Barnes result

Here it is, announced at 4.30 in the morning:

Brandreth (Con) 2017
Hodgkins (Con) 1919
Palmer (Con) 1985
Emerson (LD) 1539
McKee (LD) 1486
Albon (Green) 1058
Enright (Lab) 234
Patel (Lab) 185
Lever (Lab) 153
Buick (Soc) 28

Turnout was over 50%. This ward was exceptional in that it is the only ward in Richmond where the Tories won all 3 council seats. The LibDems won at least one seat in every other ward. The Greens' alliance with the LibDems (under which they stood aside in some wards in return for the LibDems only contesting 2 seats in others) gave them 4 seats.

Elsewhere, we know that in Borough & Bankside ward in Southwark the LibDems won all 3 seats and that our candidate got 27 votes. No further details yet. Islington's votes are being counted this morning.

LibDem-Green Election Pact

As we suspected from the LibDems putting up only 2 candidates and the Greens only 1 for the 3 council seats in Barnes ward (four years ago they each put up 3 candidates), they have done an electoral deal. As this is sort of historic in terms of conventional politics, we record what an item in a leaflet distributed in the ward says:

Greens Back Lib Dems to WIN
The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have decided to work together to help bring an end to eight years of Conservative misrule. In twelve areas there will be three Lib Dem candidates and no green candidates. In Barnes, South Richmond and Ham, Petersham & Richmond Riverside there will be two Lib Dem candidates and one Green candidate.

Of course this is just two reformist parties getting together and won't make any difference to solving problems the excluded majority face under capitalism or to the way capitalism operates, and must operate, to put profits before people. As an outgoing LibDem councillor, Penny Frost, noted in another leaflet distributed in Ham, Petersham & Riverside ward:

Even housing associations are now more interested in speculative development than in looking after their elderly and vulnerable tenants.

What do you expect? That's the way of the capitalist world.