Labour voters would elect "an alcoholic or paedophile"?

[Osem]

Well Grimsby voters would according to Austin Mitchell MP it seems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31574817

Labour's retiring Great Grimsby MP, Austin Mitchell, has dismissed claims he said the party could retain the seat at the election even if its candidate was an "alcoholic" or "paedophile".

Mr Mitchell, who is to vacate his seat in May, was quoted making the comment in an Independent on Sunday interview.

But he told the BBC: "If that was said, it was as a joke and I'm not sure I would have phrased it like that."

Oh well it was all a joke so that's OK then.... Unless it's a UKIP or Tory member that is... In that case it's the crime of the century...

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Osem

Grimsby voters would according to Austin Mitchell MP it seems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31574817



Oh well it was all a joke so that's OK then.... Unless it's a UKIP or Tory member that is... In that case it's the crime of the century...

I think it may have been a flippant (and badly judged) joke. My area is staunchly Tory, and the closest any other party has been to taking power in the area is when the Tory majority was massively reduced (but still considerable) in the first election that made Tony Blair prime minister. Bear in mind that the previous Tory governments had effed up the country badly enough that Tony Blair was given a large enough majority that he effectively had free reign to do what he wanted.

Even in the last couple of years, when our MP was one of the ones implicated in the expenses scandal (claiming for a flat in Central London when we live about 10 miles from Central London), the Tory majority was hardly dented. Every party has areas like that. Areas where they can put in pretty much who they want and people will still vote them in.

Austin was taking that to extremes, but he wasn't saying that he doesn't like black people (as that women in Ukip has) or that people who aren't born in the UK should be sent home (as various members of UKIP have),

[rhyds]

Someone I know used to have the following as a forum signature/footer:

"A gaffe is when someone mentions and uncomfortable truth"

In a rather blunt and insensitive way Mitchell has rather summed up the history of his seat. As Stuart mentions all parties have their "safe" seats, which are very, very unlikely to change this side of a landslide election. However it does happen...

In 2010, the Lib Dems would probably have counted Montgomeryshire in Mid Wales as a safe seat. Indeed, the only time they'd lost it since the turn of the 20th century was in 1979 for one parliament. They'd even done the classic "safe seat" thing of sticking a "name" in there, one Lembit "Weather Girl and Cheeky Girl" Opik, who'd won the last few elections pretty comfortably. Only there was a change on the horizon...

Basically, there were plans for a couple of massive windfarms in the constituency, and a bloody huge 400kv overhead line and substation to connect them to the grid. Now, the Lib Dems, being the Lib Dems, supported this, only a lot of the locals didn't. Therefore, when the election came about, the Lib Dems suddenly found their previously 23% majority had suddenly become -3%...

[Osem]

I actually agree which may be a surprise. I have no particular axe to grind with Mr Mitchell, I think he's a good MP, my point was to highlight the almost McCarthyist manner in which sound bites are all too often taken out of context sensationalised by the media and politicians alike. His party are past masters of the art, especially when there's a chance to smear another evil Tory of being a bigoted toff. That's what Draper and McBride were hired to do after all and I've no doubt that Labour would be all over comments such as these had they been made by an opponent.

[Derek]

I'm sure they already have...

[heero_yuy]

Just a variation on pinning the rosette on a donkey or even a bucket of poo to get it elected. Some seats are that safe. The comment was in bad taste but non-the-less true.

Only a handful of seats actually matter at the general election. The rest might as well not even bother such is the inherant unfairness of the FPTP system.

[alanbjames]

Well with whats coming to light lately about paedos in and around westminister i wouldnt be suprised if there were quite a few serving as MPs in the 80s.

Take Cyril Smith he served as an MP and when it came to light he had a fettish for spanking boys as young as 8 everything was done to block him being prosecuted.

[Ignitionnet]

Think he accidentally told the truth.

It's something I hate about our political system. In some areas a turd could be elected if you stuck the right colour of rosette on it.

[Mr K]

Austin Mitchell is a bit of a nutter. There were rumours he was seriously thinking of defecting to UKIP a few weeks ago....

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Think he accidentally told the truth.

It's something I hate about our political system. In some areas a turd could be elected if you stuck the right colour of rosette on it.

As I said in another thread the predicted post-election chaos might make us change our voting system.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Think he accidentally told the truth.

It's something I hate about our political system. In some areas a turd could be elected if you stuck the right colour of rosette on it.

And that's how they get to pick which of their mates get into power.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Taf

And that's how they get to pick which of their mates get into power.

Or their spouse in Harriet Harman's case.

[Taf]

And our ex-leader of the Welsh Assembly parachuted his wife into a post too perhaps?

[rhyds]

The problem is that just about every voting system has "safe seats" which you can stuff favoured candidates in to. For many years in the Welsh assembly the Conservatives, unsure whether they could actually win seats reliably, would put their Assembly Leader on their regional list (a "top-up" list of seats to provide proportional representation). This essentially made sure they always won.

Problem was, in 2011, the conservatives made some large gains in Wales, therefore they won "real" seats, and therefore lost their regional list seat, and therefore the party leader!

---------- Post added at 12:59 ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 ----------

Originally Posted by Taf

And our ex-leader of the Welsh Assembly parachuted his wife into a post too perhaps?

The one good thing about south Wales labour is that a lot of them won't take any rubbish from London regarding candidates. Indeed, in Blaenau Gwent in 2005, Peter Law (sitting Labour assembly member) stood as an independent against the Labour candidate as a protest against London imposed all-women shortlists, and beat the safest Labour majority in the whole of Wales.

Badly worded but totally true for so many seats in the UK our local mp is a complete joke apart from his very short surgery which is as useful as smacking your head on a wall he never dirties his feet here but he's a Tory and if it's blue it gets in. I wonder how better things would be if parties had to fight tooth and nail for every seat not just a few also be great if MP's were local as again ours is as local as brie though I do believe a few years ago history was rewritten so he claims to have some dark and distant connection with our constituency.

Let's be clear the idiots here are the public too often we repeat elect people to the commons that do sod all for the people they are supposed to represent and apart from the colour of their party we know little to nothing about them. Make your vote count demand a local candidate and hold them to what they say and if they dont bin them next time take away some of the job security from them and watch how fast we get change.