Monday, November 22, 2010

Croxteth byelection victory

A wonderful result in the Croxteth byelection, two new Labour councillors elected with big majorities and a swing to Labour. The outgoing councillors were the lovely Rose Bailey who sadly died earlier this year and LibDem Phil Moffat who has gone off to work with the DUP in NI.

Martin CUMMINS (The Labour Party Candidate) 1,447
Stephanie TILL (The Labour Party Candidate) 1,424
Mark Anthony COUGHLIN (Liberal Democrat) 611
Michael John MARNER (Liberal Democrat) 479
Kai ANDERSEN (Socialist Labour Party) 135
Peter TIERNEY (British National Party) 117
Barbara BRYAN (Socialist Labour Party) 70
Eleanor Edith PONTIN (Green Party) 63
Tony Stop-Mass-Immigration HAMMOND (UK Independence Party) 50
Paul Duane RIMMER (English Democrats "Putting England First") 35
Steven McELLENBOROUGH (English Democrats "Putting England First") 33
Norman COPPELL (Conservative Party) 31
Brenda COPPELL (Conservative Party) 29
Michael John LANE (UK Independence Party) 19

Lab 60.8%
L Dem 23.1%
BNP 5.0%
S Lab P 4.3%
GP 2.7%
UKIP 1.5%
ED 1.4%
C 1.3%

The Greens meant to field two candidates but there was a mix up with one of the sets of nomination forms.

A derisory vote for the Conservatives, as one of my FB friends said, they must come from big families and no solace for the ED or the BNP.

I am really looking forward to working with my mate Steph in particular who is a young mum and very enthusiastic about her local community. Well done everyone!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

the interesting thing is the self congrats the Lib dems have been indulging in since the by- election

One wonders why they just cant admit the truth that a seat they won in 2007 is now a no hoper despite a big effort and a huge number of leaflets shoved through doors

theyre in trouble but just refuse to see it

Real Liberal said...

Hello Anon, as an active Lib Dem in the city, i'll try and address some of the things you have brought up. I'm sure Louise will indulge this.

I'm not sure there was a huge amount of self congradulation on the result - but recognition for the hard work that some had put in. So of course Paul Twigger will tweat his "well dones" - I know Mark Coughlin in particular did a lot of work on the ground, and he would have made an excellent representative to the community.

As to being in trouble - this is recognised internally. Many of us are deeply unhappy in the way the party is going nationally, and are horrified as to how this will inevitably affect our votes locally. I think I saw a comment on Dale St. Blues about only the most "monolithic" of Tory-inclined seats being safe in the city. This could well turn out to be the case.

(Btw, Bartlett was unusually wrong in assuming the election would not tell us much - it spoke volumes, and for me personally confirmed my worst fears).

I think its going to take more than a different campaign stratergy to change the situation, and it is simply not within the talents of the current "leading lights" of the local elected Lib Dems to rise to this challenge.

Sad times for real Liberals, indeed.

Louise Baldock said...

Thanks to the anonymous LibDem for the comments, a brave and honest post which will bring some succour to many readers. I think what hurts local people most is not that the LibDem Parliamentarians are supporting some shocking things, although of course that does dismay them, but rather that the local LibDems who must know from their own experiences how these cuts will impact, seem unable to comment. I think Cllr Bradley won some unexpected support when he said he was fearful of the impact but he only said it once about one cut and the group appears to have been unable to repeat this, individually or collectively in public. This comment you have left will be seen as a welcome step by many and I would include the members of the administration. I am sure we would all prefer a Liverpool v the Government stance to a Liverpool admin v Liverpool opposition v the Government stance. Thank you very much for your contribution.