THE RECENT UK SUB-NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS

Sign of the times: London's new mayor.

by Colin Liddell

Earlier this week a number of elections below the UK state parliamentary level were held in Britain. This included elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, some local councils, and the mayor of London.

Usually midterm elections favour the chief opposition party, which in this case is the Labour Party, with its recently-elected leader, the extreme Leftist, Jeremy Corbyn. This time they didn’t. Instead of winning hundreds of council seats as is usual, Labour actually lost a handful, as well as control of one council Dudley in the West Midlands (population 312,900 – 93% White).

FRENCH LESSONS

by Adrian Davies

Good news from France, as the Front National continues to make impressive progress in establishing itself as the new third force in French politics.

Less than two months before the European elections, in which the Front National is expected to run neck and neck with the establishment right UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire), leaving the ruling Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste – PS) a poor third, the FN has taken control of twelve town halls under a voting system much less favourable to it than the system which will apply in the Euros on 25th May (France votes on a Sunday, as do most continental countries, who view our tradition of holding elections on a working day as eccentric!)