Middleton & Heywood means nothing like the media/UKIP are saying – Skwawkbox Blog

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BBC News, Radio 4 and others have been giving plenty of airtime and oxygen – as they did for years without justification in featuring Farage on every possible occasion – to the UKIP ‘near-triumph’ of UKIP in the Middleton and Heywood by-election, writes Steve Walker in his too-rarely-updated Skwawkbox Blog.

The claim, in pseudo-rational analysis by pundits and near-histrionic terms by UKIP spokespeople, has been that the result is a scare for Labour and a clear demonstration of UKIP’s supposed threat to Labour in its heartlands.

Here comes the sting in this tale: Nonsense – as a quick comparison of yesterday’s results and the 2010 General Election results will show.

Here are the results side by side:

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The first thing to note is that Labour’s vote is down by 37% – exactly the same as the percentage drop in turnout (36/57.5 = 63%).

Fine – Labour’s vote was exactly the same in proportion to the number of people casting votes, so nobody picked up disillusioned Labour voters. Where did UKIP get its support, then?

The UKIP vote rose by 9,800 – with a massive effort from them to create an upset… The Tory vote fell by over 9,000 and the BNP vote disappeared.

Right! So UKIP mobilised massively but only managed to steal Tory votes and inherit votes from the BNP. You can – and should – read the rest of the article on Skwawkbox.

It seems that Steve has missed a major element here, though – what happened to the Liberal Democrat vote? It fell almost as far as the Conservative vote, and from a lower starting-point, meaning that it was very nearly wiped out altogether. UKIP wasn’t chasing Liberal Democrat voters. The party made it clear that it wanted former Labour or Conservative voters.

So the former Liberal Democrat voters simply didn’t bother. Do they feel so utterly disenfranchised by Nick Clegg’s five-year betrayal of the British people and his own party’s principles that they gave up on the democratic process altogether?

That appears to be the case. And in that – it seems – Clegg’s failure is complete.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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5 Comments

  1. Thomas M October 11, 2014 at 3:16 am - Reply

    If this happens across most of the UK in 2015, the Lib Dems will be almost destroyed and will have to start at the bottom all over again.

    • Mike Sivier October 11, 2014 at 8:09 am - Reply

      Good.

      • Thomas M October 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm - Reply

        Hell yes, I can’t stand the Lib Dems.

  2. Damien Willey October 11, 2014 at 8:50 am - Reply

    What your article doesn’t mention is that Labour actually increased its vote share despite losing a large numerical advantage, their vote share percentage went up by 0.75%. We all know Labour voters typically don’t turn out for by-elections, so there is little to be read into this. Its media bias whipping up a storm again

    • Mike Sivier October 11, 2014 at 8:57 am - Reply

      The article states that Labour maintained its vote share, which seems reasonable on the basis of a 0.75 per cent increase with a lower turnout; you’re more in agreement with the article than not. Your point on media bias is exactly what the article is saying, of course – it’s in the headline.

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