Woolas's election re-run

[Osem]

Two High Court judges have ordered a re-run of this year's General Election campaign in the Greater Manchester constituency of ex-immigration minster Phil Woolas.Mr Woolas won the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat by 103 votes over Liberal Democrat rival Elwyn Watkins. But he has been found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Mr Watkins in campaign literature.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11699888

[punky]

I wonder if Watkins can sue for the costs of the first election? Seems a bit unfair to make everyone run again although it looks like Woolas will be barred from running?

[Derek]

Will Woolas have to repay his salary and any expenses he has claimed so far?

Good.

[NoKnowledge]

So he's going for an appeal, what if he wins that appeal or judicial review? Whats the difference?

Will be interesting to see if the people of Oldham East and Saddleworth still vote for Elwyn Watkins or somebody else.

[Osem]

Some interesting reading on Woolas's 'previous' by-election campaigns:

http://www.saddleworthnews.com/?p=3106

Clearly Woolas is not all bad though. He's reported to have said this about someone most of us love to hate:

“***** may be a $%£&*@, but at least he’s our $%£&*@.”

[Osem]

I'm sure Phil will be overjoyed to learn that Harman's offering her form of 'support' to a beleaguered colleague:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11705995

Ex-minister Phil Woolas will not return to Labour even if he wins his appeal against the decision to strip him of his seat, Harriet Harman has suggested.

I especially like this bit:

"It is not part of Labour's politics for somebody to be telling lies to get themselves elected," the party's deputy leader said.

[punky]

Of course not Ms. Harperson. They normally wait until they become PM.

In fairness to Harriet Harpie i do believe it is not allowed under labour party rules to lie to get yourself elected but once you have been elected you get well schooled in the art.

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

In fairness to Harriet Harpie i do believe it is not allowed under labour party rules to lie to get yourself elected but once you have been elected you get well schooled in the art.

As it is with the Tories.

For example, although typically ignored, this would have been a thread had it been a claim against Labour:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/markets...6&in_page_id=3

[Osem]

We all know there are liars and hypocrites on both sides of the House - the expenses scandal proves that.

[Osem]

Well it seems Harman's treatment of Woolas isn't going down too well amongst her colleagues:

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has faced anger from Labour MPs after her decision to disown expelled MP Phil Woolas.

It has provoked what Labour MPs and ex-ministers call a "mutiny" against the Labour leadership at Westminster, the BBC's John Pienaar says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11719438


and he's apparently trying to raise funds for a legal challenge. Well I suppose it's refreshing to discover that all our MPs (past and present) aren't so well off that they can just raid their own bank accounts for such purposes.

He's claiming that the current law is a rich man's charter but that's the world us ordinary folk who don't enjoy the benefits of parliamentary privilege live in. I wonder if his views on legal aid have changed recently.

(Sorry about the tabloid source...)

*http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-22698392/

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Damien

As it is with the Tories.

For example, although typically ignored, this would have been a thread had it been a claim against Labour:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/markets...6&in_page_id=3

Why not start one?

[Osem]

There's really no conspiracy. There'd probably be far more threads in that vein if the current incumbents had been in power for as long as the last lot were and the public had grown equally sick and tired of them. The same happened at the end of the previous Conservative government and, had they been around then, the CF forums would have been flooded with anti Tory threads.