Lambeth Council by-election 17 January

[Adam]

Following Steve Reed's move up the greasy pole from councillor (even if Leader of the Council) to MP (for Croydon North in the reent parliamentary by-election) there's to be a by-election in the Brixton Hill ward:

www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/DemocracyElections/ElectionsVoting/BrixtonHillWardVacancy.htm

[Adam]

Nominations closed today. There are seven candidates (in alphabetical order):

Briggs (Conservative)
Child (Green)
Jones (UKIP)
Lambert (SPGB)
Maffei (LibDem)
Nally (TUSC)
Tiedemann (Labour & Coop)

A 7-horse race must be comparatively rare in local by-elections? And the Cooperative Party.

[erlend]

Ah. I had heard that we had a famous candidate.

Delighted not to see the name Lembit on the ballot paper. Not sure it would have made much difference though.

[Pete Whitehead]

Dec 18, 2012 15:38:14 GMT erlend said:

Ah. I had heard that we had a famous candidate.

I guess you heard wrong

[johnloony]

Dec 18, 2012 14:41:06 GMT Adam said:

Nominations closed today. There are seven candidates (in alphabetical order):

Briggs (Conservative)
Child (Green)
Jones (UKIP)
Lambert (SPGB)
Maffei (LibDem)
Nally (TUSC)
Tiedemann (Labour & Coop)

A 7-horse race must be comparatively rare in local by-elections? And the Cooperative Party.

My experience is that people in the Co-operative Party see the distinction between the Co-operative Party and non-Co-operative Labour candidates as being very profound and meaningful, and they often go on about how many Co-op MPs or councillors have been elected in wherever. I think Martin used to be the national chairman of the Co-op Party a while ago.

[Adam]

I see that the Returning Officer has published photos of the candidates on the official site:

www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/DemocracyElections/ElectionsVoting/StatementOfPersonsNominatedBrixtonHill.htm

Is this usual or is it an innovation? Not that I'm against it but is it in accordance with electoral law?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Jan 3, 2013 20:10:07 GMT Adam said:

I see that the Returning Officer has published photos of the candidates on the official site:

www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/DemocracyElections/ElectionsVoting/StatementOfPersonsNominatedBrixtonHill.htm

Is this usual or is it an innovation? Not that I'm against it but is it in accordance with electoral law?

I've seen it before, although it's rare. North Devon is an example:

www.northdevon.gov.uk/index/lgcl_council_government_and_democracy/lgcl_elections/nonlgcl_election_results/lgcl_districtparish2011_results_district-2.htm

[erlend]

I think she/he can although there is no obligation on the candidate to supply one. If they don't the RO risk breaching neutrality. So I assume all candidates cooperated.

[innocentabroad]

Jan 3, 2013 20:10:07 GMT Adam said:

I see that the Returning Officer has published photos of the candidates on the official site:

www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/DemocracyElections/ElectionsVoting/StatementOfPersonsNominatedBrixtonHill.htm

Is this usual or is it an innovation? Not that I'm against it but is it in accordance with electoral law?

I am glad to see that the Green and Red candidates are duly bearded. And that UKIP have nominated a "bit of stuff". Will this be their normal practice in inner London henceforth?

[Arthur Figgis]

I am glad to see that the Red candidate lives in a suitably proletariat area of Chislehurst.

[East Anglian Lefty]

Slightly baffled by the sepia tone of the Labour candidate's photo. It looks like a still from a mercifully short-lived 1970s sitcom.

[Adam]

Jan 4, 2013 11:23:36 GMT Arthur Figgis said:

I am glad to see that the Red candidate lives in a suitably proletariat area of Chislehurst.

He may live there but in this interview he still says "you was":

www.bigsmoke.org.uk/?p=77382

[johnloony]

Jan 4, 2013 14:22:53 GMT East Anglian Lefty said:

Slightly baffled by the sepia tone of the Labour candidate's photo. It looks like a still from a mercifully short-lived 1970s sitcom.

Not likely - he was only born in 1976

[Deleted]

Labour with a bar chart worthy of the Lib Dems. Greens don't exist (3rd in last council elections and 2nd on GLA list) and look how close the scary Tories are!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[No Offence Alan]

Jan 4, 2013 23:56:21 GMT @rlemkin said:

Labour with a bar chart worthy of the Lib Dems. Greens don't exist (3rd in last council elections and 2nd on GLA list) and look how close the scary Tories are!

And the Greens think they can hold their seat in Brighton against this kind of campaigning.

[greatkingrat]

It is interesting to know that you can vote directly for the coalition in Lambeth.

[Adam]

Jan 4, 2013 23:56:21 GMT @rlemkin said:

Labour with a bar chart worthy of the Lib Dems. Greens don't exist (3rd in last council elections and 2nd on GLA list) and look how close the scary Tories are!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I don't think there can be any doubt that the Greens are the second party in Brixton Hill ward and that the Labour leaflet was as dishonest as most LibDem leaflets of this kind.

The actual result for the mayoral election which the leaflet doctored can be found here:

www.whovotedwhat.co.uk/london/2012/lambeth-london-boro/E05000417

The position in the ward for the Party list vote was:

LABOUR 1775
GREENS 599
TORIES 511
LD 266
TUSC 73
UKIP 65
CHRISTIAN 60
BNP 28
ENGLISH DEMS 17
HOUSE PARTY 15
IND 6
NATIONAL FRONT 4
IND 1

For the constituency member the result (less postal votes) was:

LABOUR 1898
GREENS 541
TORIES 482
LD 303
SOC PARTY 101
UKIP 72

Xenophobe parties don't seem to do well in this ward.

Incidentally, anti-Green leaflets like this didn't stop the Greens officially advocating a second-preferance vote for Labour in the mayor elections.

[johnloony]

I walked through Brixton Hill ward today on my way to Tate Modern. I came across a group of people at a street stall campaigning for TUSC. Therefore I predict TUSC will get more votes than the SPGB.

[iainbhx]

Jan 4, 2013 14:22:53 GMT East Anglian Lefty said:

Slightly baffled by the sepia tone of the Labour candidate's photo. It looks like a still from a mercifully short-lived 1970s sitcom.

I was thinking more like the 1960's. I detect the dread hand of Instagram.

[johnloony]

I went to a hustings meeting for all seven candidates last night. A good turnout (about 80 people) which would be good even for a parliamentary election.

A plethora of lefty candidates conspired to make Martin Tiedemann (Labour) look moderate and competent in being trusted to manage capitalism and to make the right decisions about cuts.

The SPGB candidate's answer to every question on every issue was the it is necesssary to smash capitalism.
The TUSC candidate's answer to every question was to say that he will never vote for any cuts in anything.
The UKIP candidate's answer to every question was to hold a referendum to see what local people think.
The Lib Dem candidate was useless.
The Green candidate was grumpy and stroppy.
The Conserative candidate made a few good points but kept digging himself into a hole by saying that Brixton is "an aspiration-free zone" where people don't like to live, and that the schools were rubbish.

I went with an open mind about who I would hypothetically vote for, and came back with a shortlist of 2 possibilities (Conservative and Labour).

It took 2 hours 12 minutes to walk there and 2 hours 16 minutes to walk back.

Apart from a brief appearance by Chuka Umunna MP, the only other people in the audience I recognised were two other people from Croydon.