There’s been a lot of speculation about the possible date of the Oldham East and Saddleworth election rerun. Three High Court judges are considering Phil Woolas’ request for a judicial review of the ruling that voided the election result in the constituency.
Today there have been reports that there may not be a court judgement this week, which would delay an election until after Christmas.
Lib Dem Voice understands that the situation isn’t quite so clear cut and there is still the possibility of an election on December 16th. We’ll know for sure in the next few days.
Someone more cynical might ponder whether Labour are playing delaying tactics to make it harder for the Lib Dems to get help in – let’s not let them be right!
Any further delay will, of course, give the Liberal Democrats’ campaign even longer legs: I spent the weekend in Oldham & Saddleworth and there was no sign whatsoever of the other parties. It’s vital that the Lib Dems keep up the momentum in a longer campaign, while the delay caused by Woolas’ continuing challenge could seriously damage Labour’s chances.
Regardless of whether the election is on December 16th or January 13th, Elwyn Watkins and the team need your help now. A January 13th polling day would make the campaign a similar length to those victories in Brent East, Leicester South and Littleborough and Saddleworth – and they all had plenty of volunteers this early in the election.
With the New Year bank holiday on January 3rd this year, the campaign in the run up to January 13th would be very short. Help now is still crucial to winning – and whoever you are, if you come soon, you’ll be a Very Important Person.
Full details and directions to Oldham East and Saddleworth campaign HQ are here.
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14 Comments
Just get there
{Sulk} Not going back now unless I get my own VIP sign 🙂
Flattery got them everywhere 😉
Chris Davies MEP was being a real star – when I bumped into him, he’d just finished cleaning the toilets. Talk about mucking in…
In the past we would have come over to campaign. Not likely to be many takers now I am afraid.
What AlexKN says. If a week’s a long time in politics, six months seems like a geological epoch.
I was there this weekend and we are running a great campaign but Labour will not be put off by their recent humiliation here. They are already delivering expensively produced knocking copy.The campaign from them will be low and reinforce the fact that this is a battle between people who think it is OK to slur your opponents without any need to tell the truth and those who stand up to it. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose because people don’t turn up and put the work in.
“Someone more cynical might ponder whether Labour are playing delaying tactics to make it harder for the Lib Dems to get help in”
I don’t think Labour want a delay, they would rather Woolas went quietly…..
“it is OK to slur your opponents without any need to tell the truth ”
I think any attempt to make this about truth will seriously backfire. Woolas lied to the electorate and should have been bannded from politics for life not 3 years. Unfortunately so did Clegg who has admitted continuing to campaign for policies he no longer believed in. So has Cable whose Comical Ali moment at the weekend will do no good to this, or any other election.
Is there a best day of the week to turn up? Do I just turn up when I can and get stuck in?
Colin by-election HQ are open 7 days a week from first thing in the morning to well into the evening if you turn up there will always be something to help do!
Good to see that they LibDem candidiate is telling porkies see here http://elwynwatkins.co.uk/news/000195/welfare_reform_will_help_thousands_of_local_families.html
If you look closely you will see that he says that “no one will experience a reduction in the benefit they receive as a result of the Universal Credit”. While if you go and look at the DWP’s propanda you will see that they only make such a claim with regard to the “introduction of the Universal Credit”. This is because there will be transitional payments when the UNiversal Credit is introduced – but the DWP make no such claim as for when the transitional payments are withdrawn. I look forward to the appropriate correction from the LibDem candidate and while he is doing so, perghaps he could let teh electorate know what has been the impact of all the other benefit changes – since I’m sure he doesn’t want to be seen as being economical with the truth.
Gosh! I didn’t realise Helen was a VIP. I’d have brought her cups of coffee if I’d realised!
😉
Helen I well remember Chris cleaning the Shaw HQ toilets early on in the 1995 campaign ! – good to see the only thing that has changed is his transition from by election candidate in winnable seat to MEP ! ( abeit it an MEP who lives in the patch ! )
i find it galling to hear lib dem members crowing about telling the truth after the way things have been whilst in governement.
i think the last thing people on the doorsteps in oldham will want to hear is about how honest the lib dem party is.
The broken pledge on tuition fees really does make it difficult to campaign on ‘truth’ and ‘honesty’. Everything in the manifesto should have been negotiable in a Coalition, (provided the overall deal was a good one) EXCEPT the one where Liberal Democrats have given a specific personal pledge.