(ex) CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCILLOR, ANDREW BURNS; FOUNTAINBRIDGE/CRAIGLOCKHART WARD 'EDINBURGH LABOUR GROUP' LEADER; & 'THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL' LEADER.
--- just very brief comments (both work & personal), as often as possible, that's all :-)
... some analysis here on just how radically the two contests differed in both campaigning style and techniques - some important lessons for next year, one would hope!
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Voter turnout, at 33.2%, was a record low for a Scottish by-election.
A truly shocking statistic made even worse by the state of this particular constituency, the poverty of ambition that resides there, the lack of aspiration, the constituents acceptance of their lot and the willingness to continue to vote for a party that has failed the area so miserably is an affront to those that have fought & died to give us these freedoms.
The inability to imagine change, to envision real progress and that this area can really improve has been shown to be completely missing from Glasgow North East and must surely be a matter of concern for all political parties and in particular the Labour Party who have represented these people for so long.
Will anything change, I doubt it.
It will take big ideas to change Springburn and no party offered that change during this campaign, no-one other than Tommy Sheridan offered an alternative vision to the failure of the last twenty five years and yet the voters flatly rejected that vision in favour for a campaing run negatively with no real policy content.
Waking the Dead
It would be interesting to see the demographic of those that voted, Glasgow City Council reported over 6000 registered postal votes, a rise of some 2000 over the last two months which accounts for 30% of votes cast, surely some kind of record in there too.
Equally chilling is the revelation that over 4000 extra voters have been added to the electoral register in the last month, accounting for 25% of those that voted.
Lastly, it's been reported that the Police are investigating two alleged incidents of voting fraud in the contest. The investigation is focusing on two 'known' 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.
Officers are investigating "alleged personation".
This alone is pretty worrying given the very low turnout, how many others may have been fraudulently used to cast votes?
Thanks for the comment - or should I say replication of your own blog post :-(
Whilst we're unlikely to agree on the worth of the result, I do agree with you that the turnout is very, very poor.
And on the issues of postal votes, and recent registrations ... I'm genuinely all for scutiny of these points but so vocally crying foul before anything at all has been proven just smacks a little of needless mud-slinging.
4 comments:
Voter turnout, at 33.2%, was a record low for a Scottish by-election.
A truly shocking statistic made even worse by the state of this particular constituency, the poverty of ambition that resides there, the lack of aspiration, the constituents acceptance of their lot and the willingness to continue to vote for a party that has failed the area so miserably is an affront to those that have fought & died to give us these freedoms.
The inability to imagine change, to envision real progress and that this area can really improve has been shown to be completely missing from Glasgow North East and must surely be a matter of concern for all political parties and in particular the Labour Party who have represented these people for so long.
Will anything change, I doubt it.
It will take big ideas to change Springburn and no party offered that change during this campaign, no-one other than Tommy Sheridan offered an alternative vision to the failure of the last twenty five years and yet the voters flatly rejected that vision in favour for a campaing run negatively with no real policy content.
Waking the Dead
It would be interesting to see the demographic of those that voted, Glasgow City Council reported over 6000 registered postal votes, a rise of some 2000 over the last two months which accounts for 30% of votes cast, surely some kind of record in there too.
Equally chilling is the revelation that over 4000 extra voters have been added to the electoral register in the last month, accounting for 25% of those that voted.
Lastly, it's been reported that the Police are investigating two alleged incidents of voting fraud in the contest. The investigation is focusing on two 'known' 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.
Officers are investigating "alleged personation".
This alone is pretty worrying given the very low turnout, how many others may have been fraudulently used to cast votes?
Wardog
Thanks for the comment - or should I say replication of your own blog post :-(
Whilst we're unlikely to agree on the worth of the result, I do agree with you that the turnout is very, very poor.
And on the issues of postal votes, and recent registrations ... I'm genuinely all for scutiny of these points but so vocally crying foul before anything at all has been proven just smacks a little of needless mud-slinging.
Anyhow, thanks for checking out the blog ...
Andrew
"personate" definitely continuing your kitchen theme - anyway I'm off to check your latest breakfast recipe - GOOD LUCK to you
Paul
This is a post about the Glasgow North East by-election :-(
Andrew
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