Posted on 06/06/2014 12:34:24 PM PDT by ghost of stonewall jackson
IN THE end, there was no big upset. Despite a surge of support for their nemesis, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), the Conservatives won the Newark by-election on June 5th with ease. This was in a sense historic—the prosperous south Nottinghamshire constituency has now given the Tories their first by-election victory while in office since 1989. But it will have done little, for all that, to quell Tory nerves set jangling by UKIP’s rise.
The Tory candidate in Newark, Robert Jenrick, won with a robust majority of 7,000 votes, despite the hostile circumstances in which the election was held. It was occasioned by the resignation of his Tory predecessor, Philip Mercer, after he was accused of corruption. It also came hard after UKIP’s triumphs in local and European elections this month, on a platform of bashing mainstream politicians, chiefly at the Tories’ expense. No wonder the Tories had flooded Newark with MPs and ministers during the campaign. Each was required by their party whips to visit the constituency three times—ensuring, local wags quipped, the biggest presence of parliamentarians in Newark since the mid-17th century, when the market town at the centre of the constituency was an important battlefield in the English Civil War.
Losing Newark to UKIP would have been a disaster for the Tories. Avoiding that outcome is therefore a relief. It will add to an existing, albeit rather modest, upbeat mood in the party ranks, fuelled by more clement recent opinion polls and a sense that, despite its electoral kicking from UKIP, the Tory local and European results were less bad than many had expected. Yet Mr Jenrick’s majority is still much less than than 16,000-vote margin Mr Mercer enjoyed, and that is again chiefly UKIP’s doing.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
All is well, the Tories have the big Mo now....
lolz
Fringe parties do well in elections for the European Parliament only because it is a chance to register a protest vote, with no policy consequences. The European Parliament is a powerless debating society, so no harm in sending incendiary racists there. When it comes to actual national elections, the UKIP will revert to their modest levels of support.
Yes, the “liberal conservatives” are so much better, aren’t they.
that, and in the UK first-past-the-post system it’s almost impossible for minor parties to win seats in parliament
You can’t beat something with nothing, My guess is that UKIP candidates aren’t ready for prime-time. Once the party has a few big scalps under its collective belt, aspiring pols with the right stuff will flock to its colors. Real chicken-and-egg problem, though.
You nailed it.
It’s one of the reasons fringe parties do so well in EP elections; the national electorates know that they could send Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler himself to the European Parliament and the consequences would be essentially nil. Like you said, it’s a powerless debating society; it’s a salon with parquet floors whose members drone on ceaselessly, so there’s no real harm in sending even the most outlandish kooks off to Brussels.
It’s the national elections that matter in the EU.
lol
The article seems to be saying that, doesn’t it?
Given that they not only finished second, but finished a stronger second any way you measure it than the Liberals did last time, they hardly were slaughtered, and look to be in a better position than anyone else to take the seat it the Tories aren’t to hold on to it forever.
A lot of anti-Ukippers have been crowing about this victory in rather overenthusiastic terms. The fact of the matter is, this was previously a Tory safe seat and overturning that would have been a tall order. As it happens, the Tories have had their majority slashed from 16,000 to just over 7,000, and Labour, which came second in 2010, was pushed down into a distant third.
Its laughable that they are so overjoyed and cocky about retaining a safe seat from a party that was nothing but a rank outsider nibbling at the fringes in the last election.
This looks like a strong showing for UKIP.
UKIP may have a future.
TWB
I think the UKIP will win a few seats soon.
“incendiary racists”, really now?
yep
Nope
The Tories won the last election by 16,000.
This election by only 7000.
UKIP gained 8000.
Quite a remarkable gain.
Are you saying UKIP are “incendiary racists”?
Was more referring to the National Front, but the point of electing fringe kooks is the same.
Every great political movement was composed of “fringe kooks” at one time or another. When you cut out the sneer and the personal insult, the term boils down to “different from established wisdom”. Considering the established wisdom in the UK is Cameron, Clegg and Milliband, and in the US Obama, Hillary, McCain and Boehner, you have to ask if being on the fringe is really such a bad thing?
Ok, I report, you decide:
“Long live the Whites of Europe, long live our identity, our ethnicity, our race… our blue sky, like the eyes of our women. Blue, in a people who want to stay white.”
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