Tag Archives: ealing southall by-election

New Statesman Talks Up Ming Assassins

By Richard Huzzey | Published 17th August 2007 - 5:26 am

The New Statesman this week carries an editorial by the Labour-supporting Mirror’s Rosa Prince, attacking Ming. Her analysis – tarring Ming with failure alongside David Cameron’s – is less remarkable than the gossip she offers on the higher eschelons of the party:

Many had hoped last month’s Ealing Southall by-election would provide the magic bullet [to justify dropping Ming]… One prominent Lib Dem MP, returning from campaigning in Ealing, arrived at an eve-of-poll summer party thrown by a leading party member exclaiming: “F*** – it looks like we might win this thing now.” He was consoled by several frontbenchers,

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Posted in Op-eds, Parliamentary by-elections | 12 Comments

What the media says

By Will Howells | Published 21st July 2007 - 1:52 pm

Two good results for the Lib Dems on Thursday with swings against Labour and two embarrassing third places for David Cameron’s Conservatives. That’s our line – but what does the press think? Here’s a handy guide…

Daily Express, Saturday 21st
“Leading Britain is a grown-up job for a serious politician. Voters have had quite enough of windmills, bicycles, sledges and huskies. They do not care for the dilettante Notting Hill Set which surrounds Mr Cameron. Part-time spokesmen who prefer to make money moonlighting rather than mastering their briefs should be swept away.”

Simon Heffer, The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 21st
“Frankly, if you can’t even come second in by-elections halfway through the third term of another party’s time in power, things aren’t just wrong. They are catastrophically wrong. The worst mistake Dave can make now, though, is to imagine they can’t get worse. They can. They can get a lot worse.”

Tania Branigan, The Guardian, Saturday 21st
“The third-place finish is a personal blow to David Cameron, who toured the west London constituency five times with political newcomer Tony Lit. The Liberal Democrats also squeezed the Conservatives into third place in Sedgefield.”

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged ming campbell, sedgefield by-election | 19 Comments

Chris Rennard’s verdict

By Stephen Tall | Published 20th July 2007 - 3:24 pm

Commenting on Lib Dem Voice, Lib Dem chief executive and by-election supremo Lord Chris Rennard has posted the following assessment of how the party fared in the Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections:

In Ealing Southall, our campaigns teams’ assesment of the state of play over the final weekend was not very far off the result. Of course, we hoped and thought that we could get even closer by polling day.

We published that assessment (inc on Lib Dem Voice). Our figures were Lab 37, LD 31, Con 22. The final result was Lab 41, LD 28

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Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard | 13 Comments

The morning after the night before

By Stephen Tall | Published 20th July 2007 - 2:13 pm

What to make of last night’s by-elections?

Well, for the Labour Party there is evident relief that they have held on to both Ealing Southall and Sedgefield, albeit with considerably reduced majorities, and swings to the Liberal Democrats of 6% and 11% respectively.

There is probably a nagging sense of disappointment among Lib Dems that our achievements were not more spectacular – but that is at least as much due to the very high expectations we set ourselves. No, neither Ealing Southall nor Sedgefield rank will alongside either Brent East or Dunfermline. But the circumstances were quite different, not least because …

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged ConservativeHome, ming campbell | 7 Comments

Ealing Southall result: 6% swing from Labour to Lib Dem

By Stephen Tall | Published 20th July 2007 - 2:36 am

Results just in:

Labour Party: 15,188 (41%) -8% compared to 2005
Nigel Bakhai, Liberal Democrats: 10,118 (28%) +4%
David Cameron’s Conservatives: 8,230 (23%)

Huge congratulations to Nigel Bakhai, the Ealing Southall Lib Dems, and all those who helped the campaign, on achieving a 6% swing from Labour, and keeping David Cameron’s Tories firmly back in third place.

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | 50 Comments

Grant Shapps in irony-is-dead shocker

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th July 2007 - 8:41 am

Grant Shapps MP, the Tory by-election campaign manager in Ealing Southall, gained some level of infamy last week when he was caught red-handed pretending to be a Lib Dem member posting comments to YouTube.

Mr Shapps’ weak excuse – that his account password was set to ‘1234’, and hacked by opposition parties – was widely derided.

So it comes as some surprise to see this story in today’s Times:

The Conservatives claimed to have identified a woman who confronted Mr Cameron during a walkabout in the constituency as a Labour supporter involved in the party’s campaign. …

Referring to Mr Cameron’s

…

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged grant shapps | 6 Comments

Police investigation into Ealing Southall postal votes ‘leak’

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th July 2007 - 12:04 am

As if the Ealing Southall by-election needed another twist… news has broken tonight that police will be mounting an investigation following the leaking of alleged postal vote scores via the Telegraph’s Little and Large blog, authored by Daily Telegraph journalists Brendan Carlin and Jonathan Isaby.

As any fule kno, it’s a criminal offence to disclose the results of postal vote counts before polls close. The complaint to the police has come from Labour’s election agent, Ken Clarke (no, not him, a different one).

It is of course a complete mystery which party might have chosen to leak figures …

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | 6 Comments

Conservative poster campaign in Ealing

By Mark Pack | Published 17th July 2007 - 9:32 pm

Oh dear. Oh deary me. I think you can guess what’s coming… so without further ado, here’s the evidence.

Photograph A: illegally flyposted Conservative election posters.

Conservative flyposting in Ealing Southall

Photograph B: illegally flyposted Conservative election posters removed by Ealing Council (insert outrage at hard-pressed local Council Tax payers having to fund the tidying up etc etc).

Conservative flyposting in Ealing Southall - removal

Photograph C and D: the people who erected the Conservative posters. (Doubtless they weren’t acting on behalf of Grant Shapps, but instead the number keypad code on the Conservative poster …

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

Lib Dems leading the way on Facebook

By Mark Pack | Published 17th July 2007 - 5:01 pm

In a quiet moment in Ealing (no sniggering at the back), I thought it would be interesting to see how much the various parties are using social networking site to support their efforts in the two parliamentary by-elections – and whether my sneaking suspicion that the Liberal Democrats are making the best use of it are true. It’s possible that the other parties have secret groups we don’t know about, but based on what we cansee, here are the stats* – represented for your viewing pleasure in traditional bar chart form, with exciting added 3-D perspective:

Posted in Online politics, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged facebook, sedgefield by-election | 5 Comments

Chris Rennard: a re-count in Ealing Southall, challengers to Labour in Sedgefield

By Stephen Tall | Published 17th July 2007 - 11:06 am

Lib Dem chief executive and by-election supremo, Lord Chris Rennard, has posted his thoughts on Lib Dem Voice on the current state of play for Thursday’s by-elections in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield:

By-elections can be fast moving in the last two days. I will not issue “final forecasts” here but have often been accurate to within a handful of votes in the past !

What I will say is that over the weekend I think that Ealing Southall was something like Labour 37, Lib Dem 31, Con 22. From this position Lib Dems can win but it should be close. I

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Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard | 2 Comments

Razzall and Littlewood on Ming’s future

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th July 2007 - 9:04 pm

The Guardian reports on today’s BBC World at One interviews with former Lib Dem campaign manager, Lord Tim Razzall, and former head of communications, Mark Littlewood, here. Both suggest Ming Campbell’s future would come under the spotlight if the party were to under-perform in the Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections this Thursday.

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged ed davey, mark littlewood, ming campbell, paul walter, sedgefield by-election | 6 Comments

Prediction competition: place your free bets here

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th July 2007 - 8:34 pm

What do you think will happen this Thursday, 19th July, in the crunch by-elections in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield?

Will Labour cling on in one, both or neither seats? And which of the two main opposition parties, the Lib Dems or the Tories, will fare best? The political blogosphere has been humming these past couple of weeks with pundits on all sides arguing the toss.

But now’s the moment to put your credibility on the line, online, and to say what you think will actually happen this Thursday. There are no prizes on offer – merely the respect and admiration of friend …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard | 16 Comments

Sky exclusive: Tony Lit, Tony Blair and the £50,000 cheque

By The Voice | Published 14th July 2007 - 9:01 pm

Sky is just about to break a story about Tony Lit being photographed giving a ~~£50,000~~ £4,800 cheque to Tony Blair at a Labour fundraiser. Let’s hope this story is more accurate than the PA’s poll reporting attempts earlier this evening…

UPDATE: The Telegraph has more about Tony Lit and the donation.

UPDATE 2: The party’s official reaction is up on the Ealing Southall by-election site.

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | 17 Comments

A Betting Tip?

By Richard Huzzey | Published 14th July 2007 - 2:34 pm

The recent Politicalbetting.com thread suggests good results for us in both by-elections. The regular punters spinning on that site say that Ealing Southall will be a close split between all three main parties. In Sedgefield, there’s speculation that some Labour voters may stay at home, giving Greg Stone a chance to win.

Am I the only one who thinks Labour are less certain to hold Sedgefield than the 1.03 odds currently on Betfair? For a liability of £5.16 I stand to take £172 if voters punish the Brown government and Labour’s thuggish attempts to distrupt democracy. You can …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged sedgefield by-election | 2 Comments

Conservative MP says: we’re not going to win in Ealing

By Mark Pack | Published 13th July 2007 - 1:11 am

A Conservative Shadow Cabinet member has today admitted that the Conservatives ‘do not think they will win’ the Ealing Southall by-election. As the party’s press release puts it:

A Conservative Shadow Cabinet member has today admitted that the Conservatives ‘do not think they will win’ the Ealing Southall by-election.

Local Liberal Democrat Nigel Bakhai who finished second at the last General Election is leading a strong campaign for the local area.

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged chris rennard | 18 Comments

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