Huzzah!

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Congratulations to Willie Bain, and congratulations to all those who worked and campaigned in Glasgow. A fantastic result, and a salute to the work of everyone who delivered a leaflet, knocked on a door, made a phonecall or put up a poster.

What’s interesting about this result, for me is that although the Micheal Martin resigned almost five months ago (in late June), thus making the By-election campaign one of the longest imaginable, none of the main opposition parties built up a head of steam. Usually, even in the safest Labour seats, a long by-election campaign is awful for the sitting party, as it allows opponents to put in resources, time, build up infrastructure, identify issues, and become locally identified. The Lib Dems are especially good at this as we saw in Brent and in Hartlepool.

This time, that didn’t happen, even though the seat was vacant for three times as long as the Glasgow East by-election. A toast therefore to Scottish Labour camapign organisers and workers.

12 Responses to “Huzzah!”

  1. Grogipher

    “Usually, even in the safest Labour seats, a long by-election campaign is awful for the sitting party, as it allows opponents to put in resources, time, build up infrastructure, identify issues, and become locally identified. ”

    Not in Scotland. Look at the last three by-elections we’ve had.

    Glasgow East – short campaign, the SNP won.
    Glenrothes – long campaign, the Labour party won.
    Glasgow NE – long campaign, the Labour party won.

    Reply
  3. hopisen

    Interesting point about scotland, but I’d might the answer lie in party infrastructure?

    In very sae seats you. generally have pretty low voter Id numbers. If you campaign is strong, and focussed on building up your voter I’d then driving turn out, there might be an advantage there vs a short campaign because you have a clearer idea of who voters are.

    But that takes a lot of hard work, so it’s an even greater tribute to the campaign that does it.

    Reply
  4. Andrew R

    What it might suggest is that, in traditional Labour seats at least, long campaigns mean that people have time to get over their instinctive “Labour have been ‘ing awful lately so I’m going to punish them” reaction and start examining the other contenders in detail. At which point the fact that they fundamentally don’t agree with their policies starts to tell a little more.

    I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, mind you – it’s merely a hypothesis.

    Reply
  5. newmania

    Why is this seat counted the same as English seats then ….oh yes because Scots get two votes and we get one .
    I see them on QT in jocko land opining on English matters and it is obvious to me that the Scots have no idea how ludicrous that sounds.

    Reply
  6. jimmy townhead

    The postal vote for the Glasgow by-election was remarkable. Not that many of the punters were on holiday or bedbound. As an aspect of machine politics it’s likely to get worse. Keep an eye on this phenomenon in the general election.

    Reply
  7. The Collective

    We won in Hartlepool. And the Libs imploded because their issues were neutralised and their candidate discredited.

    Reply
  8. Daniel

    Congratulations and great luck mate! But, fifty digital doesn’t tell me it’s miheacl shamoon and his Facebook doesn’t either, I’ll go with the above comment, use the URl, it’s courteous and helpful, when I want to find something on the web, then I want to find it NOW!I’ve always felt that if you have these means of contact’ then display them, soo many times in the past I could have informed some one’ that I had done X’, if only they had put their fax number up on the sign/door/card, for say those have done something after hours’ for them!!But agree with you on the form over function’ wholeheartedly and your a Designer, my god things are a changing! lolI did something similar with my Biz cards and it does leave lasting impressions along the lines you mention, well done mate!Cheers

    Reply

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