The brief: Local elections need to be more local, low turnout leads to questions and council live blogs election count
Tonight's Bank Holiday edition of The Brief is taking a look over the local election results and some of the posts which have come off the back of it.
Why we're losing the 'local' from local elections
A timely post from David Higgerson on how these elections showed a lack of 'local'. David manages to outline, without sounding like he's in the League of Gentlemen, why it's important both local media and political parties make sure local issues are truely at the forefront of local elections rather than it just being a referendum every year on the performance of the government of the day.
I posted in the comments to show the Candidate Focus idea we ran on Blog Preston, the community news site I run for Preston, Lancashire, which sent a list of questions to every candidate to answer. Low turnout = new ideas needed
There's bound to be plenty of naval gazing from local authorities, councillors and the electoral commission about why turnout for the elections on Thursday was around 30% and a hell of a lot lower in certain wards.
This article misses the mark though, it says "local elections are typically 85% dependant on national politics; such a dislike or distrust of our leading political figures is a significant factor." - I'm not sure about that figure and where it comes from but following David Higgerson's post above, it does make me think that's why local politicians just didn't bother.
Why was this not a local election fought on local elections? Why were candidates not knocking down doors to say "I fixed those potholes" or "I campaigned to save this school" and "what are your local issues?" rather than relying on the national mood about their party?
The other point from Rob Dale's article is that candidates should spend more time online, networking, promoting and campaigning. I disagree, candidates should get off Twitter/Facebook and spend their time on the doorsteps, the train stations, in the gyms and in the cafes where people actually are. And then sure, tweet/Facebook update after sharing what they found out. Simply sitting on Twitter saying "I think this" or "vote for me" just won't work.
A council sharing election information, by live blogging the count in Preston
To finish tonight's post, a good news story for local councils. I thought Preston City Council's use of Cover It Live to live blog their election results was excellent, answering questions from residents about the count and breaking the results as they were announced. They were even kind enough to share the embed code with Blog Preston and allow our readers to see it direct. A good bit of forward-thinking communication from the council.