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SystemSystem Posts: 11,697
edited February 2017 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » If Jeremy Corbyn wants to see Labour humiliated at a general election he will continue as Labour leader

Tories GAIN Copeland. Surely Corbyn has to realise he is toxic with voters? pic.twitter.com/2Q29M0Z58y

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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    First, again? :smiley:
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    Second! Like Labour in Copeland & UKIP in Stoke!
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    Tories 4 Jezza got a lot of hard work ahead of them.
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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291
    edited February 2017
    And the labour bod on sky is still going NHS NHS NHS tory baby eaters...
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    If Corbyn had any shame or decency, he would be announcing his resignation in the morning following the result in Copeland.

    No. As the BBC says, the results are 'mixed' you win some, you lose some. Copeland is the outlier, Stoke far more representative of 'Middle England'.....and for the Lib Dem rampers - twice Foxtrot Alpha is still Foxtrot Alpha......
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    Well really pleased tonight and it is only just after 3.00am so I can have a few hours sleep

    Probably more than many labour MP's will have, and Paul Nuttall

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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    May have actually turned people off voting for them?
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    dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,289
    Trust me to get up half an hour late. Message to Labour, kick Corbyn out or make sure that you have more to parrot Our NHS isn't safe under baby eating Tories.
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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291
    edited February 2017
    Labour bod just said and I kid you not that it was a pleasant campaign because the candidates were women.

    As well as being a lie, also sounds pretty sexist if you ask me.
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,965
    Barry Gardiner will probably be saved in 2020 by London exceptionalism.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100

    Tories 4 Jezza got a lot of hard work ahead of them.

    We let him have Stoke and he has his 'mandate' from members so as his tweets tonight make clear he is staying and the PLP will have to find a candidate to beat him first which so far they have shown themselves incapable of doing
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,554
    edited February 2017
    Right I'm off to bed.

    I apologise to any Corbyn fans upset with my trenchant criticism of your man, but he's the equivalent of stepping in a dog turd.

    You don't stand and admire it, you wipe it off
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    Barry Gardiner gives Corbyn his full endorsement on BBC by election show, blames it on Brexit
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!
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    "Comrades, this is your Leader. It is an honour to speak to you today, and I am honoured to be sailing with you on the maiden voyage of our party's most recent achievement. Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary — The Conservative Party. For a hundred years, your fathers before you and your older brothers played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage. It reminds me of the heady days of 1945 and Clement Atlee, when the world trembled at the sound of our Nationalisations! Well, they will tremble again — at the sound of our by-election victories... oops, I mean victory. Oh well... Anyway, the order is: engage the Corbyn Drive!

    "Comrades, our own Parliamentary Party don't know our full potential. They will do everything possible to test us; but they will only test their own embarrassment. We will leave our MPs behind, we will pass through the Conservative patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest constituency, and listen to their chortling and tittering... while we conduct Austerity Debates! Then, and when we are finished, the only sound they will hear is our laughter, while we sail to Brighton, where the sun is warm, and so is the... Comradeship!

    "A great day, Comrades! We sail into history!"
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    If only she could call a GE. May the 4th would be perfect!
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,965
    The Tories might be able to get Stoke Central in the General

    No, really :

    Eastleigh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastleigh_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
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    NeilVWNeilVW Posts: 710

    Right I'm off to bed.

    I apologise to any Corbyn fans upset with my trenchant criticism of your man, but he's the equivalent of stepping in a dog turd.

    You don't stand and admire it, you wipe it off

    A half-hearted apology there! :smile:
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,965
    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Labour can only dream of a 188 seat deficit at this point.
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    6.7% swing would mean how much of a Tory majority at Westminster?

    (just for a bit of fun!)
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Yes, as I told be Senior even early years PM Blair lost council by elections
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    If only she could call a GE. May the 4th would be perfect!
    I think she will still hold off with Article 50 about to be invoked
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    Pulpstar said:

    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Labour can only dream of a 188 seat deficit at this point.
    Pretty much
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985

    6.7% swing would mean how much of a Tory majority at Westminster?

    (just for a bit of fun!)

    I believe Neil said it was about a hundred seat majority.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,947
    Well well well. First take on things:

    Not even very close in the end in Copeland. There's no way to see a gain by the governing party in such a seat as well as anything other than huge, the line about demographic trends fpt is crap given how long it's been since the ge.

    Lib dems movig in the right direction but nothing too massive, seems disappointing in both seats.

    Corbyn is probably still safe for a bit. Unless there are indications the members have turned in him in large numbers the MPs will be too scared to move on him and too gutless to leave the party, so they'll be watchful - this has to have shaken a few corbynistas, and more bad news in the coming months could see a tipping point.

    UKIP need the Tories to mess up in the eyes of their supporters over Brexit, they are really struggling.
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    HYUFD said:

    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    If only she could call a GE. May the 4th would be perfect!
    I think she will still hold off with Article 50 about to be invoked
    Yep, she's entrenched in that position now.
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    I know the boundary changes will mess this up a bit but if we want to know what Corbyn is going to do, it might be useful to look at what the balance of the parliamentary party would be like if you lop off the 100 most marginal Labour MPs.

    Does this decimate the hated Blairites and leave the left more-or-less intact, or would it be an equal opportunity massacre?
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    NeilVWNeilVW Posts: 710

    6.7% swing would mean how much of a Tory majority at Westminster?

    (just for a bit of fun!)

    e.g. Con 44.5%, Lab 24.5%
    Old boundaries: Con maj of 140
    New boundaries: Con maj of 148
    http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    Can't believe the LD contributor on This Week said it was also a bad night for the Tories.
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    NeilVW said:

    6.7% swing would mean how much of a Tory majority at Westminster?

    (just for a bit of fun!)

    e.g. Con 44.5%, Lab 24.5%
    Old boundaries: Con maj of 140
    New boundaries: Con maj of 148
    http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/
    Thanks! Just asking for a friend :)
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,947
    I See Corbyn was not happy about ukips politics of division. Like claiming babies will die if people vote for your opponent kind of division, or something real?
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    HYUFD said:

    May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Actually......Disraeli......
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    NeilVWNeilVW Posts: 710
    edited February 2017
    kle4 said:

    I See Corbyn was not happy about ukips politics of division. Like claiming babies will die if people vote for your opponent kind of division, or something real?

    And he wants to break with the "failed political consensus" - the only political consensus is surely that he has failed? He doesn't want consensus or division, it seems.
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    Meanwhile:

    VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-kim-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN16303Z
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,947

    Meanwhile:

    VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-kim-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN16303Z

    VX? Invented here in Blighty if I recall correctly.
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    Deleted Jeremy Corbyn tweet: Commiserations to @GillTroughton and the whole Labour team who fought a such strong campaign in Copeland
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    dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,289
    RobD said:

    Can't believe the LD contributor on This Week said it was also a bad night for the Tories.

    So much for Farron surge from LDs in next door constituency.
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    kle4 said:

    Meanwhile:

    VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-kim-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN16303Z

    VX? Invented here in Blighty if I recall correctly.
    As a pesticide:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)
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    Just arrived home after a very long day. It had been my impression since I started telling at 7am and continued to be so throughout the day that the Conservative vote was both solid and was coming out while Labour's vote was a little flakey and not coming out as fast. I thought that Trudy Harrison was just about going to sneak it, but a majority of more than two thousand was beyong out wildest dreams.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,947
    NeilVW said:

    kle4 said:

    I See Corbyn was not happy about ukips politics of division. Like claiming babies will die if people vote for your opponent kind of division, or something real?

    And he wants to break with the "failed political consensus" - the only political consensus is surely that he has failed? He doesn't want consensus or division, it seems.
    I know it's tough to get the lines right after a major loss, but I struggle to know what on Earth he's on about. How has the political consensus failed, Jeremy? The longterm consensus in stoke has been upheld and you're happy about that, whereas the voters broke from their old consensus in Copeland and you're not happy there. Looking at it another way, the big two parties won both seats, seems the political consensus is upheld that way. In yet another way of looking at it, rewarding the government with an historic win on a good turnout is an odd way for the public to show the cosy political cosensus has failed.

    Seriously, what is he on about?
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    NeilVWNeilVW Posts: 710
    edited February 2017

    I know the boundary changes will mess this up a bit but if we want to know what Corbyn is going to do, it might be useful to look at what the balance of the parliamentary party would be like if you lop off the 100 most marginal Labour MPs.

    Does this decimate the hated Blairites and leave the left more-or-less intact, or would it be an equal opportunity massacre?

    For Labour to shed a hundred seats they would need to lose to the Tories by something like 48-21.
    Just for fun, here are the losing Lab MPs in that scenario (keeping all other parties constant, and using current boundaries):
    https://tinyurl.com/LabSeatLosses
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    Well I won't say I told you so because I didn't. I thought Labour would cling on on the pattern of other held seat defences post 2015. Brexit , or at least May's early response to it, really does seem to have been a paradigm shift.

    Where I did tell them so was the Copeland Labour establishment. You can't treat a community this way for decades. The 2014 Mayoral Referendum and 2015 Mayoral Election were the wake up calls. The elastic has finally snapped.

    Another truly grim night for western politics but I suppose the voters are being nothing but consistent. Well done to those who called this right. Good Night.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,116
    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985

    kle4 said:

    Meanwhile:

    VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-kim-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN16303Z

    VX? Invented here in Blighty if I recall correctly.
    As a pesticide:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)
    Remarkably effective at killing all living things :smiley:
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    If her tweets are representative of her Campaign, the Labour candidate in Copeland campaigned almost exclusively on the NHS:

    https://twitter.com/GillTroughton

    If that no longer works.....
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    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
    Which is?
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    A couple of observations. Firstly, I see that a number of Labour people both here and on other fora have been defending the decision not to have tellers. That looks very much like a mistake now. Because they didn't have people at the polling stations Labour did not have the information to realise how much trouble they were having getting their vote out and do something about it.

    Secondly, it now looks like the campaign of distortion and fear about the local NHS which was the centrepiece of the Labour campaign did not just fail but was actively counterproductive. There is a real threat to maternity services, and everyone knows it, but by the same token they also know that there has just been a brand new set of £90 million buildings built at West Cumberland Hospital, that contrary to claims in the Labour leaflets it is not proposed to close Accident and Emergency there, or remove inpatient beds from Keswick hospital.

    One non-aligned voter sent me a message on polling day which began with a cynical comment about the Conservative position on the hospital but concluded with something along the lines of "but still better than the nonsense Labour are inventing."

    The "babies will die if you don't vote Labour" leaflets were very polarising and annoyed a lot of people - offhand looking at the size of Trudy's majority I suspect the number of extra Conservative votes they produced by motivating Tory voters must have exceeded the number of extra Labour votes they produced by motivating the Labour base.
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    If her tweets are representative of her Campaign, the Labour candidate in Copeland campaigned almost exclusively on the NHS:

    https://twitter.com/GillTroughton

    If that no longer works.....

    They are representative of the campaign. It was very striking from the literature and clearly a deliberate and consistent choice.
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    felixfelix Posts: 15,125

    If her tweets are representative of her Campaign, the Labour candidate in Copeland campaigned almost exclusively on the NHS:

    https://twitter.com/GillTroughton

    If that no longer works.....

    Not just Labour - the BBC and Sky have had campaigns on the 'NHS crisis ' for the past month. All purely coincidentally of course.
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    FishingFishing Posts: 4,561



    The "babies will die if you don't vote Labour" leaflets were very polarising and annoyed a lot of people - offhand looking at the size of Trudy's majority I suspect the number of extra Conservative votes they produced by motivating Tory voters must have exceeded the number of extra Labour votes they produced by motivating the Labour base.

    If you're right, that would be a very rare case of Karmic realignment in politics.

    Very interesting post, thanks.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,116

    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
    Which is?
    The Lib Dems are the only party that can be trusted on geopolitical issues.
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    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985

    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
    Which is?
    The Lib Dems are the only party that can be trusted on geopolitical issues.
    Unspoofable :smiley:
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    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Well beyond that. The Con vote went down in Mitcham & Morden.
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    old_labourold_labour Posts: 3,238
    RobD said:

    Can't believe the LD contributor on This Week said it was also a bad night for the Tories.

    She was annoying.
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    NeilVW said:

    I know the boundary changes will mess this up a bit but if we want to know what Corbyn is going to do, it might be useful to look at what the balance of the parliamentary party would be like if you lop off the 100 most marginal Labour MPs.

    Does this decimate the hated Blairites and leave the left more-or-less intact, or would it be an equal opportunity massacre?

    For Labour to shed a hundred seats they would need to lose to the Tories by something like 48-21.
    Just for fun, here are the losing Lab MPs in that scenario (keeping all other parties constant, and using current boundaries):
    https://tinyurl.com/LabSeatLosses
    Not if the shift in sub-group voting that the polls are picking up now is maintained. Would imply much bigger swings in currently Lab-held seats in Mids / North. Very efficient for Con.
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    dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,289
    Nuttall had a bad campaign, too many weaknesses need to be addressed.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,116
    dr_spyn said:

    Nuttall had a bad campaign, too many weaknesses need to be addressed.

    The same was said after Nuttall just lost out to Geoff Capes in the World's Strongest Man competition.
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034
    RobD said:

    kle4 said:

    Meanwhile:

    VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week's bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-malaysia-kim-chemicalweapo-idUSKBN16303Z

    VX? Invented here in Blighty if I recall correctly.
    As a pesticide:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)
    Remarkably effective at killing all living things :smiley:
    The class of chemicals was initially developed by ICI as pesticides. VX was not, but was later identified as the most suitable of the class as a CW agent. VG was the pesticide.
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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,884
    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Far better. The Tories almost lost Penrith in 1983.

    Well, I'm down £87.50 on tonight's results, but I'm pleased to see Labour get hammered.
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    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
    Which is?
    The Lib Dems are the only party that can be trusted on geopolitical issues.
    Its fair to say, not a view shared by either Copeland (92.8%) or Stoke (91.2%) voters.
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    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    Well beyond that.

    Disraeli......
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    felixfelix Posts: 15,125

    NeilVW said:

    I know the boundary changes will mess this up a bit but if we want to know what Corbyn is going to do, it might be useful to look at what the balance of the parliamentary party would be like if you lop off the 100 most marginal Labour MPs.

    Does this decimate the hated Blairites and leave the left more-or-less intact, or would it be an equal opportunity massacre?

    For Labour to shed a hundred seats they would need to lose to the Tories by something like 48-21.
    Just for fun, here are the losing Lab MPs in that scenario (keeping all other parties constant, and using current boundaries):
    https://tinyurl.com/LabSeatLosses
    Not if the shift in sub-group voting that the polls are picking up now is maintained. Would imply much bigger swings in currently Lab-held seats in Mids / North. Very efficient for Con.
    There are scores of middle England seats where Labour would be hammered ironically helped further by a small switch from Labour to LD.
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    Fishing said:



    The "babies will die if you don't vote Labour" leaflets were very polarising and annoyed a lot of people - offhand looking at the size of Trudy's majority I suspect the number of extra Conservative votes they produced by motivating Tory voters must have exceeded the number of extra Labour votes they produced by motivating the Labour base.

    If you're right, that would be a very rare case of Karmic realignment in politics.

    Very interesting post, thanks.
    And possibly, 'voters aren't thick' - they know electing an opposition MP's going to have b*gger all effect on the decisions of the NHS trust involved - heck, if the Prime Minister won't say 'I'll give you everything you want on the NHS' what chance has an opposition MP got?
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    DixieDixie Posts: 1,221

    Just arrived home after a very long day. It had been my impression since I started telling at 7am and continued to be so throughout the day that the Conservative vote was both solid and was coming out while Labour's vote was a little flakey and not coming out as fast. I thought that Trudy Harrison was just about going to sneak it, but a majority of more than two thousand was beyong out wildest dreams.

    Brilliant job, all of you. Thank you for taking the time.
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    DixieDixie Posts: 1,221

    RobD said:

    Can't believe the LD contributor on This Week said it was also a bad night for the Tories.

    She was annoying.
    Libs are always annoying. The self-fucking-righteous party!
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    DixieDixie Posts: 1,221
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:
    But, but, the real parish council election results say the Tories are on 20%! :o
    Labour are circling the plug hole; the Conservatives are circling like whirling dervishes. There's only one serious party in town.
    Which is?
    The Lib Dems are the only party that can be trusted on geopolitical issues.
    Unspoofable :smiley:
    LOL
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,785
    edited February 2017
    Sean_F said:

    HYUFD said:

    Anyway goodnight as May reaches heights for the Tories not seen since Thatcher at her peak!

    I'm pleased to see Labour get hammered.
    No! No! No! - 'Mixed result' - they held Stoke with a reduced majority when they replaced a parachuted in London posho with a plain speaking northerner under challenging circumstances - a credit to Jeremy's leadership - as the newly elected MP observed.
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    An incredibly good result for the Conservatives in Copeland, off-the-scale good. The fact that the betting markets predicted it doesn't make it less amazing.

    Note also that despite a lot of hype the Lib Dems did really poorly in both by-elections.

    Have we seen the last of Paul Nuttall already?
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    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,902
    So Labour manage to avoid an extinction level event, settling for a mere catastrophe
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    One thing that should scare Labour a lot: their vote share held up ok in Copeland. But the Conservatives very effectively squeezed UKIP to gain vote share, something that they haven't managed in a by-election in a generation.
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    DixieDixie Posts: 1,221
    Well. although I stuck to 2 Labour holds, my contacts proved me wrong. To re-iterate:

    9 am on election day: Tories in Copeland say if canvass returns are correct and come in, they are favourites.
    11 a: UKIP go quiet IE, lost
    4 pm: Labour say: lost Copeland, won Stoke.

    I was accused by the of one or two of being "Billy Bullshit." Even though the above was not my forecast, just news from the ground, the info from the ground proved correct.
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    AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    edited February 2017
    The swing from Lab to Con in Stoke Central was enough for the Tories to win the neighbouring seat of Newcastle-under-Lyme which has been held by Labour since 1919.
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    The FT's take:

    Ukip’s best days appear to be behind it. Since last year’s Brexit vote the party has been adrift. Its message of ensuring “Brexit means exit” is inapt, as voters are happy to entrust Prime Minister Theresa May with that task. Mr Nuttall’s leadership will be questioned but there is no one else better placed to lead the party. He will probably remain in place, stand in further by-elections and lose again, while his party drifts into a fringe interest.

    Labour, however, faces a stark choice about how it interprets these results. It can either wrap itself in the comfort blanket of the Stoke victory and blame Tony Blair’s Brexit speech for losing Copeland. Or it can confront the fact that its supporters are floating away to the Conservatives and that there is something rotten at its core — the party leadership. Based on Mr Corbyn’s performance as opposition leader to date, any criticism will be swept aside. Like a frog in a pot of water that is coming to the boil, Labour is not dead yet — but it is rapidly reaching the point at which it will be too late to change course.


    https://www.ft.com/content/46bf968c-fa49-11e6-bd4e-68d53499ed71
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    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548

    One thing that should scare Labour a lot: their vote share held up ok in Copeland. But the Conservatives very effectively squeezed UKIP to gain vote share, something that they haven't managed in a by-election in a generation.

    My interpretation too, UKIP are going to be widely squeezed by the Tories. UKIP are now irrelevant. The Labour vote share held mostly up.

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

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    AlsoIndigoAlsoIndigo Posts: 1,852
    edited February 2017

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

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    We live in amazing times..
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    fitalassfitalass Posts: 4,279
    Despite Labour retaining the Stoke by-election and the Tories coming narrowly third behind UKIP, if I was on the Stoke Tories association team I would reselect local councillor Jack Brereton as their GE candidate asap and get campaigning for him next week.

    Absolutely historical by-election victory for this Conservative Government in Copeland, well done to Trudy Harrison and her campaign team for achieving that amazing result. She also performed well in her first media interview with Andrew Neil as the newly elected MP for Copeland!

    Some interesting feedback on the by-election results tonight from Andrew Neil and Professor Curtice on BBCs This Week.
    Andrew Neil - "An holistic plan?! Its 3:20 in the morning and the last thing I need to hear is holistic plans, its just a drivel word I will not listen at 3:20 in the morning Mr Hancock!"

    Professor Curtice - "We just have to contemplate how curious and parodoxical the game of politics can be. Never more than seven months ago, the Conservative party lost a referendum where the leader campaigned very strongly for a remain vote and ended up with the country voting to leave. We are left seven months on with an opposition that is losing votes in by-election after by-election Its happened in Witney, in Richmond, in Sleaford, in Stoke and in Copeland. All very different parts of England, but the message to Labour is the same. And meanwhile UKIP are now facing the possibility that the rewards of the fact the majority of the country voted to leave may go to the Conservative party than them. Maybe, maybe, one or two Conservative MPs tomorrow morning may want to write a little private thank you note to David Cameon and thank him for losing the referendum on June the 23rd."

    No matter how many straws the Labour Leadership cling to on the back of retaining Stoke whilst losing Copeland, this has been one of the most disasterous nights for the Labour party outside of a post war GE and their catastrophic implosion in Scotland in the last two years. Corbyn's position is now totally untenable if the Labour party is to have the chance to recover enough to pose any kind of threat as the Main Opposition to the Conservative Government at the next GE. If Corbyn really loved his party as he claims, he would go tomorrow. David Cameron can also take another huge bow due to the fact that he stood firm and vowed to protect the NHS by ring fencing funding if he was elected. By keeping that promise in office, he really did overcome and neutralise one of the Labour party's strongest campaign assets over the last two decades despite the opposition from some of those in his own party in the run up to the 2010 GE. If I was a Labour MP in safe seat, I would be starting to panick, but if I was a Labour MP with a majority of less than 5K I would be fecking bricking it!! Especially if Corbyn tries to stay on just long enough to try to influence the choice of his successor.







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    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

    I am not saying that Jezza is an asset! far from it, but the difference between Stoke and Copeland was the Nuclear issue. I think Stoke is the byelection with more relavance, and it does have some despite the hold. Labour will lose seats on the Stoke result.

    Looks like West Cumbria hospital is toast, but that looked on the cards whatever happened in the election.

    Copeland and Stoke can go back to being ignored by the government and media now.
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    fitalassfitalass Posts: 4,279
    Some further thoughts on the results from the Stoke and Copeland by-elections this morning.. After a couple of unsuccessful forays into by-election betting in my early days posting on PB.com, I tended to avoid them like the plague in favour of major elections where I have faired far better in picking up good value contituency bets in recent years. But I ended up having a wee flutter on some by-election specials here late on, and in doing so, I came out on top by piling on a bit more by picking up some better odds where there was little value in backing the overall favoured results in these by-elections for an amateur like me. My big success on that front tonight was backing my gut instinct on the very good chance that UKIP would fail to get 10% of the vote in Copeland, just as I heavily backed an overall Tory Majority in the last GE and the SNP failing to achieve another majoirty at Holyrood late on.

    Message to Mark Senior.. I would back those two Conservative Westminster by-election results over your party's two local election gains tonight when it comes to being a far clearer indicator of both party's direction of travel at the next GE.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,927
    Morning! Great result in Copeland, congratulations Trudy Harrison :smiley:
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    AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    There are now 196 female MPs in the HoC.
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    Congratulations to Theresa May who has just secured a majority of 150 in the 2020 General Election

    Commiserations to Theresa May who will have to preside over the economic chaos and collapse of hard Brexit and then the chaos and political collapse as Scotland breaks away taking Ulster with it.

    Labour? I remember a Labour Party. Didn't they disappear a few years ago?
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    JackWJackW Posts: 14,787
    His Grace the Duke of Stoke, aka Paul Nuttall, has said he is disappointed to be sacked as manager of Leicester City FC after leading them to Premiership title and winning the Champion League in June.

    However he is comforted by his by-election win in Copeland and looks forward to travelling to Los Angeles to his acceptance speech at the Oscars on Sunday following his triumphs as "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" in the film "Manchester Utd By The Sea" - his life story as the manager of the worlds biggest football club and part time job as a sea-side landlady.
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    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

    I am not saying that Jezza is an asset! far from it, but the difference between Stoke and Copeland was the Nuclear issue. I think Stoke is the byelection with more relavance, and it does have some despite the hold. Labour will lose seats on the Stoke result.

    Looks like West Cumbria hospital is toast, but that looked on the cards whatever happened in the election.

    Copeland and Stoke can go back to being ignored by the government and media now.
    Campaigning on "Save our hospital" when your Party is not in Power is the act of political idiots..

    Labour have campaigned on saving the NHS since 2008. It has failed every time. There is a phrase for people who repeat their mistakes: incapable of adapting.
    Those who do not adapt become extinct.
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    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Sandpit said:

    Morning! Great result in Copeland, congratulations Trudy Harrison :smiley:

    It is remarkable. Apart from being pipped to second in Stoke, things could hardly have gone better for the Tories. They have an historic win under their belts, and Labour has a feeble hold (by historical standards) in Stoke which can be spun into a victory, hopefully helping Jeremy Corbyn to limp on towards a catastrophic general election defeat.

    Also just released, this analysis from Number Cruncher Politics: https://twitter.com/i/moments/835008842966646784

    Highlights:

    * Small swing to Tories in Stoke a very strong performance for a sitting Government
    * Lib Dems also doing well, in places where they were rebuilding from a very low base
    * Ukip performance very disappointing, though actually one of their better efforts in a by-election
    * Copeland arguably the best result for a sitting Government contesting an Opposition-held seat at a by-election since 1878; even a mediocre Opposition should be getting a double-digit swing in its favour at a typical by-election
    * Swing to Government in both by-elections is greater both than the long-term historic trend, and than national VI polling would suggest

    Re: the larger than expected swing to the Tories, several theories are advanced but one of these is that the polls may *still* be under-reporting Tory strength. This is not the favoured option advanced in the analysis, but personally I would not be surprised. The polls have, IIRC, under-estimated Conservative support in every GE in the modern era except 1983. If we were to assume that they are over-counting Labour by 3% and undercounting the Tories by 3%, as was roughly the case in 2015, then needless to say Labour's position would be far more dire even than the most pessimistic pundits are claiming.

    All in all, happy days!
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    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

    I am not saying that Jezza is an asset! far from it, but the difference between Stoke and Copeland was the Nuclear issue. I think Stoke is the byelection with more relavance, and it does have some despite the hold. Labour will lose seats on the Stoke result.

    Looks like West Cumbria hospital is toast, but that looked on the cards whatever happened in the election.

    Copeland and Stoke can go back to being ignored by the government and media now.
    Campaigning on "Save our hospital" when your Party is not in Power is the act of political idiots..

    Labour have campaigned on saving the NHS since 2008. It has failed every time. There is a phrase for people who repeat their mistakes: incapable of adapting.
    Those who do not adapt become extinct.
    Labour have campaigned on a pro NHS basis because they have a paucity of other policies. The NHS is popular, and should not be dropped. What Labour needs is to come up with some popular and credible policies for the rest of a manifesto.
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,195
    Got to laugh at the Lib Dems, a derisory total in both by elections.
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,195
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    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

    I am not saying that Jezza is an asset! far from it, but the difference between Stoke and Copeland was the Nuclear issue. I think Stoke is the byelection with more relavance, and it does have some despite the hold. Labour will lose seats on the Stoke result.

    Looks like West Cumbria hospital is toast, but that looked on the cards whatever happened in the election.

    Copeland and Stoke can go back to being ignored by the government and media now.
    Campaigning on "Save our hospital" when your Party is not in Power is the act of political idiots..

    Labour have campaigned on saving the NHS since 2008. It has failed every time. There is a phrase for people who repeat their mistakes: incapable of adapting.
    Those who do not adapt become extinct.
    Labour have campaigned on a pro NHS basis because they have a paucity of other policies. The NHS is popular, and should not be dropped. What Labour needs is to come up with some popular and credible policies for the rest of a manifesto.
    They are not campaigning on a pro NHS platform - it is a "Tories are evil" approach.

    Constructive proposals for change or a justification on why the current approach is perfect would be "pro NHS".

    "24 hours to save the NHS" or "babies will die under the Tories" are not.
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    RogerRoger Posts: 18,892
    edited February 2017
    For those claiming insight into the Copeland result I'd like to put in a word for the BBC. I know they become cautious on the night because they're obliged to but I posted this on Feb 21st. (NB rememember 'looking confident' is BBC speak for 'going to win'')

    "I (just) heard someone on radio 4 or 5 say he'd seen the Tories look 'confident' followed by the stats on when Labour last lost a by election when in opposition ....
    It's unlike the BBC to stick their neck out unless it's all over."
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    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    I am disappointed for Gill Troughton in Copeland, but I think that there are local nuclear issues that do not generalise to other constituencies.

    I feel that is putting too nicer gloss on it. There are a lot more "Corbyn being a voter repellant liability" issues that apply equally to almost all constituencies. Kippers are going back to the Tories in part because they don't want to split the "keep Jezza out" vote. LDs probably didn't make as much headway as expected for the same reason.

    I am not saying that Jezza is an asset! far from it, but the difference between Stoke and Copeland was the Nuclear issue. I think Stoke is the byelection with more relavance, and it does have some despite the hold. Labour will lose seats on the Stoke result.

    Looks like West Cumbria hospital is toast, but that looked on the cards whatever happened in the election.

    Copeland and Stoke can go back to being ignored by the government and media now.
    Campaigning on "Save our hospital" when your Party is not in Power is the act of political idiots..

    Labour have campaigned on saving the NHS since 2008. It has failed every time. There is a phrase for people who repeat their mistakes: incapable of adapting.
    Those who do not adapt become extinct.
    Labour have campaigned on a pro NHS basis because they have a paucity of other policies. The NHS is popular, and should not be dropped. What Labour needs is to come up with some popular and credible policies for the rest of a manifesto.
    Indeed. Labour bang on about the NHS because they have almost nothing else left. The available polling evidence suggests that, in terms of key policy areas, Labour only polls reasonably consistently ahead of the Tories on health and housing, and the latter issue is of disproportionate concern to poor and young voters who display an annoying tendency to stay at home during elections.

    The really frightening problem for Labour, which is thrown into sharp relief by both the 2015 GE result and the Copeland by-election, is that "X days/weeks/months to save the NHS" is a tactic that appears finally to be falling victim to public ennui, and the law of diminishing returns. Labour have basically been jumping up and down and predicting the imminent demise of the NHS since 1979 - but it's still there, and most of the time that it's stubbornly refused to cease to be there has been passed under Tory Governments.

    Banging on about the NHS is, ever so gradually, ceasing to work for Labour, and they have precious little else with which to hurt the Government. They are in really desperate trouble.
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    MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,951
    Best summary this morning is that I am poor but happy! Oh if 40 voters in Stoke had switched to Tory!!
This discussion has been closed.