{"id":1234,"date":"2020-03-27T14:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T14:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2020-06-19T08:28:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T08:28:33","slug":"were-still-the-record-holders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/were-still-the-record-holders\/","title":{"rendered":"WE&#8217;RE STILL THE RECORD HOLDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;font-size: 10pt\">As coronavirus fever first gripped the country, and as the government prepared to enact emergency laws to postpone all public elections, one solitary local council by-election took place on Thursday 19 March 2020, for the Upper Stoke ward of Coventry City Council. Other by-elections had been scheduled for that day, but called off unilaterally by their returning officers, and no further by-elections are likely to take place anywhere in the UK for the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;font-size: 10pt\">Gurdev Singh Hayre (Labour) won the Upper Stoke ward with 639 votes, out of 1214 who cast ballots, 651 of whom were postal voters. A shockingly low turnout of 9.02%.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;font-size: 10pt\">Surely this pandemic-affected turnout must be a record low for recent public elections? Apparently not, commentators concluded &#8211; there was another council by-election, in 2016, where the turnout had been even lower, 7.12%, and the winning candidate had been returned with just 98 votes. Where could that have been?<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;font-size: 10pt\">You&#8217;ve guessed it. The University &amp; Scotforth Rural by-election for Lancaster City Council (see subtext 156), held on 8 December 2016, continues to defeat all comers in the apathy stakes. It&#8217;s comforting to know that even the fear of catching COVID-19 has nothing on our students&#8217; tendency to avoid the polls on a cold day.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As coronavirus fever first gripped the country, and as the government prepared to enact emergency laws to postpone all public elections, one solitary local council by-election took place on Thursday 19 March 2020, for the Upper Stoke ward of Coventry &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/were-still-the-record-holders\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[572,569,330],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-issue-193","tag-local-elections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-jU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":600,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/democracy-does-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":0},"title":"DEMOCRACY DOES GOOD","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The last time subtext covered a city council by-election in University & Scotforth Rural ward (December 2016 - see subtext 156), the turnout fell to an all-time low for a public election this century. The last time campus residents went to the polls in a public election (June 2017 -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1264,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/06\/19\/letters-29\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":1},"title":"Letters","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, subtext 193 published a piece of widely-believed, but inaccurate, Lancastrian electoral trivia \u2013 that the 8 December 2016 University and Scotforth Rural by-election had the lowest turnout of any British election, at 7.12%. I understand the current record-holder to actually be the former Melrose ward, Liverpool City Council,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;letters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1526,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/11\/11\/its-by-election-fever\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":2},"title":"It&#8217;s By-Election Fever","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 11 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Warm congratulations to Jack O'Dwyer-Henry, sometime Labour and then Eco-Socialist councillor for the University and Scotforth Rural Ward of Lancaster City Council, on being appointed Strategy and Communications Officer for the Green Party of Northern Ireland. His departure means that, on Thursday 11 November 2021 (Week 5), literally as subtext\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":564,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":3},"title":"DEMOCRACY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 10 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS In a blow to the Labour Group on Lancaster City Council, Cllr Oscar Thynne, John O'Gaunt ward councillor and current Lancaster student, has relinquished the Labour whip and gone independent. As you might expect, the announcement of his defection on Facebook hasn't gone down well with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1018,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/05\/23\/subtext-188-eurobants-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":4},"title":"subtext 188 &#8211; &#8216;eurobants subtext&#8217;","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 23 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often during term time (and sometimes a bit after). Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, running out of money, wellings news, atherton news, professional services conference, unconditional offers, nets, partnership quality update, fascists, cash only,\u00a0letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL The European\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;editorial&quot;","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/analysis-lusu-elections\/","url_meta":{"origin":1234,"position":5},"title":"ANALYSIS: LUSU ELECTIONS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The nominations for the next batch of LUSU Sabbatical Officers have closed, and it has the potential to be historic. The winners will have been announced by the time subtext's next issue is out, and readers can expect a full analysis of LUSU's new lineup. For now, we will focus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}