"I am absolutely thrilled. It is a really emphatic vote for Labour. That is a clear endorsement of Labour and a major rejection of the Tory-LibDem government."In a sense she's right, it was an emphatic vote and a major rejection...of all of them. The turnout was a shockingly low 18.16 per cent and is the lowest in a parliamentary by-election since the Second World War. 'None of the above' won by a huge margin. With only 8.4% of people voting for her Lucy Powell has no mandate to govern.
Cardiff was little better which saw only 25.65 per cent of people voting.The vote for PCC's looks unlikely to be any different, with low turnouts expected. Swindon was one of the first to declare - counting overnight - and the turnout was 15.83 per cent:
TURNOUT was very low in Wiltshire’s police and crime commissioner election on Thursday - with only 15 per cent of the 500,000-strong electorate bothering to vote.Interestingly one of the reasons given is:
Statistics revealed at the count at the Oasis Leisure Centre this morning showed that out of an electorate of 514,854, only 81,477 or 15.83 per cent went to the polls.
In the Swindon borough, 23,669 of a possible 161,238 voters cast a ballot - a turnout of 14.68 per cent - and in the rest of Wiltshire it was 16.35 per cent or 57,808 of an electorate of 353,617.
“The other real theme I’ve heard coming through is there are quite a lot of people across the country who don’t agree with the concept of police and crime commissioners. They think rightly or wrongly that it’s the politicisation of the police so they’ve protested by not turnout out.”Not that the lack of mandate will stop any of the main parties grandstanding on whatever results come through later. The real truth would be too much for all them - an emphatic two fingers.
Update: Just seen Richard North has made a similar point. Politics is in crisis.
