Labour increase majority in Barnsley as Lib Dems lose deposit.

[not wanted]

There is a Council by-election coming up next week in Burnley which should give a clear indication of how the Lib Dems are going to get on in the upcoming local elections.

The previous results for this ward are:-

Burnley BC Rose Grove/Lowerhouse ward LD seat Candidates LD/Lab/BNP/Con/Ind

 

2006 result LD 609 BNP 555 Lab 549 Con 121

2007 result Lab 489 BNP 489 LD 452 Con 164

2008 result LD 637 BNP 491 Lab 293 Con 164

2009 B/E result LD 645 BNP 400 Lab 304 Con 215 ( LD hold )

2010 result LD 926 Lab 869 BNP 509 Con 469

[Tony]

Why not? When you don't bother it can be clearly very damaging to your party.

 

It's a serious question that you can't simply dismiss. If the parties didn't take it especially seriously in the current climate why would their voters bother to?

 

I wouldn't. They aren't my party.

[I1L2T3]

It's a serious question that you can't simply dismiss. If the parties didn't take it especially seriously in the current climate why would their voters bother to?

 

Because we live in a democracy and compulsion to vote shouldn't be driven by how hard parties campaign, especially so amongst hardcore party supporters and activists

[Bigthumb]

Because we live in a democracy and compulsion to vote shouldn't be driven by how hard parties campaign, especially so amongst hardcore party supporters and activists

 

In that case why did Milliband bother turning up?

[I1L2T3]

In that case why did Milliband bother turning up?

 

To support the hard work of activists, campaigners and the candidate. My key point however was that the hardcore vote should be mobilised anyway whether or not the party leaders visit. It seems there is little hardcore LibDem support in Barnsley and I would expect that to become very clear in many, many other places across the country.

[harvey19]

I would have expected an ex army major to be more aligned to the Conservative party than Labour. After all isn't he part of the ruling class ?

[andyofborg]

Then again when the party leader prefers to stay at his £1.5m London home or ski abroad than making a 15 mile trip from his home constituency maybe people think well if he can't be bothered then.....

 

 

given that he has achieved the same unpopularity in a few months that thatcher, blair and brown took years to develop maybe the campaign managers thought it was better that he didn't come

[I1L2T3]

given that he has achieved the same unpopularity in a few months that thatcher, blair and brown took years to develop maybe the campaign managers thought it was better that he didn't come

 

That's a bit of a problem isn't it

[andyofborg]

That's a bit of a problem isn't it

 

it certainly is for him

[evildrneil]

the big two parties have never been a refuge for protest votes. i really can't imagine anything making a dyed in the wool conservative vote labour.

 

Would a "dyed in the wool" anything vote for anyone other than the party in their wool?

 

Look at the percentages it is a massive swing to Labour' looking at actual numbers is pointless since turnouts vary for different types of election and the time of year,weather etc. It's the percentage of votes cast which counts.

 

Looking at the actual numbers can be very important if you are asking questions about those particular numbers. In this case a few months ago N people turned out to vote for a crook who was supporting the tail end of a deeply unpopular government that was doing it's best to bankrupt the country. A few days ago N - several thousand people turned out to vote for an apparently upright citizen in a case where the new government is getting a lot of flack for it's moves to dig the country out of it's financial hole. The question is why - are they only interested in voting Labour when they are in government? do they realise that they need someone to dig them out of the financial hole that labour kept on digging? are they just sick of the whole political movement?