Oldham West by election: Result Special...

[Don Quixote]

I'd like to offer a massive congratulations to everyone associated with the Labour Party on this most stunning of victories that, I'm sure, completely makes up for the utter shoeing they took at the last General Election.

Does that make the score Tories 1 - 1 Loonies for 2015?

Hardly a shoeing. A lucky win if you ask me.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

so its a great result because people have talked up one party who didn't deliver? what were the predictions based on, accurate polling or bookies odds? must be part of the new politics.

I am not saying it is a great result. I would agree with a couple of posters above who comment that it is an unremarkable result

But some people might have been expecting UKIP to sweep all before them, and some (including me) might have expected the Labour vote to be affected by their leader situation. It was a smaller turnout than the General election, so they lost votes, but they comfortably increased their share of the vote. Anyone who tries to take any of those three (or some other) statistics in isolation is not "fighting fair".

 

[Nibble]

I think you're clutching at straws to state that the public don't support them anymore, but you're welcome to start a thread fantasising about a labour win at the next election. It worked out well last time.

I don't support labour.

 

[glasfryn]

I'd like to offer a massive congratulations to everyone associated with the Labour Party on this most stunning of victories that, I'm sure, completely makes up for the utter shoeing they took at the last General Election.

Does that make the score Tories 1 - 1 Loonies for 2015?

I think you must be a little confused they are one and the same surely

 

[Nibble]

While I don't think Labour supporters should dance a jig just yet, it is good to shake the confidence of the Tories and good to see Uslip a little closer to inevitable ruin. No money, no power, no hope and with a referendum just round the corner no agenda left.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Now you sound like Farage. I'm no fan of labour, but a vote is a vote, implying postal votes are somehow inferior positively reeks of sour grapes.

I'm beginning to believe Farage is a "busted flush" who HAD the mantle of "Mr Integrity" which has now been assumed by Jezza. In other words "I mean what I say, and say what I mean".

Farage's huge mistake (in my view) was not taking the chance to get into Parliament that he had on a plate at the Eastleigh by-election in 2013, when Chris Huhne was forced to resign as an MP. That was just won by the LD's over UKIP by less than 1.800. But if Farage had stood in place of Diane James (he had already contested Eastleigh back in 1994 after the death of Stephen Milligan), I feel he could have won it. In 2015 both the LD and UKIP votes collapsed, and the Tories got back in.

 

[Pavilionaire]

By-elections have much lower turn outs, especially in winter when it's tougher to get people out to vote in the dark. Not sure how it compares to similar scenarios though.

I appreciate that, but come on! A 14 hour window to vote for the person who will represent you for the next 4 1/2 years and 60% of people can't be bothered? How about doing it just out of respect for the democratic process, if nothing else?

 

[Nibble]

The labour party has form for abusing the postal vote system. Members have been jailed for doing so in previous elections.

Actually, you are quite right. Maybe I shouldn't have been too quick to dismiss it as sour grapes. Fair point.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Actually, you are quite right. Maybe I shouldn't have been too quick to dismiss it as sour grapes. Fair point.

I don't mind UKIP losing if things are fair and square, at the moment it doesn't feel that way. What with articles of postal voting problems in the past and an article here from April 2015. http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/91474/call-to-stamp-out-postal-vote-fraud

 

[spring hall convert]

I appreciate that, but come on! A 14 hour window to vote for the person who will represent you for the next 4 1/2 years and 60% of people can't be bothered? How about doing it just out of respect for the democratic process, if nothing else?

I'm with you.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

I wonder how many of thec ethnic minority voted UKIP, Oldham part of the industrial revolution now partly resemble a shanty town
regards
DR

 

[spring hall convert]

Hardly a shoeing. A lucky win if you ask me.

They took a shoeing from the SNP

 

[KingKev]

I appreciate that, but come on! A 14 hour window to vote for the person who will represent you for the next 4 1/2 years and 60% of people can't be bothered? How about doing it just out of respect for the democratic process, if nothing else?

Hey Nick. I sort of agree in principle, but in the real world you and I know that a very very large proportion of the electorate wouldn't even have twigged the election was going on and a similar amount would not have cared. There's a myriad of reasons why turnout at GE is much larger than BEs, but chief among them is it doesn't matter....you're not voting for the next government as long as the current one has a majority of More than 2. So unless there's a specific single cause that local people want to register a concern about then very few people other than politicians and the media will care - even then turnout is only likely to get up to GE levels if it is the current gov't that is defending the seat and they are particularly disliked or have just done something iffy.

 

[Danny-Boy]

I also think the weakness of UKIP was demonstrated in May in the Lewes vote. Ray Finch (avowedly Farage's right hand-man) stated that he was prepared to be an MP even though he (like Farage) is on the MEP gravy-train. His literature said so.

But I spoke to him after a hustings just before the election and he gave me the impression he wasn't that bothered. He only got about 5,000 votes and never threatened to divide the Tory vote, as the LD's in Lewes hoped he would.

 

[Seagull58]

I don't support labour.

I never said you did. I merely responded to your posts.

 

[Nibble]

I don't mind UKIP losing if things are fair and square, at the moment it doesn't feel that way. What with articles of postal voting problems in the past and an article here from April 2015. http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news-headlines/91474/call-to-stamp-out-postal-vote-fraud

Cannot argue with that. Whatever party it is, whether I agree with them or not , everyone should have equal and fair representation.

 

[Ernest]

How dare those PESKY voters actually vote for Corbyn's LABOUR Party ? Don't they know they're NOT allowed to, this has RUINED Bozza's CHRISTMAS as he will have to find a NEW target now

 

[topbanana36]

So, let me get this straight - Nigel Farage is complaining that Asian families have voted labour, as opposed to a party (UKIP) which seeks to demonise / exclude / deport those self same people?

Qu'elle Surprise.

When has UKIP ever ever ever said they will deport Asian families. Show me in the UKIP manifesto their main principles. Not what you or the BBC think they are.

 

[Gwylan]

When has UKIP ever ever ever said they will deport Asian families. Show me in the UKIP manifesto their main principles. Not what you or the BBC think they are.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/19/ukip-mark-reckless-_n_6183228.html

 

[alfredmizen]

When has UKIP ever ever ever said they will deport Asian families. Show me in the UKIP manifesto their main principles. Not what you or the BBC think they are.

Spot on, a typically hysterical post from the left.