T_i_B
T_i_B's JournalLocal elections on Thursday 2 May
It's that time of year when local elections are due. This year we have local elections in many areas of the country.
As always, please feel free to tell us about what local elections are due in your local area, who is standing in your area, which party controls your local council and what are the big issues affecting local politics in your area.
https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/
I moved inside Sheffield's boundaries last year, so I have elections for Sheffield City council due this year, as well as parish council elections. Labour have a large majority on Sheffield council, but there are also a fair few Liberal Democrats and Greens. No Tories on Sheffield council, which is no bad thing if you ask me. 
The big local issues are the local plan, which the council appear to be sitting on until after the election and the ongoing issues with the PFI contract with Amey Plc for road maintenance, which has been very controversial due to cost and also Amey's fondness for tree felling in spite of many objections from residents of the affected areas.
In the ward where I live the Labour councilor who was up for re-election has quit Labour. He is the husband of the local MP Angela Smith, who has recently defected to The Independent Group. After being initially selected as the Labour candidate without a fuss there then followed attempts to unselect him on a technicality, on account of his being in possession of an offensive wife.
https://www.thestar.co.uk/our-towns-and-cities/sheffield/sheffield-councillor-quits-labour-days-after-mp-wife-defects-1-9622320
I haven't had a single leaflet from Labour since I moved, possibly because they are so focused on internal shenanigans. I have had a couple from the Liberal Democrats though.
As far as the parish council elections go, the main issue there is the presence of a small group of "independent" parish councillors who are essentially a front for the far right. They make a lot of noise at meetings but don't get anything done. Their platform is about as bad as it's possible to get at parish council elections.
Interestingly I did meet a few parish councillors a few weeks ago and raised an issue relating to a street near me. Their response was that they hadn't had any complaints about this matter for a number of years. The moral of the story is that you need to make complaints if you want to get things done!
So, what's happening in your local area?
Anna Soubry isn't the only one thinking about this
This was also posted by a former top civil servant at the Treasury
https://twitter.com/nickmacpherson2/status/1109562817789739008
My response on Twitter was as follows
Whilst this idea has merits, it would be very very difficult indeed with both main parties being extremely tribalist and selfish at present.
Just look at Corbyn flouncing out of a meeting because he didn't want to breathe the same air as Chuka Umunna this week for an example of this.
And that's before we get onto the whole matter of Ramsey MacDonald and the National Government of the 1930's (still an extremely sore point for Labour) or the Lib Dem's experiences of coalition with the Tories.
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