Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats in by-election meltdown?

No, we are not. 

Despite the best efforts of the United Kingdom's media pack, the Labour Party with their new leader Ed "I know nothing of the last 13 years" Miliband and even some whingers in our own party to destroy us during the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election, they failed.  They all failed.

Our share of the vote went up, only a small increase, but it went up.

Am I disappointed?

Of course I am.  I'm gutted for Elwyn Watkins and every single one of the campaign team, who gave their all, trying new techniques and some of the old favourites to take the seat from Labour.

The public never really see and understand the sheer determination and work rate party workers and volunteers put into a by-election - yes, for many of us it does become personal, but that's because we believe. 

We believe in our candidates, we believe in our policies, maybe not all of them but then none of us ever join an organisation because we believe in every aspect of that organisation do we?

I joined the Chelsea FC Supporters Club because I passionately believe in my team, I don't agree with what Roman Abramovich is currently doing at the club, especially getting rid of Wilko or the fact the players have become a little nonchalant.

Politics is exactly the same, I don't agree with some of the policy decisions made now we are in coalition the same as I disagreed with some when I started delivering leaflets twenty plus years ago, but it is a compromise, just like life.

The majority of voters in Oldham East & Saddleworth didn't vote last night and that makes me angry, people have died in this country to ensure we have a vote within our democracy and yet some people never vote - often the loudest complainers afterwards and that is a sad state of affairs.  I hope that changes after May once the referendum on fair votes has taken place, a great step forward in reforming our politics.

The media have been almost obsessed with the Liberal Democrats during this by-election, predicting doom, gloom, the collapse of our vote, the party going into meltdown, Clegg's resignation, the collapse of the coalition, the end of the world.  Okay, not the last one, but that was the general direction of their mood, spiralling downwards.

Once again they were wrong.

When will the media start reporting on the news and using facts not guess work and their own wild predictions?

The Conservatives suffered the worst in this by-election, losing over 7,000 votes since May, a drop of over 13% in the share of the vote.

Also, a note of warning for Ed Miliband who no doubt is going to be smug about the result - just remember Ed, more people voted for the coalition in this by-election than voted for Labour.  You aren't out of the woods yet.

You may have forgotten what Labour did to this great country and the people who live here over the last thirteen years, but they haven't.

The by-election had been called after disgraced former MP, Labour's Phil Woolas was found guilty by two High Court judges of knowingly lying to voters in a last-ditch bid to hold his seat at the General Election.


A mixed week for Miliband - one former MP jailed, one found guilty of fraud and an election hold.


The result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election:


Lab 14,718
LD Elwyn Watkins 11,160
Conservatives 4,481
UKIP 2,029
BNP 1,560
Green 530
Monster Raving Loony 145
English Democrats 144
Bus Pass Elvis 67
Pirate 96
48.06% turnout

Labour HOLD.

Oldham East and Saddleworth - a foot soldiers viewpoint

On Monday, three cars, each full of Scottish Liberal Democrats set off from various parts of Edinburgh heading South to Oldham East & Saddleworth to assist Elwyn Watkins to become the next MP for the good people down there.

This is the first Parliamentary by-election for a while where I haven't been part of the core team, ovbiously because of our key elections in May and it has felt odd.

I don't feel guilty though, I've done my fair share including Glasgow East, Glenrothes and Glasgow North East in the last two and a half years since being in Scotland.

However, once dawn had broken and Tebay had provided us with our nourishment we were eager to get on and the one thing that was noticeable as we drove into Oldham, sorry, not noticeable, very bloody obvious was that the Liberal Democrats were winning (hands down) the garden stakeboard battle.

In fact we had counted over twenty before seing any for Labour - which I was somewhat surprised at - UKIP have a few, mainly on pubs but it was definitely the Lib Dems winning overall.

We did spot a couple of random Tory ones during the day and one green, but hundreds of Lib Dem diamonds, all over the place.

So, that was a great motivation and we hadn't yet got to the HQ.  When we arrived there I left colleagues signing in as I went to say hello to my colleagues from the Campaigns Department and activists I know from here, there and everywhere.

WOW, that place was rocking and buzzing, Monday morning and already over 100 keen activists through the doors and more importantly, back out the doors and delivering, no time for tea or coffee!

The rest of the group had a photo while I was quickly catching up with people, then a quick word with my boss and a handshake and hello with Elywn before heading back out onto the streets armed with thousands of leaflets and letters to deliver.

We had been sent out to Shaw, and once again it was the Lib Dems winning the garden stakeboard battle, but also the window poster battle - more evidence of Labour here, but not much more and no sign at all of any other parties.

Once again, like May the people were supporting the Lib Dems, it appears the journalists who have become obsessed with this constant barage of criticism against our party have not made their anger known here.

It's funny though, because the media have become obsessed now with saying if we lose on Thursday then that's a bad day for Nick Clegg - why? 

We don't hold this seat, it is a Labour constituency, so if we don't win then what does it prove?

But, let me ask those journalists this, if we do win, and from what I saw we have an incredibly good chance of doing so, what does that say about the Labour Leader, the choice of the Unions, Ed Milliband?

Again, if we do win it, what does that say about Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats and coalition government (the media down South don't get coalitions)?

Anyway, back to the actual campaigning, I spoke with a few people as we were out delivering, no one refused the leaflets although I did have a couple of people check I wasn't from Labour before accepting them and everyone seemed to know or know of Elwyn, a great omen for Thursday.

The leaflet we were delivering was fantastic, I especially enjoyed the bit reminding people what the Labour Party, which Ed Milliband has been part of before leading, he does seem to forget everything that happened pre-May 6th 2010 for some reason.

1997 - Gordon Brown sold off Britain's gold at a twenty year low price
1999 - Labour offer a miserly and insulting 75p increase in pensions
2001 - Labour incompetence leads to a £10 million tax credit bungle
2003 - Labour takes Britian into an illegal war with Iraq
2007 - Labour announce they will double the basic rate of tax from 10p to 20p
2007 - Labour let bankers run riot - we are all paying the price
2008 - £3 billion benefits overpaid

We rally have forgotten some of this stuff and before all the Labourites jump on my back, yes they did introduce some good things over the thirteen years but your own leader seems to have a selective memory at the current time so I'm entitled to select the things I want to select.

Also, let us remember why this by-election is happening, it was called after disgraced former MP Phil Woolas was found guilty by two High Court judges of knowingly lying to voters in a last-ditch bid to hold his seat at the General Election.
And as Liberal Democrat councillor Jackie Stanton said, "It is disappointing that neither Ed Miliband nor the new candidate have apologised for their disgraceful campaign in May."

Very disappointing - same old Labour.

Good luck to Elwyn Watkins on Thursday and to all of my friends and colleagues that are there as well, your hard work and dedication deserves nothing more than a victory, and the people of Oldham East & Saddleworth deserve nothing less than an honest, hard working MP, let us hope for their sake it is Elwyn Watkins.

As I sit and type this at 5am in the morning I am tweeting with a couple of friends who are working on the night shift in Oldham - that is the side of elections the public don't see or realise even.  We are paid, like everyone else for a 37.5 hour week, but not only do we always end up doing way more than that, we work some exceptionally unsocial hours at election time - but we do love our jobs.

Phil Woolas MP loses court case over his election

So, Phil Woolas MP has lost the controversial court case and the high court judges have ordered a re-run.

A specially-convened election court - the first of its kind for 99 years - was set up in Saddleworth in September to hear the charges against Mr Woolas.

Phil Woolas is described on the Labour website as;

He is Minister of State at the Home Office responsible for borders and immigration.

I suspect that Ed Miliband, Labour's leader is wondering now if he should have made Woolas the shadow minister for immigration (that is his correct job) given that he has now been found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Mr Watkins (Lib Dem candidate) in campaign literature during the general election.

From the BBC (and many other sources);

Mr Woolas was accused of stirring up racial tensions in his campaign leaflets by suggesting Mr Watkins had pandered to Muslim militants, and had refused to condemn death threats Mr Woolas said he had received from such groups.

Mr Woolas ran a "risky" campaign, the court was told, designed to "galvanise the white Sun vote" because he feared he faced defeat on poling day.

The former minister was also accused of making a false statement that Mr Watkins had reneged on a promise to live within the constituency prior to the election.

Declaring the May poll result void, Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Mr Woolas knew all three statements were untrue, and was therefore guilty of illegal practices under election law.

They said:

"In our judgment to say that a person has sought the electoral support of persons who advocate extreme violence, in particular to his personal opponent, clearly attacks his personal character or conduct.

"It suggests that he is willing to condone threats of violence in pursuit of personal advantage.

"Having considered the evidence which was adduced in court we are sure that these statements were untrue. We are also sure that the respondent had no reasonable grounds for believing them to be true and did not believe them to be true."

The case was brought under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act.
This makes it an offence to publish "any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct" to prevent them being elected - unless they believed it was true and had "reasonable grounds" to do so.