There is a mystery about the media coverage of the Newark by-election result. The most interesting thing about it was the abysmal failure of the official opposition, just one year ahead of a general election. The New Labour percentage vote actually dropped, and even just taking the New Labour v Tory vote, the New Labour swing from Tory was only 2 per cent. That is an almost unprecedentedly poor performance by an opposition in a by-election at this stage in a parliament, and a very, very plain indication of what was already obvious – that Miliband is not going to be entering the door of No. 10.
Yet Sky News, the BBC and the Guardian have virtually nothing to say about New Labour’s disastrous result. Both Sky and the BBC this morning managed to give their analysis on the by-election without even mentioning New Labour at all. What can be the cause of this reticence? Is it that they are not anxious to point out to Scots that their choice is independence or more Tory government?
Yes. It’s all D Day and the Derby.
The only item of interest ref Newark was the higher than normal turnout percentage but Agent Cameron and his followers did make dozens of visits.
Wonder what Mercer has found to occupy his leisure time? Did he go off with the usual retiring MP’s payoff?
Newark by-election: result in full
Robert Jenrick (Con) 17,431 (45.03%, -8.82%)
Roger Helmer (UKIP) 10,028 (25.91%, +22.09%)
Michael Payne (Lab) 6,842 (17.68%, -4.65%)
Paul Baggaley (Ind) 1,891 (4.89%)
David Kirwan (Green) 1,057 (2.73%)
David Watts (LD) 1,004 (2.59%, -17.41%)
Nick The Flying Brick (Loony) 168 (0.43%)
Andy Hayes (Ind) 117 (0.30%)
David Bishop (BP Elvis) 87 (0.22%)
Dick Rodgers (Stop Banks) 64 (0.17%)
Lee Woods (Pat Soc) 18 (0.05%)
Con majority 7,403 (19.13%)
15.46% swing Con to UKIP
Electorate 73,486; Turnout 38,707 (52.67%, -18.69%)
What a lot of lost deposits!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27728789
Mary
Well done, first one in!
“The only item of interest ref Newark was the higher than normal turnout percentage”
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What I find interesting, Mary, is the total vote of the parties whose ideas you and your fellow Eminences would probably share (Green/Stop Banks/Pat Soc) and which must surely have been attractive alternatives in these hard and grim times – all of 1139, of which the Greens took 1057.
Venceremos……but not quite yet, eh 🙂
Unfortunately it won’t be Left Unity in Number 10. However this by-election result is not likely to have any bearing on the General Election – they rarely do. That is one reason I would not write Miliband off. The other, probably more telling, is if you add the combined UKIP and Tory vote it is less than it was in 2010 when there was a 71% turnout as opposed to 53% at this one. Traditionally Labour supporters do not vote in by-elections whereas Tories always vote in all elections, and presumably UKIP will too if it ever establishes itself in the House of Commons.
On early shift Habba? Is this the only job you have? Why don’t you start your own blog and take all your fans with you ?
Here are the By Election and 2010 G E results from the Guardian.
Full results of the 2014 Newark byelection
Robert Jenrick (C) 17,431 (45.03%, -8.82%)
Roger Helmer (Ukip) 10,028 (25.91%, +22.09%)
Michael Payne (Lab) 6,842 (17.68%, -4.65%)
Paul Baggaley (Ind) 1,891 (4.89%)
David Kirwan (Green) 1,057 (2.73%)
David Watts (LD) 1,004 (2.59%, -17.41%)
Nick The Flying Brick (Loony) 168 (0.43%)
Andy Hayes (Ind) 117 (0.30%)
David Bishop (BP Elvis) 87 (0.22%)
Dick Rodgers (Stop Banks) 64 (0.17%)
Lee Woods (Pat Soc) 18 (0.05%)
C maj 7,403 (19.13%)
15.46% swing C to UKIP
Electorate 73,486; Turnout 38,707 (52.67%, -18.69%)
Newark results in the 2010 general election
Con: 27,590
Lab: 11,438
Lib Dem: 10,246
Ukip: 1,954
Con majority: 16,152
Turnout: 71.4%
John Goss
While it is true that by-election results rarely are reflected in the general election, the bias is entirely in one direction – they exaggerate the swing to the opposition and against the government. That is why the result is disastrous for New Labour. If New Labour had taken Newark, it could have been written off as just a by-election swing. The absence of a significant wing to New Labour cannot be written off.
It won’t come as a surprise to many of you professional lurkers & posters on this forum but British telephone company Vodafone today revealed their transparency report on the 20+ countries where they operate.
The quantity of judicially approved/ministerially approved intercepts was given for most EU nations (e.g. for Italy was over 600,000 intercepts in 2013, New Zealand was 34)
For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, according to the world press, the UK government have instead direct – “secret wire” access to the Vodafone (world’s second largest after China Telecom) and other networks.
This implies, de facto, that it is beyond reasonable doubt that all intra-journalistic communications is/has-been/will-be intercepted in the UK; and similarly de facto, that it is beyond reasonable doubt that all privileged legal communications is/has-been/will-be intercepted in the UK. Someone in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has a massive amount of information (along the lines of The Droitwich based Consulting Association ?)
That the BBC, SKY – UK media in general fail to objectively report ANYTHING ANYMORE could be due to consequential extreme levels of blackmail to individual employees, could be due to hints dropped to the management by the establishment, could be due to malfeasance, could be as simple as self-censorship and pension-watching.
Nobbled? what are the countermeasures?, the media-canaries?
Well observed until your final sentence, which is a conspiracy too far. The real reason for the biased coverage is, of course, that the BBC, Graun and incresaingly Sky are all Labour, through and through.
In any case your conspiracy doesn’t work because you’ve previously claimed the BBC gives far too much airtime to Farage, whom you maintain is a poster boy for Scottish independence.
Habbabkuk 3:44 pm
I should imagine the parties you list are a bit right-wing or “fascisti” for Mary.
Could you recalculate the total votes for the far-left in these times of austerity?
They ARE all in it together.
The new MP. A solicitor and a previous director of Christies the auctioneers.
‘During the Newark by-election campaign, Jenrick was criticized for being “too rich”, as he and his wife had been reported as owning property worth £6.4 million. Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, defended Jenrick, insisting that being successful was nothing to be ashamed of. Jenrick himself commented that he might have three homes, but that “doesn’t mean I don’t know about life on the breadline”.
The Jenricks bought the Grade I listed Eye Manor in Eye, Herefordshire, for £1.1 million in 2009. They also own a £2.8 million house in Vincent Square, Westminster, and a £2.1 million flat in Marylebone, apart from renting a property in Southwell.’
Nice.
“On early shift Habba? Is this the only job you have? Why don’t you start your own blog and take all your fans with you ?”
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What’s it to you, Drago (or whatever your usual handle is..)?
Use Habbabreak if you don’t like it, chump.
“I should imagine the parties you list are a bit right-wing or “fascisti” for Mary.
Could you recalculate the total votes for the far-left in these times of austerity?”
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No, Anon, I shan’t do that because I am a fundamentally kind person and should not wish to cause Mary more pain than she is already experiencing.
Honestly! 🙂
Mary
I refer to your comment which starts as follows:
“They ARE all in it together.
The new MP. A solicitor and a previous director of Christies the auctioneers.”
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I am – as so often – unable to make sense of your comment.
Please help.
Who are the “they” and what is the “it” in which “they” are all together?
Thanks.
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La vita è bella, life is good!
The independent in fourth place, who so nearly kept his deposit, was campaigning on an “I like the local hospital” platform.
Lib Dems: Tactical voting to blame
Lib Dem Danny Alexander says many people voted for other parties to “keep UKIP out”, explaining their sixth place in the Newark by-election.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27728784
LOL lots.
Just as in the Norwich North by-election that saw Chloe of Newsnight fame exposed as an inexperienced woman placed into the Conservative party by her ex employers, this election saw hundreds of outside young helpers bussed in, something that Conservatives have to do as they must get their voters out.
These young things are only there to deliver tons of paper and entice new voters into the fold. They are always prim and properly dressed, told to smile, the young ideologically indoctrinated.
“These young things are only there to deliver tons of paper and entice new voters into the fold. They are always prim and properly dressed, told to smile, the young ideologically indoctrinated.”
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Dear oh dear, what a grim, sour and joyless outlook on life you have, Nebelmind!
Of course they’re there to distribute leaflets and so on – they’re junior helpers, not indoctrinators or propagandists.
As for the “prim and properly dressed” bit, I’m surprised you didn’t add “polite” to the charge sheet. Perhaps you have something against people who smile.
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In conclusion, Nebelmind, I think you should get a life. To help you do so, I'(ll give you a double dose of
La vita è bella, life is good!
La vita è bella, life is good!
Love the poppy red, Anon.
The reason the Tories will be kicked out is Cameron bewailing Miliband’s reply to the Queen’s speech, viz that he has good left wing credentials and the snotty rich’s gravy train will rapidly come under pressure if he comes to power.
Cameron’s dinosaur mind can only conceive of the billionaire swindlers’ existence. he cannot conceive of being in debt over your heads because the Tories refused to invest in the economy for five years in order to bring the price of labour down to Victorian penury.
The rebel vote for UKIP will turn into a massive swing against this revolting opiate-cocktail elite which only came to power because equally snotty public school boy Nick Clegg snuffed out the Liberal party in order to shoehorn the Thatcherites into power.
I never bought into Thatcherism when it was fashionable to do so. We have seen the whole world banking system collapse under her criminal idea. Failed trash, complete, illogical, ideological tripe. The cat is out of the bag. The elite can create a recession while out of office in order to get their opponents out of power, and they can magic a recovery 12 months before an election.
They really do think we are idiots. And some of us are!
Yet another post setting out what the Scottish Nationalist position isn’t an what it is against. I’m afraid this is all too reminiscent of how the Lib Dems campaigned and once we got into power it has become all too evident of the lack of values and principles at the core. How about a few positive arguments for Scottish independence – bit by all means carry on in your current vein it won’t win many votes however.
Quite telling that Peter Hain is getting out.
Peter Hain to stand down as an MP at next election
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27742136
Some highs and lows in his political life. Best remembered for his stand against apartheid of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hain
“Quite telling that Peter Hain is getting out.”
Might have something with him being 65 next year and not even being a shadow minister.
“These young things are only there to deliver tons of paper and entice new voters into the fold. They are always prim and properly dressed, told to smile, the young ideologically indoctrinated.”
Of course you could be scruffy and scowl at people and have the electoral success of the far left parties favoured by many here. My Grandfather always insisted that I dressed smartly, not to rattle the letter box, shut gates and always to say good evening to those I met when delivering leaflets for the Party – voters want someone who will represent their better features not their worst.
fair comment indeed Craig.
One does wonder why events are either omitted or under-reported.
Looking at the numbers just shows UKIP to be growing and all major parties losing.
Libdems are becoming irrelevant and Labour seem to be losing it altogether.
Conservatives and Libdems both have shed 10,000 voters since 2010.
Wonder when they’ll give us electtronic voting so’s they can improve on proxy voting to get the results they want ?
Mary – looking at that Wikipedia article on Hain.
“In October 2000 he set up a war avoidance team to carry messages back and forth between himself and the then-Minister of Foreign Affairs in Iraq, Tariq Aziz (a matter then confidential, which has since been put on public record in an interview with Hain by the Today programme)”
Right… and then he went on to vote for Iraq invasion. Joining the other members of cabinet who decided other people’s lives weren’t as important as their own career crawl.
Je
I used to like Peter Hain when he was a Liberal, at least he talked the talk. When he joined New Labour he changed as easily as changing your socks. What a nerd.
Also there’s that gem of a story about him going out to Africa in “The Catholic Orangemen of Togo . . .” purporting to be a vegetarian. All the lovely special food, that can hardly be found anywhere in Africa, or so they say, prepared specially for his quirky diet. He rejects in favour of lion meat, zebra and monkey balls. I’ve used a bit of writers’ licence here. Sorry Craig. You tell it so much better.
A couple of possibilities: a) As Labour were never going to win, the story was always going to be about who came second
b) Everyone knows Miliband isn’t cutting the mustard, and Tory-supporting newspapers don’t want him kicked out before the election
One thing is clear – Labour cannot win the election when they start coming third in some constituencies.
Spot on, Je!
And there was another influential group who was anti-war before and after Iraq war but had a miraculous “about face” immediately before the invasion. They know who they are!
Re. Hain : “Best remembered for his stand against apartheid of course.”
Nah. Remembered for being Blair’s stooge, putting a “right-on” face to the neo-con wars of aggression, for pretending that an illegal invasion and occupation was somehow a Good Thing. And hey – we’re putting an anti-apartheid frontman out there to sell this bill of goods to you dupes!
Hain is a worthless sell-out, a stooge, a traitor and a liar. He is the lipstick on the neo-con pig. He undid anything useful in his life, by facilitating a war of choice – in the furtherance of the ultimate crime, in the judgement at Nuremberg. Hain used his once proud reputation, to limit the credibility of the opposition to our wars.
Were he tomorrow to personally save 1000 kittens/old ladies/babies from a burning building, it would wash very little blood from his hands.
Dramatic weather here this morning. Thunder and forked lightning and a large persisting rainbow overhead with heavy rain.
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Saw this. V. droll and not at all amusing knowing their background.
CIA sends out first tweet – and shows it has a sense of humour
Agency says ‘we can neither confirm nor deny that this our first tweet’ as it officially joins Twitter and Facebook
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/cia-twitter-first-tweet
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