It seems the election for the vacant council seat in Millwall, east London, is over, and the Tory candidate has won! The winner is a guy called Simon Rouse, and it seems that this party won because the Respect coalition split the vote.
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\nThe results were:<\/p>\n
Simon Rouse (Tory) – 828
\nPaul McCarr (Respect) – 635
\nJohn Cray – The Labour Party Candidate 571
\nAndrew Sweeney – Independent 195
\nBarry Blandford – Liberal Democrats (Focus Team) 150<\/p>\n
So, the Lib Dems, nationally the third party, comes fifth where they might otherwise have come second. The Tories almost never win in east London.<\/p>\n
Remember that this is a council election and not a Parliamentary, the issues are purely local (even though people often treat them as a referendum on the government), and that Millwall is not one of the main Muslim areas in east London; the Muslims are mostly concentrated in the area north<\/i> of the Docklands, not on the Isle of Dogs.<\/p>\n
Still, you wonder about the wisdom of Respect putting up a candidate when the only likely result is the most undesirable candidate winning (usually the Tory). These elections are not done on a proportional basis, unlike the major London council elections for the new Greater London Assembly. It’s done on a “first past the post” basis and voting for a minor candidate can<\/i> let in the one you don’t want to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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