UK local by-elections 2012

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Ow bist, old butt?

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Anyway, Cinderford is the most Labour town in the Forest (and perhaps in the entire South West region?) and has been a stronghold for nearly a century now, and we'll see a comfortable hold unless something has gone catastrophically wrong locally. Labour did quite well in the Forest last year, helped (no doubt) by the controversy over its possible sale, so it might be interesting to see if that's faded at all.

There is, of course, some by-law or other than specifies that whenever the Forest is mentioned, there must also be a reference of some kind to its most famous son, even though Berry Hill is practically foreign to people in Cinderford, mind. So lets make it an unusually directly political one:

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Don't think that LibDem success in Redcar town last year had much to do with the steelworks; more people were employed at the other end of the constituency, where they bombed pretty badly for the most part.

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Interesting; wonder what kind of a role the internets played in that.

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Forward!

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Rutland doesn't have the sort of radical tradition that is usually the underpinning for good Labour votes in such places, which is what makes it a little odd. Even if we can put down the councillor in the 90s down to personal appeal and little else (such things do happen, of course). Maybe the Labour candidate this time round was also well known. If not though... I don't know. Especially as the town is home to a public school, something not normally associated with even relative Labour strength. Er... is there a food processing industry in the town that actually employs British voters, perhaps?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Heh. My aunt's ex-husband lives in Rutland.

Then tell us about the place because no one here knows anything!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Heh. My aunt's ex-husband lives in Rutland.

Then tell us about the place because no one here knows anything!

Well, I have never set foot in the place (AFAIK). But Labour do have a somewhat decent (for that part of the world) vote in the Rutland and Melton parliamentary constituency too. Or perhaps Melton is more Labour-friendly?

Melton town has a pretty good Labour vote.

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Weird little place on the border with Shropshire that I've never been able to understand. Has had strange local voting patterns (even for somewhere in NuL borough) for quite a while.

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It's the kind of place that gets called 'popular', at least going from what I've heard other people say. I think - but might be wrong - that there's been a fair bit of development there over the past thirty odd years.

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Leek is a Local Town For Local People (and the Povey's are absolutely Local People), so it might as well be in Kerry.

Random: Charlotte Atkins is the daughter of Ron Atkins (MP for Preston North 1966-1970, 1974-1979). Ron Atkins was later a councillor in Preston. Family traditions and all that.

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Presumably the candidate from then didn't want to run.

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But...what will we do?

Natter about elections in the 1960s?

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Thomas Telford is directly responsible for the disappearance of much of the Abbey.

Anyway, Abbey ought to be a rock-solid Tory ward. Most of it was in the old Column ward (staid conservative and Conservative suburbia) and the rest came over from Underdale (a LibDem fortress since the 1990s and heavily gentrified). So very middle class, but in different ways. There was an Abbey ward back in the 1970s, I think, and it was Liberal at least once. Unless I'm misremembering a piece of paper I looked at nearly a decade ago. Which is possible.

Anyway, Shrewsbury CLP is actually quite large so I'm not sure what the reason for not running a candidate is*, but that fact does open up the possibility of an upset, given proximity to Underdale and the unpopularity of the (very) right-wing Tory administration on Shropshire Council. Maybe.

*I've been out of the area for like six years now and do not know the gossip, if there is any.

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Called it (sort of).

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Nice result in Stafford. Kemsley result is certainly... er... interesting.

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I think that would be an example of fighting a losing battle. But, yeah, much more East Anglian than Outer Metropolitan (or whatever term seems appropriate at any given moment).

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Agreed, but it almost always happens. Just one of those things.

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'Lose' isn't entirely accurate either; the incumbent was one of Rahman's cronies.

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Tunbridge Wells neither, but then you knew that already.

Amusing detail about the contest (?) in Failsworth: Tories actually won the ward in 2008.

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Peterlee West: Labour 70.1, Ind 16.5, LDem 9.0, Con 4.3

Labour gain from LDem.

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Rather striking result in Essex.

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Good result in Norfolk.

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If this ward is where I think it is (I'm still not used to the new map), then it's been one of Labour's weaker ones in Stoke for ages

Mid Forest is a very agricultural area, btw. I think at least 15% of the workforce still employed as such in 2001.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I was being facetious. A Residents vs Conservatives by-election is about as irrelevant (unless control of the council is involved)

...and even then...