10 election takes from the dramatic Shropshire Council vote
By the time Shropshire Council's results were confirmed on Friday evening the political foundations of the county had been shaken to their core.
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The outcome has thrown up a host of unknowns with the authority heading into truly uncharted territory.
With plenty left to process here's just a few of the things that stood out on the day of the count - and going forward.
Good vibrations
Election counts are always uniquely interesting places. There’s a genuinely tangible excitement and tension in the air, and provided you don’t have a vested interest you get to watch events unfold without the emotional highs and lows contorting the candidates and their supporters.
You’ll see hopes rise and fall as the result gradually takes shape from the endless piles of paper, you’ll see dreams crushed, ambitions achieved, anger, disbelief, the odd bad loser, and an occasional heart-warming cessation of partisan hostilities.
I’ve attended a few election counts and bar the obvious certainty of the 'actual result', the ‘vibe’ is always the best indicator of what is coming.
On Friday at the Shropshire count the early vibes told you all you needed to know.
I’ve never seen anything like the Reform takeover. They were everywhere - with a proper swagger too. Cock-a-hoop before a single vote had been verified, and frankly they weren’t wrong. From a standing start they finished with 16 seats, pulped the Conservatives, and now sit as the second largest party in the chamber. Incredible.
Of course the largest party are the Lib Dems, and while swagger might be too much, they moved with the assurance and confidence of a group that knows its campaign has been pulled of with military precision - and it definitely isn’t going to have to cancel the reservation for the celebrations later that night.
For the Tories the mood was immediately downbeat, a genuine ‘let’s just keep the score down lads’ type of showing. Anxious, arms folded, and frankly just ‘let’s get this over with’. If anything the actual result was worse that expected. A proper collapse familiar only to fans of the 1990s England cricket team.
While the blues had the blues the red vibe didn’t even seem down, more indifferent. No expectations of winning, a kind of resigned shrug, almost let’s just sit here and no one will notice.
Motivation
Despite the attempts of some to downplay it, the Reform result is a huge story. It’s a seismic change for Shropshire Council politics and elsewhere in the country.
One thing that has been unmistakable is the sheer motivation of their supporters.
They genuinely wanted to get out there, put a cross in the Reform box, and make sure their point was made.
The Reform voice has been getting louder for some time - as seen with last year’s parliamentary breakthrough.
But many have wondered whether the increasingly prevalent backing for the party on social media was just a case of loud and prolific voices, and whether the ‘Facebook Farages’ had cut through into everyday life.
I have to say the feeling currently is that those complaints seen on social media - the frustration at the perceived failure of mainstream politics, the sense of living in decline, the constant criticism and vitriol directed at senior Labour government figures, the feeling that 'the old way doesn’t work', definitely seem to have moved from the mobile screen to real world conversations - with real world impacts, as seen on Friday.
Two heads are better than one?
We all knew the council would have a new leader when the election finished but maybe we’ll have two? Is that possible… I don’t even know.
After positively romping to a commanding majority the Lib Dems are going to have a host of decisions over how they actually manage the council. But before that they need to work out who is going to take charge.
Going into the election the group has been operating with the slightly unusual co-leader model popularised by the Green Party.
Councillor Roger Evans, who was formerly leader with sole charge (prior to the David Vasmer interregnum), has been joined by his fellow long-standing Lib Dem Heather Kidd in the run-up to the election.
No one can deny it is a method that’s paid dividends with a huge election success, but convention - and general expectations will be that one person takes the top job.
You’d expect it to be one of the two, but stranger things have happened. What’s for certain is they definitely have options - unlike some other parties…
Relief road row back
Ahead of the election the leaders of all opposition groups - The Lib Dems, Labour, and the Green Party, wrote to the government pledging to scrap the controversial North West Relief Road if they took control.
Well, the Lib Dems now have control, so they’ll scrap the road right?
The answer is we don’t know.
