The result:Turnout was 29%... hmm... Oh, well.
Andreas Ioannidis (Lab) 1,769
Shaheen Mahmood (Cons) 1,598
Yahaya Kiingi (LibDem) 97
Labour must give some of the credit for this victory to the Barnet Alliance, who leafleted every house with their leaflet against the One Barnet privatisation programme.
It is an excellent result. Congratulations to Andreas!
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6 comments:
Oh, God! I don't know how you stand the excitement!
Your comment on the turnout of 29% - “oh well” - sums up what is wrong with the current system. If the major political parties turn a blind eye to the fact that 7 out of 10 voters thought that none of the candidates were worth voting for, there is a very real risk that extremist parties on the left and right will make a move.
DCMD - I think you are making too much of the turn-out. There is absolutely no sign of 'extremist' growth, just the usual, routine apathy and lack of motivation to vote.
I don't think 29% turnout is good. I couldn't think of much to say at 1am or whenever it was.
There's a lot more to be said about it, but now I'm at work. When do we get time to think about how things might be improved?!
There is no evidence yet of extremist growth, but the conditions are being set. For far too long politicians (of all colours) have accepted as fact that low turnouts are an unavoidable feature of by-elections. It does not have to be this way, and it should not be this way.
David
I think that the 29% turnout was far from apathy. I think it was a strong message from the supporters of the Tory party that the days when you could take the electorate for granted and still hope to win are gone. Lib Dem supporters also sent out a strong message to their party that in Barnet, they want nothing to do with the coalition.
As to Labour, its shows that if they actually do some work in Tory wards, they can expect some reward.
For me at least, all of those messages are comforting.
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