Zac Loses Richmond By-Election

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38178486

Massive loss for the Tory Party. Well done LibDems. Good result for the STAY campaign as well.

I'm off back to bed now !

[mikey4444]

The reality here is that Mrs May and the Tory Party have been caught on the back foot over Richmond. They never thought that Goldsmith would carry out his threat to resign and force a By-Election. And when he did, they foundered and faffed about, instead of actually doing something.

I expect they, like a lot of other people, never expected a 23k majority to be overturned. If he had won yesterday, then they could have rested on their laurels, knowing that Goldsmith was still a Tory and their wafer-thin majority would have been completely unaffected.

And yet, the Libdems have a proud history in Richmond, and were always capable of winning control of the seat again.

Mrs May's inexperience is starting to show itself.

The Tories had better pay attention to Mr Rees-Mogg, who at least is prepared to give the real reason why they lost yesterday.....BREXIT !

[youngmafbog]

So according to you Mickey is that any person who leaves a party for another and then looses then the party they left suffers a devastating result even if they dont actually put a candidate up.

Jeez, how is your mind wired.

BTW the devastation actually belongs to labour, which is why you are probably trying to deflect to the Tories. it is the lowest for Labour in London since 1909 and in addition they lost their deposit.

[mikey4444]

YMB........well done for trying to divert attention away from the Tories onto Labour ! Good try but not good enough !

This morning, Mrs May's majority is down on and her opposition is up one !

[jno]

I only know what you write, Khandro. I also know what was written before the war. Those writers would doubtless say the same in their defence as you do. If you want to distance yourself from them, you can choose not to use their language: the euphemisms of the 1930s haven't been forgotten.

[EDDIE51]

I have said ( to much derision ) that the Lib Dems are the ONLY viable alternate to the Tories.
Labour in tatters , UKIP a bunch of worthless idiots
Yes, only a bi-election, but if it is even 25% repeated in general election we in the EU for ever . Remember the Lib Dems have staying in the EU as their core policy !!
As you say mikey the Tory majority is wafer thin now! 2 MP's lost in under a week!

[ichkeria]

The Lib Dems are still clinging to the "No "hard" Brexit, and "There must be a second referedum" lines.
Drop the "hard" and forget about a referendum on Brexit terms, unless there is some mechanism which would allow some breathing space if the terms were rejected.
And they'll be there :-)
In fairness, they do have to be careful not to be seen to be "going against the will of the people". At the moment there are few politicians in danger of non re-election who are calling for Brexit to be canned.

[ludwig]

// If you want to distance yourself from them, you can choose not to use their language: the euphemisms of the 1930s haven't been forgotten. //

Except it was you that introduced the euphemism jno.

[EDDIE51]

Having read all the posts on this I want to say again I agree with what Sqad and Mikey have said. This is a major victory for the lib dems , it changes the UK political spectrum.
Who is sucking on the 'sour grapes' now!!!!!

[Togo]

//Togo....its you that are so wrong at 11:17....you need to do your research a little better !//

What on earth is Mikey once again getting into clutch crotch mode again about. I said "an estimated 72% voting Remain" it was just over 69%. Wow hardly game changing. Make that Liberace Richmond remoaners ichker. Typo.

[ichkeria]

Liberace Remainers
A fascinating thought Togo :-)

[Khandro]

jno; Your accusations are disgusting, in your warped outlook you attempt to implicate me in anti-Jewish sentiments of the 1930's, how dare you?
I said that Goldsmith, because of his personal wealth, is free to do with his life whatever he wants, a luxury not available to most working people and that is why they have a greater personal stake in what happens to Britain than he does.
There is neither stated nor implied any anti-Jewish view in this whatsoever. Some people on AB will know that I frequently put up quotes from The Gatestone Institute's website to which I am a subscriber, an organization which is predicated on its support for Israel.
Your post is untrue, unfair and disgraceful.

[ToraToraTora]

Eddie: " , it changes the UK political spectrum." - how one Tory eejit resigns over something stupid and loses his seat to a Limp Dum, not exactly seismic is it?
"Who is sucking on the 'sour grapes' now!!!!! " - err you, it seems, 3 major events to 0.01 of an event, I don't think the sour grape landscape has really shifted. Anyway we have all accepted the result rather than run around trying to find ways to annul it, as is the standard practice of the SGB.

[ichkeria]

It might not be selsmic but it indicates how important the Brexit issue has become. The ground is already shifting in any case. Left and right are losing their significance. It's becoming more 'liberal versus restriction' 'open versus closed' We're going global like it or not, as the chaos confusion and division over Brexit shows. It's very very hard to unhook oneself from trade and political alliances. Hard Brexit would be catastrophic for this country and even soft Brexit she not ideal as it would mean being locked into the EU without any say in its running.
The OBR forecasts round about the time of the autumn statement pretty much bear out all of the so called project fear predictions.

[ToraToraTora]

a remain area voted for the remain candidate! Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs! Nothing changed since the referendum.

[ichkeria]

Yes it did but the fact that people voted along those lines was significant. After all the referendum is over is it not? While on the one hand plainly lots of people who voted Remain in the referendum did not vote for the winning candidate, it also looks as though many Tory voters switched their allegiance because they are unhappy at the government's handling of Brexit. Some of them probably voted leave . The Lib Dems wanted this election to be a mini referendum and they succeeded

[Ninefingers]

From some pages ago

Phone rings - "Good Morning, this is The Labour Party.
We can't do any opposing right now but your plight is important to us. Please leave a message"

labour still a waste of space, Lib Dums still as pointless as they were with 8 seats Yup major change in the political spectrum of the UK get a grip!

[ToraToraTora]

Not sure where you get that leap of illogic ich, how do you know that previously brexit Tories switched to the remain candidate? As far as anyone can tell the proportion if remain/brexit at the referendum more or less matches the votes for the 2 main candidates so I don't know how you can determine that there is a shift in opinion of brexit going on here. It was 20k v 18K, where as the referendum was 35% brexit so if anything several thousand have moved over to brexit.

[Jackdaw33]

I think this was a freak result which had more to do with the personality of the candidates and the circumstances in which the election was called rather than any political seismic sea change.

[jourdain2]

Well, around here nothing has changed - pro-Leave are still Leavers and in fact a few Remainers have seen how nasty Europe is being and would now vote Leave. Very patronising of someone (was it ichkeria?) to suggest that we did not know what we were voting for. We did and we do. On 24/6 strangers were greeting each other with smiles and 'Independance Day' on their lips - I heard them.

So, a naturally LibDem seat was lost in the chaos after Clegg. It has been regained. No Con. stood, so the choice was between Lab. (!) an unpopular Independent or the LibDems (who are very green and also oppose 3rd runway). Nothing to do with Brexit - it was a Remain area and remains so. On the lines of 'Woman has Baby' headline i.m.o..

[Jackdaw33]

A better test will be the upcoming by-election in Lincolnshire where the Tories will have a new candidate defending a similar majority to Goldsmith's.