Liberal Vision

TOP FIVE HIGHEST LIB DEM VOTE SHARE AREAS IN THE UK

As promised below. For clarity, let me state again that these are the five areas where the  highest LD vote share was recorded – during the European Parliament election last week.

In first place, put your hands together for …

South Lakeland!

The results in full:

1. South Lakeland        (36.83 per cent)
2. Shetland Islands      (33.80 per cent)
3. Orkney Islands        (31.77 per cent)
4. Richmond Upon Thames       (30.79 per cent)
5. Kingston upon Thames       (28.01 per cent)

Strangely, there’s a water theme to all five.

Anyway, psephogeekism over, for now.

“TOP FIVE” LOWEST LIB DEM VOTE SHARE AREAS IN THE UK

Kind of. By this I mean the five areas where the lowest LD vote share was recorded – during the European Parliament election last week.

Drum roll, please.

Thank you. And here they are:

1. North Lanarkshire        (4.56 per cent)
2. Rhondda       (4.57 per cent)
3. Barking and Dagenham       (4.61 per cent)
4. Western Isles       (4.71 per cent)
5. Thurrock        (5.23  per cent)

Taa-daa! What fun.

And unless you accuse us of negativity, coming up in 20 minutes are the Top 5 Highest areas for Lib Dem share of the vote.

Can you guess where they are?

GUEST POST: Niklas Smith – a Liberal cheer from Sweden

Lest we dwell too much on the election of two BNP MEPs in Britain, I thought it would be worth cheering Liberal Vision readers up with some good news from the European elections in the rest of the EU. Though the biggest liberal victory (in terms of seats gained) was in Germany, Sunday’s election in Sweden is especially interesting because of the rolling back of the Eurosceptic tide and strong results for broadly liberal forces.

Sweden’s electorate of seven million elects 18 MEPs this year, down from 19 in 2004. When the Lisbon Treaty is ratified Sweden will gain two new seats, which will be filled on the basis of yesterday’s vote. Here are the preliminary results; the first four parties in the table are the current Swedish government:

Moderate Party (EPP): 18.8% (+0.6) 4 seats (n/c)
Liberal People’s Party (ALDE): 13.6% (+3.8) 3 seats (+1)
Centre Party (ALDE): 5.5% (-0.8) 1 seat (n/c)
Christian Democrats (EPP): 4.7% (-1.0) 1 seat (n/c)
Social Democrats (PES): 24.6% (n/c) 5 seats (n/c)
Green Party (EG-EFA): 10.9% (+5.0) 2 seats (+1)
Left Party (GUE-NGL): 5.6% (-7.1) 1 seat (-1)
Pirate Party (no group): 7.1% (+7.1) 1 seat (+1)
June List (Ind/Dem): 3.6% (-10.9) 0 seats (-3)
Sweden Democrats: 3.3% (+2.2) 0 seats (n/c)

Turnout: 43.8% (+6.7)

The Eurosceptic June List fell under the 4% threshold and lost all three of its MEPs. The Greens, who have abandoned their opposition to EU membership, did well while the Left Party (the last mainstream party to remain opposed to EU membership) did badly. The xenophobic nationalist Sweden Democrats will not be joining Mr Griffin and Mr Brons in Brussels as they failed to reach the threshold.

The good news for us is that our sister party, the Liberal People’s Party, has managed to win a third seat after a vigorous campaign led by Marit Paulsen, a popular former Liberal MEP who now returns to the Parliament. The Liberals have the most pro-European record of the Swedish parties and ran an unabashedly Europhile campaign.

The prize for most interesting new party in Europe goes to the Pirate Party, who campaign against surveillance of the internet and for the legalisation of filesharing. They came from nowhere to take a seat – and they have also won one of the extra seats Sweden will gain when Lisbon comes into effect. Their top candidate Christian Engström joins other Swedish MEPs, such as the Moderate Christofer Fjellner, who have fought against proposals to cut people accused of filesharing off from the internet without legal process.

Overall, the result shows a clear defeat for Eurosceptics and a victory for liberals and (internet) libertarians. The incoming Swedish presidency of the EU (with Liberal EU Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström playing an important role) has been given a solid mandate.

The author is Junior Treasurer of the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats and a member of the International Committee of the Liberal Youth of Sweden.

Labour collapses to 22% in latest opinion poll

The latest opinion poll, conducted by yougov, is in The Sun. It shows the Labour vote at an all-time low of 22%, with the Tories on 41% and the LibDems on 19%.  This is the first poll to fully take account of reaction to the Fiddlegate revelations -and shows the minor parties on a combined total of 18%.

This puts Labour in possible meltdown territory in a General Election – and suggests a collosal number of votes for fringe parties on June 4th. At the last Euro elections, in 2004, 64% voted for the “big three” and 36% of voters voted for minority parties. The British National Party must be licking their lips. I’d be amazed if BNP leader Nick Griffin isn’t now elected as an MEP in the the North West region.