The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Mar 22, 2024 11:00:07 GMT
It has definitely happened a few times.
One that I recall was the only Labour councillor in Stratford-on-Avon DC announcing he was going Independent on the day nominations closed for the 2019 council elections.
Sadly, they were re-elected despite this s***housery.
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Post by Merseymike on Mar 22, 2024 11:09:47 GMT
Sorry to disagree, but that has always struck me as almost the ultimate c***s trick and I utterly despise anyone who has ever tried to pull it off. It strikes me as fundamentally anti-democratic (though fortunately it is also a rare occurrence, so it seems many across the political spectrum agree with me) Oh there's no disagreement, it's a total betrayal of trust. But just pointing out the weakness in the system. An unscrupulous agent, candidate, or - and this is the really sneaky one - Designated Nominating Officer could basically take their party's candidature down if going for a scorched earth defection. Don't know if it's ever happened, it's usually hard to tell what's a cock-up and what's sabotage, but it does strike me as a potential weak point in the electoral process that could have a major impact if anything happened. Just imagine how the novel would work - Rishi Sunak's Designated Nominating Officer withdraws his signature on the deadline day. The Richmond returning officer is forced to declare Sunak's nomination to stand at the GE invalid... Richard Tice is toasting his new arrival while the Tories and the democratic process as a whole are stunned with how to handle the PM not even on the ballot paper by sabotage. From there, to the alternate history thread perhaps.... This happened in Kirklees. A new candidate (LibDem) announced,two days after nominations, changed to the Conservatives. As a result the LibDems worked for Labour. There was no Tory candidate. Very dodgy.
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Post by timrollpickering on Mar 22, 2024 11:49:55 GMT
Sorry to disagree, but that has always struck me as almost the ultimate c***s trick and I utterly despise anyone who has ever tried to pull it off. I think it was the late erlend who said that sitting in the party's east London by-election office thirty years ago it was the only time in politics he ever wanted to commit GBH. Oh there's no disagreement, it's a total betrayal of trust. But just pointing out the weakness in the system. An unscrupulous agent, candidate, or - and this is the really sneaky one - Designated Nominating Officer could basically take their party's candidature down if going for a scorched earth defection. Don't know if it's ever happened, it's usually hard to tell what's a cock-up and what's sabotage, but it does strike me as a potential weak point in the electoral process that could have a major impact if anything happened. Most DNO cock-ups tend to involve two (or more) people with overlapping authorisations, often a ward or county division that's split between local parties with both assuming it's theirs to sort out. What's not clear is the point at which retractions take effect and how they're communicated. Obviously a local electoral services could be direct sent a letter of retraction outside the nomination period revoking the local DNO's power (I've had authorisation letters covering longer periods than just a single election) but what happens if the DNO has already signed off a nomination and had it accepted? I never got a clear answer to this in 2019 when the Brexit Party stood a load of candidates down after nominations had opened and it was clear not everyone in the party was happy with the decision though I don't recall any unofficial candidates having the party name. Was it the case that none had actually taken their forms in yet so the situation didn't arise, did every single one locally comply with withdrawal (even if, IIRC, there were one or two who stood as independents), did every single local DNO retract on the ground or was the central party able to revoke the DNO's signatures and centrally retract the name?
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Mar 22, 2024 12:14:56 GMT
Thought that somebody might mention the Newham North East thing three decades ago - and no, I didn't approve of it despite my party being the beneficiary. But that was slightly different in that there was still a LibDem "option" on the ballot paper even if it had been rendered basically meaningless (much as with Labour, albeit in rather different circumstances, in Rochdale last month) But yes, it would have been better if Kellaway had left his announcement until the day after the by-election - it wasn't as if he was ever likely to actually win after all.
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Mar 22, 2024 12:19:56 GMT
Thought that somebody might mention the Newham North West thing three decades ago, and no I didn't approve of it despite my party being the beneficiary. But that was slightly different in that there was still a LibDem "option" on the ballot paper even if it had been rendered basically meaningless (much as with Labour, albeit in rather different circumstances, in Rochdale last month) But yes, it would have been better if Kellaway had left his announcement until the day after the by-election - it wasn't as if he was ever likely to actually win after all. He certainly had no chance of winning Newham North West
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carolus
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Post by carolus on Mar 22, 2024 12:53:34 GMT
Hounslow, Chiswick Gunnersby (2026). Joanna Biddolph, Conservative to Independent.
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Post by stb12 on Mar 22, 2024 12:57:48 GMT
Rupert Lowe withdrew at the last second as the Dudley North Brexit Party candidate in 2019, on the basis of not wanting to split the Brexit vote
Although he’s clearly back in the fold under Reform
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r34t
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Post by r34t on Mar 22, 2024 13:15:55 GMT
There was a ward in Bristol, in the early 90s, where the nomination papers for a very safe Labour ward didn't arrive in time. The candidate was from one wing of the party, the person responsible for getting the papers to Electoral Services very much the other. The LibDems were the beneficiaries. Nothing was, nor could be, proven.
In the subsequent general election the Tories beat Labour by 45 votes in that constituency.
These 2 facts are not necessarily related but .......
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Post by johnloony on Mar 22, 2024 14:51:53 GMT
Strikes me that had he been really ruthless and timed this a couple of weeks later, he could have forced the Tories off the ballot Sorry to disagree, but that has always struck me as almost the ultimate c***s trick and I utterly despise anyone who has ever tried to pull it off. It strikes me as fundamentally anti-democratic (though fortunately it is also a rare occurrence, so it seems many across the political spectrum agree with me) The only specific example I can think of is the prospective Liberal candidate for James Callaghan's constituency who deliberately didn't put in his nomination papers.
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Post by olympian95 on Mar 22, 2024 15:54:08 GMT
Hounslow, Chiswick Gunnersby (2026). Joanna Biddolph, Conservative to Independent. That's interesting....she's prominent and been around for a while I think. Wonder what's happened there.
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Mar 22, 2024 16:02:52 GMT
I probably shouldn't admit to this, but in 2017 I was keen for the Conservatives to gain the St Stephens division (which I had contested for UKIP four years earlier) but didn't want to openly endorse them, nor to leave the seat uncontested as I was aiming for a full slate of candidates in the district. When I submitted the nomination pack for our candidate I 'forgot' to include the section which authorised the use of the party emblem (I also encouraged the candidate, who may not have been univerally appealing in terms of his appearance and manner, to man the largest polling station for most of the day - something I had discouraged him from doing when I had been the candidate there!)
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Post by johnloony on Mar 22, 2024 16:06:49 GMT
I probably shouldn't admit to this, but in 2017 I was keen for the Conservatives to gain the St Stephens division (which I had contested for UKIP four years earlier) but didn't want to openly endorse them, nor to leave the seat uncontested as I was aiming for a full slate of candidates in the district. When I submitted the nomination pack for our candidate I 'forgot' to include the section which authorised the use of the party emblem (I also encouraged the candidate, who may not have been univerally appealing in terms of his appearance and manner, to man the largest polling station for most of the day - something I had discouraged him from doing when I had been the candidate there!) And did your cunning plan work? i.e what was the result (and the previous result)? P.S. Answering my own question: Hertfordshire, St Stephen's, 2013: LD 1495 36.8% C 1201 29.6% UKIP 951 23.4% Lab 305 7.5% Grn 112 2.8% 2017 (albeit with different boundaries): C 2200 48.5% LD 1748 38.6% Lab 344 7.6% UKIP 152 3.4% Grn 90 2.0% www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/results/2017/385/
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carolus
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Post by carolus on Mar 22, 2024 16:13:45 GMT
Hounslow, Chiswick Gunnersby (2026). Joanna Biddolph, Conservative to Independent. That's interesting....she's prominent and been around for a while I think. Wonder what's happened there. Now updated again to "Independent Conservative"
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Post by stb12 on Mar 22, 2024 16:36:50 GMT
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Mar 22, 2024 17:09:12 GMT
I probably shouldn't admit to this, but in 2017 I was keen for the Conservatives to gain the St Stephens division (which I had contested for UKIP four years earlier) but didn't want to openly endorse them, nor to leave the seat uncontested as I was aiming for a full slate of candidates in the district. When I submitted the nomination pack for our candidate I 'forgot' to include the section which authorised the use of the party emblem (I also encouraged the candidate, who may not have been univerally appealing in terms of his appearance and manner, to man the largest polling station for most of the day - something I had discouraged him from doing when I had been the candidate there!) And did your cunning plan work? i.e what was the result (and the previous result)? P.S. Answering my own question: Hertfordshire, St Stephen's, 2013: LD 1495 36.8% C 1201 29.6% UKIP 951 23.4% Lab 305 7.5% Grn 112 2.8% 2017 (albeit with different boundaries): C 2200 48.5% LD 1748 38.6% Lab 344 7.6% UKIP 152 3.4% Grn 90 2.0% www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/results/2017/385/The boundaries were only different to the tune of about 30 voters
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Post by timrollpickering on Mar 22, 2024 17:33:03 GMT
Thought that somebody might mention the Newham North East thing three decades ago Well I am in Newham and the very first council by-election I agented was caused by his death. Some of the Lib Dem results in the council elections the previous months would have been handy for bar charts though I don't know if the party decided they could win and made it heresy for anyone to disagree with that assertion.
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Post by timrollpickering on Mar 22, 2024 17:33:38 GMT
I guess it was one way to save a deposit.
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iain
Lib Dem
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Post by iain on Mar 22, 2024 19:30:37 GMT
And did your cunning plan work? i.e what was the result (and the previous result)? P.S. Answering my own question: Hertfordshire, St Stephen's, 2013: LD 1495 36.8% C 1201 29.6% UKIP 951 23.4% Lab 305 7.5% Grn 112 2.8% 2017 (albeit with different boundaries): C 2200 48.5% LD 1748 38.6% Lab 344 7.6% UKIP 152 3.4% Grn 90 2.0% www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/results/2017/385/The boundaries were only different to the tune of about 30 voters Though given the general UKIP performance in 2017 I’d imagine the Conservatives would have gained it anyway.
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Mar 22, 2024 19:45:36 GMT
The boundaries were only different to the tune of about 30 voters Though given the general UKIP performance in 2017 I’d imagine the Conservatives would have gained it anyway. It would have done clearly, but I didn't know that in advance. It had a history of close results and of the Lib Dems holding on sometimes against the odds
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Post by finsobruce on Mar 23, 2024 11:46:27 GMT
Hounslow, Chiswick Gunnersby (2026). Joanna Biddolph, Conservative to Independent. Gunnersbury.
She once compared low traffic neighbourhoods to Apartheid era South Africa.
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