250 Conservative councillors already elected !!!

Nominations closed for the Local Council elections at midday on Monday last, (April 4th) and the nominations have now been published and analysed.

More than 9,000 councillors will be elected on May 5th, about 5,000 of which are currently held by the Conservatives, 1,800 the Liberal Democrats, 1,600 by Labour and 800 by other parties and independents.

Official nominations published yesterday showed that the Lib Dems have candidates to put up in only 59 per cent of the seats, down from 64 per cent when they were last fought four years ago. The biggest falls appear to be in the south-east and north-west, both down about 10 per cent.

Ed Milliband said that Labour will contest seats all across the country, but even after a massive recruitment drive, they cannot find candidates for 3 in every 10 seats.

Compare this to the Conservatives, who will field candidates in 93% of the seats next month, up from 88 per cent in 2007.

Around 250 Conservative councillors won't have to wait until May 5th for their result, as they have already been returned un-opposed when the other parties failed to put up any candidates to contest their seats.

These statistics have been reflected locally as well, as contrary to the delusional Mrs Hudson's assertion that the Lib Dems would field a "full slate of high quality candidates", they have only managed to field 44 out of 47 candidates for Mendip, and only that many because they have stuffed the ballot boxes with "paper candidates" in several seats.

Two candidates were disqualified because they failed to get themselves properly nominated by 10 people from the ward that they want to represent. These unfortunates then blamed the returning officer for their mistake, saying it was a devious tory plot to ensure they didn't make it onto the ballot paper. If they can't even sort out a minor bit of admin properly, we shouldn't let them loose with a £15 million budget.