Local Tories are the ones who cheered Boris Johnson and company on when they made those bad decisions that are now hurting the Conservative Party. They are the ones who voted in droves to make Johnson the party leader.

And on that note, how were the local elections results for everyone? Bit of a mixed bag round here, but it does appear that the Tories may have peaked in much of the "red wall" and Labour are starting to show signs of life. Greens are also doing very well, although I'm not happy with their policies at a local level.

Eastleigh is a very unusual council - solidly Lib Dem (the local paper even used "one party state&quot . Labour has no councillors, the Tories are now down to one - lost one this time - and there are 4 independents (centred around the area the Lib Dems wanted to develop more). And there are 34 Lib Dems.

But I looked at the 2018 and 2022 votes where the Tory lost - an area you might say is typical Home Counties, and often returned Tories. In 2018, the Tory got about 20% more votes than the Lib Dem; this time, the Lib Dem got about 50% more than the Tory. So that's a notable change.

...Lib Dems have have eeked in where I am. This time round the Tory vote collapsed but a lot of the disaffected Tories seem to have stayed at home or voted for Labour (who actually fought a strong campaign for once)

I suspect that the uselessness of the local Tory MP Miriam Cates also contributed to this as well as all the economic problems and Westminster sleaze.

Oh, and the new Mayor of Sheffield Region Oliver Coppard is somebody who I've known from childhood. His political views are not dissimilar to mine, but he's somebody I find to be very full of himself.