23/05/2014 BBC Points West

The results of the local eldctions from us. Now

The results of the local eldctions have delivered plenty of surprises.

The votes were counted overnight and today. In places, the two coalition

parties bucked the national trend by winning seats. But elsewherd the

Liberal Democrats lost out `nd smaller parties made gains. Here's

our political editor Paul B`rltrop. When you've been in governmdnt four

years you don't expect this. In Swindon the Conservatives increased

their small majority, boosthng the survival chances of the town's two

Tory MPs. UKIP won lots of votes, though no seats. Inverleith both.

I've been coming here 14 ye`rs and this is the best night we'vd had.

We've racked up record wins and gained seat from Labour. We won by

over 300 votes. UKIP won lots of votes so no seats. Labour wdre

stunned to go backwards. It was generally a plague on all

your houses. We had policies on green waste and they went down well

with voters but the mood of the nation is one of dissatisfaction

with politics. For the other coalition party, Cheltenham was the

saving grace. The Liberal Ddmocrats strengthened their grip on the

Council. What happened here illustrates how

complex the local elections were. No doubt who the losers were. @s for

the winners, labour, the Grdens and the Conservatives all meet games

while the UKIP is picked up their first seat. Bristol saw the West's

biggest changes and bitterest exchanges. The city's polithcs is

now more polarised. I'm proud to be representing the

ward that so overwhelmingly rejected the politics of race is man Tom

phobia and embraced instead a candidate who gave a dam about them.

We are taking seats all across the country this evening and we've put

up with a lot of bad press... We didn't actually tell a lot of lies

and produce leaflets but thdre we go. UKIP is here to stay.

Celebrating over tea and cakes this afternoon, Bristol's Greens. They

got more votes and seats th`n ever. People are voting Green bec`use they

look at our policies and sed we ve got good ideas about how politics

should go. We want to changd politics and talk about the real

long`term issues. We need to look at our economy and manage its

differently for the future. No councils changed hands.

In Gloucester the Tories held their own, while in Stroud Labour advanced

a little. All parties are now trying to work out what it means for next

year's general election. There's more anlysis on the BBC s

Website and we'll have more of course on the Sunday Politics at

11.00am. Authorities both sides of the

Atlantic say they will stop searching for the four yachtsmen

missing in the Atlantic this weekend. A US helicopter fotnd the

hell of the boat when thous`nd miles off the coast of Massachusetts.

There is still no sign of the men. The Foreign Office says the US Coast

Guard intends to call off its search tomorrow morning.

Swindon's troubled car factory lost another 450 workers today. Honda is

struggling to sell its cars in Europe and has made big cuts. One

production line has been mothballed and the total workforce has fallen

from 5,000 before the recession to just 3,000 today. To help pdople

find new work, a special jobs fair was held this morning, and our

business correspondent Dave Harvey went along.

This is a jobs fair with a difference. You have to havd been

laid off by Honda to qualifx this morning and look at the crowds here.

456 people do qualify. That's how many people have left the Swindon

car plant today. There are 07 companies here recruiting. The Army

is recruiting engineers. Evdn Honda is recruiting for one of its own

subsidiary firms. People who work for Honda are always

seen as a premium and that hs because Honda have exceptionally

high standards in terms of employability, work ethic,

punctuality. Plenty of positivity here btt there

were fewer volunteers this time around, in fact some 100 people have

left jobs at Honda against their wishes. The unions tell me that

number could have been reduced. More people could have been kept on but

Honda decided instead to go with contractors rather than its own

staff. Honda are keeping those contract

workers primarily because they pay them ?4 an hour less than Honda

workers and consequently, wd have seen almost 100 Honda workers being

forced out of their job and contract workers staying in jobs that

previously Honda workers were doing. The company wouldn't talk today

insisting in a written statdment they must remain flexible. They are

doing all they can to safegtard jobs at the plant. But while production

slows down here, other car firms are going flat out.

It is very popular. Hyundais, all their factories are at maxilum

output so we can't get hold of some of the cars. Honda was alwaxs in the

middle of the range and BMW and Audi have bought some of their products

down, and price realigned which is nipping at the top end of Honda and

the likes of Hyundai and Suzuki are nipping away at the bottom dnd so

their main products are getting squeezed in the middle.

Will this be the last jobs fair for workers leaving Honda? That depends

on the designers and marketders in Japan, not the Swindonians who make

the cars. ? The new Southmead Hospital in

Bristol has been forced to postpone 180 operations because some of the

operating theatres aren't rdady Services have been transferred from

Frenchay but there's a problem with the airflow in some areas of the new

site. Rugby and Bath have mist out on the

European challenge cup losing to Northampton tonight. They ldt the

game at half`time but mistakes in the second half cost them ddarly.

Tickets for the final were like gold dust, just 1000 made available to

Bath despite the stadium holding 12,000 times that.

A bit of a shame. Very important for the club. Got to win somethhng this

season. It's amazing to be here. Very

excited and very nervous. It promised to be a thriller,

Bath's last chance of a trophy. After two penalties apiece, the

breakthrough moment. A breakaway try by Bath's Anthony Watson and when he

gets clear, no one catches him. The lead should have been greatdr but

they usually deadly George Ford mist not once, but three times. Gasps of

disbelief. No such charity from Northampton. Stephen Myler kicked

them and friends but when the Saints rumbled over for a try, Bath's

chance had gone. After misshng out on the premiership play`offs on the

last day, this defeat will hurt despite a fine season, they have no

trophy to show for it. That's it from us. We are b`ck

throughout the weekend. Good evening. A lot of showers around

through Saturday. Simmer will be showery. There will be gradtally an

improvement through Sunday with less showers and by Mendes, many of our

districts are seeing dry we`ther with an isolated shower. Tonight 's

temperatures getting down to eight ` 10 Celsius with showers frol the

East as we have through the night and by tomorrow morning, sole of

those will be in abundance towards the east. That will set the tone

frequent showers and some dry frequent showers and some dry

interludes but generally a lot of cloud. Difficult to pin down where

the showers will be and the timing of those that may be fading away

through the evening. Temper`tures tomorrow will struggle under those

conditions to about 14`15dC. Sunday, and improving pitches with lany

areas try and sunny but somd heavy showers about. On Monday, fdel

showers. you over to Peter Gibson and

National forecast. The bank holiday weekend weather is

not looking user-friendly although most places should get one decent

day out of the three and some places will get two. We have low pressure,

and there will be showers around over the next couple of days

particularly. Sunshine breaking through now and again. It will pick

up temperatures. Tonight we have rain. We have had thunderstorms in

northern England. They are moving into Northern Ireland. A lot of dry

weather will stop misty in the north-east. On Saturday, there is a

mass of cloud and rain running around the low pressure. There will

be heavy rain. It will make slow progress northwards.