Friday, November 13, 2009

Airbrushing the news

Well the bye election has been and gone, Labour must be heaving a sigh of relief in-between making sure the voter register goes missing etc. The BBC are trumpeting the result as an SNP fail, though truth be told they'd struggle ever to win there unless the voters suddenly woke up to exactly why they were poor and abandoned.
Yet strangely enough, there was one result the BBC were being very coy about and that was who came fourth. Yes they were mentioned in the results at the top of the page, but apart from that.......
Speaking from the count at Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Mr Bain described the result as, "a great day for Labour", adding: "This is a resounding victory for Gordon Brown and Labour.
"This by-election has been about many things, but, most of all, it has been about jobs and the economy.
"People have had their say. They have backed Gordon Brown in his efforts to secure our economic recovery, they have sent a resounding 'No' to Alex Salmond and his treatment of our great city and a resounding 'No' to David Cameron."
The constituency, where Labour has been the main political force for the last 74 years, neighbours the Glasgow East seat - which the SNP snatched from Labour last year in a stunning by-election victory.
But the SNP conceded shortly after the polls closed it had not managed to repeat the result.
The party's candidate, David Kerr, told supporters: "Our message through the campaign was simple.
"For all the problems this constituency and this country face, our potential is far greater still.
"But it is a potential that will only be achieved through freedom."
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond expressed disappointment, but said the party had achieved its best share of the vote in the constituency for 35 years.
Conservative candidate Ruth Davidson said the party had run an "energetic and positive" campaign, while pointing out the Tories had not contested the seat since it had been held by the Speaker of the House of Commons.
She told the BBC: "If you look at our recent European election results, we more than doubled the vote and we increased the share, so I think you can say this was absolutely a building process for us - we were starting from zero and we've come all the way up to third, so I don't think we should be too disheartened."
Liberal Democrat candidate Eileen Baxendale, who received 474 votes, was beaten by the left-wing party Solidarity and its candidate, former MSP Tommy Sheridan, who came fifth, after winning 794 votes.
Ms Baxendale said: "I congratulate Willie Bain, but look forward to holding him to account at the General Election on all the promises he has made."
Green candidate David Doherty secured 332 votes to come in seventh, followed Glasgow Airport attack hero John Smeaton, who got 258 votes.
The Scottish Socialist Party's Kevin McVey was ninth, with 152 votes, followed by former Big Brother contestant Mikey Hughes, with 54 votes.
Louise McDaid, of the Socialist Labour Party, received 47 votes and was followed, in twelfth place, by independent candidate Mev Brown.
Colin Campbell, of the Individuals Labour and Tory, came last with 13 votes.
Voting fraud
Mr Martin - now Lord Martin - held Glasgow North East in the 2005 General Election with a 10,134 vote majority.
It has emerged that police are investigating two alleged incidents of voting fraud in the contest.
Council chiefs said the investigation involved three ballot papers - two cast at a ballot box at one polling station in the Dennistoun area and another cast at another polling station in the same area.
A council spokesman said: "We had two incidents at polling stations where voters turned up and when they identified themselves they were told their names had already been scored off the list - somebody had been given a vote in their name."
He continued: "We checked our processes to ensure it wasn't a mistake, it wasn't as far as we can see, so we called in the police."
He said officers were investigating "alleged personation".
 Well, you'd never know would you? first, second, third, fifth and sixth. Seems the BBC are still a little coy about mentioning certain distasteful, yet perfectly legal parties. This despite the Question Time ambush, or perhaps because, you never can tell really which way the BBC is actually thinking, it depends which minister is bending their ear at the time I suppose. Strangely enough the BBC do mention Tommy Sheridan whose trial for perjury has been delayed (again) showing that a whiff of corruption doesn't matter to their sensibilities, still innocent until proven guilty I suppose.

As for those who voted for Willie Bain, well that's their choice, Glasgow East is one of the poorest and most deprived areas in the country, has been for decades and they voted for more of the same, Labour still take them for granted as voting fodder, well, mostly because they are.
Still at least they didn't vote for whoever came fourth, that would have branded them as something else again, though even that term has been diluted by Labour screaming it at anyone who questions their policies on immigration and multiculturalism.
That's probably why the BBC decided to ignore the party in fourth place.

7 annotations:

JuliaM said...

"...though truth be told they'd struggle ever to win there unless the voters suddenly woke up to exactly why they were poor and abandoned."

Barnum was wrong. You really can fool most of the people, most of the time...

James Higham said...

I presume you mean the BNP?

Quiet_Man said...

Yes I meant the BNP, though it occurred to me if the BBC can do it......

James Higham said...

I've changed the logo to fit your model - it is better to say on the logo what we're about and thanks for that. Don't bring copyright against me please, pretty please? Check our site.

Quiet_Man said...

Lol I got it from Sue over at Muffled Vociferation

McGonagall said...

Sixty six percent of eligible voters didn't. A massive failure of our electoral system and of the major parties to engage with those they presume to represent. This includes the SNP.

subrosa said...

It's labour who is responsible for the 1000+ BNP votes and no one else. They should be disgusted with themselves that so many labour voters felt they had to vote BNP.

(For the benefit of English readers, in the west of Scotland there is a strong labour vote and a small percentage of these folk wouldn't dream of voting SNP even although you offered them money).