Middlesbrough by-election

First topic message reminder :

Just posted to my blog at http://skwalker1964.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/an-open-letter-to-ed-miliband-on-candidate-selection/:

Dear Ed,

Earlier today, I received an email from Labour’s central office advising that ‘I am afraid you have not been long-listed on this occasion’, in response to my application for selection as Labour’s candidate in the Middlesbrough by-election.

I’ve thought long and hard about whether to write this, and if I did write it, how to make it not just seem like sour grapes – because it isn’t, it really isn’t. I haven’t been a member of the Labour Party for 12 months yet, and I’d been warned by both your regional and national offices that this was likely to torpedo my chances, so even as I wrote my application I was resigning myself to the fact that the chance of success was slim.

So while I’m definitely disappointed and frustrated, I’ll get behind whoever I think is the best candidate at Sunday’s hustings, will get behind the selected candidate even if s/he’s not the one I thought was the best, and I’ll help with campaigning as far as my work allows. So I don’t think I’m just being a bad loser.

I’m a supporter of yours – not without criticism, of course, but what use are ‘yes-men’? I believe that you have the ability to lead Labour back into government and to be really good for this country. So I’m not writing this from an adversarial position either.

So what is my ‘beef’?

Well, just a couple of days ago, it was reported that you had asked John Trickett to find more MPs from a working class background, who are ”not the usual kind of suspects who come from a political professional background”. You’ve also reportedly said that you want more MPs from a business background. And you’ve said you want more MPs who haven’t been through the usual university route

I fit all three of those categories.

I was born in a 2-bedroomed, terraced house in an inner-city neighbourhood of Middlesbrough (yes, the by-election is in the town where I was born and still live, which makes it especially frustrating not to get a sniff). My dad worked at ICI and the steelworks, my mother worked in a baker’s shop, we didn’t have an inside toilet until I was about 10, never had central heating, or a car, and my parents only even got a phone installed after I’d left home to get married. So I definitely think I can legitimately claim to be working class.

I didn’t go to university. Instead, I elected to go straight into the world of work – first for 3 years in a bank, which I detested, and then with a manufacturing company, answering calls in French and German, and working my way up.

Eventually, I moved up into a variety of executive roles – European Sales Director, Vice-President and so on, travelling the world to sell British products to overseas customers. So I think I can definitely claim a business background, too. But I never forgot my working class roots, never forgot that most people aren’t lucky enough to get the breaks I got or to be able to do what I’ve done. I still live only a mile from where I grew up, and I spend time in one of the town’s poorer estates trying to do a bit to help there.

What else do I bring to the table? Well, I speak several languages fluently, so I’d be very good at negotiating with foreign companies to bring inward investment into an area that needs it desperately. I have a high IQ and a certain skill with words and analysis, as the blog where I’m writing this open letter to you shows – I hope, at least.

I also bring passion. I write the blog in my own time and spend pretty much all my free time either writing articles debunking the government’s many lies and misdeeds or else researching so that I can write those articles. I read, watch and listen almost exclusively to material that will inform me so that I can try to help others be informed, because disinformation and propaganda are this government’s main weapons to keep us docile and compliant, and most of the mainstream media collude in it. And, just maybe, so I can inspire a little faith and a little hope that things can actually be better, in a time when most people are either cynical or bored with politics.

I stated all this in my application, as well as including references from a Labour MP and an ex-colleague, and a representative of Unison in the South West wrote in supporting my application, because I’ve written a lot on the assault the NHS is facing in the South West and elsewhere.

What I don’t bring is a 12-month Labour membership. Not yet, at least. I’ve almost always voted Labour and on the one occasion I didn’t, it was because I felt that Labour wasn’t being true to its roots, its history and its duty to fight for ordinary working people.

I joined the party at the beginning of this year, because I felt that it wasn’t enough to agree with Labour principles and hate what this government is doing – that I had to put my time and money where my mouth is. Not long afterwards, I started writing the blog – and people started suggesting that I’d make a good MP. So when Sir Stuart Bell died, I thought, ‘Why not?’ and decided to apply. And quite a number of people even very kindly went to the trouble of writing to your central office saying they should consider my application.

But today I got that email. What makes it especially frustrating is that your ‘Future Candidates Programme’ (yes, I’ve applied for that, too) doesn’t even require you to be a Labour member to apply, just that you’ll join the Party if you’re actually selected to stand somewhere. No mention of a 12-month membership requirement first. So it was a surprise to me that it was likely to be a bar to my application.

Of course, that may not be why my application failed. Maybe all the long-listed candidates are far more suitable than I am. But somehow I don’t think there can have been many from multi-lingual, working class blokes with 24 years of business experience in this country and abroad, a passion for social justice and other Labour values and who aren’t part of the ‘professional political class’.

So, what am I looking for in writing this to you? I’m not looking for a ‘bye’ into the next round. The shortlist interviews are tomorrow in London and I’m miles away from there. The hustings for the final selection are on Sunday, so there’d be no time to canvas for support even if I got onto the shortlist.

I think what I really want to know, Ed, is this: when you said you wanted people from all those different backgrounds, did you really mean it?

I think you did, because I think you’re the kind of bloke who generally says what he means and means what he says. But if you did, your selection people may not have received the memo – and your selection process needs a lot of change before it lines up with your expressed intent.

I hope you did, and I hope you’ll make the changes, and make sure the memo gets through. Because I plan to try again (it’s just a pity it won’t be for my home-town seat). I think I can do some good and offer something good to the people I’ll be serving.

And I think there’s a lot of us out there – working class, non-graduates, businesspeople or all three – who can help make things better for the people this government is intent on screwing, and of whom the Tories will be scared witless because we know what’s really happening on the ground and, often, what’s really happening in the business world as well, and we know how to nail the lies they thrive on.

If you think the same or just fancy a chat, feel free to get in touch!

Yours very sincerely,

Steve

Cameron Deals with that Error

( telegraph.co.uk)

" This is an innocent mistake which any Tory who couldn't care less about the plebs in that area could make . Where is this Middlesbruff, anyway...?"

Redflag wrote:Another good post skywalker, and very true but not very funny for the people of Middlesbrough, I hope you make sure the residents of Middlesbrough see this and then they can let the bloody tories get the rough end of there tongue for being so EFFING NASTY.

I'm doing my best - I've tweeted every Middlesbrough- or Teesside-related account I can find, including the @eveninggazette, @teestweets, @lovembro and a host of football-club related ones, as well as Facebooking it. Hope to make sure to screw down any vestigial Tory vote to the minimum and help get a good turnout and maximum majority!

Phil Hornby wrote:Cameron Deals with that Error

( telegraph.co.uk)

" This is an innocent mistake which any Tory who couldn't care less about the plebs in that area could make . Where is this Middlesbruff, anyway...?"

Loving it!

skwalker1964 wrote:

Phil Hornby wrote:Cameron Deals with that Error

( telegraph.co.uk)

" This is an innocent mistake which any Tory who couldn't care less about the plebs in that area could make . Where is this Middlesbruff, anyway...?"

Loving it!

I have to use this on my blog! Only proper that we allow the Tories a right to reply...

Phil Hornby wrote:Cameron Deals with that Error

( telegraph.co.uk)

" This is an innocent mistake which any Tory who couldn't care less about the plebs in that area could make . Where is this Middlesbruff, anyway...?"

More than likely PH he would not be able to point the way to his own A**E HOLE.

More than likely PH he would not be able to point the way to his own A**E HOLE.

Red, Just take a look at his thumb.

bobby wrote:More than likely PH he would not be able to point the way to his own A**E HOLE.

Red, Just take a look at his thumb.

Sorry bobby do not get what your trying to say, maybe I'm not awake yet??

bobby wrote:Good morning Red, He has his thunb pointing almost directly at his arse hole. You know the hole where all his verbal Diarrhoea emanates from.

What you saying is he opens his mouth and his A**E does the talking, am I awake now bobby.

Redflag wrote:

bobby wrote:Good morning Red, He has his thunb pointing almost directly at his arse hole. You know the hole where all his verbal Diarrhoea emanates from.

What you saying is he opens his mouth and his A**E does the talking, am I awake now bobby.

I don't know about all this pointing and talking, but I gather he quite often wipes his elbow afterward...

skwalker1964 wrote:

Redflag wrote:Another good post skywalker, and very true but not very funny for the people of Middlesbrough, I hope you make sure the residents of Middlesbrough see this and then they can let the bloody tories get the rough end of there tongue for being so EFFING NASTY.

I'm doing my best - I've tweeted every Middlesbrough- or Teesside-related account I can find, including the @eveninggazette, @teestweets, @lovembro and a host of football-club related ones, as well as Facebooking it. Hope to make sure to screw down any vestigial Tory vote to the minimum and help get a good turnout and maximum majority!

You are the best weapon the Labour party has skywalker when it comes too the by-election in Middlesbrough, so keep up the good work and more power to your elbow, I wish I lived near you so that I could join in all the bloody fun

Thank you, mate! I've been out door-knocking and leafleting too - can't neglect the basics but I think I probably grasp the new media potential as well as anyone. Would love to know how many votes I've helped swing but have to take it on faith lol

I know you will have helped the Labour party pick up plenty of votes, have you seen the polls for the by-election for Corby ? Labour 54% Tory 32% L/Ds 6% others 8% but keep your fingers crossed skywalker just the same I will have bitten my nails down to the knuckles by the time we get the results, then it will be the same on the 29th Nov.

Thank you. Great news from Corby - let's hope they get a good turnout that reflects these figures. Unfortunately, Labour have managed to make a pig's ear of the Rotherham selection by the sound of it - I hope that once they get over their indignation the local members will still get out and campaign. Any Labour candidate is better than a Tory or LibDum.

The most interesting of todays by-elections must surely be the one in Manchester Central, not because of who may win ( that is fairly obvious ), but because of what might happen to second place and third place.

The 2010 result was : Lab 21,059 LibDem 10,620 Con 4,704

The way things are and if opinion polls are even remotely correct, the Lib Dem vote is going to colapse here, the tories are very unpopular and so the question is where are all the disgruntled, unhappy voters going to switch to.

The obvious place for the majority of Lib Dem voters is Labour, green would have been another choice but there is no candidate.

The disaffected Conservatives in my opinion wil probably mostly go to UKIP.
My prediction for the Manchester result is Labour win with an increased majority and an increased share of the vote, the Lib Dems will probably stay in second place but with a huge decrease in votes, and I stick my neck out here and predict that the Conservatives will end up been close to losing their deposit.

The minor parties: UKIP will do well and could challenge the Conservatives for third place, not sure about the BNP because the party is falling apart, I reckon they will come out of this with less votes.

Let us hope WF that the Tory and L/d share of the vote shrinks to next to nothing, I would rather see the independents get more votes than the Tories or L/Ds I would not like to see the UKIP party they are just as bad as the Tory party and more to the right than the Tories, so just lets just hope that Labour get the larger share in votes with all the elections taking place today 15th.

Manchester Central

Labour 11,507 71.9% +19.2%
Lib Dem 1,571 9.8% -16.8%
Con 754 4.7% - 7.1%
UKIP 749 4.7% +3.2%
BNP 492 3.1% -1.0%

That will do very nicely thankyou - I feel fairly pleased with my prediction, and especialy as the Tories did infact lose their deposit.

Cardiff south and Penarth

Lab 9,193 47.3% +8.4%
Con 3,859 19.9% -8.4%
Lib Dem 2,103 10.8% -11.5%
PC 1,854 9.5% + 5.3%
UKIP 1,179 6.1% + 3.5%
Green 800 4.1% + 2.9%

A couple of things stand out here, firstly the Tory drop equates precisely to the Labour rise, the fairly hefty fall in the Lib Dem share and the modest rise in minority party votes; My guess here is that some Lib Dem voters cannot stomach turning to Labour, with Green and PC been obvious alternatives.

Bring on Corby

witchfinder wrote:

Manchester Central

Labour 11,507 71.9% +19.2%
Lib Dem 1,571 9.8% -16.8%
Con 754 4.7% - 7.1%
UKIP 749 4.7% +3.2%
BNP 492 3.1% -1.0%

That will do very nicely thankyou - I feel fairly pleased with my prediction, and especialy as the Tories did infact lose their deposit.

Cardiff south and Penarth

Lab 9,193 47.3% +8.4%
Con 3,859 19.9% -8.4%
Lib Dem 2,103 10.8% -11.5%
PC 1,854 9.5% + 5.3%
UKIP 1,179 6.1% + 3.5%
Green 800 4.1% + 2.9%

A couple of things stand out here, firstly the Tory drop equates precisely to the Labour rise, the fairly hefty fall in the Lib Dem share and the modest rise in minority party votes; My guess here is that some Lib Dem voters cannot stomach turning to Labour, with Green and PC been obvious alternatives.

Bring on Corby

Hi WF thank you for the numbers for the two by-elections with living in Scotland we did not have any results programes, I see that both the L/Ds and Tories lost votes to Labour and you said that in Manchester the Tory candidate lost his deposit what happened to the L/D candidate in both by-election did they lose there deposit ? can you let me know as I want to GLOAT, yes I know that is wrong but I need to know that the L/Ds and the Tories are suffering the only way the great British public can make them suffer.

Actualy Red Flag No the Lib Dems did not lose their deposits in the 2 results declared so far, if a candidate gets less than 5% of the vote then they lose their deposit.

Still waiting for Corby ( time as I type is 11:55 am )

Corby

Lab 17,267
Con 9,476
UKIP 5,108
Lib Dem 1,770

witchfinder wrote:Actualy Red Flag No the Lib Dems did not lose their deposits in the 2 results declared so far, if a candidate gets less than 5% of the vote then they lose their deposit.

Still waiting for Corby ( time as I type is 11:55 am )

It is 15.20 results just coming in for Corby is LABOUR ANDY SAWFORD WIN, Cons 2nd Ukip 3rd I will be getting legless tonight that is the three by-elections won by the Labour party well done Mr Ed Miliband and everybody concerned in making this possible not forgetting the activists the door knockers and the letterbox brigade with there leaflet delivery from me, and I think the L/Ds lost there deposit HELL SLAP IT INTO THEM.

There is a very interesting article in The New Statesman which has the headline "How a Lib Dem colapse will hurt the Tories", it goes on to explain something which I think most of us allready know - that most dissafected Lib Dems are switching to Labour.

But heres is a key fact

there are 37 Conservative-Labour marginals where the third place Lib Dem vote is more than twice the margin of victory.

So even if the Lib Dems make a partial recovery in time for the 2015 election it would be too little-too late, it seems that everything is coming together to make life virtualy impossible for the coalition.

The squeezing from the right by UKIP, the rise of Labours vote through disolusioned Lib Dems who are obviously switching, and the deficit reduction target been way off course.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/11/corby-shows-how-lib-dem-collapse-could-hurt-tories

witchfinder wrote:There is a very interesting article in The New Statesman which has the headline "How a Lib Dem colapse will hurt the Tories", it goes on to explain something which I think most of us allready know - that most dissafected Lib Dems are switching to Labour.

But heres is a key fact

there are 37 Conservative-Labour marginals where the third place Lib Dem vote is more than twice the margin of victory.

So even if the Lib Dems make a partial recovery in time for the 2015 election it would be too little-too late, it seems that everything is coming together to make life virtualy impossible for the coalition.

The squeezing from the right by UKIP, the rise of Labours vote through disolusioned Lib Dems who are obviously switching, and the deficit reduction target been way off course.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/11/corby-shows-how-lib-dem-collapse-could-hurt-tories

Thanks for the facts and figures WF, here is a laugh for you the Corby by-election the L/D candidate demanded two recounts because they lost there deposit all for the sake of NINE votes and that is what held up the results for so long yesterday so I hope they learn a lesson from there stupidity by going in coalition with the bloody Tories.

In the true spitit of coalition the Tory candidate should surely have stumped up the cash which was to be lost by his LibDem 'colleague'!

However , as we all know, the prospect of any Tory politician doing anything to help anyone who is not 'their own ' is as likely as bloated Eric Pickles becoming 'Slimmer of the Year', or the weedy Michael Gove being capped by England at rugby...

"Dream On" Scam..er..on there is more chance of the man in the moon coming down from the sky to give us all a bit of Green Cheese

Also not so good for the labour party, people assume that all politicians are liars and Labour are seen as no more electable than the present bunch of thieves.

12.5% swing to Labour in the Corby by-election ought to tell you something. So should the fact that Labour lost no seats in by-elections between 1997 and 2005, despite any 'mid term blues'.

Labour is very electable, as every opinion poll for many months has shown.

Ivan wrote:12.5% swing to Labour in the Corby by-election ought to tell you something. So should the fact that Labour lost no seats in by-elections between 1997 and 2005, despite any 'mid term blues'.

Labour is very electable, as every opinion poll for many months has shown.

Your wasting your time Ivan the Tories and the L/Ds have already been on the TV POO POOING the Labour win as just a little hiccup, the Tories are saying that come 2015 the entire UK will vote for them "Not a Hope in Hell's Chance" not unless we all take mental breakdowns which after April 2013 will be "Never a Bloody Again".

witchfinder wrote:There is a very interesting article in The New Statesman which has the headline "How a Lib Dem colapse will hurt the Tories", it goes on to explain something which I think most of us allready know - that most dissafected Lib Dems are switching to Labour.

But heres is a key fact

there are 37 Conservative-Labour marginals where the third place Lib Dem vote is more than twice the margin of victory.

So even if the Lib Dems make a partial recovery in time for the 2015 election it would be too little-too late, it seems that everything is coming together to make life virtualy impossible for the coalition.

The squeezing from the right by UKIP, the rise of Labours vote through disolusioned Lib Dems who are obviously switching, and the deficit reduction target been way off course.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/11/corby-shows-how-lib-dem-collapse-could-hurt-tories

Brilliant info - thanks!

Phil Hornby wrote:In the true spitit of coalition the Tory candidate should surely have stumped up the cash which was to be lost by his LibDem 'colleague'!

However , as we all know, the prospect of any Tory politician doing anything to help anyone who is not 'their own ' is as likely as bloated Eric Pickles becoming 'Slimmer of the Year', or the weedy Michael Gove being capped by England at rugby...

Like your style PH it has a certain ring to it, the Tory candidate in Central Manchester lost his deposit so both coalition parties lost and heaven knows how much more they will have to lose before they see the writing on the wall.

The downill slide of Coalition candidates in by-elections continues, with UKIP placing second after the expected Labour victories. Meanwhile the Leveson report threatens to split Clegg from Cameron. What larks!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/leveson-cameron-clegg

oftenwrong wrote:The downill slide of Coalition candidates in by-elections continues, with UKIP placing second after the expected Labour victories. Meanwhile the Leveson report threatens to split Clegg from Cameron. What larks!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/leveson-cameron-clegg

Another loss of deposit money for the L/Ds how much more do they have to loose before the penny drops, plus they came EIGHTH in Rotherham your quite right OW there will be loads more fun and games before 2015 but Labour has now to up its game and make sure we can all get legless in May 2015.