Place holder for Keir Starmer By-election result tonight.

[PurplePenguin]

I wonder if George Galloway would have moved back from Moscow had he won... still, he didn't.

View attachment 17654

Wrong thread. Why wouldn't it be presented in chronological order?

Also he beat Rejoin EU

 

[briantrumpet]

Peter Kellner's view on the result:

https://kellnerp.substack.com/p/the-figures-that-make-sagal-abdi

Sagal Abdi-Wali has not just defeated the Greens in a local by-election. She has defied history. Four weeks ago, I argued that Holborn & St Pancras was a contest Zack Polanski should win. Going back more than half a century, Labour has a truly dreadful record defending its own seats when it is government and faces a by-election challenge from the left or centre-left. The average swing against Labour in such contests was 24 per cent.

On those figures, Polanski should have won at a canter.

Instead he has crashed. Last night his team crowed that the Greens had trebled their share of the vote. This an example of “paltering”, a useful, underused word for a statement that is technically correct but seriously misleading. I wrote about this last year, with Labour and Conservative examples of this shoddy practice.

The Greens can make their “trebling” claim only because the left-wing vote two years ago was divided between the Greens’ 10.4 per cent and an independent, Andrew Feinstein’s, 18.9 per cent. Together, they won 29.3 per cent. Feinstein stood aside this time to support Polanski, who won 32.8 per cent: a true increase of just 3.5 percentage points.

 

[monkers]

It's Polanski that should have done better.

If you mean The sun fiasco? Then note the following points.

His naivety at the time was disappointing - however there was no wrongdoing. No complaints were made. The female participant was a 'volunteer' in the so-called 'experiment'. No other women were involved, there was no touching, this was not an advertised service that was provided. The 'volunteer' was paid for her part, Polanski was not, The Sun lied, as anybody less naive would have realised they would. Polanski did not see copy before publication, when he saw the paper he apologised for it the next day.

If you mean in the by-election result? then perhaps.

However it must realised that the Green Party is a grassroots party. At conference Polanski did not propose or AFAIK support the motion, nor did he vote for it. As far his use of the word 'genocide' is concerned, that unfortunately is controversial in itself and opinions will vary. However he has strong opinion on this which are in line with the party. Had he interfered in that conference process, then allegations of interference in the party process would have resulted.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Peter Kellner's view on the result:

https://kellnerp.substack.com/p/the-figures-that-make-sagal-abdi

i don't think he is comparing the right things. In 2019 Starmer won 64.5% of the vote. Sagal Abdi-Wali won 45.2%, so a significant drop off consistent with by-elections. The 2024 election was very different due to the strong pro-Palestine campaign.

I thought Polanski had absolutely no chance. He did better than I thought.

Sagal Abdi-Wali is actually a local and I think there are a lot of people who will vote based on that rather than national politics.

 

[monkers]

A tangential issue, but close enough to be relevant is this BBC piece ...

I would not have voted for Zionism motion, Polanski says​

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2d6x11l6pko

 

[Shortfall]

It's Polanski that should have done better.

I don't think he was ever abreast of the issues that mattered to the voters there 😉

 

[secretsqirrel]

Sagal Abdi-Wali is actually a local and I think there are a lot of people who will vote based on that rather than national politics.

Rings true.

The rest of the country might arbitrarily judge her on the fact she is a Somali refugee. But I have heard some accounts that she has been an excellent councillor.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Rings true.

The rest of the country might arbitrarily judge her on the fact she is a Somali refugee. But I have heard some accounts that she has been an excellent councillor.

There's a significant Somali population, so I should imagine that counts in her favour.

 

[Psamathe]

Sagal Abdi-Wali is actually a local and I think there are a lot of people who will vote based on that rather than national politics.

Not only that she was known to the voters but also maybe they saw Polanski as having parachuted in (ousting a local candidate) and using their constituency as a means to further his career as Party Leader rather than to represent their interests; like Färage pressing a few doorbells during the campaign never to be seen in the constituency again once elected.

 

[monkers]

I don't think he was ever abreast of the issues that mattered to the voters there 😉

It's you that's making a bigger tit of himself now Shorty.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

Sagal Abdi-Wali is actually a local and I think there are a lot of people who will vote based on that rather than national politics.

It's hard to believe they voted on her record with Camden council - but maybe I'm just reading the negative stuff. She did appear to be a bit carefully handled during her campaign.
https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/sagal-abdi-wali-holbrn-st-pancras-camden/

 

[Stevo 666]

I don't think he was ever abreast of the issues that mattered to the voters there 😉

He might have made them even bigger issues.

 

[monkers]

He might have made them even bigger issues.

Bigger issues need bigger tissues Stevo. How did your favoured candidate get on?

 

[Shortfall]

He might have made them even bigger issues.

Some people on this thread had really high hopes for Zack if mammary serves me right 😂😂😂😂

 

[Stevo 666]

Some people on this thread had really high hopes for Zack if mammary serves me right 😂😂😂😂