I suspect the long commute to Inverness and back makes people more likely to resign mid term. It must get really exhausting for some of the councillors further out and impossible to sustain if other life demands end up changing. Really daft that such a huge area is one council.

I do think its contrarianism - a lot of people like to feel clever by discounting the "conventional" narrative of history and imposing their own. Indeed there seem to be plenty of examples of medieval figures being first seen as negative, then re-evaluated as positive, then seen negatively again.

It feels like their rush to provide a 2PP result in every seat slows down the actual result massively. Plus I find it really weird that the deadline for postal votes isn't stricter, surely it shouldn't take that long for post to arrive if it was sent on/before polling day?

Although Kemi Badenoch would almost certainly lose her seat if an election was held on current polling.

Because other parties often can't find candidates or don't look beyond the mistaken assumption that its a "Labour area".

Single transferable vote is the best form of proportional imo, it does allow people to choose who they prefer from each party and not be forced to just back a list.

My general experience with LD-Green electoral pacts is that they haven't provided much benefit for either party as voters want choices, in most cases its just better for them to reach an informal understanding where one party prioritises one constituency and another party prioritises another.

The Labour councillors in Ystradgynlais get elected unopposed most years so its not likely Labour support there is solid as they never campaign. Last time I campaigned there for the Lib Dems (2019 B&R by-election) the Labour vote collapsed and we received something like 70% of the vote.

Its inside the constituency of Brecon, Radnor and Cwn Tawe which is a Lib Dem constituency. It is not part of the Neath constituency.

Its inside a Lib Dem constituency and Reform seems to struggle when the Lib Dems campaign actively.

I've yet to observe this in the field but I can somewhat believe it. Generally though when opposition parties start imitating Lib Dems they often employ "magical thinking" - copying what Lib Dems do but not grasping why its done, and often misapplying tactics. Tory blue letters were often like that.

Unlike UKIP, it feels like Reform generally does not take from Lib Dem vote share, which is interesting. It might be because turnout is lower in a by-election and protest voters across the board tend to stay at home. If Reform halves the Tory vote everywhere it will be deadly for Tory councillors.