Barnsley by-election: LibDem vote collapses

[meditrina]

Seat retained by Labour, with similar size majority (as was always going to be the case, so nothing really to comment on there).

But look what's happened to the other parties: complete collapse of LibDems, and far right gaining ground:

Dan Jarvis (Lab) 14,724
Jane Collins (UKIP) 2,953
James Hockney (C) 1,999
Enis Dalton (BNP) 1,463
Tony Devoy (Ind) 1,266
Dominic Carman (LD) 1,012
Kevin Riddiough (Eng Dem) 544
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 198
Michael Val Davies (Ind) 60

Far right outstripping the Conservatives? LibDem below an independent candidate? A verdict on
the Coalition so far?

'They seem to be getting a lot of the flak right now - possibly because it is easier to attack them them the Tories?'

no, its because they are being quasi Tories, which is not what they campaigned as

(hard to attack actual Tories for being Tories )

It's very unwise to start extrapolating things from by-elections. They produce all sorts off odd results and people know full well that they can use them as protest votes without any danger. And the biggest protest vote in Barnsley was the abstention.

Having said that, the Lib Dems have always been the best of the three parties at getting their core vote out for by-elections, so I can see why this might be disappointing. On the other hand, who would really want to put much effort into pounding the pavements in Barnsley, where they weight the Labour vote?

Sorry, that should say WEIGH the Labour vote. As opposed to count it. That's a humorous comment - not intended to imply there is any WEIGHTING going on! :)

I'm not surpised to be honest, Barnsley is a Labour stronghold due to the towns history with coalmining. The Liberals are part of a coalition that is making reductions in public spending in order to eradicate the deficit. There was very little money or effort put into a campaign because it was considered a hopeless cause by both the grassroots and party leadership. That said to have slipped from 2nd to 6th can only be seen as a shocking result and the loss of deposit humiliating but I don't think there'll be a crisis meeting at Cowley Street tonight.

BNP are far left not far right.
May elections will be interesting.

(Vote NO2AV)

BNP are far right not far left.

There's a lot of arguments about whether the BNP are far left or far right, both sides of the Political spectrum are more than keen to disown them. Do a Google search for something along the lines of "BNP left or right" and you'll see all sorts of arguments.

In my opinion the BNP actually seem to be a random mix, I presume that expecting coherent political thought from them it just setting your goals too high.

They hate the Unions labelling them as Marxists or Communists which makes them right wing, yet they have their own Union (well sort of) which makes them left wing .

They want to nationalise industries which makes them left wing, but not for the purposes of ownership by the people but so to increase national power, which is pretty right wing.

And so on...

In the end to me the crazy beliefs, fears and phobias that drive all they do are over race rather than class, so I do see them as being right wing. However we could argue about that all day, it's not cut and dried.

Suffice to say that they're "extreme" and most people, correctly or not, would call them the "extreme right".

BNP are far left. THey want a large state and a nationalised, planned economy.

Far right in the true sense are people like the Tax Payers Alliance and the Freedom Association - not political parties but movements.

"BNP are far left. THey want a large state and a nationalised, planned economy."

As said the reasons for nationalisation are not the same as left wing socialist ones, it's nothing to do with the "left wing" reason of workers owning the means of production and everything to do with boosting national power.

The BNP are not obviously either far left or far right and you could argue which they are all day long. They bounce from one side to the other depending on which policy you look at and how deeply you think about it.

Suffice to say that their extreme and authoritarian and anything else is something political types can and will argue about for hours.

I can deal with that :). I just find the label 'far right' particularly offensive as I consider myself 'far right' as a Libertarian and couldn't be further from the BNP

"I consider myself 'far right' as a Libertarian and couldn't be further from the BNP"

The one dimensional left/right thing has a problem with loons like the BNP.

If you add an extra dimension, Authoritarianism/Libertarianism the BNP stick out nicely. This might cause more arguments but it shows how this can work out:
www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010

The BNP end up roughly in the middle on left/right as they do pick from both extremes in a very muddled way.