Wakefield

[gwynthegriff]

Apr 15, 2022 18:29:19 GMT aargauer said:

How does a British person develop an expertise in hanging? It's not like there's an apprenticeship followed by standard career progression in that area.

Day release?

[Clark]

Wakefield South (now Rural) was one of the safest Tory divisions in Yorkshire many moons ago (maybe still is) and I believe used to be in Hemsworth rather awkwardly. Assume a high turnout there may help Tory hold causes but I'd suspect an unconvincing Labour gain on a poor turnout

And Election Calculus have the Conservatives just carrying this ward on current polling over Labour! Hmmm.

[greatkingrat]

Who needs Mary Creagh anyway?

[johnloony]

Apr 15, 2022 14:44:52 GMT Rutlander said:

What the actual ... ?
"Tony Homewood, a Conservative councillor in Wakefield who acted as Ahmad Khan's election agent in 2019 and previously worked as an “execution consultant” in the US to teach prison staff to hang inmates ..."

More on this (from 2017) www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/death-penalty_uk_591c57b9e4b0ed14cddb06a6

What does your question “What the actual?” mean?

There is of course no possibility that you are asking if the report is broadly true or accurate. Every single person on this forum has always known, ever since he first mentioned it several years ago, that Armchair is an expert on how to hang people.

I think it is a noble and praiseworthy activity. If the legal and political establishment of the USA has decided that it wants to kill people, I would prefer them to do it properly and humanely and by a professional method, rather than by messing it up with incompetence, inefficiency and in a way which leaves the executed person choking, twitching, decapitated, or writhing in pain because the wrong chemical has been administered into their veins.

[CatholicLeft]

Apr 15, 2022 20:20:33 GMT greatkingrat said:

Who needs Mary Creagh anyway?

Probably not as stupid an idea as it first appears, he is popular in ways he wasn't in government. He seems to have achieved a hinterland that he previously lacked (beyond the dancing malarkey), is quick on his feet and is no longer the ingenue whose whole life experience was as a political backroom boy.
However, I doubt he would be interested.

[batman]

Apr 15, 2022 20:08:30 GMT Clark said:

Wakefield South (now Rural) was one of the safest Tory divisions in Yorkshire many moons ago (maybe still is) and I believe used to be in Hemsworth rather awkwardly. Assume a high turnout there may help Tory hold causes but I'd suspect an unconvincing Labour gain on a poor turnout

And Election Calculus have the Conservatives just carrying this ward on current polling over Labour! Hmmm.

as has been mentioned by others previously, it still is in the Hemsworth constituency, not in the Wakefield seat. The Tory vote derives from areas outside the town of Wakefield itself particularly Ossett.

Labour I believe won Wakefield South ward in 1995 on somewhat different boundaries, but normally it is a safe Tory ward.

[bsjmcr]

Apr 15, 2022 20:08:30 GMT Clark said:

Wakefield South (now Rural) was one of the safest Tory divisions in Yorkshire many moons ago (maybe still is) and I believe used to be in Hemsworth rather awkwardly. Assume a high turnout there may help Tory hold causes but I'd suspect an unconvincing Labour gain on a poor turnout

I would guess turnout to be in line with Batley and Spen (47.5%). Would be surprised if it ends up being significantly lower, but equally I was surprised that North Shropshire was also below half (similar to B&S, and indeed Peterborough) showing that the MP resigning in negative/controversial circumstances doesn't necessarily do much to boost turnout compared to a by election called due to a 'technicality', e.g. being elected to another office, a la B&S, Airdry or the worst example, Manchester Central. But of course B&S was hotly contested and in summer, I assume turnout was depressed in NS partly due to it being in the middle of winter. 

As for Balls, I wonder how many in Ossett and Horbury might remember him as their MP as he would have served them from 2005-10 as part of the old 'Normanton' constituency. My guess is not many as I'm sure the general view in 2015 from constituents (well, the usual vox pops I saw) was 'we don't see him round here'...

[Deleted]

[bjornhattan]

Apr 16, 2022 6:51:26 GMT @boogieeck said:

One if five people work in Wholesale?

That 19.1% figure appears to be the proportion who work in "Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles". The lion's share of that will be retail as opposed to wholesale, but presumably whoever made the table just saw wholesale and lazily abbreviated the industry name to that.

[arnieg]

Apr 15, 2022 13:28:38 GMT timmullen1 said:

And were those people pleading with her to stand from Islington by any chance?

[willpower3]

David Miliband or Tony Blair as Labour candidates would be more fun than Balls, and probably lead to another Galloway candidacy.

None of these three are likely in actuality but that doesn't stop journos wet dreaming about it.

[batman]

We could get into a time machine and transport ourselves to a by-election somewhere in England in 100 years and the press, if there still is a press, will still be speculating that David Miliband might put his hat in the ring for Labour

[cogload]

Why would Blair give up a zillion a year Job with the influence it has to stand for parliament in Yorkshire?

[Merseymike]

Apr 16, 2022 9:47:11 GMT cogload said:

Why would Blair give up a zillion a year Job with the influence it has to stand for parliament in Yorkshire?

I wonder why there is always the assumption that a retread is needed for a by- election? It certainly didn't work for Labour in Hartlepool.

[The Bishop]

Apr 16, 2022 9:55:03 GMT Merseymike said:

Apr 16, 2022 9:47:11 GMT cogload said:

Why would Blair give up a zillion a year Job with the influence it has to stand for parliament in Yorkshire?

I wonder why there is always the assumption that a retread is needed for a by- election? It certainly didn't work for Labour in Hartlepool.

And that candidate was actually local (of course that didn't turn out to be a plus once they got blamed for the local hospital getting downgraded)

[batman]

it tends to be a most prevalent assumption when there has been a large number of defeated candidates in the previous election but yes, it's an odd assumption given that it is fairly rare. But in the 1966-70 Parliament several defeated Tory MPs found their way back into Parliament via by-elections - Chris Chataway & Julian Amery come to mind straight away

[The Bishop]

Apr 16, 2022 8:05:42 GMT willpower3 said:

David Miliband or Tony Blair as Labour candidates would be more fun than Balls, and probably lead to another Galloway candidacy.

None of these three are likely in actuality but that doesn't stop journos wet dreaming about it.

Quite apart from anything else, it shows just how hackneyed and unoriginal most of them are.

[peterl]

Let's go one better. Miliband for Labour, and Blair can show his true colours and stand as a Tory. Then we only need Galloway to join the Lib Dems and the whole circus can be complete.

[bigfatron]

Apr 16, 2022 11:38:25 GMT peterl said:

Let's go one better. Miliband for Labour, and Blair can show his true colours and stand as a Tory. Then we only need Galloway to join the Lib Dems and the whole circus can be complete.

I don't think Gorgeous George would be remotely at home in the Lib Dems... much more likely to come right around the back and join Reform...

[heslingtonian]

Apr 16, 2022 10:17:05 GMT batman said:

it tends to be a most prevalent assumption when there has been a large number of defeated candidates in the previous election but yes, it's an odd assumption given that it is fairly rare. But in the 1966-70 Parliament several defeated Tory MPs found their way back into Parliament via by-elections - Chris Chataway & Julian Amery come to mind straight away

It happened a lot in the 1979-83 Parliament, Teddy Taylor, Tim Smith and Richard Page all being examples.