Polling stations in Abingdon have been open for the second time this month. Three weeks ago they opened for the district and parish elections, and this Thursday it is the European elections, which were supposed not to happen as the UK should have left the European Union on 29th March 2019.

Abingdon is part of the South East of England and we were given the following choice of parties and Independents:
Change UK (10 candidates)
Conservative (10 candidates)
Green (10 Candidates)
Labour (10 Candidates)
Liberal Democrats (10 Candidates)
The Brexit Party (10 Candidates)
The Socialist Party of Great Britain (10 Candidates)
UK European Union Party (2 Candidates)
UKIP (10 Candidates)
Independent – Jason McMahon
Independent – David Round
Independent – Michael Jeffrey Turberville

We each had one vote.

10 MEPs will be elected to represent the South East of the UK. MEPs are elected by proportional representation. The number of MEPs each party gets is calculated using a formula called d’Hondt after the Belgian mathematician Victor d’Hondt, who dreamed up the formula in 1878, long before the days of computers. According to Wikpedia….
After all the votes have been tallied, successive quotients are calculated for each party. The party with the largest quotient wins one seat, and its quotient is recalculated. This is repeated until the required number of seats is filled. The formula for the quotient 

quotient = V / (S + 1)

V is the total number of votes that party received, and
s is the number of seats that party has been allocated so far, initially 0 for all parties. 

European elections do not usually enthuse people as much as national elections but on this occasion they are being treated by some people as a protest vote. In the UK there are two new parties. The Brexit Party has been created to allow people who voted Leave to show their discontent with parliament’s handling of Brexit. Change UK has been created by people in parliament to challenge the referendum result.

The UK should still leave the European Union (EU) on 31st October 2019. If the UK and EU ratify the withdrawal agreement before then, it would be earlier. So these elected MEPs could be in post for a very short time. But parliament has not managed to agree the withdrawal yet so it could be longer.

Polling has finished and we will know the results on Sunday.

The Lib-Dems won 18 and the Greens won one of the Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council seats. The orange diamond with the slogan ‘Liberal Democrats – Winning Here’ came true today. They were a long way ahead of the other parties. Conservative voter turnout was about half the level of 4 years ago due to national politics, and the Lib-Dem voter turnout was similar to, and possibly up on, 4 years ago.

Commiserations to the Conservative Mayor elect David Pope who lost his position. Other high profile Conservatives losses include:  Mike Badcock (Council Leader); Alice Badcock (organiser of Fun and Music in the Park, and Chair of Amenities); Sandy Lovatt (former Council Leader); Monica Lovatt (Chair of the Vale), Dennis Garrett (who led the Guildhall revamp), Vicky Jenkins (a councillor who got things done on her local patch and who chaired the Community Services Committee).

Congratulations to the new council who will be taking Abingdon forward for the next four years – especially to Cheryl Briggs who becomes Abingdon’s first ever Green Party Town Councillor.

Thank you to everybody who voted for me as an Independent, and helped me in campaign. We were just 14 votes short and so nearly did it.

At Polling Stations, some party supporters were Telling (taking voter card numbers) so the party could tell which of their supporters had voted, and did not need a door knock, email, or whatever methods the parties use to remind people to vote.

At Preston Road there was a Lib-Dem and Conservative. The Conservative has lived all his 71 years in the Caldecott area of Abingdon, having been born in Saxton Road. He is a Morris Dancer and was standing for Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council for the first time. The Lib-Dem was a former leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council.

At the St John Ambulance Station there was also a Lib-Dem and Conservative, but there was not room to sit down and talk there.

At Trinity Church there was just Jeanette, a Lib-Dem. One duty of the teller is holding the voter’s dog. She was holding one very large  and friendly dog and she almost got pulled into the polling station.

At Bridges Close there was a Lib-Dem and a lot of beautiful plants.

The polling station is in the hall of the Jephson Flats where you need to ‘Beware the Elderly’. I did not see any brolly wielding elderly threatening the voters.

Telling was difficult at the Guildhall where there were two entrances. People could easily go in through the Abbey Cinema entrance and avoid the foyer where the tellers sat.

(Update) The Lib Dems gained control of the Vale of White Horse District Council which they lost eight years ago in 2011.

In terms of Abingdon Wards:

Abingdon Peachcroft
Elected
Mike Pighills – Liberal Democrat
Max Thompson – Liberal Democrat
Not Elected
Vicky Jenkins – Conservative Party
Simon Hutton – Conservative Party
George Ryall

Abingdon Caldecott
Elected
Samantha Bowring – Liberal Democrat
Neil Fawcett – Liberal Democrat
Not Elected
Alice Badcock – Conservative Party
Mike Badcock – Conservative Party
Jon Bounds – Labour Party

Abingdon Fitzharris
Elected
Eric De La Harpe – Liberal Democrat
Robert James Maddison – Liberal Democrat
Not Elected
Monica Lovatt – Conservative Party
Christopher Palmer – Conservative Party

Abingdon Abbey Northcourt
Elected
Helen Pighills – Liberal Democrat
Cheryl Briggs – The Green Party
Not Elected
Katie Finch- Conservative Party
Dennis Garrett -Conservative Party

Abingdon Dunmore
Elected
Margaret Crick – Liberal Democrat
Andy Foulsham – Liberal Democrat
Not Elected
Sandy Lovatt- Conservative Party
David Pope – Conservative Party
Paul Burton – Labour Party

The majority for the Lib-Dems over Conservatives looks so large that it is very likely that they will have a large Lib-Dem majority in the town council when those votes are counted later today.

Some of you may have read in the Observer this morning about the people of the idyllic market town of Abingdon saying ‘politics is now a farce’.

Parliament has failed to deliver the 52% Leave vote because David Cameron did not define what Leave meant before the referendum. Politicians have failed to agree a Leave deal that the EU agrees with since.

There are local elections on Thursday, and the Observer observes that Abingdon people are affected by this national disillusionment with politics. People slam their doors against canvassers saying ‘I cannot take any more politics!’

The choice is yours on Thursday if you choose to vote. Some of your local politicians have done a good job locally irrespective of their national party. New people are standing at the local election as well. It is for you to judge. At the very local level we should try to vote for the best people. I hope you end up with an excellent Town and District Council – one that can take Abingdon forward.