Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

On the contrary … you chose to characterise the Daily Sexpest’s coverage of George Galloway as proof that the paper was “rattled” by the result. Quite plainly you started the day thinking you could paint this as a Tory tragedy. Perhaps Labour’s media rounds this morning have helped change your mind - even now they’re carefully not crowing about the win or trying to put the boot into Boris. All they want to talk about is the local nature of their campaign and the quality of the candidate, which is how they conducted the campaign in the constituency over the last month.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

The Daily Express seemed to be rattled by the result as it was unusually giving column space to a very left-wing party. That is a fair and justifiable stand-alone comment about the newspaper given its right-wing positioning.

To paint this as my thinking that this result is somehow a Tory tragedy requires a peculiarly big stretch of the imagination. Your unfettered loyalty to defend the Conservative Party from attacks is commendable, but I fear you're now defending it from non-existent attacks!

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

The result was always going to be the sister of Jo Cox.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spam by 323 votes
 

"Surprised?" No. I did think the Tories would win, and that would have been surprising.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spam by 323 votes
 

It is fun to watch them Twitter, they are having a bit of a meltdown. Having declared this a referendum on Starmer's - sorry 'Keith's' - leadership they're now belatedly trying to frame it in broader terms as being a poor result overall.

On paper this is a bad result but in the context the referendum took place it's a good one for Starmer.

It helps stop the narrative of decline/death that has been around the party since the New Year, it's a sign that the Tories' vaccine boost is wearing off (if you combine with the Aversham result) but most importantly they saw off a serious attempt to come at them from the left. The left you talk about have been trying to make a point that they can cost Labour an election if they're not given the prominence within the party they feel is their right, this is the most serious challenge they've had to test that theory and their candidate found votes from elsewhere to compensate.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

You should have put money on her - Ryan Stephenson (Conservative) was the bookies' favourite.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

I don't put money on anything, life's a big enough gamble as it is thanks :D

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

I really don’t think Tories wanted Kier gone. Like Corbyn, they’re pleased to keep seeing a weak leader at the helm, Tories will be forever in power due to the lefty morons and activists, making Labour an unelectable socialist culture gang.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

I think it's really hard to assess Sir Kier's political leadership qualities given the unusual times we're in. What makes him a weak or strong leader? He's faced down the Left in his party successfully and anti-semitism is no longer the dark cloud hanging over the party it once was so there's an argument to be made that he's a strong leader.

But will any of that translate into election-winning votes? That will become more apparent once the country returns to more normal times. There's still a lot of goodwill for Boris's government due to the vaccines. And the country is possibly more split along Remain-Leave lines than traditional Left-Right lines.

Interesting times.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

He's bland and doesn't stand for anything. You could stick a shop window dummy in his place and no one would notice.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

:tu:

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

That's about his public appeal, not his leadership skills though.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

In today’s world they’re one in the same. The public are not swayed by “ leadership skills”.

Unfortunately for Labour Eton educated privileged toff, Boris resonates more with the common people than Keir and any other Labour knob jockey, that is truly remarkable.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

The public are swayed by the impact of leadership skills though. If you have the right messages, the right team operating in a joined-up manner...these are all signs of good leadership. Whether you agree that any political leader has these is a different matter.

Boris has an exceptionally large personality and connects with many in the country. He has been astute in his messaging from his days as a liberal London mayor to his period as UKIP-lite in 2016.

Re: Labour hold Batley & Spen by 323 votes
 

Eton educated toff that's related to two separate royal households and calls 250k a year chicken feed, I'm really sure the common man can relate to that. Imo labour have had a let off here, they need to use the time this result has bought to construct a clear and concise message that resonates or give up now