Ukip fails to drain Labour's byelection cup despite push for votes

Ukip fails to drain Labour's byelection cup despite push for votes
Nigel Farage's push north for votes stalls in the face of south Manchester loyalties



They'll protect benefits, move civil service jobs to Manchester and stand up for ordinary people against millionaire politicians in Westminster. "We're the party of the working class," the flyers boast.

This is not the message from Labour, but the UK Independence party (Ukip) in Wythenshawe and Sale East, as Nigel Farage's populist band of activists bid to shake up politics in the north of England.

Their candidate is John Bickley, a 60-year-old businessman who grew up in Wythenshawe when it was still the biggest council estate in Europe. He believes the south Manchester area is full of "the best people, honest, god-fearing people". But he also wants politicians to give more help to an "underclass" being denied opportunities and those "sitting there watching Jeremy Kyle and drinking their life away".

Bickley says many young people "just have a sense of hopelessness" and what he's hearing on the ground is "a sense of being betrayed by the Labour party, who allowed a lot of immigration".

It's a bold pitch, but so far at least, the Ukip message does not appear to be breaking through as successfully as in the recent Rotherham, Middlesbrough, South Shields and Eastleigh byelections.

Always a staunch Labour area, support for Ed Miliband's party seems to have increased after the death of Paul Goggins, a much-loved local MP who served as a Northern Ireland minister. Initial polls by Lord Ashcroft show Labour is up 17 points with a huge 61% of the vote. Ukip is way behind on 15%, almost neck-and-neck with the Tories on 14%. The Lib Dems are on a paltry 5%.

It is clear that Mike Kane, a former teacher running for Labour, does not think political interlopers have much of a chance. The biggest issues are the Trafford A&E closure, the cost of living and council cuts, he says – not immigration, in the white British constituency.

"I go out to church on a Sunday morning and then I go out knocking on doors," he said. "Paul Goggins [the sitting MP who died last month] did that with me every week for two hours across the constituency. We did that before this election was called and I'll do that after the election. Politics is about those relationships and they are deep-seated round here."

However, the large poll lead does not stop Labour being infuriated by Farage trying to drive his tanks on to their lawn.

Norma Hulme, a 72-year-old from Northenden, says the prime minister would probably get chased away if he returned to the area.

Having always voted Labour, she's "not impressed with them either" and as for Ukip: "I don't know much about them, love."

This time, she might not vote at all. And that is the big unknown in the contest – how the apathy factor will affect turnout and potentially push up the share of the vote for Ukip, who have repeatedly shown they can do a last-minute poll surge.

Out campaigning, Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary and MP for nearby Leigh, splutters at the mention of of Ukip's claims. "It's all very well turning up and standing at the bar with a pint. The man is a fraud as far as I am concerned."

There is no shortage of Labour frontbenchers around either. Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, is also focused on Ukip as she accompanies Kane on a visit. "Ukip's number-one pledge is to get the Department of Culture, Media and Sport moved to Manchester," she says drily. "I haven't spent that much time here but I don't think that's the number one concern."

Despite predicting Ukip would be hot on Labour's heels in the north, Farage has begun dampening expectations as the final week of campaigning begins.

This started with a strongly worded letter to the Electoral Commission, arguing it was unfair for Labour to have so many postal votes stitched up before the contest properly kicked off. Toby Perkins, the Labour MP running Kane's campaign, says these complaints about the process take a lazy view of the electorate. "If they had been interested in Manchester for more than three weeks of the year, they would have been in touch with people already," he says.

Where Ukip is picking up votes, Labour sources believe, is from former Tories in the more affluent area of Sale, where the Eurosceptic party has set up its campaign headquarters. Meanwhile, Labour is hoovering up ex-Lib Dem voters.

They also reckon Conservatives have deliberately put up a weak candidate to "throw the match" and show Ukip is a threat to Labour as well.

The Tory choice is Daniel Critchlow, a 26-year-old Church of England vicar, who says his campaign is focused on "the little things" – a new youth centre, getting rid of litter and potholes.

Critchlow puts in a valiant effort during a visit to a community initiative with Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, who dismisses as "hogwash" the idea that the Tories have given up.

But it is clear that he is not getting the same support as Labour's Kane, who has been out with both party leader, Ed Miliband, and shadow chancellor, Ed Balls.

Will David Cameron be visiting before the campaign is over? "Unlikely," says the single Tory aide at Critchlow's side.

Ukip's Bickley has also been on the stump with Farage, although that visit did not run entirely smoothly when they were hounded on the high street by placard-waving British National party activists.

Meanwhile, Kane insists Labour will not get complacent, despite the shift in focus to a Tory-Ukip battle for distant second. "We are still fighting for every vote and knocking on every door," he says. "We never take a single one for granted."

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/07/ukip-labour-byelection-nigel-farage-manchester


 :::grouch::  :::grouch::  :::grouch:: 

Any chance you read a paper other than the Guardian?

Don't you find left,left,left left left a bit boring. I can at least say I read The Independent The guardian and The Telegraph.

Go on Sassy give your brain cell a treat.

And I've already told you I prefer the Independent, but it screws my computer up.

Have a condom Drinky, if you are going to act like a dick you might as well dress like one.

On topic I'm delighted they are making a dent in the Labour vote but in benefits central in Manchester there is no chance. A donkey wold be reelected. If Abu Hamza stood he would be elected. Honestly.

Still Labour voters have issues with the EU even your mate Bob Crow does. Who knows

Virtually the whole place is on benefits and reliant on Labours largesse with workers money. Gordon Jeremy and yourself would be delighted.

It is more or less a huge council estate. My friend works at Wythenshawe hospital. She wont take her good car there. I'm not joking the place is the complete opposite of he posh places further down the road like Hale Barns Wilmslow etc. I live up here lady I know first hand.

Oh bless, never let the truth get in the way of your lies, and never loose a chance to show yourself as a rather thick and rancid bigot.

Sassy wrote:And I've already told you I prefer the Independent, but it screws my computer up.

Have a condom Drinky, if you are going to act like a dick you might as well dress like one.

Use a different browser there are many that won't be screwed up. Try the Telegraph as well yes it is right of centre but its not the cynical crap the Mail prints.

Sassy wrote:And I've already told you I prefer the Independent, but it screws my computer up.

Have a condom Drinky, if you are going to act like a dick you might as well dress like one.

Use a different browser there are many that won't be screwed up. Try the Telegraph as well yes it is right of centre but its not the cynical crap the Mail prints.

I use Firefox, and I'm not about the change. It's not that anyway, have a very old mainframe computer which needs more memory, but it's not worth doing it. Eventually is will pass from this life and I'll have to get another. And I have posted stuff from the Telegraph before, but I refuse to have a subscription, so its not possible to read all of it. Acually, one of my favourites is Al Jaz, covers so much more.

Mainframe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????

I don't think so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it might not be the correct word, but it's what I call it as I have a monitor and a box at the side, which is a lot more words, but obviously caused you to splutter. I know what a mainframe is, I used the very first computer that was put into Shell Centre in London, took up a whole floor and had to have humidity checks and ventilation etc. Don't get your knickers in a twist over something so silly, life is too short.

That's OK I thought of a house with a mainframe in it that doesn't even load very well.

Your system is probably running XP which will be out of date very shortly. Time for a new one. If you are running something even earlier then sorry you really cannot be considered anything other than a luddite.

I used to buy computers including mainframes.

Clarkson wrote:That's OK I thought of a house with a mainframe in it that doesn't even load very well.

Your system is probably running XP which will be out of date very shortly. Time for a new one. If you are running something even earlier then sorry you really cannot be considered anything other than a luddite.

I used to buy computers including mainframes.

What? the Fisher-Price type out of the Early Learning Centre? The one's with little animals on the keyboard.

  

Oh it's definitely time for a new one Drinky, but its not exactly high on my priorities at the moment, and that doesn't make me a Luddite, it makes me careful what I do with the money I have and what I prioritise.

Clarkson wrote:On topic I'm delighted they are making a dent in the Labour vote but in benefits central in Manchester there is no chance. A donkey wold be reelected. If Abu Hamza stood he would be elected. Honestly.

Still Labour voters have issues with the EU even your mate Bob Crow does. Who knows

Virtually the whole place is on benefits and reliant on Labours largesse with workers money. Gordon Jeremy and yourself would be delighted.

It is more or less a huge council estate. My friend works at Wythenshawe hospital. She wont take her good car there. I'm not joking the place is the complete opposite of he posh places further down the road like Hale Barns Wilmslow etc. I live up here lady I know first hand.

As I live up here too...in this instance I would concur with drinky.......

Then there is hope for you if you know how to conserve.

grumpy old git wrote:

Clarkson wrote:On topic I'm delighted they are making a dent in the Labour vote but in benefits central in Manchester there is no chance. A donkey wold be reelected. If Abu Hamza stood he would be elected. Honestly.

Still Labour voters have issues with the EU even your mate Bob Crow does. Who knows

Virtually the whole place is on benefits and reliant on Labours largesse with workers money. Gordon Jeremy and yourself would be delighted.

It is more or less a huge council estate. My friend works at Wythenshawe hospital. She wont take her good car there. I'm not joking the place is the complete opposite of he posh places further down the road like Hale Barns Wilmslow etc. I live up here lady I know first hand.

As I live up here too...in this instance I would concur with drinky.......

That's twice be careful. I have canvassed for the TORIES IN PLACES LIKE Wythenshawe strangely enough not a harrowing experience as I thought it might be. Indeed on occasion they were so surprised to be canvassed at all by the Tories it was a gratifying if unrewarding experience from  a vote point of view. I worked for a particularly nice bloke who said sod it I'm going to be MP of the good areas and the bad areas I've got to go there as well.

A nicer bloke you couldn't meet and he was a Tory. Fancy that.

grumpy old git wrote:

Clarkson wrote:On topic I'm delighted they are making a dent in the Labour vote but in benefits central in Manchester there is no chance. A donkey wold be reelected. If Abu Hamza stood he would be elected. Honestly.

Still Labour voters have issues with the EU even your mate Bob Crow does. Who knows

Virtually the whole place is on benefits and reliant on Labours largesse with workers money. Gordon Jeremy and yourself would be delighted.

It is more or less a huge council estate. My friend works at Wythenshawe hospital. She wont take her good car there. I'm not joking the place is the complete opposite of he posh places further down the road like Hale Barns Wilmslow etc. I live up here lady I know first hand.

As I live up here too...in this instance I would concur with drinky.......

Hey you. I went out with a girl from Wythenshaw who I met at Pontins in Morecambe when I was just 16. I wrote to her for ages after that and met her another two times once in Blackpool but it faded out eventually. She lived in Colshaw Road and I can still even remember the number of the house but I was never there.
Somehow I never forgot her.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

As for conserving Drinky, I could teach you, easily. I have kitchen equipment my grandmother used.

Sassy wrote:Ahhhhhhhhhh!

As for conserving Drinky, I could teach you, easily.   I have kitchen equipment my grandmother used.

Oh the old trepanning tools you can't beat the old medicine.

That didn't fit. Disregard.

If you had said some of her old equipment that would have been funny.

Clarkson wrote:

Sassy wrote:Ahhhhhhhhhh!

As for conserving Drinky, I could teach you, easily.   I have kitchen equipment my grandmother used.

Oh the old trepanning tools you can't beat the old medicine.

Nope, a pastry cutter for rubbing the fat into flour (has a straight handle with six curved strands that attach to each end of the handle, looks like a letter D, she used to use it to make apple pie for Jimmy Greaves when when she was cook at Chelsea FC) mixing bowls and casserole dishes, jelly moulds and a rolling pin.

PS, I know what trepanning tools are, drilling etc.

UKIP have no place with decent British people, another extreme RW party with hate for the poor, immigrants and disabled folk.

Er no they represent a very wide cross section of voters actually. Strangely enough the BNP had huge numbers of disaffected labour voters did you know that JD.

They had virtually no Tories because their policies were very left wing on the economy.

What you choose to forget is Labour reneged on the referendum. People want a say. That's why the UKIP message has some traction with all flavours of voters.

Even Wythenshawe, a massive labour stronghold, will show some swing to UKIP. You find it noble to shaft the electorate over Europe most decent people don't.

Clarkson wrote:Er no they represent a very wide cross section of voters actually. Strangely enough the BNP had huge numbers of disaffected labour voters did you know that JD.

They had virtually no Tories because their policies were very left wing on the economy.

What you choose to forget is Labour reneged on the referendum. People want a say. That's why the UKIP message has some traction with all flavours of voters.

Even Wythenshawe, a massive labour stronghold, will show some swing to UKIP. You find it noble to shaft the electorate over Europe most decent people don't.

No they didn't.

Clarkson wrote:Er no they represent a very wide cross section of voters actually. Strangely enough the BNP had huge numbers of disaffected labour voters did you know that JD.

They had virtually no Tories because their policies were very left wing on the economy.

What you choose to forget is Labour reneged on the referendum. People want a say. That's why the UKIP message has some traction with all flavours of voters.

Even Wythenshawe, a massive labour stronghold, will show some swing to UKIP. You find it noble to shaft the electorate over Europe most decent people don't.

Heath, Thatcher and then Major took us into Europe and never even asked the electorate.
They shafted the nation good and proper.

Fuck me the Denier would deny the Sun was shining as his eyeballs were reduced to dust.

Go on I'm amused.

Your convoluted explanation please.

Except that they never promised something they didn't deliver. Labour promised a referendum and chose to renege. That is a cast iron fact.

Clarkson wrote:Fuck me the Denier would deny the Sun was shining as his eyeballs were reduced to dust.

Go on I'm amused.

Your convoluted explanation please.

Who are you askin'?

Last week they blocked another referendum in the Lords. Very democratic not!!!!


My God how much do they pay you?

Clarkson wrote:Except that they never promised something they didn't deliver. Labour promised a referendum and chose to renege. That is a cast iron fact.

They promised a referendum on any new EU constitution. The referendum you are moaning for was the Lisbon Treaty which was not even an in/out issue.

Get a grip man.

You who else will not accept Labour never did a thing wrong. I've never met anyone like you. Not even Scrat is as bad as you.

Flap is right you are incapable of admitting a single fault.

It does you no good Bru a fact remains a fact no matter how you spin it. Good night comrade.

Clarkson wrote:Last week they blocked another referendum in the Lords. Very democratic not!!!!


My God how much do they pay you?

It's a stunt to pacify the extreme right wing of the Tory Party.

Not even two years ago Cameron said there would be no referendum - it was not Conservative Party policy.

Do you remember that?

Irn Bru wrote:

Clarkson wrote:Except that they never promised something they didn't deliver. Labour promised a referendum and chose to renege. That is a cast iron fact.

They promised a referendum on any new EU constitution. The referendum you are moaning for was the Lisbon Treaty which was not even an in/out issue.

Get a grip man.

They made a cast iron promise. The treaty ceded powers you Donk. Powers they said we will get the right to say yes to.

They didn't allow the referendum when they knew they would lose.

That's as undemocratic as it gets.

Spin all you like.

Clarkson wrote:You who else will not accept Labour never did a thing wrong. I've never met anyone like you. Not even Scrat is as bad as you.

Flap is right you are incapable of admitting a single fault.

It does you no good Bru a fact remains a fact no matter how you spin it. Good night comrade.

They did plenty wrong - just like the Tories.

Listen to Flap!!!, the benefit scrounging immigrant in Turkey and the guy who paid the MoD money so that he could chuck his Navy uniform in the bin because he couldn't hack it. I've had the death wish from him so he's the last person I would listen to.

Clarkson wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Clarkson wrote:Except that they never promised something they didn't deliver. Labour promised a referendum and chose to renege. That is a cast iron fact.

They promised a referendum on any new EU constitution. The referendum you are moaning for was the Lisbon Treaty which was not even an in/out issue.

Get a grip man.

They made a cast iron promise. The treaty ceded powers you Donk. Powers they said we will get the right to say yes to.

They didn't allow the referendum when they knew they would lose.

That's as undemocratic as it gets.

Spin all you like.

The referendum was for any new EU constitution - not the Lisbon Treaty. It's in their manifesto.

Cameron reneged on a cast iron commitment to have a referendum and he had the chance to do it when amendments came to it came up but he didn't.

Cameron denied the electorate a referendum on the EU almost two years ago - FACT

Semantics it was a constitution in all but name. Cameron was faced with a fait a compli Brown had already signed it we couldn't unsign it.

Face facts Irn bru you were let down get counselling and come to terms with it. Brown was and is a loser. Only you still get a hard on for him.

Still it takes all sorts

Clarkson wrote:Semantics it was a constitution in all but name. Cameron was faced with a fait a compli Brown had already signed it we couldn't unsign it.

Face facts Irn bru you were let down get counselling and come to terms with it. Brown was and is a loser. Only you still get a hard on for him.

Still it takes all sorts

In the wake of the Lisbon Treaty fiasco, David Cameron vowed Britain would never again give away powers to Brussels without first holding a referendum.
In a spectacular U-turn, however, Mr Cameron has now backed plans to sneak changes into the Lisbon Treaty without triggering referendums across Europe.
It is a significant victory for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was last night dining with the Camerons at ¬Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat in Buckinghamshire.
At the Council of Ministers, Europe’s prime ministers and presidents backed “a limited treaty change” to deliver tighter fiscal discipline across the EU and a ¬permanent bail-out fund for members of the eurozone. The change will create an “economic government” for Europe.
Nigel Farage, frontrunner to lead the UK Independence Party, said: “It is one of the most massive power grabs they have ever attempted but because it is so ¬devilishly complicated this might just sneak through by default. But make no mistake, these are draconian powers and without a shadow of a doubt this should trigger a referendum.”
Leaders are petrified that any change to the EU treaties would spark referendums in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.
In Britain the EU Referendum Campaign has been launched calling on the ¬Government to give the country the vote denied when Gordon Brown ratified the Lisbon Treaty. More than 5,000 Sunday Express readers signed up after we highlighted the campaign last week.
The Referendum Lock Bill, due to be introduced in Parliament next month, was drawn up as the Conservative’s “Plan B” after Mr Cameron dropped the “cast iron pledge” to hold a referendum on the ¬Lisbon Treaty following ratification.
Mr Cameron argues there will be no transfer of powers from Westminster to Brussels. He argues:

“The key to a ¬referendum is this question: Are we ¬transferring powers. If yes, a referendum. If not, no referendum.”

So much for ‘Dave’s’ commitment to a referendum. His latest ploy is to head off UKIP and nothing more. Choke on it Drinky.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/208589/David-Cameron-U-turn-denies-Britain-EU-referendum

Nigel Farage's UKIP is set to snatch second place from the Conservatives in the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election, according to a definitive survey by polling guru Lord Ashcroft. UKIP have more than quadrupled their vote share in the constituency since 2010 - and are on track for an impressive showing.

Mr Farage has predicted second place for his party and complained that UKIP is likely to be defeated by Labour because of postal votes,

http://news.sky.com/story/1207783/ukip-set-to-snatch-second-place-in-by-election