Now Can We Please Stop Talking ...

[sunny-dave]

... about Jeremy Corbyn as an electoral liability?

Under his leadership (and even after the savaging given to him by the Tory press yesterday), we have seen a significantly increased Labour share of the vote - up by 8 percentage points - about a 15% increase.

Perhaps the Try chattering classes and their lackeys in the right wing press have just not seen what is apparent to those of us on the ground - JC is well regarded as an honest man, who is becoming an increasingly effective opposition to a badly out of touch Tory oligarchy.

[mikey4444]

Indeed Minty, although, to be fair, all Parties have their off-moments when it comes to shenanigans ! Bad cases make bad law.

The SNP, rather like UKIP, is a one-issue Party. It can't deliver its core concern, and sooner rather than later, people will realise that.

[Prudie]

Tha actual votes cast for labour are 4000 down
The turnout is statistically insufficient
Hints at very dodgy last minute postal voting

I'd accept the win but keep quiet about the flag waving and gloating personally

[Sqad]

Labour win Oldham and Royston........
Yes, it,s a win................?

[youngmafbog]

Whatever your smoking Dave pass it round must be good stuff.

In case you hadnt noticed this was a really safe labour seat. As I predicted this was going to be the outcome.

Far from being 'delighted' I'd be asking why the majority was slashed by a third.

[mikey4444]

Morning Sqad !...

Yes its a win. A win for a Party that according to the media is in complete disarray, with a Leader who according to our PM, is a "terrorist sympathiser"

Considering all the mud and smears that have been thrown at him and the Party, I think this result is nothing short of a triumph.

I don't expect the more rabid amongst our right-wingers here on AB to admit the above, but they would have been very quick to say the opposite if the ghastly UKIP had won last night.

[dannyk13]

Mikey, I can only repeat that the candidate wins a by-election not the party leader.

[Sqad]

Morning mikey.........yes a good win......well a win anyway.
The Labour Party is still in disarray which will not be affected by the Oldham result........BUT.......there is a long way to go to the next election.

[vulcan42]

Labour candidate wins very safe labour seat, hardly earth shattering news.
Straw anybody?

[mikey4444]

I agree Sqad....but its a very good start !

[Old_Geezer]

You predicted a vote share that was higher than at the general election with Jeremy at the helm ymb ? Congrats for realising so early that the anti Corban comments were just from the highly vocal minority.

As for the anti UKIP comments, they are equally invalid. Some party needs to take that issue seriously, and the recent mass migration to the EU underlines that.

[Old_Geezer]

Concerns over a party leader can overturn preference for a particular candidate. Clearly that didn't occur here which is the point that the OP is making.

[mikey4444]

OG...UKIP candidates are rather like vegetarians .....they often enthuse but rarely persuade.

I have made this following comment many times before, here on AB, but a vote for a candidate that has no chance of winning is rather a wasted exercise.

Despite all the f*rt and thunder, UKIP have now got a sum total of 1 MP. The main reason for that is because most people see them as an amusing diversion but do not take them seriously, because they know that UKIP cannot achieve anything.

The UKIP chap, John Bickley has now made three attempts to get into Parliament, although that figure pales into insignificance compared to his Leader.

[Khandro]

Mr Farage will bring up the issue when he holds a press conference in the constituency at 10am.
He announced this morning that he would be launching a formal complaint after he claimed that some batches of postal votes were "99 per cent" in Labour's favour and that "bundles" of votes were being delivered to polling stations yesterday.

[ToraToraTora]

Bye elections tend to be a local affair, I don't think you can read anything into this regarding the leadership. Labour win a safe seat, shocker!

[mikey4444]

Khandro.....Farage cries crocodile tears again ! Well, I never did !

The facts :::

Jim McMahon (Labour) - 17,209 (62.11%)

John Bickley (UKIP) - 6,487 (23.41%)

Using these figures, for UKIP to have lost last night due to voting irregularity, it would have had to have been on a truly monumental scale !

[Old_Geezer]

The main reason is they don't see them as preferable to their first choice, for the party they have always supported in many cases, and are unconvinced sufficient will change their vote to get a decent number of MPs in. That doesn't mean a large section of the population do not sympathise with their aim. But that doesn't mean they have no affect on other parties that are more fortunate and would otherwise ignore the issue as it is easier to support the status quo and stay in, than cause an upheaval and doing the right thing.

[mushroom25]

//JC is well regarded...//

mm. a party that issues death threats to its mps when they don't toe the party line.

do you respect that, SD?

[tamborine]

Fraud block votes by vulnerable electors. At least we now know wgo pulls JC strings.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/electoral-fraud/electoral-fraud-vulnerabilities-review

[mikey4444]

UKIP is essentially a protest vote OG, and most people now realise that.

If we add the frankly loony and risible activities of UKIP over the last couple of years, they remain largely unelectable, at least in sufficient numbers to make any difference whatsoever. Th Greens have the same number of MPs and they don't make any difference either.

[mikey4444]

Mush...hyperbole in the extreme !

There is no evidence that the Labour Party sanctioned and issued "death threats" to its own member. What some individuals did, in or out of the Party, is to be condemned but to suggest that its Labour Party policy and practise is risible.