UK parliamentary by-elections 2014

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

I wouldn't necessarily bother.  North West Tonight isn't as good since Gordon Burns left.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The Holy Word is up.  Incidentally the weather in Greater Manchester is terrible at the moment; a huge storm is blowing through this evening with the type of high winds that damage buildings.  Hopefully this won't affect any polling stations.

http://blog.englishelections.org.uk/2014/02/by-election-preview-wythenshawe-and.html

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

According to the Guardian UKIP and the Lib Dems are wondering aloud whether the Tories spent more than allowed on their campaign.

I doubt they'd be so blatant as to spend more that £100,000 0n the campaign, but there were some similar mutterings at the last general election that money was spent on the council election tab that had an effect on the parliamentary campaign. Might be something similar with euro money being disproportionately spent  in Newark

of course i'm merely speculating on what the lib dems might be thinking, i'm sure that the tories didn't do anything illegal.  Sneaky and underhanded on the other hand...

It's not like campaign overspending has ever happened before in Newark.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

There's no by-election previews this week (unless Kris has written one), but there are three contests today. In Oxford Labour are defending Carfax ward, which covers the city centre, after their councillor resigned due to pressure of work (she now runs a department at King's College London). The electorate in Carfax is overwhelmingly Oxford University students living in colleges, so God only knows how low the turnout is going to be with the University in recess. Labour are also defending Old Dean ward in Camberley, Surrey, which is the only reliable Labour ward in Surrey Heath district. Finally, the Tories are under pressure from UKIP in Harvey Central ward, Folkestone, where the previous Tory councillor resigned after the local newspaper started investigating his debts.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Liz McInnes won the Labour selection for Heywood & Middleton.  Possibly the most local to the constituency of those on the shortlist, though I confess that when I think of Rossendale and the word "local" the League of Gentlemen come to mind.

Her ward is western Rawtenstall, which isn't too bad.  The real League of Gentlemen area in Rossendale is Bacup (in fact the real League decided against filming in Bacup because it was too scary).

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

If Heywood and Middleton is won by UKIP, I will eat my hat.