictions and join me on a journey to answer an even bigger question than where next for British politics. Namely: can my cat learn to speak? And what would she say to me if she could? www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026...

Trump’s hot air is fuelling a heat pump pump