Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Green Party Could Control Sheffield City Council Balance of Power Local Election 2018

Local / UK Local Elections Jun 22, 2017 - 05:23 AM GMT

By: N_Walayat

Local

The Green party with 4 Sheffield Council seats could see their numbers rise to 5 tonight at the Nether Edge by election that could set the scene for a shock Labour loss of control of the city council at the May 2018 local elections, by handing the Green's the balance of power so that a minority Labour could continue in power.

The key driver in the surge in the Green vote is Sheffield City Council's £2 billion PFI contract with Spanish owned firm Amey, effectively outsourcing local democracy to a multinational that over the past 2 years has gone out of its way to anger and outrage Sheffield's residents most notably in its wholesale felling of thousands of Sheffield's biggest and most beautiful trees, likely for profit such as for use as bio fuel as the following video illustrates.


Of course the Green Party with just 4 councilors has little chance for the next decade at least of taking control of Sheffield City Council that requires a minimum of 43 councilors for a working majority.

Whilst Labour current stands on a very strong tally of 56 councilors against the rest on 28, a huge working majority of 26 which translates into the Labour controlled council's blind disregard for a string of disparate issues from lack of school places to the felling of thousands of Sheffield's biggest trees, where both issues have sparked tens of thousands of Sheffielders to set up protest and campaign groups across social media. For instance STAG (Sheffield Tree Action Groups) has mushroomed to more than 6,500 members. Whilst the Nether Edge Trees action group where today's byelection will be held has more than 1000 members, more than enough to influence the outcome of the by election result in favour of the Green party candidate.

Whilst there is zero change of the Greens attaining a 43+ seat working majority, nevertheless the Green party does not need to achieve power to control the balance of power and thus implement Green policies.

Liberal Democrats 1999–2002
No overall control 2002–2003
Labour 2003–2007
No overall control 2007–2008
Liberal Democrats 2008–2010
No overall control 2010–2011
Labour 2011–present

For instance for the past 2 decades Labour has been playing pass the parcel over control of the council with the Lib Dems, with Labour seizing control in 2011, some 7 years ago, which implies that Labour are ripe to lose many seats to the Lib Dems. The key point here is for there to be an enough critical mass of third party councilors to prevent either Labour or the Lib Dems from having an overall majority. To achieve such an election outcome then the Green party would need to increase their council seats from the present 4 to at least 7. As the 2018 local elections are likely to see Labour lose a dozen or so seats to the Lib Dems thus reducing their majority to about 44. However, if the Green's can win just 3 more seats, which would put the council into no overall control :

Labour
41
Lib Dem
32
Green
7
Other
4

Thus the only workable majority would be Labour with Green party support (41+7) which would give the balance of power to the Green party who in exchange for their support of a minority Labour council would demand a greater emphasis on Green policies most notable of which would be to bring to a halt Amey's chain sawing of thousands of trees that continues to outrage tens of thousands of Sheffielders who already number more than enough for the Green party to achieve critical mass and to control the balance of power in 2018.

Here's another example of Labour / Amey's blind disregard for Sheffield that the Labour party will pay a heavy price for at the May 2018 local election:

And here is an example of how Amey is angering Sheffielders by playing a 'Cat and Mouse' game with residents and tree campaigners. For instance normally before Amey fell's trees on a street they pin notices to the trees that will be cut in for instance 'in a minimum of 2 weeks time' as were to those on Glenlit Road, Sheffield.

The notice is dated 13th of June 2017, however Amey's felling crew turned up just 2 days a later early on the 15th of June 2017.

Amey's appearance prompted a social media reaction so that residents and tree campaigners could quickly mobilise to prevent Amey felling the trees on the street.

The stand off lasted for near 2 hours with residents and campaigners preventing Amey from going ahead with the tree felling's.

Ultimately the residents and campaigners prevailed and Amey left in search of another tree elsewhere in the area to chop down.

The issue here is that Amey are NOT abiding by their own tree cutting notices, which clearly stated that the trees would be cut down "in a minimum of 2 weeks time" from the 13th of June, therefore implying 27th of June being the earliest date that Amey would appear on the scene. However, Amey turned up on the 15th of June which was clearly so as to preempt subsequent mobilisation of local residents and tree campaigners.

This illustrates Amey's attitude towards the people of Sheffield, one of disrespect, of the people just being in the way of the Amey tree cutting machines schedules, time tables and profit! However at the end of the day the real culprit of what is happening in Sheffield is the Labour controlled city council who clearly do not represent what is in the best interests of the people of Sheffield and are thus likely to pay a heavy price at the May 2018 local elections when they are held to account for both instigating and then doing nothing to bring Amey's tree cutting rampage to a halt.

Local Elections May 2018

And we will know shortly after the polls close if the Green party are one step closer towards achieving the balance power in Sheffield May 2018, and bringing Amey's chainsaws to a shuddering halt. Though how many more thousands of trees will be have been lost by then to Amey's chainsaws?

And the only way Labour can avoid near certain loss of council control in May 2018 is by permanently silencing Amey's chainsaws.

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright © 2005-2017 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Housing Markets Forecast 2014-2018The Stocks Stealth Bull Market 2013 and Beyond EbookThe Stocks Stealth Bull Market Update 2011 EbookThe Interest Rate Mega-Trend EbookThe Inflation Mega-trend Ebook

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

Nadeem Walayat Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in