Sheffield local elections – the perverse beauty contests where losing can be brutal

Whatever your political persuasion, people brave enough to stand in general and local elections deserve some recognition.

After weeks of campaigning, tired and anxious candidates are herded into vast halls with artificial lights, sometimes for counts taking place during the middle of the night.

They’re invited to walk around, checking votes and crunching numbers as there’s a dawning realisation they haven’t won. But they’re expected to keep a stiff upper lip until the results are announced.

Ahh the results, which can quite frankly be a public humiliation. Counts are like a perverse beauty contest.

Candidates are called on to a stage, in front of colleagues, opponents, council chiefs and the media where it’s then announced not only that they have lost, but also precisely how badly they lost.

At this point, there will probably be cheers from their opponents and candidates may well have to do a congratulatory handshake through gritted teeth in front of the cameras.

The loser – as this is now their new title – then has to listen as their successful rival makes a speech and puts the boot in.

Imagine this happening in any other workplace? Elections do need to be transparent but it’s a very public kick in the teeth.

If you’re a sitting councillor and you lose, that’s it, you’re out. There’s no redundancy talks, no union negotiations, no severance pay. It’s the equivalent of being sacked for gross misconduct.

A sitting councillor will lose their £12,678 allowance, even more if they’ve been a Cabinet member, and that can be a really hard and quite sudden financial hit.

The Welsh Local Government Association recently said councillors should get redundancy pay because it would increase diversity and allow more people to take the financial risk of being a councillor.

Don’t be put off standing for election though. Councils always need good people and if you can survive a count, you can survive anything.