Some interesting results in by-elections last night.
It’s not unusual for the voters of Ryedale to elect Liberal Party councillors as opposed to Liberal Democrats. The party stormed to victory in Derwent ward in a result which saw Conservative, Lib Dem and independent votes all fall.
Derwent (Ryedale) result last night:
Liberal GAIN from Conservative. pic.twitter.com/LVlTy1hwqa
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 18, 2015
Britain Elects got a bit above themselves and put out a tweet mocking the #libdemfightback and had to apologise for it. The offending tweet was deleted.
Previous tweet referring to a campaign slogan was meant in jest and nothing more. Apologies if we came across as rude/partisan!
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 18, 2015
Better news from East Herts where we didn’t stand a candidate last time but got almost 20% of the vote.
Hertford Heath (East Herts) result last night:
Conservative HOLD. pic.twitter.com/XhdAsCGlfk
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 18, 2015
It makes the Worcestershire result, where we didn’t stand, more frustrating.
Stourport-on-Severn (Worcestershire) result last night:
Conservative GAIN from Health Concern. pic.twitter.com/cN0h84Mq3K
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 18, 2015
Especially encouraging was a significant increase in our vote in Labour facing Brent:
Kensal Green (Brent) result last night:
Labour HOLD. pic.twitter.com/U7JwGG48zc
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 18, 2015
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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12 Comments
The Britain Elects tweet about fightback was a joke; and understandably so, as it seems that most of their results tweets where we’ve done very well or very badly have a mixture of sincere and sarcastic replies using the hashtag.
“The offending tweet was deleted.”
Crikey. Sounds like Britain Elects isn’t the only organisation getting above itself! Surely us liberals shouldn’t be so easily offended.
On the Ryedale byelection tweet it says in the small print “Due to a nominations cock-up the Liberal Democrat candidate appeared on the ballot paper with no description (no party tag)” if you look closely. Very disappointing.
I saw the joke and it was quite funny – especially as #libdemfightback has been used both genuinely and sarcastically by Lib Dems on Twitter. Oh well.
The victorious candidate for the continuing Liberal Party in Ryedale is named Mike Potter. This cannot be the same Mike Potter who stood for the continuing SDP in the 1989 Richmond (Yorkshire) Westminster by-election, can it?
Whilst not wishing to detract from the Liberal win in Ryedale it should be noticed that was no Liberal Democrat on the ballot paper (due to cock up with the nominations no doubt) – so the reference to the vote falling is wrong, there was no votes for the Liberal Democrats.
Noted not noticed obviously… #Typotastic
“…no votes for the Liberal Democrats” Not exactly true Colin: some of us can remember the days when there were no party descriptions on ballot papers (let alone symbols), and electors had to focus their minds slightly in order to remember who it was they wanted to vote for. Strangely turnouts tended to be much higher in those days too.
Who is Mike Potter ? I don’t think it is the same. This one is a GP – the Richmond candidate was a farmer.
follow link below.
Pickering West – Election Address – Ryedale Liberals
http://www.ryedaleliberals.org.uk/…/20150426-Pickering-West-Election-Addr...
If you follow Facebook, you will know THAT Mike Potter is a member of the Liberal Democrats…………..and is a Fb friend of mine 🙂
@ David Raw,
Are you sure he is a GP. The other Liberal candidate was a Pickering GP. I think that Mike Potter was the chairman of the civic society who , to his credit, has done a great deal of work regarding flood defences,. Flooding is a problem for Pickering as a friend of mine who lives there knows only too well.
I can’t make the link you provided , work.
@ Jayne
You’re right – It was his running mate who was the GP.
Try doing a search Mike Potter and Rydale on Google and you should find a PDF of their leaflet.