Is this the end of the English Democrats?

In 1990 a political party presenting itself as a credible force in UK politics fought the Bootle by-election and was outpolled by the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Within a week the "continuing" Social Democratic Party folded.

This trend continued in the 1990s - there were times when serious "alternative" parties would decide against standing in particular by-elections rather than risk losing to the Loonies and seeing morale and credibility evaporate - see Wikipedia: Official Monster Raving Loony Party - Serious attempts to gather votes.

Tonight the Loonies once again outpolled a serious party. In Ealing Southall they got 188 votes, whilst the English Democrats polled just 152. Can the English Democrats seriously continue?

How long will Ming last?

The Liberal Democrats haven't taken Ealing Southall, despite being in second place at the last general election. This failure is the worst by-election result for the Liberal Democrats since Richmond (North Yorkshire) in 1989 (when all three post Liberal-Social Democrat merger parties contested the seat and shredded the vote).

Nor have they taken Sedgefield and despite their hopes they have failed to reduce the Conservative share of the vote which instead went up. All the Liberal Democrats achieved here was to rearrange the anti-war vote - their vote increase of 8.0% is less than the 10.3% gained by Reg Keys last time.

How long can Sir Menzies Campbell last as Liberal Democrat leader? Can you hear the Liberal Democrat vultures circling?

Strange encounters in Ealing Southall

When I arrived at Ealing Broadway station today the first person I saw outside was none other than Sir Menzies Campbell! He was walking all by himself with a couple of Liberal Democrat activists following at a distance. I resisted the opportunity to stop and chat to him.

But stranger still was an incident later on when leafleting. I bent down to put a leaflet through a low letter box when I heard someone opening the gate. I turned round to see coming up behind me none other than Mark Oaten!

Fortunately I didn't shit myself.

Business transaction not political donation

Dizzy Thinks has an excellent piece on the difference between the business community and political tribalists when it comes to events. Rather than comment further I reproduce his piece here:

You say political donation, I say business transaction

The Ealing Southall by-election is getting rather funnier by the day. Allegations about possible lawsuits, and now we have "Tory candidates donates to Labour less than a month ago". Well that's the line Labour have pushed, which is understandable, elections and all.

It seems what has happened is that Tony Lit in his position as MD of Sunrise Radio, and his wife, attended an event which was celebrating diversity and was actually a Labour fund raiser with Blair and presumably other great and good Labour people too. They, that is Sunrise Radio had paid the Labour Party £4800 for a table at the event. Apparently the table also won an auction which it has yet to pay for with a winning bid of £4000.

There are of course some who would say this is evidence of shameless opportunism by Tony Lit. Weeks before he became the Tory candidate he was "donating" money to Labour. I think some perspective is needed on this though, after all, it was a business identity that was attending an event which, essentially, was a "here's a chance to lobby the Government" event as well as be seen in the local community and maintain a friendly business profile.

Whilst some people might call it a donation, anyone with a modicum of business understanding knows that the £4800 will be seen as a business transaction rather than an act of generosity. In fact, I would be surprised if it wasn't written off in the Sunrise books as part of a relationship building expenses ledger. One thing's for sure, personal political views won't have been a factor in the decision of whether to attend or not.

And to be fair, it sort of beggars belief that an event about diversity and the British Asian community would not have the nations largest Asian radio station in attendance in some way. The chances are they were probably contacted by the Labour Party and invited, rather than it being active participation the other way round. At which point a business decision was made to attend, because, funnily enough, from a business point of view it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Those of a more tribalistic persuasion might find this hard to stomach. Obviously a Labour tribalist won't buy such an argument because it (a) doesn't suit the situation to do so and (b) they're probably a public sector housing officer that doesn't understand the dispassionate nature of making a business decision. A Tory tribalist meanwhile will probably understand the point, but just see it as an excuse to blame Cameron some more I imagine.

There is one final thing to consider though. The Labour Party have (presumably thanks to Tom Watson and Joan Ryan who are dealing with their by-election strategy) just sent a message to businesses around the country that it will (a) breach a trust it may have with them and (b) use them as a political football if it's expedient to do so.

In the short term they've created a story on a Sunday when the polls look horrible for Tories, a double whammy, and politically a great hit (even though the story is devoid of any sanity really). But, in the long term, they've probably just ensured that they're not going to get a decent hearing on the largest Asian broadcaster in the country for some time to come.

Ming stops delivering

At the Liberal Democrat campaign office in the Ealing Southall by-election, the three photocopiers are named "Dave", "Gordon" and "Ming". Only one of the three is not performing properly.

You've guessed it - the useless one is Ming!

Thanks to Telegraph Blogs: Little and Large - Ming conks out for the story.

Tom Watson - Two names and two faces

Labour's performance in the by-election in Ealing Southall is generating more and more nastiness. First we get the farce of an All Women Shortlist being imposed on the constituency, then retracted following a strong campaign against it. Cue outrage from the AWS advocates. (Antonia Bance: Ealing Southall) Then the shortlist that was put to the membership did not meet the hopes of those who sought to overturn the AWS in the first place. Cue outrage. (SikhSangat News: Labour Party Sikh Members Not Impressed By Labour Selection Process For Ealing Southall) It seems as though whoever in the Labour Party is responsible for overseeing the selection has decided that when it's not possible to please everyone the key priority is to outrage everyone.

Then we get the farce of Tom Watson MP claiming the Conservative candidate is not a registered voter. This is because he didn't bother to look properly. Under changes to electoral law made by Tom Watson's government, candidates are entitled to stand under their best known name rather than their full formal name. You would have thought that the person in charge of Labour's election campaign would know current electoral law!!! Clearly he also doesn't know the electoral law that it is illegal to publish false statements about candidates under electoral law. (Tom Watson MP: Who is Tony Lit? and also Iain Dale: EXCLUSIVE: Labour Breach Electoral Law in Ealing Southall)

Next Tom Watson dug his hole deeper by attacking Tony Lit for sometimes going by his full name (Surinderpal Singh Lit) and sometimes by his given name (Tony Lit). (Tom Watson MP: Who is Tony Lit? [2]) This from a man presenting himself to the world as "Tom Watson" when his full name is "Thomas Anthony Watson". Has he not noticed this?

And for the record I technically go by several variations of name. As well as using "Tim" as my first name, there is deep ambiguity over whether or not there is a hyphen in my surname - I use one but other members of my family don't. And as many internet registrations don't allow spaces and hyphens "timrollpickering" has almost become another name for me. I am sure many others do. Perhaps Tom aka Thomas Anthony Watson would like to spend more time getting his facts straight and less making gaffes.

The end of an era

Piara Khabra, MP for Ealing Southall, died last night at the age of 82. One fact that is slowly coming to the forefront is that he was the last MP in the Commons who was a veteran of the Second World War. With his death comes the passing of an era.

He was also one of the oldest MPs to enter the Commons, first being elected at the age of 67. Sadly today too many seem to think age is a disadvantage in politics.

My condolences to his family and constituents.