batman
Labour
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Post by batman on Feb 16, 2024 21:16:16 GMT
thank you Mike. I must say, I had thought that she was quite bit older than that but must have misremembered. She was still youngish when she stood in Uxbridge. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Feb 16, 2024 22:54:43 GMT
thank you Mike. I must say, I had thought that she was quite bit older than that but must have misremembered. She was still youngish when she stood in Uxbridge. I knew Manuela in the late 1990s as she was by then one of the stalwarts of Pimlico and Knightsbridge branch Labour Party (and a former councillor for the ward I first stood in). She was indefatigable, but she was absolutely one of those people who could "start a fight in an empty room". One older hand in the local party put this partly down to her status as a former Liberal - he thought she felt she always had to prove her loyalty, and so would never be outflanked on the left. It can't have made her a candidate who attracted more votes. |
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bsjmcr
Non-Aligned
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Post by bsjmcr on Feb 17, 2024 2:50:41 GMT
The stand out there is the relatively small swing in Wakefield, especially given the circumstances of the vacancy. There isn't a great deal of love for Labour in Wakefield district generally, the council is clapped out... most recent local elections have shown their vote tallies remain fairly constant, a lack of organised opposition is to their aid. They desperately need some new blood - rather than recycling the same candidates over and over. Lightwood was chosen ahead of some local candidates who were blocked... so the campaign wasn't particularly enthusiastic from the locals. Tories selected a sitting councillor who was previously group leader, and is again... I think it was at the lower end of reasonable expectations for them. And upper end for Tories. Though maybe a moot point (especially when looking at Wellingborough!) there always seems to have always been a non-negligible Conservative vote in Wakefield over the years and especially compared to Wakefield district’s other constituencies (Hemsworth/NPC) which have had derisory Tory votes pre-Brexit. So while the ‘Red Wall’ cliche may apply to Wakefield in terms of continuous tenure since 1931, it had pretty much been marginal since 2010 and even 2005, though from ‘97-10 the Tory vote may have been bolstered by having two of Kriklees’ more rural wards tagged on. In 1983 they only held on by 360 votes. I don’t know how much of the post-2005 results are down to Mary Creagh who though I do like personally for her service on environmental issues, was perhaps a bit of an odd fit for the area and a bit ‘intellectual’, though so is Cooper but that didn’t do her any harm pre-Brexit, I guess a lot more Labour-in-their-DNA voters there whereas in Wakefield the Labour vote may have been soft / there has always been a stubborn Tory vote. Mary Creagh meanwhile appears to have literally been sent to Coventry… jokes aside it does have a bigger student/academic base which should stand her in good stead and probably a cabinet position if she is indeed selected. |
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Feb 19, 2024 11:04:50 GMT
There isn't a great deal of love for Labour in Wakefield district generally, the council is clapped out... most recent local elections have shown their vote tallies remain fairly constant, a lack of organised opposition is to their aid. They desperately need some new blood - rather than recycling the same candidates over and over. Lightwood was chosen ahead of some local candidates who were blocked... so the campaign wasn't particularly enthusiastic from the locals. Tories selected a sitting councillor who was previously group leader, and is again... I think it was at the lower end of reasonable expectations for them. And upper end for Tories. Though maybe a moot point (especially when looking at Wellingborough!) there always seems to have always been a non-negligible Conservative vote in Wakefield over the years and especially compared to Wakefield district’s other constituencies (Hemsworth/NPC) which have had derisory Tory votes pre-Brexit. So while the ‘Red Wall’ cliche may apply to Wakefield in terms of continuous tenure since 1931, it had pretty much been marginal since 2010 and even 2005, though from ‘97-10 the Tory vote may have been bolstered by having two of Kriklees’ more rural wards tagged on. In 1983 they only held on by 360 votes. I don’t know how much of the post-2005 results are down to Mary Creagh who though I do like personally for her service on environmental issues, was perhaps a bit of an odd fit for the area and a bit ‘intellectual’, though so is Cooper but that didn’t do her any harm pre-Brexit, I guess a lot more Labour-in-their-DNA voters there whereas in Wakefield the Labour vote may have been soft / there has always been a stubborn Tory vote. Mary Creagh meanwhile appears to have literally been sent to Coventry… jokes aside it does have a bigger student/academic base which should stand her in good stead and probably a cabinet position if she is indeed selected. The other two Wakefield constituencies are historical mining seats with the lack a strong Tory base that implies. Wakefield on the other hand was always based primarily on the town, except when it included Royston (and it was much more strongly Labour then.) The town had an existence separate from the mining industry and there's a widespread pattern of such seats (Darlington and Doncaster Central are two other examples) being less strong for Labour than their more rural surrounds. |
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Post by robert1 on Feb 19, 2024 11:31:20 GMT
Walked into Portcullis House this morning and the first person I saw was the new MP for Kingswood being briefed by badge messengers. I interrupted the conversation. Former MP for Kingswood congratulated the new one. We agreed we have a lot to discuss at some stage soon.
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mrtoad
Labour
He is a toad. Who knows what a toad thinks?
Posts: 424
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Post by mrtoad on Feb 20, 2024 11:48:56 GMT
Walked into Portcullis House this morning and the first person I saw was the new MP for Kingswood being briefed by badge messengers. I interrupted the conversation. Former MP for Kingswood congratulated the new one. We agreed we have a lot to discuss at some stage soon. This is nice - as Philip Cowley commented on Twitter, Kingswood has a history of good chaps as its MPs. I became intrigued by the complex history of the boundaries of 'Kingswood' - hard to imagine the seat Robert represented in 1983-92 voting Conservative even in a pretty good election for them now. |
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The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 38,889
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Post by The Bishop on Feb 20, 2024 11:52:55 GMT
Similarly, there were some who feared Bristol NW might be lost to Labour for good after the 1987 GE. Even the 2010 result there looks literally incredible now.
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Feb 20, 2024 12:19:40 GMT
Similarly, there were some who feared Bristol NW might be lost to Labour for good after the 1987 GE. Even the 2010 result there looks literally incredible now. Bristol became so Tory in the 80s (the period when I was 'socialised' - you too I guess) that I was shocked to see that Labour had carried the city in 1979 (which was revealed in the city breakdowns they used to do in the Appendices of the Times Guide) |
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