Enthusiastic Liberal Democrats are heading to Lewisham to help our fabulous candidate Lucy Salek who has already started campaigning with a visit from Vince Cable earlier this week.
Great morning with @lucyvsalek in #LewishamEast, meeting traders and shoppers in Catford. Very warm reception. Voters rightly concerned about knife crime, secondary schools and Labour’s support for Tory Brexit. Lucy would be a great MP, standing up for Lewisham on these issues. pic.twitter.com/Ti0x7O30cv
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) May 16, 2018
There’s lots going on this weekend. Here’s how to help. This was originally posted as a comment by Michael Andrewes here:
There are details on how to help the by-election here and here – including delivery this weekend and how to make phone calls from home etc.
Labour have pushed back their selection from last Wednesday to 9.30am tomorrow according to Labourlist.
But as I posted the neighbouring Conservative MP for Beckenham, Bob Stewart has conceded, defeat saying on Sunday Politics London that they had “absolutely no chance” on BBCSunday Politics London – leaving it a two horse race between us and Labour.
And with a large BAME community (about 44%), Windrush is likely to also impact on the Tory vote.
There is a report on the UKIP candidate on Pink News.
Asked if he believes sexual orientation is “fixed at birth” in an online Q&A with UKIP website ‘Support 4 the Family’, Mr Kurten suggested that homosexuality is often the result of childhood sexual abuse.
He said: “The latest scientific studies show that incidence of homosexuality in adults decreases with age, so it is unlikely to be fixed at birth.
Nominations close on Monday 21st May.
Have a read of the Mayor’s report on the effect of Brexit on London here
In short a Brexit especially outside the customs union and the single market is dire for London and probably even more for Lewisham that will suffer a chill wind blowing down from the city.
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13 Comments
In Haringey, North London, we held 8 and gained 7 seats against Labour facing opposition. We CAN do well in Lewisham East …. IF we all do all we can to help.
I hope our campaign will not shilly shally on the issue of Brexit. We must campaign unashamedly as the party of remain, determined to stop the UK leaving the EU. A large Lib Dem vote would then serve notice on both parties that Brexit is not a done deal. A win, though it seems very difficult at this stage, would really give Corbyn and May a kick up the proverbial. However, we won’t do well unless Lib Dems in their thousands descend on the constituency every day in the few weeks that remain before polling day.
You are so right, Mick. It’s the work done in the early days of the campaign that will have the most impact.
I see the Labour Party at a hustings of the local party tonight have selected Janet Daby as their candidate. She obtained 60% of the vote and is a BAME woman in the centre of the party and a Pro EU Remainer.
According to the BBC News, Jeremy Corbyn says he welcomes her selection.
The Lib Dems must also campaign on local issues that matter to the people of Lewisham as well as on the EU. As a local in nearby Greenwich cutting back the Safer Neighbourhoods Police teams has been a disaster with a rise in knife crime, violent crime and anti social behaviour. The SNT got to know people in the community and are highly regarded by residents and businesses alike. These cuts passed by the tory government but the Mayor has done little to increase SNT numbers since his election and has also sanctioned the closure of police stations. The environment and transport are other local issues.
@ BillLibDem Interesting you mention police cuts, Bill – or – the bill for the old Bill, Bill.
In the first 2010 Coalition budget, Mrs May (Home Secretary), accepted the Osborne/David Laws decision, and the Coalition agreed, an immediate cut to police budgets of 18%.
Over the five years of the Coalition cuts to police budgets rose to 30%. The number of police officers in England and Wales fell from 144,353 in 2009 to 122,859 in 2016, and the number of specialist armed police officers fell from a peak of 6,796 in 2010 to 5,639 in 2016.
It appears an open and shut case that cuts in police officer numbers have had an impact on the capacity of the police to respond. Could you enlighten me on what current party policy is and whether it has changed since the 2010-2015 period ?
@David Raw
But according to reporting she is not a Corbynista and was endorsed by Progress. There may be less enthusiasm for her by Momentum – especially as according to reporting and twitter posts Labour’s NEC tried to disqualified Momentum’s preferred candidate at the last minute – they rescinded that but there is some twitter chatter that (a few of) her supporters may have left the selection meeting thinking that she had not been allowed to stand.
All in all although people in political parties come together when facing an election, people in the Lewisham labour party don’t appear to be very happy bunnies!
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Whatever the candidate’s personal views, the only way we will get to have a soft brexit of staying in the single market and the customs union and a referendum is if Corbyn and Labour change their minds. The only way will that will happen is if there is a strong showing by the Lib Dems in the by-election. It will embolden Labour MPs and indeed peers as well as Conservatives.
So encourage your Remainer friends even if they are not Lib Dem party members to help the Lib Dem campaign in Lewisham East.
@David Raw
Our 2017 General Election manifesto called for a £300 million increase in the police budget – I will leave Diane Abbott to tell you how many police officers that would pay for!
Actually more police officers in the Metropolitan police force were employed per year on average in the coalition years (31,885) than in the last term of the Labour Government (31,443).
My understanding is also that the Met police is run by the Mayor which I believe has been either Labour or Conservative.
I appreciate the world view that seems to be yours that the Lib Dems in coalition are to blame for everything and will be for ever more – ignoring the world recession, 302 Tory MPs in the 2010-2015 Parliament, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan who have actually been responsible for the Met Police or that it is now 3 years since the coalition. I would though politely venture that it is an inaccurate one.
Just a caveat: we came fourth in the local elections in Lewisham East, were third in 2014, todays opinion poll has us at 6% again. If we achieve second place that really would be something especially as the Tories are running at 40 – 43% in the polls.
The police cuts nationally were sanctioned by Theresa May as Home Secretary and implemented in the Met police area by Boris Johnson as former Mayor. They have yet to be reversed by the current Mayor of London. Despite SNT ward panels opposing the cuts at meetings held by MOPAC, that’s the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, our views and that of residents locally were ignored. It would be good to see a robust Lib Dem campaign in Lewisham on reversing these decisions which have so adversely affected Lewisham and seen an increase in knife and other crime in the area.
@ Michael 1. If you actually read what I wrote, I didn’t say the Labour Candidate was a Corbynista – far from it.
What I said was that Mr Corbyn was facing a fait accompli by the moderate wing of the Party in selecting a pro EU candidate who is a prominent member of the local Council and who also led the fight to save Lewisham hospital when the Coalition wanted to close it in 2013.
As to the police, I’m not interested in the convoluted mathematical dyslexia of Ms Abbott who, to my mind, is an appendage Mr. Corbyn could well do without.
Nor am I interested in slippery averages based on an inherited budget at the start of 2010. Could you give me the figures for start and finish 2010 and 2015 ? The Mayor might propose – but the national Exchequer and the Home Secretary disposes.
Nor do I believe “the Lib Dems in coalition are to blame for everything and will be for ever more” .
What I believe (as a Liberal since 1961) is they frequently failed to stand up for Liberal values. I think the electorate agrees with me. How else can you explain a drop in the Lib Dem vote in Lewisham East from a second place 11,750 votes (28.2%) in 2010 to a fifth place 2,455 votes (5.7%) in 2015 and 2,086 votes (4.4%) in 2017 ?
Sorry, but no amount of gloss can undermine uncomfortable historical facts.
@David Raw
Sorry on the first part – I was following on from your comment that “Jeremy Corbyn welcomed her selection.” – and apologies if I didn’t make that clear.
And I also apologise that my weak effort at a joke didn’t meet with your approval – I won’t start that career as a stand-up comedian now I promise :)!
I think it fair to examine Labour’s record – indeed I was been too kind to them – just taking their last parliamentary term.
Be critical of spending cuts by all means but don’t hold up Labour as a paragon of virtue – Alistair Darling admitted just before the 2010 General Election if Labour was re-elected public spending cuts would be “tougher and deeper” than those implemented by Margaret Thatcher. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8587877.stm
Came across this – it’s Lib Dems v Labour
And I don’t bet !!!
POLITICS
British Politics – Lewisham East By-election Betting Odds
Labour
1/100
Democrats
28
Conservative
100
Green
250
UKIP
750