Tag Archives: crewe and nantwich by-election

Opinion: The devil is in the detail

By Martin Land | Published 1st July 2008 - 7:45 am

On the whole, Lib Dems can probably be broadly satisfied with our current performance. The latest poll I’ve seen (from ComRes in the Independent) puts us on 18% – so, despite a significant Tory revival, we have not been squeezed.

One might reasonably argue that we should have done better out of Labour’s current demise, but my suspicion is that things will tighten as the general election comes closer, and Nick Clegg – who impresses me more and more – gets the greater media attention he deserves.

But that’s a pretty passive approach. How could the party be more …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliamentary by-elections | 5 Comments

Opinion: Winning where?

By Kevin Stevenson | Published 29th May 2008 - 7:39 pm

For me, last week’s Crewe and Nantwich by-election was a disaster. Not a disaster for our candidate, Elizabeth Shenton – who achieved a good showing on difficult ground – but a disaster for the party’s integrity.

I speak of the Lib Dems’ ‘Winning Here’ spin. Whilst I realise that it was important for us to maintain our share of the vote, and for Nick Clegg and the party to get behind our candidate, saying that we are going to win the seat, when we were clearly never going to come close, smacks at best of a level of rose tinted unreality that makes us look like grinning fools, and at worst a total lack of respect for the voters’ intelligence.

Posted in Op-eds, Parliamentary by-elections | 25 Comments

What does Crewe mean for the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Published 23rd May 2008 - 10:44 am

You want my honest view? Not a whole lot.

But, first off, congratulations to the Tories, and their candidate Edward Timpson on a pretty stunning victory. An 18% swing from Labour is an impressive achievement by any measure. And it was good to see a relatively high turnout of 58%, only 2% down on the general election. It’s clear that politics is once again seen as competitive, after almost a decade of Labour near-hegemony, and that can only be a good thing.

It probably seemed like smart politics to Labour to allow only the minimum amount of time to pass between …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliamentary by-elections | 32 Comments

Crewe and Nantwich result

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd May 2008 - 2:36 am

Conservative 20,539 (49.5%, +16.9%)
Labour 12,679 (30.6%, -18.2%)
Liberal Democrat 6,040 (14.6%, -4.0%)
UKIP 922 (2.2%)
Green 359 (0.9%)
English Democrats 275 (0.7%)
Monster Raving Loony Party 236 (0.6%)
Mark Walklake 217 (0.5%)
Cut Tax on Petrol and Diesel 118 (0.3%)
Gemma Garrett 113 (0.3%)

Conservative majority 7,860 (18.9%)

17.6% swing Labour to Conservative
7.1% swing Labour to Liberal Democrats

UPDATE: You can watch Elizabeth’s thank you message in the video box on the right.

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 43 Comments

Crewe & Nantwich: what the result is looking like

By The Voice | Published 23rd May 2008 - 12:08 am

The Voice’s Lib Dem sources are saying it is likely to be Conservative 45-50% range, Labour 25-30% and Liberal Democrats 15-20% range, which is in line with what’s been said elsewhere. Big Conservative win, massive drop in the Labour vote, Liberal Democrat vote little changed from the general election.

First verdicts: good news for the Conservatives, bad news for Labour as the defeat will be at the grimmest end of their predictions, and relief for Liberal Democrats that the London elections style two-party squeeze has been avoided.

UPDATE: We hear party is expecting about an 8% swing from Labour to Liberal Democrats. …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 14 Comments

Crewe and Nantwich by-election: open (speculation) thread

By Stephen Tall | Published 22nd May 2008 - 5:59 pm

There are just four hours til polls close in today’s by-election to decide who will succeed the formidable Gwyneth Dunwoody as MP for Crewe and Nantwich.

Everyone’s expecting a solid Conservative victory, which would be their first by-election triumph against the incumbent party since 1982. The key question seems to be: how big will be their majority? (Though, as this will largely be a factor of turn-out, the percentage swing away from Labour is the figure to look out for. An 8% swing is all that’s needed to change Crewe from red to blue).

Here’s what happened the last time the …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard | 27 Comments

Conservatives face legal investigation over by-election campaign

By Mark Pack | Published 21st May 2008 - 10:46 pm

Oops indeed as the BBC reports:

The Information Commissioner is launching an investigation after the Conservatives accidentally sent details of 8,000 people to a radio station.

The e-mail sent contained the names, addresses, telephone numbers and intentions of voters in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith said the disclosure, to Manx Radio, raised “serious concern”.

The Conservatives admitted a “mistake” had been made.

The information, which had been gathered by the Tories during the campaign for Thursday’s by-election, was contained in three Excel files, and was sent in an e-mail to Manx Radio by accident,

…

Posted in Opposition watch, Parliamentary by-elections | 8 Comments

Simon Hughes in Crewe and Nantwich

By Mark Pack | Published 20th May 2008 - 5:42 pm

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged simon hughes | Leave a comment

First tea for two winners

By The Voice | Published 19th May 2008 - 1:02 pm

The Sunday Telegraph‘s Mandrake diary yesterday reported the party’s Tea for Two competition for helpers signing in at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election HQ over the next few days.

The party will get in touch with the winners once they’ve all been drawn but we can exclusively reveal the two winners randomly selected so far: Alun Griffiths from Bradford won tea for two in London with Sarah Teather, and local member Ken Veitch from Nantwich won tea with Simon Hughes.

Go and help this week and you could win tea with Chris Huhne, Lord Rennard, Vince Cable or Nick Clegg …

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard, simon hughes | 3 Comments

Would it be better for Labour to win or lose in Crewe & Nantwich?

By Mark Pack | Published 17th May 2008 - 1:38 pm

Paul Linford has drawn an interesting parallel* with the Darlington by-election from the early 1980s which, against the odds, Labour held – so saving Michael Foot’s leadership of the Labour Party.

A defeat in Darlington would have quite possibly led to a change in Labour leader, and so at the very least a less disastrous 1983 general election.

So if you were a Labour supporter in Crewe & Nantwich, would you want to vote for Labour and risk prolonging Gordon Brown’s agony? Or vote for someone else in the hope of ending Gordon Brown’s premiership and getting a new Prime Minister …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 1 Comment

A new way to decide who to vote for

By Mark Pack | Published 15th May 2008 - 4:40 pm

The folks from www.publicwhip.org.uk have just released a vote-match style website for the Crewe & Nantwich Parliamentary by-election. It serves up a number of different policy questions, and then tells you which party is the best fit for your answers.

As their news release says:

While activists are descending from all corners of the country to Crewe & Nantwich to help with their party’s by-election campaigns, volunteers from the Public Whip today launched an online questionnaire to help people make up their minds about who to vote for. The webpage http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/byelection compares people’s opinions to the way each party has voted in

…

Posted in News, Online politics, Parliamentary by-elections | 14 Comments

Conservative by-election campaign runs into a spot of legal bother

By Mark Pack | Published 15th May 2008 - 8:14 am

Ah happy memories. Remember the glories of last summer and the Ealing Southall by-election when the Conservatives sanctimoniously threatened the Liberal Democrats with legal action over use of an image in a leaflet, saying that this was an outrageous breach of the law, would result in a huge financial penalty, the end of the world etc etc – all at the same time as putting out a leaflet themselves that, er…, did exactly what they were complaining of others doing?

You might have thought being caught out saying one thing whilst doing another would have resulted in a slight pause for caution …

Posted in Opposition watch, Parliamentary by-elections | 7 Comments

Conservative MP uses Parliamentary expenses to promote by-election candidate

By Mark Pack | Published 13th May 2008 - 4:12 pm

UPDATE September 2008: the story below accurately reported that Stephen O’Brien’s website stated it was paid for by Parliamentary funds. It’s since been pointed out that at the time the website was in fact no longer being paid for by Parliamentary funds and the statement to the contrary has been removed from his site.

Trouble brewing for Conservative MP Stephen O’Brien, who has been promoting Edward Timpson – Conservative candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election – on his website. The problem? The website is paid for by the Parliamentary funds. And that’d be funds for which the rules expressly …

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Parliamentary by-elections | 6 Comments

Labour election leaflet unveils anti-foreigner shift in ID cards policy

By Mark Pack | Published 13th May 2008 - 12:07 am

As I blogged about a few days ago, the Labour Party in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is attacking the Conservative candidate for opposing “making foreign nationals carry an ID card”. As I said then,

The use of the word “foreign” there seems to come with some rather unpleasant overtones in this context, the implication being that ‘ooh, foreigners – they’re terribly nasty aren’t they – so surely you can’t be against keeping tabs on them now, can you?’

But – as Alex has reminded me – there’s more to this than that. Because, you see, making foreign nationals carry an …

Posted in Opposition watch, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged id cards | 9 Comments

Conservatives troubles in Crewe & Nantwich

By Mark Pack | Published 12th May 2008 - 7:55 am

It’s gone largely unremarked so far, but Mark Walklate, who is standing as an independent candidate in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election, is a former Conservative activist.

He stood for the Conservatives in both the 2006 and 2007 local elections. Moreover, his nomination papers look to have been signed by two prominent local Conservative activists. All in all, that doesn’t seem like a happy ship.

P.S. It’s always unfortunate if you get your own phone number wrong in your leaflets. It’s doubly so when the wrong phone number turns out to be for the member of another party. But it’s quite nice …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 5 Comments

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