Barnsley Liberal Democrats today selected Dominic Carman as their candidate for the March 3 Barnsley Central Parliamentary by-election, at a hustings in the constituency.
Carman, son of the late George Carman QC, and biographer of BNP leader Nick Griffin, previously stood for the Lib Dems in Barking, East London at the 2010 General Election.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of the constituency’s MP, Eric Illsley, who has now been jailed for 12 months for fraudulently claiming more than £14,000 in Parliamentary expenses.
Commenting, Dominic Carman said:
I am honoured to be selected to fight this election for the Liberal Democrats.
I want to be an ambitious ambassador for Barnsley. If elected, you won’t find me with my feet up in Westminster, I’ll be out there fighting to bring jobs to the area.
Labour take places like Barnsley for granted, and parties like the BNP would only make things worse. I’ve spent the last seven years fighting the BNP and I will fight just as hard for the people of Barnsley.
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22 Comments
Well, unless a miracle occurs and even if all right wingers switch their vote to their new Lib Dem best friends Carman is highly unlikely to win. But maybe if the BNP voters switched [and surely even Clegg isn’t that desperate] and UKIP voted Calman he might have a sniff.
What Illsley did was a disgrace and he justly deserved his punishment.
But the people of Barnsley do not deserve the punishment that the Tory led coalition policies will wreak on them.
Oh Poppie’s Mum, are you ever off? You parrot the message so artfully you put most Labour MPs to shame. But of course you’re not tribal, you almost voted Lib Dem once…
I only joined the Labour party in the autumn because there is no alternative at a national level to fighting against policies that will affect lower paid and vulnerable people.
but it’s the Lib Dems who are raising thresholds for lower income people not Labour.
As for the rest of it – what are Labour’s PRECISE economic policies – not soundbites. Everyone knows they’d have to do something very similar.
John@
The income tax threshold will have little or no effect when other losses, VAT, tax credit, chid care costs etc. are taken into account.
Also why raise the threshold for those towards the cusp of the basic rate/40% tax threshold when help could be more effectively targeted at those at the lowest paid ? I believe that is something Ed Balls is reported to have pointed out to the Lib Dem negotiating team in those far off few days after May 6th.
If there is ‘no money left’ why spend millions [sorry not sure of total cost] on helping those earning above average wage up to £40,000 odd ?
I only joined the lib-dems after the general election, I was impressed with them putting my interests, and natiional interests above party interests and above anti-toryism.
you guys above, who seem to have prefered another election with either a Tory majority, or a Labour majority with Gordon Brown still as PM, do not offer me anything.
Anyway, heard Dominic speak today at the Hustings, he knows his stuff, I shall be out delivering leaflets a lot over the next few weeks,
(i am a barnsley lad btw if i didnt make that clear already)
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Are there no Lib Dem supporting ex International Cricketers available????
Unfortunately, I think he’s on to a loser. Despite the talk of a more robust approach to the coalition there have been few noticable changes from the Westminster party. The council leaders may have helped show there is a difference between Blue and Orange but too little too late me thinks…
@ Steve, I wanted to contact Brian Blessed to be the candidate for us 🙂 no idea what his politics are, I just think he is awesome, as do all true Barnsley folk 🙂
those in the coalition are bound by collective responsibility, and didnt i read they got a bunch of advice from liberal parties in europe who enter coalitions all the time, not to air your dirty laundry in public?
The son of George Carman Q.C. wants to be an MP for a party that has cut University teaching by 80% and allowed fees to rise to £9,000 (which it seems is what a large number of unis will charge)? Mr Carman himself went to Manchester Grammar, of course.
When so many MPs are already from a public school background, how is this going to help the big society and convince people we’re all in it together?
@jif
Only those in Government are bound by collective responsibility, and even this needs to be updated to take into account the first peacetime coalition in living memory. Whatever works in europe is not working here, even when Lib dems have achieved in Government either the Tories or their own inept communication skills manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
On the serious piont, of course were I to live in Barnsley I would certainly vote for the great Mr Blessed!!!
@ Poppie’s mum
“Also why raise the threshold for those towards the cusp of the basic rate/40% tax threshold when help could be more effectively targeted at those at the lowest paid ?”
That’s not what was done in the Coalition’s first budget or will be done in future budgets. The threshold is being raised to take the lowest paid tax payers out of income tax all together. The basic rate/40% tax threshold is not being raised.
Contrast that with the last change made to the lowest paid tax payers when Ed Balls and co were in power; the starting rate for those lowest paid tax payers was doubled.
…but then why let the facts get in the way of political point scoring?
“the people of Barnsley do not deserve the punishment that the Tory led coalition policies will wreak on them.”
Presumably, poopymater, you would prefer the ‘purer’ Toryism of the last 13 years which saw Blair and Brown outstrip even Margaret Thatcher in their bid to make Britain as unequal a society as their idols in the USA?
I could be wrong, but I think the main purpose of selecting Carman here was the strength of the BNP.
Carman has an impressive record of campaigning against the BNP, and stood against Griffin at the GE. He’s also well-researched in relation to the BNP’s activities, tactics and organisation. Why does this matter? Well, the BNP did pretty well in barnsley at the European elections, taking something like 11% of the vote, I believe – enough to tip the balance across the region and ensure the election of Andrew Brons.
There is the potential for a fourth party to benefit from protest votes, and the concern is that it might be the BNP. This is a safe Labour seat, where the parties of government are not likely to do well. Labour may well be punished to some degree too, as a result of Eric Illsley’s indiscretions. My own suspicion is that the main parties are seeing the bigger picture. They appreciate the capability the BNP has of polling respectfully and from the outset are going out to combat the threat from Griffin’s party.
This should by rights be an unspectacular by-election. It will be so if the BNP aren’t able to take advantage of public dissatisfaction with politics and politicians. The last thing either of the major parties want is for Griffin to be able to present the outcome as a moral victory for the BNP. That’s why Carman’s the right man for Barnsley, even though his chances of winning the seat are on a par with Baldrick’s chances of impressing Blackadder with a cunning plan….
I made an error in the above post – BNP support in Barnsley stood at 17% according to The Guardian, not 11% as I quoted:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/07/european-elections-manchester-liverpool
I’m not from Barnsley, but I too went to the hustings and thought Carman was brilliant.
I don’t know where all the supposed BNP supporters are. I went surveying in the afternoon and found lots of disenchanted Labour supporters but nobody who said they was voting BNP.
We came 2nd last year and the man who beat us is now in jail. Come on everybody, if there was ever a by-election about the need to change our broken politics and challenge Labour (and the Tories) in their rotten safe seats this is it.
I must say my first reaction on seeing that Carman had been selected was that this reflected the fact that the news ‘story’ of this election would be whether the Lib Dems or the BNP won third place. No matter how anti the party many of us feel at the moment, it’s to be hoped that’s a contest the Lib Dems will win.
Dominic Carman will make an excellent new principled L/D MP for the good people in Barnsley Central.
His clear Liberal vision of the future is one where all people are born equal and not stymied in social mobility by colour, creed, language or religious diversity.
A modern progressive much more freer and fairer Britain is a Liberal place that recognises that the politics of the BNP led by Nick Griffin and his cronies, is anathema to social progress and opportunity and does not regard cohesive community harmony, as an essentail political goal.
I’m reposting this from a comment I made on a january bog here as I don’t suppose anyone will read it there (I don’t suppose anyone will read it here either, but there you go…)
Well yes – there is zero chance of you getting in here in Barnsley – I didn’t get a leaflet from you through my door for the general election (the BNP managed to) and when I emailed you to see if you were fielding a candidate I got no response. (i’m still waiting….) I eventually found out (probably on examination of my ballot paper) that the candidate was from York so probably had never set foot in Barnsley.
I have voted liberal every general election since I could vote. but no more. I feel very let down by the LibDems on many levels.
Sarah,
Having just read your post (4.19pm Sunday, 13-2-11), I am responding. I’ m very sorry to read what you have written: I would like to talk to you personally and address the issues which you raise. Could I therefore please ask you to email me directly: [email protected] with your contact details, and I will respond to each of the points which you make.
Many thanks
Dominic Carman
PPC Barnsley Central
@ Sarah.
Are you in Barnsley Central? I am in Barnsley, the lib-dem candidate from York was in my area a fair few times during the election, sadly the local party which i have joined after the election, is not massive. Its hard to get a leaflet to every home 🙁
What you not happy about exactly?
The candidate certainly did spend time in Barnsley in the general election, but obviously when you’re fighting a safe seat as the 3rd party you can’t afford to take months and months off work to campaign all day long.
If you’ve voted lib dem all your life but didn’t see a leaflet on the doormat, why didn’t you volunteer to deliver some in your road?
Looking at the published list of candidates, most of whom are not local, I can see why market traders are doing a roaring trade in ladies’ apparel made from recycled parachute silk!