Mayoral elections

EricTheWeary

As the vox pop people on the telly seem to say there's too much politics around at the moment. So, the mayoral elections on 4th May seem to have disappeared completely from view even though they could, now, be a trial run for the general election and potentially mark a significant change for eight areas in England. Maybe the Londoncentric media aren't interested even though the rest of us suffer through the London election presented as though it was a national event. 
Anybody excited to be casting their vote in this? Anybody understand the point? 

57Deluxe

EricTheWeary said:

 
Anybody excited to be casting their vote? 

..for the Mayor of Casterbridge...!

Heartfeltdawn

I will be manning a polling station here in Bristol on 4 May. I am totally unexcited by it and am expecting a low turnout. 

My opinion of the need for regional mayors: an absolute stitch up. For the West of England, Bristol is the only Labour/leftie place. Bath and all the surrounding areas are blue. The Bristol PCC turnout was high and went Labour: the surrounding areas was low. For this area, it is quite likely the regional mayor will be a Conservative, thus putting a bit of a check on the powers of the Bristol mayor despite Bristol being the clear economic powerhouse around this area. 

randella

Burnham's widely considered to be a shoo-in up here.  I'll go and vote because I always do (hard-won right and all that) but I can't say it's set my pants alight with giddyness.

I'm mildly interested in how it pans out - devolved Labour power in the north with a Tory government in Westminster, el Burny might have a bit of a fight for funding on his hands.

Nitefly

Yes, we're voting in the Manchester one too.  Burnham currently has the parliamentary constituency next to ours (he's Leigh, we're Bolton West), and looks to be red-hot favourite.

He's chosen to stand down as Labour candidate for Parliament in the expectation of becoming Mayor, but it's a pretty safe seat for whoever replaces him (they'd vote for a donkey as long as it was wearing a red rosette).

I can' say i'm very excited about the whole Mayoral thing; all candidates are promising the same things, namely improvements to Health, Transport, and Jobs.  

We both had a brochure through the post, showing us how to complete the ballot paper.  It contained statements from 5 of the 8 candidates - the other 3 (all independents, as far as I could see) couldn't or wouldn't stump up the £5000 towards the cost of the brochure.

So my choice is between Conservative, English Democrat, Green, Labour, or UKIP, all promising me the same thing.

I wonder how much this is all costing?

Heartfeltdawn

@Nitefly From Manchester it's estimated £5.4 million initially, £2 million per year. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38715884

Take any estimate with the usual big suck on the salt lick though. 

vasselmeyer

Certainly in Manchester, the devolved budget to allow the mayor and local authorities to look after regional interests is important, although  most people don't really know much about it. Burnham is seen as a local lad, he's impressed people with the way he dealt with the Hillsborough situation and I'd be amazed if he didn't get in.

EricTheWeary

Only one of the West Midlands candidates seems to have any previous political experience, maybe that's a good thing. The Tory guy is selling himself on stepping down as a director of John Lewis on £800k to being mayor for £79k. Not sure how much the man in the street relates to that.
UKIP are fairly strong in parts here so I guess it's a good test of their popularity now that Brexit is agreed to see if anyone is still interested. 

SteveRobinson

I don't like either of them but I might vote for Burnham to help keep Anstee out. 

ewal

Council elections in Scotland too. My first rank choice will be for the only Councillor who responded to an email I sent concerning a local issue. He happens to be a Lib Dem, but I don't really care about political parties when it comes to local elections. As the local election system is Single Transferable Vote, I might or might not vote for other candidates too.