Can you spot the person and party in this local newspaper report who:
(a) Slipped back to fourth place for the first time
(b) Saw their vote fall
(c) But say they are “pleased” with the result? and hope to “ride the momentum” into next year’s local elections [Updated: as highlighted by a comment below, the newspaper's use of paragraph breaks looks to have presented the last part of the quote from someone else as if it were the start of Richard Merrin's comments.]
(Here’s a clue: his name is Richard Merrin; his political party is the Conservatives.)
And for a final bit of fun, here’s what Richard Merrin said during the election campaign itself: “Do the Lib Dems really think the Euro election in Hornsey is a fight between them and Lab – the electorate don’t given our support”.
Yup, I plead guilty to being a Lib Dem who thinks that; see (a) and (b) above re. what “our support” really amounted to.
8 Comments
you worried?
Wonderful. This put a smile on my face.
I enjoyed all the Lib Dem spinning in Devon…….
Particularly when all the Executive members lost their seats.
But Julian Brazil being done for ‘bullying’ just as Anthony Steen is on the ropes has to take the cake.
Lib Dem PPC for Central Devon Sally Morgan losing her seat was also pretty cool – and seals her fate?
Not so much to snigger about down ‘ere, mark m’dear!
Old hack sounds like the spinster aunt who had her first whiff of coke.
Sorry to disappoint you, Mark, but I think you’ll find it was the Green party agent who said the bit about “ride the momentum into the local elections next year”.
It’s forty-odd years since I had the relevant English lesson at school. But I seem to remember that if you open inverted commas and then start a new paragraph, you end the first paragraph with no inverted comma (just a full stop) and then start the next paragraph with an inverted comma to denote the continuation of the quotation.
What is confusing in this instance is that, really and truly, for clarity, the newspaper should have started a new paragraph at the end of the Green agent’s quote and before mentioning the Conservative candidate.
“Green Party election agent Mike Shaughnessy said: “The results aren’t all in yet but we think Haringey will be the third best vote for Greens in Greater London.
“We are very happy with it and hope to ride the momentum into the local elections next year.” Richard Merrin, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green, said he was “pleased” with his party’s result but admitted: “We have got a lot of work to do.”
He added: “This was a very disappointing night for the Lib-Dems….”
Labour’s councillor Claire Kober, leader of Haringey Council, said: “I want to thank the people of Haringey who have once again put their trust in Labour.
“The Lib-Dems made this election about Lynne Featherstone and the local council – and given the picture nationally this is a dreadful result for them.”
Er, what planet does Ms Kober live on? In what way is almost beating Labour “a dreadful result” compared with a national picture of the Lib Dems…almost beating Labour?
@Paul: I think you’re right about the quotation marks.
Paul: fair point. It’s more likely that the paragraph break is wrong than the other piece of punctuation. I’ve updated the post to reflect that.