OTL Election maps resources thread
- Thread starter Thande
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Thande
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That's the West Country for you. Pennsylvania's pretty strange as well (and goes nicely with Maryland ward in one of the other councils I've done, can't remember which). Apparently it was named by a Quaker colonist who changed his mind and came home from America.
Incidentally, thanks to forgetfulness I've got two more Swedish maps to roll out, so getting on with that, the first of the two is Karlstad.
Karlstad is the county town of Värmland, a county known primarily for its dialect (which has heavy Norwegian elements and is thus perceived as amusing), the cheerful disposition of its inhabitants (which is probably mostly untrue, and in any case comes mostly from the dialect sounding upbeat to the average Swedish ear, much as Norwegian does), and being home to a disproportionally large number of poets, writers, singers, and cultural personalities generally. Karlstad is no exception to any of these, having been home to such internationally-known personages as Gustaf Fröding, Nils Ferlin (though he's usually more closely associated with Filipstad), Zarah Leander and Stefan Holm. The city is located at the mouth of Klarälven (could be loosely translated into English as "the Clear River"), which forms part of the longest river system in the country (the other main part is Göta älv, the river that flows through Gothenburg, which carries Klarälven's water out of Lake Vänern and into the western sea). The city centre, known as Tingvalla (which was the city's name, until King Karl IX gave it city status and had it renamed after himself), is located on an island formed by the two main branches of the river, but today most of the city is on the banks of it.
Karlstad is interesting politically, though not for any of the reasons you might expect. It doesn't have a strongly right-wing centre and a strongly left-wing countryside like Sundsvall, nor the other way round like Uppsala, nor is it a third-party stronghold like some of the other municipalities we've looked at. Instead, what makes Karlstad so interesting is simply the fact that it seems to completely lack any such dynamics, with parts of the city centre being Moderate and parts being Social Democratic, and parts of the suburbs being marginal and parts being solidly left-wing (this is the suburbs, after all), and parts of the countryside being solidly Social Democratic and parts voting Moderate or Centre in large numbers. Traditionally, this has produced a slight majority for the left-wing parties, who governed the municipality between 1988 and 2010, but after that election a five-leaf clover coalition was formed, that retains power to this day. It remains to be seen, of course, whether this will hold up after September.
Karlstad is the county town of Värmland, a county known primarily for its dialect (which has heavy Norwegian elements and is thus perceived as amusing), the cheerful disposition of its inhabitants (which is probably mostly untrue, and in any case comes mostly from the dialect sounding upbeat to the average Swedish ear, much as Norwegian does), and being home to a disproportionally large number of poets, writers, singers, and cultural personalities generally. Karlstad is no exception to any of these, having been home to such internationally-known personages as Gustaf Fröding, Nils Ferlin (though he's usually more closely associated with Filipstad), Zarah Leander and Stefan Holm. The city is located at the mouth of Klarälven (could be loosely translated into English as "the Clear River"), which forms part of the longest river system in the country (the other main part is Göta älv, the river that flows through Gothenburg, which carries Klarälven's water out of Lake Vänern and into the western sea). The city centre, known as Tingvalla (which was the city's name, until King Karl IX gave it city status and had it renamed after himself), is located on an island formed by the two main branches of the river, but today most of the city is on the banks of it.
Karlstad is interesting politically, though not for any of the reasons you might expect. It doesn't have a strongly right-wing centre and a strongly left-wing countryside like Sundsvall, nor the other way round like Uppsala, nor is it a third-party stronghold like some of the other municipalities we've looked at. Instead, what makes Karlstad so interesting is simply the fact that it seems to completely lack any such dynamics, with parts of the city centre being Moderate and parts being Social Democratic, and parts of the suburbs being marginal and parts being solidly left-wing (this is the suburbs, after all), and parts of the countryside being solidly Social Democratic and parts voting Moderate or Centre in large numbers. Traditionally, this has produced a slight majority for the left-wing parties, who governed the municipality between 1988 and 2010, but after that election a five-leaf clover coalition was formed, that retains power to this day. It remains to be seen, of course, whether this will hold up after September.
One of these is not like the other.
IIRC, Karlstad is one of these places regarded to be somewhat of a bellwether, and like usual in these cases it's not that representative when you look at the actual statistics. It's also said that the sun always shines in Karlstad - whether it's related to the citizens' perceived happiness is unknown.
Of note is that the Centre Party has recruited Bengt Alsterlind, a popular children's TV host from a few decades ago, to run for City Council. He's number 6 on the list, but it will be interesting to see if he can gain votes for the party and enough personal votes to send him in.
Come on, nothing's weirder than the pronunciation of Appletreewick. (Did I spell that right?)
Then there's Härryda, which covers the gap between Partille and Mölndal in the southeast of Gothenburg. Over the course of making this map I came up with two potential nicknames for this municipality. The first one is "The other Land of a Thousand Lakes". The meaning of this would seem to be fairly straightforward.
The second slogan, although I've since realised it's kind of fallacious, is "The Largest Municipality You've Never Heard Of". This is because, although it contains several well-known localities, none of them are actually named Härryda. In fact, that is the name of a small parish town in the sparsely-populated east of the municipality, and will only be familiar to locals and people who regularly travel road 40 between Gothenburg and Borås. I have no idea why they chose this name, but my guess is that it was an attempt at compromise between Mölnlycke (the largest town and municipal seat) and Landvetter (which is almost as large, and has better name recognition). While fairly common with English councils, this is almost never done here, so it's somewhat surprising to see it done.
While the municipality name is a nonplusser, Mölnlycke and Landvetter are both relatively well-known in their own right. The former is home to SCA Hygiene, one of the largest paper mills in the country (if you've ever been to a public lavatory anywhere in Sweden, chances are you've wiped your hindquarters on one of their products), and the latter is home to the larger of Gothenburg's two airports (the other one is in Säve, on Hisingen). Politically, these two towns resemble each other and the surrounding municipalities quite a bit, in that they're middle-class and, for the most part, solidly Moderate. The Liberals are also somewhat stronger here than is normal, particularly in Hindås, in the northeast of the municipality, where they tied with the Moderates for first place in one of the wards.
The second slogan, although I've since realised it's kind of fallacious, is "The Largest Municipality You've Never Heard Of". This is because, although it contains several well-known localities, none of them are actually named Härryda. In fact, that is the name of a small parish town in the sparsely-populated east of the municipality, and will only be familiar to locals and people who regularly travel road 40 between Gothenburg and Borås. I have no idea why they chose this name, but my guess is that it was an attempt at compromise between Mölnlycke (the largest town and municipal seat) and Landvetter (which is almost as large, and has better name recognition). While fairly common with English councils, this is almost never done here, so it's somewhat surprising to see it done.
While the municipality name is a nonplusser, Mölnlycke and Landvetter are both relatively well-known in their own right. The former is home to SCA Hygiene, one of the largest paper mills in the country (if you've ever been to a public lavatory anywhere in Sweden, chances are you've wiped your hindquarters on one of their products), and the latter is home to the larger of Gothenburg's two airports (the other one is in Säve, on Hisingen). Politically, these two towns resemble each other and the surrounding municipalities quite a bit, in that they're middle-class and, for the most part, solidly Moderate. The Liberals are also somewhat stronger here than is normal, particularly in Hindås, in the northeast of the municipality, where they tied with the Moderates for first place in one of the wards.
One of these is not like the other.
Quite.
I'm fairly sure that's more to do with the citizenry than the weather. Also, I'm not sure I'm seeing the bellwether thing, at least not in the municipal elections - the Social Democrats lost power in 1985, only to win it back in 1988 and lose it again in 2010.
Now I'm really hoping we'll get to see party politicals beginning with the words "Nu ska vi prata om ett parti, men inte vilket parti som helst, utan Centerpartiet..."
I was actually going to mention Alsterlind in the post - not because of this, since I didn't know of this before, but simply because it's nigh impossible to mention Karlstad in any context without someone bringing up Hajk. I'm willing to bet he's going to get elected on personal votes, but in a more serious matter, you seem to have forgotten our translation convention. "City council" can refer to both the assembly and the executive, and consequently I for one prefer to use the less ambiguous "municipal assembly" in this context. It's boring, but practical.
How's that pronounced then? I'm willing to bet it's no odder than the pronunciation of Godmanchester.
Aptrick.
How's Godmanchester pronounced? I canoed through there a few years ago, but we didn't really stop, and everyone on the trip just pronounced it like Manchester with God on the front.
It's "Gumster", so about the same level of weirdness as that or Cholmondeley ("Chumley").
What is KomP and SPP? One looks like its far-right, the other's centrist/social liberal.
KomP is Kommunpartiet (the Municipal Party), which is a local splinter faction of the Pensioners Party in Härryda, and the other is Sportpartiet (I'm not translating that), a single-issue party promoting increased funding for sports. It's abbreviated SPP by the election agency because they only use any one abbreviation for a single party, and presumably the abbreviation SP was taken by some far-left grouping.
Alex Richards
Donor
Happy Easter everyone, here's Reading. Labelled ward map here. Many thanks to my good friend Martin23230 who being from Berkshire was able to bring some local knowledge to this.
A relatively old Berkshire town, Reading grew first as a pilgrimage location for Reading Abbey then as a market town. by 1525 it was the 10th richest town in the country, and from 1714 shared duty with Abingdon as the county town of Berkshire. Iron working started in the 18th Century, but as with Swindon it was the coming of the Great Western Railway that led to explosive growth of the town, a growth which continued with suburbanisation in the 20th Century.
Despite being expanded across the Thames to include Caversham in Oxfordshire, Reading has quite possibly the most idiotic borders for any council area in the country. Not content with merely severing the odd suburb from the town centre, the borders of Reading council run through what is virtually the centre of the town, Actually bisecting some buildings of the University in that notch by Park Ward. There's been a number of attempts to incorporate these areas but which have run into the problem of not being supported by Wokingham Council or the government (about the only people who don't), largely because by removing half the population and tax base Wokingham would be forced to be dissolved into the neighbours (though cynically the fact that the bits in Wokingham are solidly Conservative has struck both of us as a potential reason it's not been done). Reading also has a long running attempt to gain city status, a situation which has led me to fondly picture Reading and Doncaster sitting in a pub in mutual commiserations over the matter. Both Parliamentary seats are marginals which include large areas outside the borough. East went Tory in 2005, West in 2010.
Politically Reading Council has had a strong Labour lean in terms of control- falling to a Con/Lib coalition only between 2008 and 2011- but this has been against a backdrop of wrong winner elections- Labour won more seats than the Conservatives on a lower vote share in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and it was a bare draw in 2007 despite the healthy Tory lead. The consolidated vote in this case also does not include the by-elections due to an unusual ballot splitting here. The borough's become more solidly Labour in the last couple of elections, but the area north of the Thames has gone very solidly Conservative (apparently they still consider themselves part of Oxfordshire) and there's a background over a debate about the building of a third bridge over the Thames that's in play here with Oxfordshire concerned that the southern villages will become rat runs and Wokingham involved yet again.
There's also some humour with the Lib Dems being strong in Redlands and Greens in Park (Green Park being a retail development in Southcote apparently).
A relatively old Berkshire town, Reading grew first as a pilgrimage location for Reading Abbey then as a market town. by 1525 it was the 10th richest town in the country, and from 1714 shared duty with Abingdon as the county town of Berkshire. Iron working started in the 18th Century, but as with Swindon it was the coming of the Great Western Railway that led to explosive growth of the town, a growth which continued with suburbanisation in the 20th Century.
Despite being expanded across the Thames to include Caversham in Oxfordshire, Reading has quite possibly the most idiotic borders for any council area in the country. Not content with merely severing the odd suburb from the town centre, the borders of Reading council run through what is virtually the centre of the town, Actually bisecting some buildings of the University in that notch by Park Ward. There's been a number of attempts to incorporate these areas but which have run into the problem of not being supported by Wokingham Council or the government (about the only people who don't), largely because by removing half the population and tax base Wokingham would be forced to be dissolved into the neighbours (though cynically the fact that the bits in Wokingham are solidly Conservative has struck both of us as a potential reason it's not been done). Reading also has a long running attempt to gain city status, a situation which has led me to fondly picture Reading and Doncaster sitting in a pub in mutual commiserations over the matter. Both Parliamentary seats are marginals which include large areas outside the borough. East went Tory in 2005, West in 2010.
Politically Reading Council has had a strong Labour lean in terms of control- falling to a Con/Lib coalition only between 2008 and 2011- but this has been against a backdrop of wrong winner elections- Labour won more seats than the Conservatives on a lower vote share in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and it was a bare draw in 2007 despite the healthy Tory lead. The consolidated vote in this case also does not include the by-elections due to an unusual ballot splitting here. The borough's become more solidly Labour in the last couple of elections, but the area north of the Thames has gone very solidly Conservative (apparently they still consider themselves part of Oxfordshire) and there's a background over a debate about the building of a third bridge over the Thames that's in play here with Oxfordshire concerned that the southern villages will become rat runs and Wokingham involved yet again.
There's also some humour with the Lib Dems being strong in Redlands and Greens in Park (Green Park being a retail development in Southcote apparently).
Redlands (and to a lesser extent, Katesgrove) is a pretty useful bellwether for the student vote, as this is the main area in Reading where students live (assuming they're not living on campus), with most of the large Victorian-era houses cut up into 4-6 bedrooms and let out to the student population. So one can see the 2006-2010 support among students for the Liberal Democrats, followed by a sudden collapse of the Lib Dems' student support, which largely went to Labour. Also, one can see Labour's traditional difficulty in penetrating north of the Thames in Reading, with Caversham ward only going Labour in 2012.
Well, no. People selected as candidates for parliament generally start campaigning immediately if they're in a target seat. Bear in mind that 'campaigning' can mean 'doorstepping once a week', and it ramps up gradually over time, eventually becoming a 24/7 activity once the election is called. Voters traditionally react badly to 'only hearing from candidates when there's an election on', so campaigning a long time before the dissolution of parliament has always been a wise move.
In Croydon, for example, Gavin Barwell is expected to launch his 're-election campaign' in June/July of this year, while Sarah Jones, his Labour opponent, is also believed to be increasing her activity at the same time. The local elections in Croydon are on 22 May, so after that both parties will focus on next year's General.
I suppose that's the natural consequence of single-member representation - in Sweden we naturally don't have any single person who's expected to represent our interests at all times (the closest you get to that is Gotland, which has two MPs), so the parties only showing up when there's an election is seen as perfectly natural - that's what they're for, after all.
This is the biggest drawback with PR, really, and is why I favor MMP. If nothing else, it would make for more maps, which is always a valid argument.
Gosh, that's late. Both Labour target candidates here (and one who isn't) have been campaigning since selection - there's already been a full circuit of Aberconwy.
I rather like STV myself, or better yet, CPO-STV. At least in smaller constituencies like Blekinge, where there's usually no more than three MPs elected from the same party, I think being able to vote for individual people would be an improvement over the open-list system.
As far as I am aware neither the Labour candidate nor the Conservative MP in Ipswich are doing open campaigning yet. They are however both trying to get their name and that of their party associated with as much positive news as possible and trying to sell themselves as best for getting things for the town. I suspect the dynamic is slightly unusual since one is the serving MP while the other is the current leader of the Borough Council, so we have at times had them both claiming credit for exactly the same thing.
To a lesser extent the Greens are also campaigning, though their candidate is a County Councillor from outside the town so I think he has to shout louder to get attention. UKIP and the LibDems are behind though as neither party has yet selected their candidate, I would guess probably because they see no hope of taking the seat.
Interestingly, the main opposition have got in early with the selection of candidates for both 2010 and 2015 elections. Ben Gummer was selected for the Conservatives in August 2007 while David Ellesmere was selected as Labour candidate in September 2011. I suspect this is earlier than for most other constituencies.