BBC TV: Liberal Democrats expected to win Labour stronghold

[tinnypriv]

No link yet.

Context: A by-election is being held tonight in Brent East (North East London), because the sitting MP died recently. This would be the best win for the Liberals (3rd party in England) in ten years.

Guess what? They campaigned on an anti-war platform. :D

[AnnabelLee]

1. Woohoo!

Go, UK LibDems!!!:toast:

Now, if they could field a strong candidate in Sedgefield...:evilgrin:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. I think that's Sedgewick.

:)

[AnnabelLee]

12. I was referring to the blathering Blair's constituency

:hi:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,,-463.html

[tinnypriv]

3. BTW, I forgot to mention

Labour had a 13,000 majority, so if Lib Dems win, that is a swing of at least 30%.

Maybe the biggest swing vote in UK history.

I think Bliar might actually cry :evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

4. Labour MP's have been critical of Blair...

...but not too critical, because they're afraid of losing their majority.

It's now clear that they need to dump him if they intend to KEEP that majority!

[tinnypriv]

5. Yep

Check this out:

2001 General Election Brent East results:

Labour: 63.21% of the vote
Tories: 18.21%
LibDems: 10.57%.

Bliar and his PNAC friends might just be a millstone on the neck on this government :evilgrin:


ON EDIT: Liberals (candidate Sarah Teather) won by about 800 votes just now (02:39am UK time)

[tinnypriv]

9. While I'm on stats :D

She's the youngest member of Parliament too.

[AnnabelLee]

14. YES!!!

Celebrate!:party::toast:

[emad]

23. Writing's been on the wall a long time for Poodle

This one is just the curtain raiser

[AnnabelLee]

13. Lordy, seeing him cry

would be almost as good as watching Jimmy Swaggart's self-pitying sobs!:D

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. And they won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now it's time for bed!! (though I do want to try and see Theresa May squeem out of this one!!

btw tinnypriv -- was that that bloody "comedy terrorist" as one of the candidates??!!

[tinnypriv]

7. Yep!

What a jackass.

Monster Raving Loony beat him! :D :D

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

8. Shit turnout aside

My faith in the British public has been reassured!!

(Now we've just got to stop the fuckers gutting our BBC:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,9321,1045322,00.html )

[Sagan]

10. Verrryy interesting..

That's a huge swing in that constituency. If I'm in the Labor Party, I would have to see this as a very bad sign.

[Dead_Parrot]

20. Woohoo!

"Ms Teather making the transition from being a councillor in Islington to become the youngest member of the Commons.": You go, girl...

Raving loonies didn't beat the Conservatives, though... :(
Full breakdown:

Sarah Teather (Lib Dem) 8,158 :toast:
Robert Evans (Labour) 7,040 :nuke:
Uma Fernandes (Conservative) 3,368 :nopity:
Noel Lynch (Green) 638 :hi:
Brian Butterworth (Socialist Alliance) 361
Khidori Fawzi Ibrahim (Public Services Not War) 219 :thumbsup:
Winston McKenzie (Independent) 197
Kelly McBride (Independent) 189
Harold Immanuel (Independent Labour) 188
Brian Hall (UK Independence Party) 140
Iris Cremer (Socialist Labour Party) 111
Neil Walsh (Independent) 101
Alan Howling Lord Hope (Monster Raving Loony Party) 59 :bounce:
Aaron Barschack (No description) 37
Jiten Bardwaj (No description) 35
Rainbow George Weiss (http://WWW.XAT.ORG) 11 :freak:

(also from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3121336.stm)

Don't forget to checkout Rainbow George's website!

[jeter]

11. I've always said that the Liberal-Democrats can win

Despite Blair's poor ratings recently, the Tories have hardly budged them. This tells me that all the room for growth will go to the Liberal-Democrats. If they run strong candidates and have a strong policy platform, and show that they can govern, they can pull off the biggest political upset in Britain since 1945.

[Nottingham]

15. All those British Anti War Protestors in Hyde Park Vote

and they don't care what Party they don't WANT THE FREAKIN IRAQ WAR!

:bounce:

[dfong63]

16. ALL RIGHT!

[IndianaGreen]

17. Update BBC: Lib Dems seize Brent East victory

Last Updated: Friday, 19 September, 2003, 04:21 GMT 05:21 UK
Lib Dems seize Brent East victory


Sarah Teather was supported
by Simon Hughes, Lib Dem home
affairs spokesman

The Liberal Democrats have snatched one of Labour's safest seats with a victory in a key north London by-election.

Sarah Teather won the Brent East poll by more than 1,100 votes, overturning a 13,047 majority and marking Labour's first loss of a Commons seat in a by-election for 15 years.

London MEP Robert Evans received 7,040 votes compared with Ms Teather's 8,158, while the Conservative candidate Uma Fernandes was beaten into third place with 3,368 votes.

The 29% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats is the largest for almost a decade, and is being described by commentators as one of the most stunning turnarounds in British electoral history.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3121336.stm

[JanMichael]

32. Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!!!!!! Holy crap? My eyes?!

What is this moisture in them??? Tears??? My goodness...

To the LEFT!!!!

:toast:

[aneerkoinos]

18. Don't trust the polls and pundits

If Blair is not kicked out, Labour is going to loose next election.

The biggest factor will note be Labour voters switching to LD, allthough that will happen quite a lot, but Labour voters not bothering to vote.

Labour is still strong in the polls, but many of them will be sleeping through next elections, unlike Tory's and LD's.

Most propably no single party will get majority in the parliament, which is great thing for democracy.

[T_i_B]

19. FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Brent East is an inner city constituency and it is EXACTLY the sort of constiuency that Blair has been taking for granted for years and as a result we have seen Blair enact numerous policies that are designed to shaft people in these sort of areas as Blair has long been of the opinion that he could field a gerkin as his candidate and it would win in this sort of inner city area.

Nice to see that people are waking up and realizing that "new" labour does not have their own best interests in mind in the slightest. The Liberal Democrats are a far better voice for Brent East than any Blairite lickspittle will ever be.

http://www.libdems.org.uk/

[Spentastic]

21. Ha ha ha ha ha

Fuck you Tony.

This could be a pivotal point in British politics. The vote represents a 29% swing from previous results. The Tories had a terrible showing and the Lib Dems gained a fantastic result. Contrary to some theorists here, it would seem that the British public are not stupid enough to see the Conservative party as a viable alternative to Tony's "new" Labour.

Tony had better remember what left wing means or the people will remind him by voting him out for a more progressive party.

[T_i_B]

24. Now will the Blairites wake up?

and realize that their capitulation policies are simply not bringing home the electoral bacon? If the labour party wants to keep its majority in parliament then it will have to change direction and start listening to the British people rather than hauranging them for not getting with ze programm.

We already have one tory party and we don't need another.

[Spentastic]

27. I'm honestly concerned that Tony has gone mental

How many times have you heard him say he's going to press on with deeply unpopular reforms in order to transform the country,

Think about what this actually means, he has a vision and if we don't like it we should just shut up?

I note the Labour activists keep saying its all about the war so basically it doesn't count. How deluded are these people?

[T_i_B]

28. Even if it is all about the war

That is still the perfect reason to abandon Blair. Blair has gone out of his way to ignore the British people and our own best interests so that he can still some round for lunch at the white house with Chimpy McCokespoon and his oily chums. Blair has taken us into a war that virtually nobody but he and his right wing cronies wanted and above all we must remember this.

TONY BLAIR LIED TO JUSTIFY THE WAR ON IRAQ

Now why would the good people of Brent East want to vote for a party whose foreign policy is based on blatant, outrageous lies?

And even then discounting war we have PFI, foundation hospitals, tuition fees, immigrant bashing, welfare cuts and a host of other policies that Blair is introducing that go dead against the interests of Real Labour strongholds like Brent East. The good people of Brent did well by telling "new" labour to go f**k themselves.

[Jack Rabbit]

30. Excellent post, TiB

Now why would the good people of Brent East want to vote for a party whose foreign policy is based on blatant, outrageous lies?

Why would anybody on either side of the Pond want to vote for a candidate supporting a foreign policy that is based on blatant, outrageous lies?

[T_i_B]

35. A question I have yet to see answered

but it is interesting how "new" labour is blaming this all on Iraq without offering any solution to the problems that they themselves have created.

All we are hearing from "new" labour at the moment is how they need to "focus on the domestic adgenda" which sounds a bit like code for telling everyone else to shut the f**k up about the quagmire they have got this country into in Iraq. I think that the labour party needs to wake up and embark on a drastic change of direction if they do not want results like this to be an abberation.

They say they are listening, but if there were even so much as a hint of truth about this then they would not be enacting the bad policies they are. It's all just the same old Blarite bullshit.

[saigon68]

31. Lapdog Poodle stoked by his master the CHIMPANZEE

Outside of the obvious oil connection to a sitting gov't. I never understood why an outward labor person (Blair) would fall in lockstep with one of the biggest labor enemies (the CHIMPANZEE). Unless under it all, Blair was the Chimps Catamite or under the Chimps spell in some other way.

[aneerkoinos]

38. Quite obviously

Blair is insane. His domestic policy: condescending authoritarian paternalism. His foreign policy: yes master.

This rather usual ordeal is called the corruptive effect of power, which, combined with continuous illusion shattering effect of poodelism, leaves his ego twisted in perpetual limbo. The only effective cure is beheading.

[bpilgrim]

37. He has SOLD OUT to the WTO/IMF - welcome to the third world

along with our own NEO-CONS/NEO-LIBS i am glad the rest of the world is waking up... i just hope it's not too late :scared:

peace

[Dookus]

22. hrmmm.....

nevermind....

[whirlygigspin]

25. Can you hear the sound of

Labour MP's running for the exits?!!! lol

bye bye Tony, you whorish poodle.
:hurts:

[aneerkoinos]

26. Crushing!

Labour 18,325 (2001) -> 7,040 (2003)
Conservatives 5,278 (2001) -> 3,368 (2003)
Liberal Democrats 3,065 (2001) -> 8,158 (2003)

So, Labour looses over 11 000 votes, almost two thirds!!!
Conservatives loose almost 2000 votes. Nyahnyahnyah.
Liberal Democrats gain more that 5000 points, more than double.

About 8000 votes less than 2001, mostly previous labour voters.

Buh-bye, Tony!

(Edited wrong numbers)

[Jack Rabbit]

29. The retribution for the colonial invasion of Iraq begins

It's time for Labour to replace Blair on their own. The Party will have an opportunity to remove this liar and a war criminal from power at its conference next month. They should take it. Let's also hope this has ramifications on this side of the Pond for other liars and war criminals.

We should remember how, ahead of the war, the pro-war DUers were praising Blair for his courage in standing up to the left wing of his own party in parliament and Labour's base at large. We can remember how, as Bush masqeraded as a flyboy on the deck of the Lincoln, the DLC lauded the Democratic presidential candidates who sided with Bush on the war resolution vote as "Blair Democrats." How ironic that sounds now.

We who took the other side knew our day would come. Those who supported the invasion of Iraq and repeated the lies used by the Bush junta to justify it would face retribution, beginning with electoral defeats. If there is justice, it will all end at the Palace of Peace in The Hague.

Read it and weep, Tony Blair. Read it and weep, Will Marshall. Read it and weep, Frat Boy.

[KoKo]

33. And BBC reported it was a SHOCK they won because it was a safe seat!

Good news.

[T_i_B]

34. Blair and Labour 'under threat'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3122496.stm

Labour could lose the next General Election following its disastrous poll at the Brent East by-election, former minister Frank Field has warned. He said the party was in "deep trouble" following the Liberal Democrats' Thursday night success in the former Labour stronghold.

Mr Field, a former minister for welfare reform, stressed: "We are in deep trouble and for the first time we see the prospect that we might actually lose the election on a record low turnout."

But fellow ex-minister Glenda Jackson said she believed Labour could win a third term - if Tony Blair was to quit as prime minister and party leader.

She said the Brent East result showed the electorate had a "complete lack of trust in the government" and therefore in Mr Blair.

[bpilgrim]

36. UNPRECEDENTED! i hope the DLC is listening

and get the message LOUD AND CLEAR reform is SWEEPING the GLOBE and THEY better 'get in step' ;->

peace

[T_i_B]

39. Kick for the Liberal Democrats

and a kick up the arse for "new" labour, because when all is said and doen, they deserve a good kicking. :evilgrin:

:kick: