By-elections - 11th July 2013

[lancastrian]

Jul 11, 2013 22:42:54 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Goronwy Edwards (Annibynnol) yn ol ar gyngor Conwy heno ar ol is-etholiad Caerhun. Ail-ddyfodiad diddorol.

Numbers?

[lancastrian]

Not knowing any Welsh(other than araf on all the roads) I am assuming that post means he's been elected.

[Robert Waller]

Jul 11, 2013 22:46:24 GMT Robert Waller said:

Jul 11, 2013 22:42:54 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Goronwy Edwards (Annibynnol) yn ol ar gyngor Conwy heno ar ol is-etholiad Caerhun. Ail-ddyfodiad diddorol.

Goronwy Edwards (Independent) back on tonight after Conwy council by-election Caerhun. Re-entrant interesting.

I say again ...

[lancastrian]

Sorry, but do you know on which, if any, webpage the result may be found on?

[Merseymike]

Emma Daniel, The Labour and Co-operative Party, 1396 votes - 40%
David Gibson, Green Party, 1358 votes - 39%
Robert Knight, Conservative Party 275 votes - 8%
Patricia Mountain, UKIP 250 votes - 7%
Phil Clarke, Trade Union and Socialists Against Cuts, 172 votes 5%
Lev Eakins, Liberal Democrats, 56 votes - 2%

[marksenior]

The absence of the student vote now on summer holidays may well have cost Greens this seat though as I have posted before Hanover in particular has a large academic population who teach at the various Brighton/Sussex universities and colleges .

[mrhell]

So we have a tie in Brighton between the mangos and the watermelons.

[Devonian]

Just been reading the blog.scrapperduncan.com/ blog. 'Scrapper Duncan' is a watermelon blogger, someone who frankly comes across as a rather humourless Dave Spart type (not saying all watermelons are like that but he is). Through the election campaign he has been writing a series of blog posts where he explains that he had been friends with the Labour candidate Emma Daniel and could exclusively reveal to his readers that 1/ she wasn't a trade unionist and 2/ was wasn't a hard left political obsessive like him. If you look at his blog posts you will see he was convinced that these 'revelations' would scupper the Labour campaign, rather than just making him look like a whiny backstabber.

Now some people think that this blogger may have just earned a few extra votes for Labour. From twitter

Dan Wilson ‏@wilsondan
Wonder if @scrapperduncan and his winning smile, jolly approach, clubbable style won it for Labour?

Caroline Penn ‏@thepennydrops
On behalf of everyone in BHLabour, I would like to thank @scrapperduncan for our fantastic #LabourGain in #HEG13.

Scrapperduncan however is convinced that someone else is to blame. This is his latest blog post

This is Pete West and Jason Kitcat, in a central Brighton pub right now. The rest of us Green Party members are down in the mouth, following the defeat of our trades union activist candidate by New Labour’s Emma Daniel. Check out Mr Kitcat’s demeanor. He was asked to stay away from the campaign. Everyone in the pub, bar Mr West, is asking why he’s with us. Labour is celebrating tonight. Mr Kitcat’s joining them in spirit. He’s virtually never in a pub, let alone after midnight. Tomorrow, unless very significant people in the Green Party force Mr Kitcat’s hand, persuading him to step down, there will be mass resignations. The point about politics is to offer a choice, not bum lick your way to corporate success.

Now I suspect that both of them played a role in the Labour victory but of course the largest role would have been played by Mr Kitkat. I would also be amazed in Duncan is the only person in the Green party feeling angry and bitter about this. I suspect some may indeed resign whilst others may stick around to kick up a fuss at the Green party conference (in Brighton) in two months time. It remains to be seen whether this will have much effect or whether most of them might instead just grumble and not do much about it.

[andrea]

Jul 12, 2013 6:38:34 GMT Devonian said:

following the defeat of our trades union activist candidate by New Labour’s Emma Daniel.

One of the early rumblings at the beginning of the campaign was that the Labour woman wasn't a trade union member because she feared her employing company wouldn't like it.

[greatkingrat]

Caerhun figures
Ind 321, Con 170, PC 162, Lab 109

[Pimpernal]

Imagine the Greens would have lost a handful of 'none of you' votes to UKIP too...

[gwynthegriff]

Jul 12, 2013 6:38:34 GMT Devonian said:

Just been reading the blog.scrapperduncan.com/ blog. 'Scrapper Duncan' is a watermelon blogger, someone who frankly comes across as a rather humourless Dave Spart type (not saying all watermelons are like that but he is). Through the election campaign he has been writing a series of blog posts where he explains that he had been friends with the Labour candidate Emma Daniel and could exclusively reveal to his readers that 1/ she wasn't a trade unionist and 2/ was wasn't a hard left political obsessive like him. If you look at his blog posts you will see he was convinced that these 'revelations' would scupper the Labour campaign, rather than just making him look like a whiny backstabber.

Now some people think that this blogger may have just earned a few extra votes for Labour. From twitter

Dan Wilson ‏@wilsondan
Wonder if @scrapperduncan and his winning smile, jolly approach, clubbable style won it for Labour?

Caroline Penn ‏@thepennydrops
On behalf of everyone in BHLabour, I would like to thank @scrapperduncan for our fantastic #LabourGain in #HEG13.

Scrapperduncan however is convinced that someone else is to blame. This is his latest blog post

This is Pete West and Jason Kitcat, in a central Brighton pub right now. The rest of us Green Party members are down in the mouth, following the defeat of our trades union activist candidate by New Labour’s Emma Daniel. Check out Mr Kitcat’s demeanor. He was asked to stay away from the campaign. Everyone in the pub, bar Mr West, is asking why he’s with us. Labour is celebrating tonight. Mr Kitcat’s joining them in spirit. He’s virtually never in a pub, let alone after midnight. Tomorrow, unless very significant people in the Green Party force Mr Kitcat’s hand, persuading him to step down, there will be mass resignations. The point about politics is to offer a choice, not bum lick your way to corporate success.

Now I suspect that both of them played a role in the Labour victory but of course the largest role would have been played by Mr Kitkat. I would also be amazed in Duncan is the only person in the Green party feeling angry and bitter about this. I suspect some may indeed resign whilst others may stick around to kick up a fuss at the Green party conference (in Brighton) in two months time. It remains to be seen whether this will have much effect or whether most of them might instead just grumble and not do much about it.

I'm assuming most B&H politics operates at this sub-Student Union politics level?

[gwynthegriff]

Jul 11, 2013 22:42:54 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Goronwy Edwards (Annibynnol) yn ol ar gyngor Conwy heno ar ol is-etholiad Caerhun. Ail-ddyfodiad diddorol.

Ym mha ffordd?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Mae rhai sylwadau yma: thoughtsofoscar.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/cllr%20goronwy%20edwards

[The Bishop]

Nothing from Forest Heath yet?

[obsie]

www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2013-07-12/independent-wins-district-council-by-election/

[Devonian]

Jul 12, 2013 10:34:16 GMT gwynthegriff said:

I'm assuming most B&H politics operates at this sub-Student Union politics level?

It would seem so. Not entirely surprising when the Green candidate admitted one of the reasons he lost was that 'the students were away'!

Here's some analysis from a Brighton Green activist who identifies both the bin strike and the 'Scrapper Duncan' blog as factors in the loss

notesbrokensociety.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/two-ways-greens-lost-the-plot-in-hanover-and-elm-grove/

Here a Brighton Tory councillor identifying the same factors

grahamcox.yourcllr.com/2013/07/12/well-done-councillor-daniel-and-did-mr-roy-cost-the-green-party-victory/

Of course its not just this, the Brighton Green party have argued with themselves about other issues, including the Green Council chopping down trees of all things!

This should have been a sage Green ward. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if all the internal arguments that emerged during the bin strike break out again.

[Devonian]

And here's the New Statesman commenting on the result

www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/07/labour-hopes-defeat-caroline-lucas-after-dramatic-local-election-win-brighton

There was a dramatic local by-election result in Brighton last night, where Labour won a seat off the Greens in the Hanover and Elm Grove Ward, one of the safest in Caroline Lucas's constituency. The party's Emma Daniel took the seat by just 38 votes (1,396 to 1,358) but this represented a huge swing of 11.7% since 2011.

It would be a mistake to read much into the result, a reflection of local discontent with the Green council, which Lucas herself has protested against in response to pay cuts. But it is a reminder that there is no guarantee she will keep her seat in 2015. Lucas currently has a majority of 1,252 (2.4%), with Labour, which held the constituency between 1997 and 2010, in second place.

Brighton Pavilion is one of Labour's 106 target seats (the 19th most marginal on the list) and with a hung parliament looking increasingly likely, the party has no intention of giving her a free run

[Devonian]

Here's the view of the leader of the Labour Group on Brighton council

www.progressonline.org.uk/2013/07/12/the-end-of-the-affair/

and there was this tweet from GMB Sussex branch

Jason Kitcat brought this on the greens in particular the way he treated the unions and city clean workforce

[finsobruce]

Jul 12, 2013 2:11:08 GMT mrhell said:

So we have a tie in Brighton between the mangos and the watermelons.

I've just peeled a ripe mango, which though it started out Green, has now turned mostly red. It is however, still entirely yellow inside. Confusing.

A very good result for Labour, regardless of the fruit politics involved.