|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 7, 2024 15:08:02 GMT
One-time Dutch D66 MEP and Ultra-Europhile darling Sophie in t'Veld has been refused a position on the Dutch Volt party list and has instead surfaced as lead Volt candidate in Belgium. It's not long since she was attempting and failing to be made the boss of Renew. Surely that's old news - Wikipedia says that happened last autumn, and that feels like when I first heard about it. What seems to be the latest news (and that quite possibly a week or so old) is that she has now become co-lead candidate alongside Damian Boeselager of Volt at federal level for the European elections. Goodness knows what that will turn out to mean in practice - I wouldn't have thought that Volt was in a competitive enough position to run one Spitzenkandidat, let alone two of them (presumably as a job share). Old news but not referenced here previously and probably the most senior politician to ever defect to Volt. Candidatures in Belgium were apparently only approved a few weeks ago so previous manoeuvres, including the attempt to run from NL, were purely speculative. Boeslager will probably have a chance of a seat. In t'Veld has no chance, but probably knows that.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 7, 2024 13:51:52 GMT
One-time Dutch D66 MEP and Ultra-Europhile darling Sophie in t'Veld has been refused a position on the Dutch Volt party list and has instead surfaced as lead Volt candidate in Belgium.
It's not long since she was attempting and failing to be made the boss of Renew.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 7, 2024 11:57:56 GMT
At least he's being honest now. It was revealed on the George Osbourne - Ed Balls podcast a few months ago that he would be voting Labour at the next election He'd said similar before, but this must be the first time it's been clear that he's now on the payroll?
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 7, 2024 11:06:09 GMT
At least he's being honest now.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 7, 2024 7:14:59 GMT
There was an article in one of the papers a while back about how some of the Mid Kent villages have become a major target for DFLs. Rusthall rings a bell as being mentioned. The lack of Labour in Paddock Wood East (?) seems odd. Democratic-Farmer-Labor? That would be something. Minnesota lefties taking over Kent!
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 6, 2024 21:23:23 GMT
Not exactly terrible for Labour either, winning councillors in 3 different wards. I've been to Rusthall & am surprised that it seems to have become a Labourish village There was an article in one of the papers a while back about how some of the Mid Kent villages have become a major target for DFLs. Rusthall rings a bell as being mentioned. The lack of Labour in Paddock Wood East (?) seems odd.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 6, 2024 19:04:07 GMT
Only two gains for the Workers Party. The two wards they won, Central Rochdale and Milkstone & Deeplish, are majority Muslim, but they fell short in Kingsway (42% Muslim) and didn't even stand in Smallbridge & Firgrove or Spotland & Falinge (both over 30%). Among the places they did stand though was Littleborough Lakeside, where they received a grand total of 17 votes. The localist loss referred to here I think is in East Middleton, where the sitting councillor was originally elected for the Middleton Independent Party but defected to Labour less than a month later. Littleborough Lakeside must have been an enthusiastic local. Otherwise it is deranged targeting.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 6, 2024 13:32:20 GMT
Sophie Wilmes is back! And she's head of the MR list for the European election.
And on that note, the MR and CD&V have apparently been discussing carving up the leadership of the next government and keeping the PS and NV-A out.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 5, 2024 18:45:29 GMT
A SPD MEP, Matthias Ecke, has been hospitalised after being beaten up whilst putting up posters in Dresden. One teenager has been arrested. The press suspicion is that it was neo-Nazis. A Green activist was assaulted the same day.
Meanwhile, an AfD candidate in Lower Saxony has been assaulted.
There have been a number of such incidents of political figures being harassed or assaulted in recent weeks.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 5, 2024 10:31:58 GMT
In a strange and hamfisted move, the AfD have provoked the fury of Marine Le Pen (and others) by suggesting that France hand Mayotte to the Comoros. They also hadn't checked where she was at the time. She was ...in Mayotte. Oh… here was I thinking that the whole point of Mayotte is that Mayotte is in France because it specifically didn’t want to become part of Comoros in the first place. Maybe a random German politician knows better than I do about what the Mayottians want. Correct. Given that people keep trying to escape the Comoros to Mayotte, nobody there would prefer that setup.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 5, 2024 8:22:27 GMT
In a strange and hamfisted move, the AfD have provoked the fury of Marine Le Pen (and others) by suggesting that France hand Mayotte to the Comoros.
They also hadn't checked where she was at the time. She was ...in Mayotte.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 23:28:20 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 23:14:46 GMT
Poor Coventry, it seems that no one cares about it. That bloody ring road...
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 22:42:19 GMT
Stockton Heath - 2 LD hold LD 1210*/1018* Lab 634 Con 537/440 Culcheth, Glazebury & Croft - 3 Lab gain from Con Lab 1763/1694/1691 Con 1457/1374/1256 Culcheth is the home of Andy Burnham. It's normally quite a good hunting ground for the Tories as it's mega posh.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 22:37:55 GMT
Correction: The Britain First candidate who got beaten by Bin Face. As I feel he should forever be known. I'm thankful to my honourable friend for this correction T-shirt sellers beaten by t-shirt sellers. Just needs Class War for the hat trick.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 22:28:39 GMT
And why is he with Drew Carey?
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 22:20:35 GMT
Laura Evans is a crap candidate but she stood up at short notice to give voters an option.
I think that deserves respect.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 22:05:17 GMT
If that's not proof of how much Trafford has changed in 20 years, nothing is. George Carnall or Frank Eadie would not have accepted that low a Tory vote. Heads would have rolled. What would they have done about this, then?!... Trafford vote in the GM Mayoral: Labour: 64% Conservative: 16% Green: 7% Reform: 6% Independent: 3% Lib Dem: 3%
Not a lot, they've both been dead for 20 years! They'd have been very angry at how the Conservatives failed to bring in new blood - that was how it worked for decades and it worked well. But as I've said before and was getting at, Trafford is unbelievably demographically different to even a decade ago. There can't be a GM borough that has changed so much, surely. Those house prices!
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 18:31:18 GMT
Said it once, I'll say it again... targeting the city centre is consistently a fools errand that distracts from better targets elsewhere. Exclusive to all parties. The pre-coalition Lib Dem wins there were pretty much on national swings, right? That sounds about right. Some of the Labour losses in Wythenshawe as well. It's so strange that resources get thrown at a transient population when you can work a settled population. It feels like parties want a trophy win. When I was on the committee of S&U Conservatives, we frequently refused requests to leaflet the centre. But the local association seemed to have the ear of regional and did manage to force others in.
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 4, 2024 16:42:36 GMT
All in all I think Labour will be relatively relieved with the results, Longsight aside obviously. Holding off the Liberals in Didsbury West was very good work and the Greens falling flat in Piccadilly was a bonus. The flip side is that Ancoats and Woodhouse Park were not even close and now seem lost to Labour for the foreseeable. Now the hard part begins as they defend seats from government in 2026. One imagines a pretty straightforward Lib Dem gain for the third seat in Ancoats next time. Beyond that it will be interesting to see which wards the Libs and Greens chose to target Said it once, I'll say it again... targeting the city centre is consistently a fools errand that distracts from better targets elsewhere. Exclusive to all parties.
|
|