A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Friday, December 02, 2011

Council by-elections

Two yesterday, shamefully neither with a Labour candidate (I've taken this up as an issue in my NEC capacity):

Rayleigh Central Ward, Rochford DC. Con hold. Con 406 (54.8%, +0.1), Eng Dem 218 (29.4%, +15), LD 117 (15.8%, -15.1). Swing of 7.5% from Con to Eng Dem since 2010.

Brent Division, Somerset CC. Con hold. Con 1285 (58%, -11.9), LD 932 (42%, +17.3). Swing of 14.6% from Con to LD since 2009.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sometimes Luke, no Labour candidate is better than a poor performance. I recall the Lib Dems making great play out of a paperless Labour candidate getting less than ten votes, yet it took ten signatures to nominate her.

10:00 am, December 02, 2011

 
Blogger Luke Akehurst said...

Morally though we should never put Labour voters in a position where they go to the polling station and have no one to vote for.

We got over 700 votes in the Somerset seat in 2005.

10:35 am, December 02, 2011

 
Anonymous Andrew Govier said...

Hands up! We should have had a candidate in the Somerset election and will make sure we do in the future. It was an oversight rather than a conscious decision not to field a candidate. We agreed last weekend that we will fight every seat in 2013.

12:54 pm, December 02, 2011

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That good showing for the English Democrats is very bad news.
In the past, we could have simply regarded them as an eccentric, reactionary party. However, in recent years they have welcomed people who were recent prominent members of the BNP into their ranks.

Anti-nazi campaigners need to take on the English Democrats and make sure that they get nowhere.

1:32 pm, December 02, 2011

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some interesting results of polling of Conservative members being shown on Conservative Home Web-Site tonight:

Will deficit be under control by the end of this parliament?
Yes 29% - NO 58% - DON’T KNOW 13%

Will immigration be cut to tens of thousands by the end of this parliament?
Yes 15% - NO 74% - DON’T KNOW 1%

Will Britain repatriate significant powers from Europe by the end of this parliament?
Yes 21% - NO 64% - DON’T KNOW 15%

Will Cameron be in an election winning position by the end of this parliament?
Yes 33% - NO 30% - DON’T KNOW 37%

Not a lot of confidence in Cameron/Osborne’s ability to deliver in these numbers is there?

9:23 pm, December 02, 2011

 
Blogger Rev Graeme Hancocks said...

Labour should be standing in every election, so that Labour supporters and those inclined to vote left of centre have a chance to vote.

I live in a ward with a massive tory majority and no hope of Labour winning (70% tory vote) but would be appalled if I were faced with voting libdem (which would never do now) or not voting. What sort of choice is that?

Rev Graeme Hancocks
Nr Bingley

10:42 pm, December 02, 2011

 
Blogger Rev Graeme Hancocks said...

I live in a ward with a massive (70%) tory vote and no hope of Labour winning. I would be appalled if presented with choice of voting Libdem - which would never do now - or not voting. Labour should be standing in every election.

10:43 pm, December 02, 2011

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To the thread starter:

IIRC that has happened once in recent memory, in deepest darkest Surrey circa 2006/7.

Not really an excuse for leaving seats uncontested, in the main.

12:30 am, December 03, 2011

 

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