Normally every year in May there's local elections somewhere in Britain, plus almost every Thursday by-elections to fill any local vacancies that have arrived (due to deaths, resignations etc). Unlike in the States over here all elections got cancelled early last year due to the Covid19 Pandemic with all elections previously scheduled, all by-elections etc all being rolled over until this May's elections meaning although the term isn't normally used in the UK we now have the largest ever recorded set of midterm elections all happening simultaneously. Local Council Elections, Mayoral elections across England, Parliamentary by-election in Hartlepool, Police and Crime Commissioners across England and the devolved Scottish and Welsh Parliamentary elections and probably more I've forgotten about.
Personally I get to vote for my local Council and Police and Crime Commissioner, I'll be voting Conservative in both but neither election is especially interesting, but some of the other elections are interesting.
In London the only question to answer is how big Mayor Sadiq Khan's re-election landslide is going to be by. No doubt the winner there. I'm not even hoping my own parties candidate wins this one, his campaign has been a joke and an embarrassment. Khan is not a good Mayor but he'll win and win big. I'm more hopeful that we might be competitive in some of the other elections, especially the West Midlands and Teesside Mayoral races which both unexpectedly went Tory first time. Teesside is normally rock solid Labour but then had some of the 'red wall' seats we gained at the last election so this will be an interesting one to see if that swing from Labour to Tory in the North of England continues.
Hartlepool is a fascinating by-election for Parliament, currently a Labour seat (it was Peter Mandelson's and one of the safest Labour seats in the entire country) but the Tories are pushing hard to do the almost impossible and win another seat in a by-election while in government - this has only happened 3 times since WWII so is almost unheard of and Hartlepool has been safe Labour for decades. I have a small charity bet with a Labour supporter, I expect Labour will hold it, he expects Labour will lose. If we can win this then we're in even better shape for the next election than I'd expect.
The most interesting election of all though is up in Scotland. The SNP pushing for a fourth consecutive term and a mandate for a second independence referendum - a referendum that the Westminster government has the power and desire to block but to do so if the SNP win a mandate will really mess things up. I do not like the SNP or Nicola Sturgeon (or Alex Salmond) at all, but I do want to see Scotland go independent as I think it will be the best thing for them, Blair's asymmetric devolution was a failure, so this is a difficult one for me.
For the Brits here (or anyone else interested) are there any particular elections you're interested in? Are you torn how to vote or not?