COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 04.12.25

Five seats were being contested on Thursday, following Tuesday's by-election in Derbyshire.  The Derbyshire vacancy arose through the resignation of one of last May's crop of Reform councillors.  Reform held the seat by a wafer thin majority of 23, with the second placed Tories having significantly closed the gap.

Reform took advantage of an even slimmer margin to take a Lib Dem seat in Middlesbrough, pipping the incumbents by just 13 votes.  Labour finished last here and the best they could muster on Thursday was a couple of fourth places.

Labour were on a proxy defence in Nottinghamshire, where the incumbent was elected as a Labour councillor before he left for the local independent group last January.  He passed away in August, sparking a by-election.  The Broxtowe Alliance to which he belonged easily held the seat, which was technically a gain from Labour.  Labour slumped from first to fourth.

We still await any solid evidence of the Green surge, who only managed to contest four of the six seats and couldn't achieve anything better than Labour's fourth place.  Still, that's better than anything achieved by the Fruit and Nuts of Sultana and Corbyn...

Stapleford South East, Broxtowe Borough Council

Ind: 388 (34.6%) New

Ref: 245 (21.9%) New

LDm: 149 (13.3%) -8.2%

Lab: 128 (11.4%) -14.7%

Con: 108 (9.6%) -9.5%

Ind: 102 (9.2%) New

Ind GAIN from Lab

Exmouth Halsdon, East Devon District Council

LDm: 551 (35.9%) -4.0%

Ref: 438 (28.5%) New

Con: 393 (25.6%) -4.1%

Grn: 153 (10.0%) New

LDm HOLD

Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough Borough Council

Ref: 563 (35.8%) New

LDm: 550 (35.0%) -1.3%

Con: 328 (20.9%) -14.2%

Grn: 79 (5.0%) New

Lab: 53 (3.3%) -6.7%

Ref GAIN from LDm

Winkleigh, Torridge District Council

LDm: 325 (42.3%) +8.7%

Ref: 252 (32.8%) New

Con: 191 (24.9%) -23.7%

LDm GAIN from Con

Tudor, Watford Borough Council

LDm: 821 (52.6%) +4.3%

Ref: 433 (27.2%) +17.8%

Con: 148 (9.3%) -10.5%

Lab: 111 (7.0%) -16.4%

Grn: 77 (4.8%) New

LDm HOLD

Long Eaton North, Derbyshire County Council

(held on Tuesday)

Ref: 745 (28.1%) -7.7%

Con: 722 (27.2%) +4.2%

Lab: 579 (21.8%) -2.7%

Grn: 314 (11.8%) +4.5%

LDm: 154 (5.8%) -3.6%

Ind: 141 (5.3%) New

Ref HOLD

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #50

The very deliberate act of social engineering that is the deChristianization of the West is plain to see during our most prominent festivals.  Over many decades Easter has largely been reduced to children pining for chocolate eggs, while Christmas has become a light show that culminates in vulgar displays of expensive gifts having their wrapping paper torn away in animalistic fashion.

Attempts to remove Christ from both festivals dates back many years.  References to Easter have increasingly been airbrushed from the obligatory eggs, which have been rebranded 'chocolate eggs' or 'gesture eggs'.  In 2017 the National Trust renamed its Easter Egg Trail as the 'Great British Egg Hunt'.

The name Christmas has been under attack for much longer, for obvious reasons - it contains the Lord's name.  The oldest and most commonly airbrushed alternative is Xmas, but there are plenty of others such as Crimbo, Yuletide, Noël, the festive season, the generic 'holidays' and who can forget Birmingham City Council's infamous rebrand - 'Winterval'.

The war on Christianity by corporate quasi-communistic elements continues this year with an early example being a viral image of a packaged decorative tree in Tesco.  However, there is no reference to Christmas on the packaging as it has now been rebranded an 'Evergreen Tree'.  To Karl's surprise, when he visited a Tesco store last week he found a further five examples of decorative trees with the reference to Christmas replaced.  His photos from that visit are featured in this week's meme.  Five of the six products are under Tesco's own brand, while the sixth is from a London-based company called Bayswood.  Did they also have to remove the word Christmas in order to get their product stocked in Tesco?

Corporate interests see Christmas as a cash cow that can be repackaged as a non-religious festival that appeals to everyone and therefore maximises their profits.  University educated Marxists would prefer the religious aspect to be removed and rebranded for 'inclusivity' purposes, while globalists require this troublesome custom to be stamped out altogether along with every other localised custom that fosters regional, cultural or national identity.

Last week's pansexual Anne Frank meme generated 20 comments and six shares on Facebook.

This current edition of Woke Wednesday will be the last of 2025, but the feature will return in the new year.

TOON TUESDAY #83

We begin of course with the Budget (for the final week, hopefully).  We have a trio of horror-themed efforts, which gives way to leaks and consequences.  The final pair of cartoons focuses on the increasingly hapless Fruit and Nut Party, the still nameless party which remains locked in bitter infighting.  As their conference descends into absurdity, Zack Polanski's Greens wait in the wings to mop up the remains of Corbyn and Sultana's total car crash...

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

David Simonds for The Big Issue

Guy Venables for Metro

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Graeme Bandeira for The Northern Agenda

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Morten Morland for The Times

Peter Brookes for The Times

Andy Davey for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Dave Brown for The Independent

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Ella Baron for The Guardian

Morten Morland for The Sunday Times

MEME MONDAY #63

A very sparse week as Karl's absence looks set to continue for a wee while.  Toon Tuesday and Woke Wednesday will proceed this week, after which the latter will go on leave until the new year.

Mon 24 Nov - 21 shares

Wed 26 Nov - 358 shares

Thu 27 Nov - 11 shares

Thu 27 Nov - 99 shares

Sat 29 Nov - 59 shares