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A dizzying range of joke candidates left voters so baffled a record number of ballots were rejected in this month s London mayoral election.
Around 114,000 ballots were spoilt after the first round of voting because the 20 candidates packed onto a sheet of A4 paper confused voters into either accidentally ticking the first-choice column twice or choosing too many contenders.
Labour candidate Sadiq Khan went on to secure victory in the May 6 election and has been awarded a second term as Mayor of London with 1,013,721 first-choice votes.
But with the four rows of candidates featuring mainly jokesters, public opinion may have become disenfranchised , according to one politics expert.
DOUGLAS Ross has admitted there have been troubles and difficulties in No 10 s Union Unit after two key advisers quit in a fortnight. Oliver Lewis, a veteran of the Vote Leave Brexit campaign, left on Friday and is reported to have said his position was made “untenable” by others within Number 10. He had replaced former Scottish MP Luke Graham as head of the unit earlier in February, who lasted less than a year in the job. Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, was asked on an Institute for Government livestream if the UK Government has a strategy to save the Union.
No Welsh government has faced a challenge like Covid-19, which has highlighted the realities – and limitations – of devolution, writes Marialuisa Taddia. If the crisis does pave the way for further governance reforms, will Cardiff finally take control of justice and policing?
The low down
Covid-19 and Brexit have pushed the UK’s devolved governments further into the spotlight. That has created new tensions between Cardiff and London, while familiarising millions in England with the name of Wales’ first minister. Many in Wales hope the crisis will act as a spur to further divergence and decentralisation – with the next parliamentary term in Wales seen as a pivotal period for the devolution project. This is notably true in the spheres of justice and policing. The radical report of the Commission on Justice in Wales in 2019 was a landmark development, but there are ‘many, many barriers’ still to overcome if its 78 recommendations are to be realised.