Despite all the excitement, I'm off to bed, safe in the knowledge that it's a Green victory, with Labour probably second, and, most importantly, safe in the knowledge that Matt Goodwin isn't going to be an MP - yet.
a) Labour vote seems to be collapsing b) Huge amount of switching to Greens c) Reform think Greens will win, with Labour third d) Very significant Labour to Green switching amongst Muslim vote d) Senior Labour source says they think Greens, with Labour second
A stronger than expected Labour showing could pull Greens into second leaving Reform winners.
As I understand it, G&D is like chalk and cheese - one part has a lot of mainly white over 65s, the other twice as many voters but of Asian heritage.
When we say Asian heritage, are Indian heritage as pro Palestine anti Jew as much as the Moslem heritage? Or is there the “as you my enemy are staunchly for it, it makes me staunchly against it? in UK voting?
Have you heard of the partition?
The one that stops Mr Khan seeing what rest of his family is voting?
The lobbying company founded by Lord Mandelson discovered during an internal investigation that a “significant” tranche of his business emails were missing
Global Counsel conducted an internal audit of Mandelson’s company emails after the government agreed this month to release tens of thousands of messages relating to his time as the British ambassador to the US
The company was concerned about what would be published about its own business interests under the mass disclosure, and conducted the audit as part of a due diligence process
The investigation was still going on when the company went into administration last week but an initial report said that significant numbers of emails were missing from Mandelson’s account. The company does not know how the emails came to to be missing
The emails that have been kept include a series of exchanges with senior officials and ministers in government, relating directly to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador
They are said to include messages to David Lammy, then the foreign secretary, and Morgan McSweeney, then Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The overall cache of emails, which dates back nearly a decade, includes 1.4 million messages
Mandelson did not respond to requests for comment but it is known that he stopped being able to access his Global Counsel email address in February 2025, when he formally took up his role as ambassador
Global Counsel was prepared to provide all the emails to the government or the police but did not receive any requests to do so before going into administration last week. The emails and electronic devices are now in the hands of administrators.
Mandelson resigned from the board of Global Counsel in May 2024, although he remained a shareholder. He agreed to put his shareholding in the company into a blind trust in September 2025. Global Counsel went into administration on Friday after a string of high-profile clients pulled their business
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
They're dancing around handbags. Its patrician voting where certain kinds of muslim men have total control over their households. Or to really add to the fun, many of them get instructions from the Iman how to vote.
As described to me by a long-standing politician of British-Pakistani heritage...
As a young political activist in the early 80s,I was staggered by how many of my peers still voted exactly the way their parents did.
Would see families with late teens and early 20s kids turn up to vote and of you were tallying outside to cross off promised votes, the senior male would tell you "we've all voted Xxxx".
The senior male probably believed that too.
In a secret ballot though, who knows how they actually voted?
Greens have contested 86 by-elections - this is the 87th - and never got more than 10 percent of the vote, so to take Gorton & Denton would be truly seismic. Polanski at count and confident - but so are Labour…
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
Greens have contested 86 by-elections - this is the 87th - and never got more than 10 percent of the vote, so to take Gorton & Denton would be truly seismic. Polanski at count and confident - but so are Labour…
Interesting as Rigby seems less strident and more independent of thought than Peston or Hodges
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
You could buy him a Guinness Zero.
Ewww no, my alcohol drinking friends have said they would disown me if I ever drank the stuff.
Years ago there was a discussion amongst my friends about if I ever did drink what would be my first drink and they decided that I would either drink
1) The most expensive champagne bottle in the restaurant/bar
or
2) Absinthe as I'd be cocky enough to think I could handle it as my first drink
That Opinium data is fascinating in one respect. It shows no difference between Green v Labour support between Whites and EM voters. It's a statistical tie in both. Very much not the story we have been being told.
If they want to bring a companion to support them, then that's one option, but that's a specific exemption to the normal rules and a declaration needs to be signed to enable that.
That's rather different to someone standing over their family making sure they all vote the "right" way.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to have been winning. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
I'm not sure what they mean by family voting. I quite often discuss with my wife who we are voting for.
That wouldn't be what they're talking about. They must be talking about family voting in the polling station.
Am I not allowed to discuss things in the polling station?
Precisely, not in the station. Outside is OK, but inside is for secret voting.
Even for 93 year old blind grannies?
There was consultation on new guidance in 2022 touching upon this practice, in reference to Tower Hamlets. This seems to have been withdrawn later, so not sure whether anything came of it, but from other references it seems to be accepted that you can help a 93 year old blind granny, though if there was a patten of people 'helping' a lot of relatives at one location it would be pretty suspicious.
So if the Greens or Labour do win the by-election what do you think the under/over line will be for the number of times I mention tomorrow that I tipped them at 6/1 and 10s respectively?
TBF I owe you a pint as it prompted me to get on the Greens at 9/2 with a quite large amount.
You are still Muslim and dont drink arent you?
I am the most devout Muslim in the country.
Good if you change your mind i will buy you a pint!
You can donate to my shoe fund instead.
Are his winnings that massive?!?
If he followed my tips then his winnings should be massive.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Given these tech bros often talk about the terrible power and risk of their models as a marketing thing to get even more money and so generally welcome the rumours they'd do shitty things with it, I find it hard to believe they'd say no to such a thing unless they were incapable of delivering what the Pentagon wanted or it was realllly messed up.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Like a Lib Dem or Tory win?
Those would be a shock.
If the LDs hold their deposit it would be the shock of the night. Tories is 50/50?
That Opinium data is fascinating in one respect. It shows no difference between Green v Labour support between Whites and EM voters. It's a statistical tie in both. Very much not the story we have been being told.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
A lot depends on turnout for that sort of analysis.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Given these tech bros often talk about the terrible power and risk of their models as a marketing thing to get even more money and so generally welcome the rumours they'd do shitty things with it, I find it hard to believe they'd say no to such a thing unless they were incapable of delivering what the Pentagon wanted or it was realllly messed up.
It was really messed up.
Hegseth told them he wanted to use it to spy on Americans and they said no thanks
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
If everyone took the train there would be less traffic at roundabouts but more loud pessimism from Party leaders according to my sources
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
The frotting about the quality of the ballot is going to be thoroughly depressing isn't it. It's been a grubby by-election all ways round even without the presence of Galloway.
I hope Labour at least thrash Reform in the 2nd place battle, since being beaten by a supposedly disfavoured party would considerably squash the narrative of robbery.
@SamCoatesSky 🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
That Opinium data is fascinating in one respect. It shows no difference between Green v Labour support between Whites and EM voters. It's a statistical tie in both. Very much not the story we have been being told.
Netflix pulls out of the Warner deal. The Ellisons take over even more of the media
Does that mean their material like HBO and Friends etc is likely to end up on ParamountPlus in the UK?
That's ironic, as they're due to launch their own service soon, and my wife and I had discussed that we'd probably cancel ParamountPlus and get that when they do.
Speaking of Reform (who are now below 4), Mrs Dumbosaurus got her citizenship today in a ceremony with amongst other speakers the Chair of Durham County Council, Robbie Rodiss, who (like almost everyone on the council) is a Reform Councillor. I was pretty impressed with how magnanimous the short speech he gave was, it was half history lesson about St Cuthbert and half kind words about what a contribution those in the room were going to be making to the country going forward. Very different to how I thought it could be. Although having looked him up subsequently he sounds like a decent and sensible bloke, not like some of their nutters, but credit where credit's due.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
Oh God. Never make a joke on a forum full of concrete thinkers...
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
I think some high speed roundabouts benefit from lights. Dawson's Corner roundabout between Leeds and Bradford springs to mind as a very tricky roundabout to get onto, small but relatively high speed, before it was light controlled.
On the other hand, Denton Island was a roundabout where the light control was notorious. Manchester bound the M67 and A57 merge at a set of lights a couple of hundred yards back from the roundabout and you could accelerate from these prior lights all the way onto the roundabout with the sequencing, which then had a habit of tipping lorries over around monthly with a particularly brutal adverse camber with the speed at which ended up taking the roundabout.
Musk's algorithms heavily promoting Rupert Lowe"s promise to deport "many times more than a million people over five years..", This essentially sounds like a promise to deport all non anglosaxon/celtic people from the U.K. in some kind of fascist "Aryanisatiion" programe, to me.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
Oh God. Never make a joke on a forum full of concrete thinkers...
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
And you can't exit when you want to having been in the correct lane because stopping at the lights prevents the intended "unwinding".
Musk's algorithms heavily promoting Rupert Lowe"s promise to deport "many times more than a million people over five years..", This essentially sounds like a promise to deport all non anglosaxon/celtic people from the U.K. in some kind of fascist "Aryanisatiion" programe, to me.
Mission to make Farage and Reform look perfectly mainstream accomplished.
It does however confirm a perfect split between Labour and Green. So Reform ought to win. But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform. Again. Not what many would have had us believe. There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC. If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
It's a bit too early for that kind of analysis. The final vote totals could still provide a shock.
Well indeed. I'm just commenting on a poll. If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
We could always talk about traffic at roundabouts.
Outlaw traffic lights on roundabouts.
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
Oh God. Never make a joke on a forum full of concrete thinkers...
Speaking of Reform (who are now below 4), Mrs Dumbosaurus got her citizenship today in a ceremony with amongst other speakers the Chair of Durham County Council, Robbie Rodiss, who (like almost everyone on the council) is a Reform Councillor. I was pretty impressed with how magnanimous the short speech he gave was, it was half history lesson about St Cuthbert and half kind words about what a contribution those in the room were going to be making to the country going forward. Very different to how I thought it could be. Although having looked him up subsequently he sounds like a decent and sensible bloke, not like some of their nutters, but credit where credit's due.
Despite their claim to being radically different in politics a lot of Reform councillors are the same kind of people who typically stood for any other party, and are decent people who try to do the job well even if maybe some of their politics people will dislike.
I would not be surprised if those ones get as irritated as anyone by the more performative ones who talk and act in real life the way they do online, whereas most of us are considerably more measured and reasonable in an offline setting.
@SamCoatesSky 🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
What's the job Democracy Volunteers are supposed to be doing? If they only have people at a small sample of polling stations and their goal is to *gather data*, they should just note what they see and STFU. If they were to call the police they would presumably affect how the polling station did things for the rest of the day, and their sample would be a dud.
A site based at the count itself - slightly faster and based on vote samples from the different wards. The discussion here is naturally based on betting sites.
@SamCoatesSky 🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
What's the job Democracy Volunteers are supposed to be doing? If they only have people at a small sample of polling stations and their goal is to *gather data*, they should just note what they see and STFU. If they were to call the police they would presumably affect how the polling station did things for the rest of the day, and their sample would be a dud.
Good point.
I read Manchester's statement and thought "that's fair", but then I read yours and think "that's fair too".
Its a bit Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, if you try to measure something and interact with it, then that will change what you're measuring.
So what are they there to do? I don't know them, so don't know. Maybe reporting after the fact is how they operate, because of that.
Greetings from Taiwan. Which is in the perfect time zone for watching late night UK by elections
It’s 7.30am and I’m on my way to Taipei to get the fuck odd this “stupid ball of mud”
Taiwan is a strange place. I’ve now been all around it and I would recommend it as somewhere unusual for the gourmet traveller who’s been everywhere. The food is generally suoerb and the people are fabulously friendly
The mountains are striking and the national museum is ace
But after that you start to run out of good stuff. The towns are so relentlessly ugly it begins to grind you down. Etc
@SamCoatesSky 🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
What's the job Democracy Volunteers are supposed to be doing? If they only have people at a small sample of polling stations and their goal is to *gather data*, they should just note what they see and STFU. If they were to call the police they would presumably affect how the polling station did things for the rest of the day, and their sample would be a dud.
Isn't hiring out G-MEX / Manchester Central Convention Centre a bit over the top for a single by-election count, as opposed to 32 local ward elections or 6 or so constituencies at full election rounds.
Greetings from Taiwan. Which is in the perfect time zone for watching late night UK by elections
It’s 7.30am and I’m on my way to Taipei to get the fuck odd this “stupid ball of mud”
Taiwan is a strange place. I’ve now been all around it and I would recommend it as somewhere unusual for the gourmet traveller who’s been everywhere. The food is generally suoerb and the people are fabulously friendly
The mountains are striking and the national museum is ace
But after that you start to run out of good stuff. The towns are so relentlessly ugly it begins to grind you down. Etc
Onwards to Gorton and Wotsit
The declaration is due about 4.00am so add approx 4 hours and a bit
@SamCoatesSky 🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
What's the job Democracy Volunteers are supposed to be doing? If they only have people at a small sample of polling stations and their goal is to *gather data*, they should just note what they see and STFU. If they were to call the police they would presumably affect how the polling station did things for the rest of the day, and their sample would be a dud.
if they see an offence they should report it
Even if that defeats the object of what they're there to do?
Mandatory reporting of offences is very limited in scope in this country. They would not fall under it.
I agree with @TheScreamingEagles w backing the Tories as a proxy for a Reform implosion is a valid betting strategy for the next GE. I haven’t backed the Tories, but have laid everyone else. The obvious flaw here is that I do like the Tories more than anyone else at the moment, so my heart could well be leading my head. But the Tories would surely be the beneficiaries of a Reform flop, and Kemi’s ratings are pretty good even if the Tories VI is bad. At 8/1 it seems alright
They're dancing around handbags. Its patrician voting where certain kinds of muslim men have total control over their households. Or to really add to the fun, many of them get instructions from the Iman how to vote.
As described to me by a long-standing politician of British-Pakistani heritage...
As a young political activist in the early 80s,I was staggered by how many of my peers still voted exactly the way their parents did.
Would see families with late teens and early 20s kids turn up to vote and of you were tallying outside to cross off promised votes, the senior male would tell you "we've all voted Xxxx".
The senior male probably believed that too.
In a secret ballot though, who knows how they actually voted?
1.22/8/11 doesn't look like a 3 horse race but sleep required ahead of the North West Counties football league Groundhop
7 games in 3 days including 5 new grounds for me
You are right, it does not look like a 3-horse race. Either Labour is telling us the market is wrong to have Green at 80%, or Labour has completely stuffed up their entire campaign.
Comments
In the station your wife should be able to vote in private, and vice-versa.
That sums to Green 29.02 Labour 28.02 Reform 26.81.
EXCLUSIVE:
The lobbying company founded by Lord Mandelson discovered during an internal investigation that a “significant” tranche of his business emails were missing
Global Counsel conducted an internal audit of Mandelson’s company emails after the government agreed this month to release tens of thousands of messages relating to his time as the British ambassador to the US
The company was concerned about what would be published about its own business interests under the mass disclosure, and conducted the audit as part of a due diligence process
The investigation was still going on when the company went into administration last week but an initial report said that significant numbers of emails were missing from Mandelson’s account. The company does not know how the emails came to to be missing
The emails that have been kept include a series of exchanges with senior officials and ministers in government, relating directly to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador
They are said to include messages to David Lammy, then the foreign secretary, and Morgan McSweeney, then Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The overall cache of emails, which dates back nearly a decade, includes 1.4 million messages
Mandelson did not respond to requests for comment but it is known that he stopped being able to access his Global Counsel email address in February 2025, when he formally took up his role as ambassador
Global Counsel was prepared to provide all the emails to the government or the police but did not receive any requests to do so before going into administration last week. The emails and electronic devices are now in the hands of administrators.
Mandelson resigned from the board of Global Counsel in May 2024, although he remained a shareholder. He agreed to put his shareholding in the company into a blind trust in September 2025. Global Counsel went into administration on Friday after a string of high-profile clients pulled their business
Labour not doing well on Newsnight. They're as bad as Reform. Zack's the only likable one
In a secret ballot though, who knows how they actually voted?
Greens have contested 86 by-elections - this is the 87th - and never got more than 10 percent of the vote, so to take Gorton & Denton would be truly seismic. Polanski at count and confident - but so are Labour…
And neither of us voted for Boris
Years ago there was a discussion amongst my friends about if I ever did drink what would be my first drink and they decided that I would either drink
1) The most expensive champagne bottle in the restaurant/bar
or
2) Absinthe as I'd be cocky enough to think I could handle it as my first drink
It shows no difference between Green v Labour support between Whites and EM voters.
It's a statistical tie in both.
Very much not the story we have been being told.
MoD launches review into whether Epstein used RAF bases
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthropic CEO says AI company 'cannot in good conscience accede' to Pentagon's demands to allow wider use of its tech.
https://bsky.app/profile/phillewis.bsky.social/post/3mfsbgefy6s2y
https://www.rnib.org.uk/campaign-with-us/support-a-campaign/voting-and-elections/
If they want to bring a companion to support them, then that's one option, but that's a specific exemption to the normal rules and a declaration needs to be signed to enable that.
That's rather different to someone standing over their family making sure they all vote the "right" way.
But more Whites have voted either Green or Labour than Reform.
Again. Not what many would have had us believe.
There isn't a tsunami of Reform voting amongst the WWC.
If there was they'd have much, much more than 41% of white votes in a seat like G+D.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denton_railway_station
Those would be a shock.
I'm just commenting on a poll.
If we weren't to do that there'd be precious little talking on this site.
Hegseth told them he wanted to use it to spy on Americans and they said no thanks
Junctions should either have lights, or a roundabout, never both. Whole point of a roundabout is you can flow without lights as the traffic on the junction has priority all the way around. Then some idiot adds traffic lights onto a roundabout and nobody can move even when the lights are green as the traffic is stopped at the next light.
I hope Labour at least thrash Reform in the 2nd place battle, since being beaten by a supposedly disfavoured party would considerably squash the narrative of robbery.
I forecast a Green win by 1200 from Reform Lab a poor 3rd about 4000 behind the plumber
🔥Angry Manchester council hit back at Democracy volunteers
COUNCIL STATEMENT ON VOTING:
A spokesperson for the Acting Returning Officer said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which was has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.
"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."
That's ironic, as they're due to launch their own service soon, and my wife and I had discussed that we'd probably cancel ParamountPlus and get that when they do.
Who benefits?
It’s not like the Greens are big on the patriarchy.
Reform want to be the patriarchy.
Labour are the patriarchy.
On the other hand, Denton Island was a roundabout where the light control was notorious. Manchester bound the M67 and A57 merge at a set of lights a couple of hundred yards back from the roundabout and you could accelerate from these prior lights all the way onto the roundabout with the sequencing, which then had a habit of tipping lorries over around monthly with a particularly brutal adverse camber with the speed at which ended up taking the roundabout.
Musk's algorithms heavily promoting Rupert Lowe"s promise to deport "many times more than a million people over five years..", This essentially sounds like a promise to deport all non anglosaxon/celtic people from the U.K. in some kind of fascist "Aryanisatiion" programe, to me.
And Farage is complaining about family voting
I would not be surprised if those ones get as irritated as anyone by the more performative ones who talk and act in real life the way they do online, whereas most of us are considerably more measured and reasonable in an offline setting.
I read Manchester's statement and thought "that's fair", but then I read yours and think "that's fair too".
Its a bit Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, if you try to measure something and interact with it, then that will change what you're measuring.
So what are they there to do? I don't know them, so don't know. Maybe reporting after the fact is how they operate, because of that.
Farage fans looking glum.
Polanski fans looking glum (after hearing from high speed transport source)
I do not think it means much.
It’s 7.30am and I’m on my way to Taipei to get the fuck odd this “stupid ball of mud”
Taiwan is a strange place. I’ve now been all around it and I would recommend it as somewhere unusual for the gourmet traveller who’s been everywhere. The food is generally suoerb and the people are fabulously friendly
The mountains are striking and the national museum is ace
But after that you start to run out of good stuff. The towns are so relentlessly ugly it begins to grind you down. Etc
Onwards to Gorton and Wotsit
7 games in 3 days including 5 new grounds for me
Mandatory reporting of offences is very limited in scope in this country. They would not fall under it.
Enjoy your travels.