I am confused...

I switched over to Sky News last night to wait for Boris's acceptance speech. I noticed they were reporting 300 Conservative gains in the local elections, rather than the lower BBC figure I had watched build until Auntie lost interest as the voters misbehaved. I checked the final figures this morning and the discrepancy is huge (see screen shots, click to enlarge). Which figures are correct?

Comments

[bt]

The beeb considered all seats in the new unitary authorities (Durham, Cheshire, etc.) as gains or losses. Sky didn't, instead comparing them with what the parties held under the old boundaries. So NuLab got a big boost in 'gains' from places like Durham according to the beeb when in actual fact the previous constituencies had been Lab since Keir Hardy was a lad.

[Surreptitious Evil]

I notice the number of councils are the same and the number of seats are very close - single figure differences.

bt's explanation makes sense - look at the results for Cheshire East and Cheshire West. All clearly recorded as gains.

But then you would expect the Tory gains to be higher as well? It is not as if you can have a loss for a new council (much as we may wish some parties to have fewer than zero elected representatives.) Very strange.

[Guthrum]

Good for Boris, I like him, he is educated and has a great sense of timing and humour. However the figures that really impressed me, were that 65% of the voting public did not vote. How can Cameron say getting 45% of 35% of the population is a positive vote for Conservatism. It is utter bilge. Humpries asked a spokesman on the BBC what was the turnout ? He was just ignored. I suspect Labour voters largely did not vote out of digust for Brown, and the others abstained because they are of the'none of the above'variety.

This is such a sham, Local Authorities have no power, they just get handouts and brickbats from Whitehall. It really does not matter that much in terms of democracy.

The Lib Dems have just lost their PPC for Crewe & Nantwich, because the centralising centre of the Labour Lite want a photogenic woman, not a middle aged male.

This is all just window dressing for a political elite to claim a spurious legitimacy.

[Kinderling]

Boris, the buffoon, he is prey to any female spirit in sheep's clothing. Hence his adultery. Islam (scared of females) and Socialism (scary females who know Islam is weak before the female form) will ensnare him. Ken Livingstone thought he could play the game of them off against each other and hold them at bay so he could do what he wanted to do. Boris has no idea.

[jameshigham]

Think we know the answer to that, Tom.