Lewisham and West Penge candidates

[stuart]

The sole message I am trying to convey is that a candidate is either an asset or a liability to the party campaign. All the other candidates (bar the obvious one) at the hustings were, in their different ways, an asset to the parties they were representing. I was impressed by them all.

Whereas I think it a unanimous view here that the Labour Party candidate is a liability. Something not judged simply by a non-appearance at a hustings but by a culmination with a twenty year record of poor performance, boorish behaviour, disloyalty and much more. This constituency should be a safe Labour seat. It is 30 minutes from Westminster and does not have the acute issues facing the representatives of many other strong London Labour constituencies.

This should make it a very attractive seat for an existing or aspiring Labour politician. I imagine the constituency selection committee could have a choice of a wide number of excellent candidates. We should be sending one of the cream of the crop to Westminster. To help make their career and deliver well above average value to each and every constituent.

So I'm not blaming JD. He is who he is. I am blaming the constituency party for knowingly making us a substandard offer for reasons I cannot fathom. One I have declined to accept this time around. I can only hope someone at Millbank notices and helps stop the rot in Lewisham from strong Labour to marginal.

Stuart

[Rachael]

In any other election, I would be sorely tempted to vote for Alex - not for the Lib Dems, but for Alex. I think he would be a very good local MP, and certainly much better than the incumbent (not difficult, I know). However, with the polls being so close, I don't want Labour to lose a seat. So...

[michael]

However, with the polls being so close, I don't want Labour to lose a seat. So...

Really? You think there is much danger of Labour losing lots of seats south of the border, particularly a seat with a majority of 6,000?

[Rachael]

However, with the polls being so close, I don't want Labour to lose a seat. So...

Really? You think there is much danger of Labour losing lots of seats south of the border, particularly a seat with a majority of 6,000?

It's improbable, but nothing is impossible.

[stuart]

All should be revealed around 4am - The Lewisham West & Penge declaration estimate. Unless its so close that recounts are needed!

Stuart

[somerandombloke]

I just voted Green. Pinch me.

[michael]

The winner in Lewisham West & Penge is Jim Dowd with just over 50%

Jim Dowd (LAB) 24,347 votes
50.6% share of the vote (+9.5%)

Russell Jackson (CON) 11,633 votes
24.2% share of the vote (-1.3%)

Tom Chance (GRN) 4,077 votes
8.5% share of the vote (+6.4%)

Gary Harding (UKIP) 3,764 votes
7.8% share of the vote (+5.3%)

Alex Feakes (LD) 3,709 votes
7.7% share of the vote (-20.4%)

Martin Powell-Davies (TUSC) 391 votes
0.8% share of the vote

David Hansom (IND) 160 votes
0.3% share of the vote

George Whale (LGB) 44 votes
0.1% share of the total vote

[Robin Orton]

I don't know which depresses me more - the local result or the national result.

The only gleam of light is only 44 votes for Doctor Whale.

[Smiffy]

The only gleam of light is only 44 votes for Doctor Whale.

I assume he voted for himself. The other 43 were either:
a) protest votes
b) votes by immediate family
c) votes by people who don't know how to work a pencil
d) idiots who thought they were voting for a doctor, a whale or a combination of both.

[stuart]

The only gleam of light is only 44 votes for Doctor Whale.

Hit into the rough by Sydenham's own "Save the Beckenham 18" David Hansom with a relatively massive 160

BTW George couldn't vote for himself as, according to the ballot paper, his address is in Hendon. His family too? Still 44 white supremacists or people who can't tell the difference in Sydenham is quite enough.

Stuart

[leenewham]

I'm with Robin on this.

Depressed by both local and national vote. Well done to Tom, I had a feeling the Lib Dems would be demonised (as they have by the press) by the electorate, but not to this extent. I think Alex deserved better, especially locally.

Looks (to me) like the national vote came for to:

Ed Milliband doesn't look like a leader (Cameron wiped the floor with him on this) so we are now in personality politics.

People ignored actual policies (otherwise the vote would have been along the lines of the various policy checkers)

People really don't like Europe and are scared of immigration, the left wing parties have been pounded, the country has shifted to the right.

The newspapers seem to have had a huge amount of influence.

Predictions for the future:
Milliband, Farage and Clegg all resign.
Ukip fall from grace when people realise the party behind Farage is awful.
Lib Dems struggle for years but slowly build back up as the press see them with more favour and aren't' being attack
PR comes back on the table.
Labour appoint a new leader, possibly David Milliband (unlikely to come back though), Chuka Umunna (hopefully) or Yvette Cooper (I can't see anyone else being electable).
Scotland will eventually leave the union.
Britain will leave the EU.
Everything will get worse, equality goes out of the window, country swings to the left.

[stuart]

A victory (north & south of the border) for FUD?

Stuart

[Robin Orton]

Predictions for the future:
Milliband, Farage and Clegg all resign.
Ukip fall from grace when people realise the party behind Farage is awful.
Lib Dems struggle for years but slowly build back up as the press see them with more favour and aren't' being attack
PR comes back on the table.
Labour appoint a new leader, possibly David Milliband (unlikely to come back though), Chuka Umunna (hopefully) or Yvette Cooper (I can't see anyone else being electable).
Scotland will eventually leave the union.
Britain will leave the EU.
Everything will get worse, equality goes out of the window, country swings to the left.

All these sound plausible to me, except that I just cannot believe (because it's too terrifying to contemplate, perhaps) that Britain will actually leave the EU.

Why did all the pre-election polls get it so wrong?

[leenewham]

I was called by one of the pollsters. They ask a LOT of questions, by the time they run throughout he list I was struggling to remember what had been asked.

I made my mind up when I went into the polling station.

I believe many people voted with fear, didn't believe in Ed Milliband as a leader (it was a huge mistake to have him as leader in my opinion) and have put all the blame on the Lib Dems, partly because of Europe and the press. I actually feel sorry for them.

I hope Alex and Tom both stay in the political arena locally, and I hope we get PR.

[squashst]

I suspect we will see a Grand Bargain between Conservatives and SNP. Devo max in Scotland for an agreement that Scots do not vote for English laws. Locks labour out full stop.
To be honest the only party that can now defeat the Conservatives is the Conservatives. Think the 1992 election which they won, and they then tore themselves apart.
I would also wager 2:1 that we will leave Europe at the Referendum. Which could possibly shear off Scotland.

[alywin]

Depressed by both local and national vote. Well done to Tom, I had a feeling the Lib Dems would be demonised (as they have by the press) by the electorate, but not to this extent. I think Alex deserved better, especially locally.

Looks (to me) like the national vote came for to:

Ed Milliband doesn't look like a leader (Cameron wiped the floor with him on this) so we are now in personality politics.

People ignored actual policies (otherwise the vote would have been along the lines of the various policy checkers)

People really don't like Europe and are scared of immigration, the left wing parties have been pounded, the country has shifted to the right.

The newspapers seem to have had a huge amount of influence.

You omitted "People were scared of the SNP having too much influence", Lee, but otherwise I think you're right. Especially about the papers, which have been stirring things up right, left and centre. Seems to me that virtually every time I went into any shop which displayed them all you could see "Red Ed this", "SNP threat that", character assassination and so on on the front pages. Given that that's probably about 3 left-wing to 6 right-wing papers, we should probably have based predictions on those sorts of percentages. But I really think the Daily Telegraph editor emailing people to ask them to vote Tory was beyond the pale.

Guess we shan't be seeing the back of those food banks any time soon ...

[alywin]

And I'm sorry about Alex Feakes, too. As local politicians go, he struck me as reasonably good.

[Tim Lund]

Guess we shan't be seeing the back of those food banks any time soon ...

The big change to the household budgets of the poor has been the rise in the cost of housing, impacting those with young families especially. Food banks are the result.

[SquashedCommuter]

Nice to see UKIP ahead of the Lib Dems. Well done Gary Harding.

Nice also to see the socialist Miliband defeated with his bitter politics of economic envy.

[stuart]

Nice to see UKIP ahead of the Lib Dems. Well done Gary Harding.

There are numerous reasons that have already been made on this forum. One reason is that I hate anti-Semitism.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... e-for.html

Stuart