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Post by ideal4radio on Sept 27, 2019 15:34:44 GMT
It is indeed ! This year it was 90.1 % Labour, in 2015 there was no election as the Labour candidate was returned unopposed. Without wanting to drag things too off topic, do you why has one Burnley ward got such different demographics to the rest? The rest of the town wards are all extremely white, and elsewhere only one of the Halifax wards seems equally diverging from the rest of its town. When the south east Asian immigrants first came to East Lancashire, primarily in the early sixties, the cheapest available housing was in the Daneshouse & Stoneyholme ward. The area was previously home to many of the Cotton Mills that were gradually closing, and they were surrounded by rows and rows of older terraced housing built to house the workforce. The community has become established there, and the original indigenous population has gradually moved to other areas of the town. Many of the more recent immigrants have come from the same areas of both Bangladesh and Pakistan, and understandably, settled near their kith and kin. In terms of community relations, many, including the Council, Churches, Mosques and not least Burnley F.C , have worked hard to improve things since the well publicized disturbances of 2001. Things are by no means perfect, but it's certainly a lot better than, say, 20 years ago. There are occasional " local difficulties " between the Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage communities, however ... Obviously, this is my own interpretation after living here for over 30 years, I'd be interested to hear any other views .. |
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Post by tonygreaves on Sept 27, 2019 15:51:14 GMT
As well as Daneshouse/Stoneyholme, Queensgate and Bank Hall wards have a significant proportion of (South) Asian electors. All three were won by Asian Labour candidates in May and they are just about the only safe Labour wards in Burnley now.
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Post by tonygreaves on Sept 27, 2019 15:59:33 GMT
Margaret Beckett!  MerseyMike is not surprised 😉 👽 Nadeem Ahmed defected to the Conservatives a couple of years ago (Matloob Ahmed is part of the same group of people though not, I think, a relative) and helped them win control of the council last year by one seat(along with a similar defection from Labour), one election gain, and the readmittance (at the count) of a Councillor who had been suspended for sharing racist stuff on social media). Whitefield is a smaller two-member ward in which the Asian proportion of the electorate is about 70%. It will disappear (as a separate ward) next May. Labour representation on Pendle Council is concentrated in the five or six wards where the Asian electorate is around 30% or more. |
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Post by tonygreaves on Sept 27, 2019 16:14:04 GMT
Comment from Liberal Democrat Voice by a local LD in Luton:
Just to give some context to our result in Luton
This was a ward where in may we stood and did nothing. This time we bombarded the area with good quality literature (15 different pieces of targeted literature). The Labour Party did one leaflet
However they had over 50 workers on the day and their “taxi driving tendency” mobilised the large and rapidly growing Kashmiri population in the ward to solidly vote Labour as usual. (I would say 60%-70% of their vote came from this community
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Post by bjornhattan on Sept 27, 2019 16:17:12 GMT
Comment from Liberal Democrat Voice by a local LD in Luton: Just to give some context to our result in Luton This was a ward where in may we stood and did nothing. This time we bombarded the area with good quality literature (15 different pieces of targeted literature). The Labour Party did one leaflet However they had over 50 workers on the day and their “taxi driving tendency” mobilised the large and rapidly growing Kashmiri population in the ward to solidly vote Labour as usual. (I would say 60%-70% of their vote came from this community Assuming the Kashmiri population was almost entirely Labour, and projecting their increase from the 2001 and 2011 Census, those numbers are probably about what you'd expect given a 40%ish Labour vote. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 16:27:56 GMT
I don't understand the taxi driver comment. Is this a reference to giving lifts to polling stations which I would have said was not unique to Labour or a reference to the type of Labour voters looking like they might drive your taxi
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Post by lancastrian on Sept 27, 2019 16:32:37 GMT
I did wonder whether Labour having Asian candidates in both Crawley elections might be a factor? I have no idea what the wards are like though. I would assume it would be more of a factor in Tilgate, which is broadly a middle of the road area and isn't very ethnically diverse. I suspect a decent amount of its population are white lower middle class people moving out of London but can't prove that. On the other hand, Three Bridges is more affluent, has a lot of London commuters with its major junction station, and is quite a lot more diverse. The same Labour candidate only lost by five votes in May though, so it wasn't a problem then. Does anyone know what happened in Tilgate to change it from a safe Labour ward until about 2003 into a marginal currently being won by the Conservatives in less than ideal national circumstances? |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Sept 27, 2019 16:35:27 GMT
If I was a Pakistani/Kashmiri/Bangladeshi Labour voter reading this thread, I think i'd be starting to get a bit pissed off with the ingratitude of Labour activists constantly seeking to deny our contribution to their electoral success
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 16:38:53 GMT
If I was a Pakistani/Kashmiri/Bangladeshi Labour voter reading this thread, I think i'd be starting to get a bit pissed off with the ingratitude of Labour activists constantly seeking to deny our contribution to their electoral success i was only confused by the taxi driver comment. I did not mean owt by it |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Sept 27, 2019 16:43:59 GMT
If I was a Pakistani/Kashmiri/Bangladeshi Labour voter reading this thread, I think i'd be starting to get a bit pissed off with the ingratitude of Labour activists constantly seeking to deny our contribution to their electoral success i was only confused by the taxi driver comment. I did not mean owt by it Well it was more directed at others on the thread (and memories of similar discussions re: eg the Peterborough by-election), but I'm surprised you haven't encountered the taxis before as a friend who stood in Cunningham told me he encountered the phenomenon there |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 16:56:04 GMT
i was only confused by the taxi driver comment. I did not mean owt by it Well it was more directed at others on the thread (and memories of similar discussions re: eg the Peterborough by-election), but I'm surprised you haven't encountered the taxis before as a friend who stood in Cunningham told me he encountered the phenomenon there no please elaborate. Tbf confession time I've never campaigned in Cunningham |
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Post by bjornhattan on Sept 27, 2019 17:10:57 GMT
I would assume it would be more of a factor in Tilgate, which is broadly a middle of the road area and isn't very ethnically diverse. I suspect a decent amount of its population are white lower middle class people moving out of London but can't prove that. On the other hand, Three Bridges is more affluent, has a lot of London commuters with its major junction station, and is quite a lot more diverse. The same Labour candidate only lost by five votes in May though, so it wasn't a problem then. Does anyone know what happened in Tilgate to change it from a safe Labour ward until about 2003 into a marginal currently being won by the Conservatives in less than ideal national circumstances? It's not an ideal explanation, but could Tilgate just be a place that responds very well to populist politics? That would explain the general trend, and I think things like Brexit might explain this by election. The demographics (things like % with English identity, % without a passport, % with different qualification levels) all indicate the sort of place where Leave would have prevailed by a huge margin. Only Ifield seems to be more Leave-inclined, and given the overall result in Crawley, I'd expect Tilgate to be mid to high 60s for Leave vote. As I alluded to earlier, there is likely also a degree of white flight from (mainly South) London. There may be a degree of anger at some of the ideas proposed in the Labour conference (this maybe wouldn't have shown itself in Alexandra or Icknield wards for demographic reasons), as well as more general anger at things like prorogation. Being so soon after these events, many voters will have it fresh on their minds and may seek to "punish" Labour. Why might they not have done it in May? Perhaps just apathy - it's easier to whip up a frenzy at a by-election when every day is just more chaos in the political system. |
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Post by offshore on Sept 27, 2019 17:51:20 GMT
I googled "tilgate Henry Smith" and in the news items it found were several about a petition by the mp, tilgate cllr and by-election candidate against the Labour council raising rents at tilgate shops by 30%. 1300 signatures on a petition presented on Monday. Might have had an effect.
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Post by owainsutton on Sept 27, 2019 18:08:20 GMT
Without wanting to drag things too off topic, do you why has one Burnley ward got such different demographics to the rest? The rest of the town wards are all extremely white, and elsewhere only one of the Halifax wards seems equally diverging from the rest of its town. When the south east Asian immigrants first came to East Lancashire, primarily in the early sixties, the cheapest available housing was in the Daneshouse & Stoneyholme ward. The area was previously home to many of the Cotton Mills that were gradually closing, and they were surrounded by rows and rows of older terraced housing built to house the workforce. The community has become established there, and the original indigenous population has gradually moved to other areas of the town. Many of the more recent immigrants have come from the same areas of both Bangladesh and Pakistan, and understandably, settled near their kith and kin. In terms of community relations, many, including the Council, Churches, Mosques and not least Burnley F.C , have worked hard to improve things since the well publicized disturbances of 2001. Things are by no means perfect, but it's certainly a lot better than, say, 20 years ago. There are occasional " local difficulties " between the Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage communities, however ... Obviously, this is my own interpretation after living here for over 30 years, I'd be interested to hear any other views .. It's not really related to this particular topic, but if you don't mind me asking, which ward do you live in? I'm just interested in how many of the myriad hues of local campaigns Burnley's seen that you've encountered first-hand. |
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Post by ideal4radio on Sept 27, 2019 18:39:44 GMT
I've lived in Whittlefield with Ightenhill for over 20 years, previously in Briercliffe, my wife grew up in Rosegrove and Lowerhouse, and her mother still lives there ...
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Post by owainsutton on Sept 27, 2019 19:17:46 GMT
Ta  No shortage of different parties to have encountered, then! |
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Post by ideal4radio on Sept 27, 2019 19:29:01 GMT
Ta No shortage of different parties to have encountered, then! From memory .... Con, Lab, L/D, UKIP, Green, BNP, Burnley & Padiham Independents, TUSC and several Independents ....  |
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Post by Delighted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 27, 2019 22:21:08 GMT
Why is that relevant? You should be asking how many working class voters there are in the ward compared to middle class voters and maybe questioning ways to widen your appeal to attract more of the former. Perhaps after the Euro elections Labour should be thinking how to appeal to working class voters as well? You did seem to very much focus on the middle class vote in 2017... Abolition of tuition fees and renationalisation of the rail system were our most prominent policies. They help everybody regardless of class,as would a 2nd referendum(which gives people a chance to abolish Brexit ). |
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Post by Merseymike on Sept 27, 2019 22:27:39 GMT
Well I wasn't including it in my point, but then you can say that being Jewish is also a strong indicator of voting behaviour. Obviously if there was a by-election in a ward with a large Jewish population, it would be worth mentioning it , say in the context of a better than otherwise expected Conservative result. So it is here re: Asian Labour voters. To suggest these factors aren't relevant to voting behaviour, or worse to get offended at the obvious statement that they are is, to coin a phrase, humbug True, and a point I have often made. I'd add the proviso, though, that "Asian" without qualification is not the most useful description. South Asian Muslims tend to be pretty solid Labour voters, but Hindus and Sikhs somewhat less so. Depends. Sikhs in Slough and Hindus in Leicester and Southall are quite solidly Labour |
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Post by Delighted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 27, 2019 22:28:25 GMT
Apparently there was one this time. OK, so 37 voters were able to vote Green this time. They hadn't had that option before, so were hardly "returning". Who had they voted for before, if anyone? Who knows and the numbers are hardly significant enough to matter much anyway. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. The Green voters who would vote Green in any other election where there was a Green candidate probably voted tactically Labour before if they voted at all,given that candidate history in the ward. |
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No shortage of different parties to have encountered, then!
