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I do like authenticity in my politicians but its a rare quality
...and in other news
I suppose it's quite appropriate that this post has split from the official Your! Party! thread...
Greens odds shortened earlier.
Labour I've seen at 5:1
Going to be a very interesting day tomorrow.
Could be the springboard for lots of changes.
I will be surprised if Labour get this one based on the stuff I've seen.
But we don't know a thing...
The big worry is that Green plus Labour will be over 50% but Reform will get in with something like 30%
election monitors have said this is the highest level of family voting - ilegal practice where family members direct who to vote for, thats ever been observed in UK
Reform are already leaping on this- Goodwin & Zahawi- which is quite worrying because they will weaponise this in the way trump did with his conspiracies
https://bsky.app/profile/ottoenglish.bsky.social/post/3mfsbfpyabc2q
yep Farage is on it now
https://bsky.app/profile/ottoenglish.bsky.social/post/3mfscctmzzs2q
Goodwin would i think happily lose if he got to blame it on muslims/ greens/ woke
I seriously would not underestimate the mileage they ill make from this and how they'll use it to rile up hatred and division
How is he wrong? It is concerning and does raise questions.
Why is it concerning and why does it raise questions? Unless two people are in the booth its a non issue.
of course its wrong, but obviously Farage & co will use it to stir up more racism, hatred and division
they copy Trumps playbook almost exactly and he spun his election loss into a riot that stormed the capitol, and he illegally tried to find more votes
that is far more concerning
If there are two in the booth then the officials should have invalidated the votes
You can see the clear racism in the way Farage makes his complaint
Council hits back at 'family voting' claimpublished at 23:23
We've just reported on concerns from election monitoring group Democracy Volunteers about "concerningly high levels" of family voting in the by-election.
Manchester City Council, whose returning officer oversees the election, has now responded, saying polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters.
"No such issues have been reported today," a spokesperson for the acting returning officer says.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.
"We have operated a central by-election hub which has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
How is he wrong? It is concerning and does raise questions.
Isnt this what reform are arguing for with their wittering about "Christian heritage" where the man of the house told everyone else what to do? Why should we restrict it to the traditional Christian heritage vs their fellow bigots in the Islamic faith?
right I'm off too bed, i can only hope that Goodwin doesn't win, ideally thrashed into 3rd also Tories losing their deposit would be funny
i still think reform have a decent chance, though farages sour grapes make me think they're worried
for me the best outcome would be green win, because labour might finally realise chasing reform voters is never going to work for them....
Very concerning. A real shame these concerns weren't raised with the staff and / or police on duty at the polling stations, so any problems would have been fixed and the result left in no doubt, rather than now having people claiming things weren't done properly.
No-one would want that, with the risk of stirring up any sort of trouble would they billabong?
You seem to be insinuating that I’d be in favour of trouble being stirred up, whatever that might mean.
something fishy about these reports
it does seem odd that they didn't raise any issues at the time as they were witnessing an apparent crime
You seem to be insinuating that I’d be in favour of trouble being stirred up, whatever that might mean.
You said it so I am sure you should know what it means.
An obvious starter for ten is anyone hanging around inside a polling station needs official permission. So can we see why these "Democracy Volunteers" are?
I mean it might just be me but if I was an officially accredited observer the first moment I saw dodgy practice I would be shouting at the polling staff "oi". I assume then it might get a bit shouty and maybe the cops would be called but definitely someone (especially in this byelection where I suspect its even odds on the number of press vs voters) would start reporting "although not allowed in there is disruption in the station".
Its the standard hard right hatred of the west and democracy. Cast doubt on the polling system unless its 100% in their favour.
I'm up early to watch this one live.
Interesting that Labour are conceding defeat already. If that's the case their campaign of 'Reform or Labour' is going to look totally blinkered.
Results now...
Green 14980
Labour 9364
Reform 10578
Yes!
That's fantastic!
47.62% turnout
https://twitter.com/i/status/2027240351434428779
A good honest candidate with a strong message of hope beats all this current vile shit any day of the week (for me at least.)
To Starmer: you should have implemented your message of change and your pledges.
That is good news... Looks like reform didn't do quite as well as was feared either.. I though the result would be closer.
That is good news... Looks like reform didn't do quite as well as was feared either.. I though the result would be closer.
Yes I think that was the consensus.
Vote Green, get Reform. Aye right.
First bit of hope I’ve felt in politics for a long time.
Wow that's a relief. I know you shouldn't read to much into a by election but it's nice to know that reform aren't going to just stroll into power. I might be optimistic but I think there are more people that don't like reform than those who do . Tactical voting is going to be a big thing at the next election.
It will be interesting how the right wing press start treating the greens . Lots of Greens to give away our nuclear weapons style headlines.
So can we see why these "Democracy Volunteers" are?
I could find out very little about them. Led by an ex lib dem candidate I think but apart from that very little
I might be optimistic but I think there are more people that don't like reform than those who do . Tactical voting is going to be a big thing at the next election.
I think this is the main take on last night. The press, who are mainly right-leaning, have been relentlessly bigging up Reform, while also deliberately failing to acknowledge the majority of people who absolutely despise them and everything they represent.
This result shows that there's going to be a massive 'Anyone But Reform' vote at all subsequent elections until Nige gets bored with it all and saunters off to his next grift. In the meantime I see they're up to their usual stunts ... blaming everyone else, stoking grievances and fueling division, taking a leaf out of the Trump-esque, tinfoil-helmeted playbook.
It's nice to see that mindset being comprehensively rejected at the ballot box.
morning!
Labour coming third in what was one of their safest seats is great.
morning
Ha ha. Like a demented clock-work Alan Partridge pose!
i see he has conceded with all the grace of an infantile racist sore loser
Maybe it's not so much tactical voting.
It's more likely people voting for what they want.
There's clearly enough people to desert both Labour and Reform who want a better progressive government.
Reform are potentially exhausted in their arguments. For the time-being.
Over to you Starmer you came third - what are you going to do about it?
Labour coming third in what was one of their safest seats is great.
agreed , labour will be forced to move to the left now, McSweeneyism is dead!
Maybe it's not so much tactical voting.
It's more likely people voting for what they want.
There's clearly enough people to desert both Labour and Reform who want a better progressive government.
Reform are potentially exhausted in their arguments. For the time-being.
Over to you Starmer you came third - what are you going to do about it?
(In fact no thanks to Labour and all to Green that Reform didn't make it )
Phew. That is a relief, not least because Green, plus Lab was 67% of the vote - so the anti-reform vote held up.
The other advantage is that it makes Labour worry about a real challenge from the left and possibly drag them in that direction in terms of policy
I think Reform's arguments are likely to date badly from hereonin.
Not saying they've haven't got purchase but there will be a tipping-point as people look at the state of their own lives versus the faux arguments of Farage and co.
Starmer would be delusional to not try and occupy some of the progressive ground now. But then again.
Let's not pretend we didn't get here without the Green's shift in attitude and relentless campaigning on things that matter.
Feel some hope at last. Suspect there was a lot of tactical voting to bloody Reforms nose, that may not be so easy to drum up in a general election. Though the racist and apparently false claims of voter fraud continues to undermine them.
While this might make the Labour party move left as they realise there are more votes there than from Reform, would that then split the vote again?
Labour coming third in what was one of their safest seats is great.
The Tory party getting under 2% of the vote is pretty good. So much for Kemi and her Tory renaissance. It was looking like she'd actually started to believe her own hype
I wonder how many Tory MP's are now about to defect to Reform before Nige's deadline of before the May local elections?
I'm sure Kier will see last night's result and draw the conclusion that they need to move to Reform's vote rather than people want progressive politics.
I wonder how many Tory MP's are now about to defect to Reform before Nige's deadline of before the May local elections?
quite a few I expect
T^o me this is a classic bye election punishment vote / tactical vote and not that significant. See the number of lib dem bye election wins over the years that mostly revert back at the next GE. Now its the greens that get the benefit rather than lib dems.
Yep, ****ing great news. I am hopeful that although the general polling is strong for Reform when it comes to elections and how seats work it will not manifest. Going from having a handful of MPS to having 300 always seems hard to believe given the way the system works. Unfortunately that is the same for Green as Reform.
Just listened to an interview with Heidi Alexander on R4. They’re gonna need a new word for “tetchy” - she used up the old one.
I think this is a fairly big blow to Reform. They're trying to play it down but they put up one of their bigger names and they've failed.
I am hopeful that although the general polling is strong for Reform when it comes to elections and how seats work it will not manifest.
My money is still on Reform having the most votes but not the most seats come a general election. Followed by years of “stolen election” nonsense like Trump, possibly followed by majority win in the election after next. Hopefully not. Does need Labour and LibDems to get their shit together though. Relying on the Greens to swoop in across the whole country after this win isn’t wise (although having far more Green MPs is something I’d welcome).
47.5% turnout. I know that turnout for by-elections is almost always poor but turnout for the 2024 general election dipped below 60% too. A Danish friend was talking about their forthcoming general election being announced yesterday and mentioned that the turnout there is something like 84%.
T^o me this is a classic bye election punishment vote / tactical vote and not that significant. See the number of lib dem bye election wins over the years that mostly revert back at the next GE. Now its the greens that get the benefit rather than lib dems.
I'd like to believe this but all the same, a 25% drop in vote share is a huge loss for Labour. But maybe that's how politics is now - it's not up or down 5-10%, it's massive swings all over the place. I don't know.
It's also a pretty dismal outcome for the Tories. The only person underperforming Starmer is Bādenoch. If you can't make gains on Labour now, when can you?
Basically the two main parties got their lunches eaten by new arrivals from the extremes.