Michael Thrasher

The Rallings/Thrasher, Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies 2024 is now available as a pdf on electionscentre.co.uk. It contains full details of the new constituencies. We will not be publishing this in hard copy.

There's now a pdf of the 2023 Local Elections Handbook available on electionscentre.co.uk. The same pdf and an excel data file for those inclined to do their own analysis is also located on the House of Commons Library pages here commonslibrary.parliament.uk/2023-local-ele…

The 2022 Local Elections Handbook can be downloaded either from here electionscentre.co.uk or here commonslibrary.parliament.uk/data-tools-and… where there is also find a downloadable dataset.

The 2021 Local Elections Handbook can be downloaded from the House of Commons Library website and also the front page of our Elections Centre site: electionscentre.co.uk

The 2021 local elections saw us register details of the millionth candidature. Our records run from the end of the 19th century through to the present. Thanks to everyone who has collaborated with us - most recently House of Commons Library. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/2021-local-ele…

Delighted to be collaborating with the House of Commons Library in reporting the results of the 2021 council elections.

.@adamboultonSKY helped launch Sky News in 1989 and is leaving after 32 years. He has given us the political headlines and the best Westminster crepes during a rollercoaster of a career. More on his time at Sky News here: trib.al/E1OngFe

@undertheraedar In 1974 there were 520 councils across England, Wales and Scotland. There are now under 400. There has been a 40% reduction in councillor numbers in Wales, a 24% drop in Scotland and a 23% decrease in England.

Doing English or UK local authority-level data analysis and baffled by things not adding up when they always used to? It could be due to the reduction in the number of English local authorities in recent years. 🤓(I have of course *never* been caught out by this👀)

Rallings & Thrasher are providing vote estimates of the parliamentary boundary changes for the main broadcasters and Press Association as they have done since 1995. We will not comment or publish any estimates until the Commissions complete their revised proposals next year.

Once again, too many councils with elections in 2021 are not publishing electorates and turnout on their website. Why not?

@p_surridge ah yes. but are those turnout figures based on valid votes or do they include invalid votes. Custom and practice varies widely. Many authorities do not report electorates and turnout. Welcome to my world!

A snippet from the Rotherham Borough Council vote validation via rotherham.gov.uk/elections-voti…

Sky News is collecting local election results and visualising the swing in each ward. This tells the story of the 2021 English council elections in a simple and elegant way twitter.com/drjennings/sta…

@C_AguilarGarcia @f_l_o_u_r_i_s_h @DavidMercerSky @drjennings It is incredible that we can collect local elections in real time and then produce incredible visualisations such as these which tell the story simply and elegantly.

Trying new maps in @f_l_o_u_r_i_s_h to help explain better the local elections results. With @DavidMercerSky and the invaluable help (and patience) of @drjennings news.sky.com/story/election…

So sad to learn of the death of Lord Tony Greaves. When we began collecting details of council by-elections in the early 1980s he was so generous of his time in providing us with background details and results. A great loss to the world of local government.

Sadly, after publishing the results of local elections since 1985 there will not be a hard copy available of the 2019 results. However, we are making it available as a free download on our website: electionscentre.co.uk/wp-content/upl…

Prior to this happening I think it might be a great idea if councils could provide comprehensive and accessible local election results. I'm thinking that they might all report registered electorate and number of ballot papers issued as a starter so we can calculate turnout.