Status:
I’ll be honest, today was pretty much spent refreshing the Birmingham council election results and nattering about it on the local chats. I could come to like these daytime counts.
So we have a Green Party councillor. The results will hopefully be here once the Birmingham.gov.uk website recovers, and it was surprisingly close, which says a lot about the Labour incumbent who was one of those good ones who did a lot for this community. As an individual she’ll be missed. The party machinery she was chained to, not so much.
The Muesli Belt in Birmingham has pretty much gone Green, which wasn’t a big surprise, but so have a load of other places making them the 2nd biggest party. I was not expecting that. (Moseley, the origin of the Muesli Belt jibe, has stayed Lib, because of course it has.)
One thing I’m keen to do is have a proper look at the vote shares and margins. There’s some crazy ones out there where people were elected on a quarter or a fifth of the vote, and a lot of the gains are really tight.
If there’s a non-partisan campaign that needs to happen now it’s for voting reform before the next big election. First past the post is utterly unfit for purpose. Hopefully Labour will use their majority to push this through in the next year. It’s not like they have much to lose, which is usually the argument against reform.
As for Birmingham, it’s No Overall Control, as expected, with the added bonus of coalitions not adding up in any useful way. The closest I can see is Lib + Lab + Green + 6 lefty independents, which from where I’m sitting makes sense but I’m sure the tribal mindset is having conniptions. The good news is even if Reform and the Tories come together they won’t have enough seats to govern, so we’re saved that nightmare.
And that’s enough punditry for now. On days like this I can see how people get caught up in The Great Game of it all. Despite the stakes being high and the consequences dire, it’s a lot of fun! Until it’s not.
Reading:
- Unmasking Angine de Poitrine, the year’s buzziest, dottiest band — Nice interview by the mighty Laura Snapes. They seem like cool kids.
- Local elections 2026: Some disparate thoughts — Ian Dunt’s phrase “does not have the confidence to try and convince the public of an argument” rings pretty key to me. No politician seems willing to try and change minds, just follow the herd. And the herd is having its minds changed beyond recognition by the paid-for mass and social media. Maybe that old tyrant Plato was right about philosopher kings…
Watching:
Listening:
Telly:
- Wonder Man — Highly enjoyable and a lot of fun. Would recommend to all. Even if it does do that thing where we spend 7 episodes of preamble before the hero gets their costume and does a superhero thing for two scenes.