Dear All
Douglas Carswell took a risk when he
abandoned the Conservative Party and joined Ukip, rather than just serve out
his time as an MP; he resigned his seat and stood for re-election, asking the
people to give him a mandate.
It was a gutsy thing to do.
Sometimes in life a gamble pays off, and
last night it paid off for Douglas Carswell as the UK Independence Party beat
the Tories to win their first seat in parliament.
That in itself alone isn’t a political
earthquake but in the other by-election, Ukip narrowly failed to pick up a
second off Labour.
Although this is a major headache for Prime
Minister David Cameron’s leadership, it also represents a problem for the
Labour Party.
I said previously I hoped Carswell won his
seat back, his views are quite strong but at least he puts his money where his
mouth is, Carswell last night won 60 per cent of the vote. He is known as a political
figure but more than that, he is a hard worker in his area and has a following
among voters.
The other result Ukip coming within 617
votes of taking the Heywood and Middleton seat in the north west of the England
is just as interesting. Although one by-election is meaningless in terms of
data, the Ukip brand has now been established in the North and South of
England, in Scotland, we saw in the Euro, a Ukip MEP returned as well.
Nigel Farage has had a good night, and
there are possibly other good nights to be had in Westminster 2015.
Matter have been helped by an impressive
showing in the European Election as Ukip became the first non party of
government or official opposition to win an election in 100 years.
Carswell syas his return is “an end to the
cosy cartel politics” of the old established Westminster parties.
In some respects he is right, what this is
a kick up the backside side that voters are being more savvy about who they
want to give their vote to.
Ukip MEP Diane James, who is the Ukip
Justice spokesperson said she expects more Tory MPs to defect and “a potential
defection from Labour as well.”
Well, as the old saying goes, ‘I will believe
that when I see it’.
Diane James has also revealed that her
party will next year for the first time fight all 650 seats in the general
election.
This is a major commitment and parties will
be looking very closely at where to put extra resources in to to try and fend
off Ukip.
Despite Labour winning a seat in the shape
of Liz McInnes only won the seat on a 36 per cent turnout senior Labour
backbencher John Mann tweeted:
“Ed Miliband does a lot of listening. Now
he needs to do a bit more hearing.”
He also tweeted:
“If Ed Miliband does not broaden the Labour
coalition to better include working class opinion then we cannot win a majority
government.”
Yes, that is about the size of it for the Labour
Party, more working class MPs who speak to working class issues.
Tory Treasury minister Priti Patel said:
“This is essentially a by-election and this
sort of thing seems to happen with by-elections where people are disaffected. But
when it comes to a general election people vote on the big issues like job
security and the economy at which point it is a choice between David Cameron
and Ed Miliband.”
She added:
“People need to understand that a vote for
Ukip is a vote for Ed Miliband.”
Trying to defend the old system, this
thinking is how the two main parties got in the state they are at present.
Douglas Carswell won with 21,113 votes
ahead of Tory Giles Watling with 8,709, it was a good win.
Carswell said:
“The reality is that people want change and
that is why they are turning to Ukip, it is the only party offering change.”
It is not enough for parties to “listen”,
they also have to act on it.
The Lib Dems won just one per cent of the
vote and came fifth behind the Greens in their worst by-election ever, rather
than building his party back up, Nick Clegg should realize he is the problems,
people will be not voting Lib Dem while he remains in charge.
Clegg’s time is over as leader and he should
recognise this and accept his fate.
This result wasn’t unexpected, momentum is
now firmly with Ukip and there will be a
lot of sleepless nights for Cameron and Miliband.
Well done Douglas Carswell, his win was the largest ever increase in votes of any party in any by-election in the UK, makes the win even more impressive.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
1 comment:
Hi Jon
Thank you for the link to your blog.
I will certainly have a read.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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