Friday 16 October 2009

Cannock Heath Hayes By-election result

UKIP had a terrible result in the Cannock Heath Hayes local by-election yesterday, finishing last.

The None of the Above Party Lib Dim candidate won with 314 votes, closely followed by the Tory candidate with 300. The Liebour candidate got 267 votes and the BNP candidate 116. The UKIP candidate finished last with just 51 votes.

Finishing last is a disappointment, especially with half the votes of the BNP candidate. But the BNP have been getting a lot of free publicity lately with Nick Griffin's invitation to appear on BBC Question Time and they were all over the news yesterday thanks to the court ruling that they have to allow non-whites into their membership (a court ruling based on a law that hasn't been passed by Parliament yet, how does that work?).

The blame can't be placed solely on the BNP's publicity but it will have played a big part in the result - both in terms of the BNP sympathy vote they always attract when the establishment cracks down on them and the increased turnout for LibLabCon voters to make sure the BNP don't embarass them.

Edit: From someone in the know ! UKIPs result here completely reflects our effort (which was about a 10th of the BNP) so in theory this is a bigger disappoint for the them. For a party who canvassed the whole ward , leafleted twice and drafted in 22 memembers serval times from Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country the BNP will be hugely disappointed.

5 comments:

Vote Derek Bennett Walsall South said...

The UKIP result in the Sutton New Hall ward on the 22nd October will be very different. UKIP members have actively campaigned there and it looks as if UKIP is worrying the local Tories - Sutton Coldfield is natural Tory territory. The Cannock ward had been Labour for a long time, BNP always do better in Labour areas, there is no BNP candidate in Sutton New Hall.

Steve Halden said...

So much depends on what the UKIP leaflet actually said.

What was the election slogan used here?

Without a good slogan to motivate the voters, it all a waste of time.

The Pub Consultancy Service said...

Steve, get over yourself. Slogans mean little, if the slogan is wrong it would be more of a disaster, what do you want for your slogan in Swindon, 'Ban Immigration, you know it makes sense'.

Anonymous said...

Purely conjecture on my part but isn't that an anti-right-wing area and isn't UKIP seen as right-wing by BBC believers?

I wouldn't worry about winning seats where tribal voting is decidedly left-wing. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

The winnable seats would appear to be of Labour and LibDem (both of which reneged on their referendum pledges) and Tory areas where the candidate is a tad 'wet'.

Steve Halden said...

The reason that a slogan is important is that people forget all he heavy print and just remember the slogan.

If you dont have a slogan then they dont remember anything that you have said.

The slogan I like is:-

I want a referendum on the new EU Treaty.

I used this slogan in Swindon, in the council elections in 2008, on about 25000 leaflets.

And the average poll was 9% across the town.