So, what happened in Barnsley
 

Quite the election result in Barnsley, eh. Does it suggest anything significant in British national politics, esp. for the Lib-Dems? Or is it just sort of politically "normal"?

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

According to the new Labour MP it's a smack in the face to the Lib-Dems and the voters ( all 36% who voted ) have spoken.

Shame he never mentioned the fact that the reason for the bye-election was his party colleague screwed the taxpayer. :rolleyes:

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

The Lib-Dem came 6th ..just behind the fart in a biscuit tin party candidate... looks like they are taking most of the flack for this government and it serves em right.
The Lib-Dems joined the Tories for two resons.. one is that Clegg was given the deputy PM post and the other a referrendum on AV.. Clegg has been shown up as a "wet" and is ignored by the Tories.. the AV will likely be a no vote.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

But you can't blame the Labour candidate for the screw ups of his predecessor. And you mention the low turnout ... but what is the reason? Could be apathy ... could be anger .... could be lots of things. Could be the Lib-Dems just not showing up to vote.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

So Clegg joined the tories because he saw the opportunity for power ... or at least a share of it. If he had a pair, and half a brain he would have stuck to the priciples of his party and joined neither Labour nor the Conservatives. Maybe then you guys would have seen the benefits of a minority govt. The major benefit of such a government would be that the tories couldn't ram the cuts to the NHS etc. down the throats of the people of Britain. We've had a minority govt. for five years, and with that minority govt., we weathered the recession ... in fact, in most of Canada, we hardly noticed it ... and our economy and our dollar is now stronger than ever. And we did it without cutting services or gutting the health care system.

Where do the "fringe" parties go from here? I guess the UKIP had a decent showing.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

If it's about % and stats then it's clear how Barnsley judge this government since the election 9 months ago... and you can take into account the standing Labour MP was a tealeaf:

Vote %
Labour 2010 47% 2011 60.8% + 13.5%
Tory 2010 17.3% 2011 8.3% -9.0
Lib-Dems 2010 17.4% 2011 4.3% -13.1

Safe Labour seat so no surprise it was an easy win..but the Lib-Dems have dived by a massive amount

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

The massive Lib-Dem dive was a bit of a shock, never realised there were many students in Barnsley.:D

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

Don't tell me you ain't heard of the Barnsley Technical University of Brilliance :)

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

Maybe the Lib-Dems stayed away in droves ... this could explain some of the low turnout. If they have a leader who sells out his principles and those of the party to the highest bidder, perhaps they will bide their time until Clegg joins the tories, and the party selects a less opportunistic leader.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley?
 

There must be a lot of disillusioned people in that part of the country.

After all, in those telly debates before the last election, that Nick Clegg looked really, really nice, and came across really, really well.

Who'd have thought you can't always believe what you see?

:rofl38::rofl38::rofl38:

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley
 

It's difficult to draw any major conclusions from the Barnsley by election, given that it is the sort of Labour seat where they weigh rather than count the votes. The other candidates tend to be a bit of an irrelevance.

On the face of it, the Lib Dems look to have been annihilated, and there is clear disillusionment with their leader and their support for the right wing agenda of the coalition.

It will be interesting to see if the extent of that disillusionment translates into the national picture in the local elections in 8/9 weeks time.

My own view is that it will, and the Lib Dem party is about to enter a major crisis that has got to threaten the coalition.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley
 

We've had nearly a century in which the Liberals, under various guises, have been able to have all kinds of lovely polices, which they didn't have a cat in Hell's chance of seeing implemented, because they stood no chance of winning an election.

I should imagine a lot of their recent supporters will now be disillusioned, after abandoning so many pre-election promises, because they wanted a taste of power, and decided to jump into bed with the Tories.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley
 

forgive my ignorance, but aren't the elections in a few weeks local elections?
They do not really act as an indicator of national politics...do they?

Silly me. of course they do, because some people still vote purely on the colour of the rosette, rather than what the local issues are, and considering who is the best candidate for the local job.

Local politics and National politics are different entities.....but this doesn't seem to register with many of the voting public.

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley
 

We are seeing 12% swings regularly now. The local elections this time were last held in 2007. Labour was below the 30% then, somewhere around 24%.

I would dearly like the Conservatives to lose their grip. More importantly see a more friendly, positive Labour Council. On these swings it would happen but will it in May in Hyndburn?

Re: So, what happened in Barnsley
 

We've been canvassing in Rishton for the forthcoming local election for some time now and the overriding thing I am trying to impress on people is to look beyond the badge and separate local politics from national.

Last year I even had people who told me outright that I was the best person for the job saying that they wouldn't be voting for me because they had always voted Conservative. Fortunately, I sneaked in with a slim majority of 151 and am now doing my best to justify the faith of those who voted for me and prove that the right decision was made to those who didn't.

As Marg P has already inferred, many people only see the national picture and a large amount of residents are still unaware that Hyndburn has been Tory-controlled for most of the past 11 years. The Hyndburn Labour group are trying to persuade you to vote for their candidates in May not through empty promises but by simply telling you what the controlling group is actually doing with your money.

When simple things such as a one-off visit by a celebrity chef is still newsworthy after four months and the closure of a toilet causes public outcry it should be cause to consider if the current controlling group are really the people you want to entrust £13m of your money to this year.