Bradford West by-election - 29th March

[doktorb]

"George Gallaway is apparently set to announce he will run for Respect."


Oh god, really?

He's becoming an electoral novelty act.


I said "becoming".

[doktorb]

The proposed boundary review moves this seat further West, moving out of the city centre and taking in Shipley and Cullingworth

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The writ was moved today

Polling day will be on 29th March - just 15 days from now.

[doktorb]

I have looked at forums where BNP members talk and cannot find any suggestion that a candidate has been selected by them

(In contrast, Enis Dalton who was selected for, I think. Barnsley, was paraded around for weeks before hand)

Nominations close on Wednesday

[doktorb]

According to the website of the England First Party, Neil Craig is to stand as a candidate under the label "Democratic Nationalist Party"

[doktorb]

Nominations close this afternoon.

[doktorb]

4pm, to be exact.

[doktorb]

Bradford Council's Twitter feed is a nonsense and their website.....Jeebus =/

I think you're right, YL, that does seem to be it. Usually anonymous IP addresses are adding numerous candidates to Wikipedia but it seems to be nothing of the sort at the moment.

[doktorb]

http://www.bradford.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A57E2517-0DF3-45A0-88A8-190A85006530/0/StatementofPersonsNominated.pdf

As expected


Interesting points of fact:

Neil Craig is a democratic nationalist who doesn't mind Mr and Mrs Hajdysz singing his nomination papers

George Galloway has an address in the constituency. Who knew?

Imran Hussain has asked 30 people to nominate him, and in so doing as made it easy for any aspiring author stuck for an authentic south Asian name to pick from a wide selection

If you're particularly geeky, the SOPN has a list of polling stations attached

[doktorb]

It's been Respect Gain all night, where has the Labour hold stuff come from?

[doktorb]

Anyone who bet on George at 33/1 is drinking tonight....

[doktorb]

37% swing. Record?

Largest increase in share of the vote since Bermondsey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_by-election_records

[doktorb]

This is one of those by-elections which will go down in history. Nobody remembers Monmouth 1991, everyone remembers Crosby 1981. This will be one to go in the history books

The consequences will be very hard for all parties to fathom out. How Labour deals with the loss of a seat like this, under these circumstances, to George Galloway, will perhaps be the most important.

[doktorb]

I think only total anoraks remember Crosby.

I thought mentioning Bermondsey might be a bit obvious of me, but fair point.