Anthony Butcher

Well, the BBC site showed 37 proper councillors in the councils having elections this time. Given that they are held every three to four years, and this was a relatively small election, 100 is not hard to imagine.

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Tom Wilde

Ha! That's the mistake I was making as well. The fact that the elections for these particular wards are only held every four years is irrelevant to the figures, as the figure in that column is for all councillors on those councils having elections this time, regardless of whether those councillors were elected last night or were elected in previous years and not yet up for re-election.

Before the election the BNP had between 40 and 50 councillors at district/borough/city level (which is the level indicated by the BBC results table, which excludes parish and town council elections). As they had a net gain of 10 in yesterday's election, that must mean that they now have between 50 and 60 councillors at that level in total. Therefore if they are claiming 100+councillors, then that must indeed include parish and town councillors as well, (assuming it wasn't just the gin-fuelled exuberance of some BNP official posting results in the wee small hours).

Anthony Butcher

But there were only 159 councils holding elections this time. Most councils didn't have elections this time around. Take a look at the map:
BBC NEWS | Election 2008 | Results Map

If the BNP really only had, say, 50 councillors before then at least half of them were in the councils holding elections this time. That is of course possible, and perhaps reflects the fact that so many northern councils were holding elections this time.

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If you care about what's in your food and where it comes from, then get it labelled!
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Shaun