A couple of good by-election results yesterday which have lifted morale in Sussex and Yorkshire.In Barnsley I don’t think it was a great surprise that we won, but the scale was impressive, and it was a knock-back for the BNP. The previous result had the BNP in 2nd place by 330 votes on 30%, but this time the margin was nearly 1000. The turnout was about 500 higher but the BNP’s vote was down 45 and down to 23%.
The Tory vote went down from 200 to 89
Closer to home, Geraint Thomas won in Northgate, Crawley by 81 votes. This is a seat that has been held by the Lib Dems on the borough council since long before I moved to Crawley: over 20 years I think. This time they came in third.
This must be the first seat Labour have gained in Crawley for at least eight years. The last time was when a seat in Southgate was won by a Tory who then didn’t turn up to meetings and Labour won it back in a by-election. Since then we have lost plenty of seats and held on to some, but actually gaining a new one is a bit of a novelty.
The turnout was over 30% which is not bad for Crawley. We have had turnouts dangerously close to single figures in some places here in the past.
That is not to say this is necessarily an indication that all the opinion polls are wrong – Crawley has a bit of a record of going against prevailing trends nationally I think – but it is a welcome morale-booster nonetheless.
A lot of this is down to the qualities of the candidate. He stood in the same place during the county elections in June so had done a lot of work there already and then really took advantage of that head start. He led by example and so was able to attract a lot of colleagues to help him. I suspect he will be a very effective councillor.
Both results show that there is still a Labour vote out there if we take the time and energy to chase it.
Congratulations to Geraint.
So what was the ‘controversy’ about then? Was it anything to do with the editing errors that Duncan Crow seemed to think were vital to the campaign?
No. Only the mildly controversial fact of plastering “the only local candidate” all over leaflets for somebody who no more lives in Northgate than any other candidate.
BTW the Justice Party got 13 votes. Is it time for him to give up?
Tory in “telling obvious lies” shock. They were at all week of their conference.
I mean, what is the pathology behind that? They are popular, they would probably win an election called today, and yet they can’t help resorting to making stuff up. Stuff that can easily be checked.
I wonder how many votes they lost when voters read the ballot form?
You say that, and I thought that, but then I figured that people make their mind up before going to the polling station and when they get there they may have forgotten all the reasons for their decision.
Surely nobody makes their mind up on a single factor, and such a trivial one at that?
Maybe not, but if I was wavering and had been convinced that at least the best idea was to vote for the ‘local’ candidate, and found that on checking, they were from another ward, I’d be inclined not to believe anything they say.
If I didn’t know until I checked the ballot paper, I’d vote for whoever appeared to be their biggest rivals.
I’d like to hope that people do decide how to vote for on more substantive issues and are not swayed by ephemera, but in reality, quite a few people don’t make up their mind until they are in the booth.