Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (26 Feb)
by Stephen Tall on February 26, 2013
I reported earlier this morning the latest poll from Eastleigh — showing a narrow Lib Dem lead over the Tories — but one finding in it is particularly relevant to this round-up. The question was asked: “We’re interested in the extent to which people locally have heard from the political parties over the last few weeks. Please can you tell me whether Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have done each of the following…” And here’s what they found:
In short, the Lib Dems have out-campaigned both Labour and the Conservatives, with 92% of the voters in Eastleigh having been contacted in some way in the last three weeks. (Though that still leaves a hard-core of 8% for us to find…)
Here’s a few Lib Dem activists explaining in 90 seconds why they’ve been joining with thousands of other party supporters in campaigning for a Mike Thornton victory on Thursday:
Here’s a handful of your tweets:
. @martinchelt and Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore out canvassing in #Eastleigh today ow.ly/i/1A5c9
— Eastleigh LibDems (@EastleighLibDem) February 25, 2013
I made a second modest donation to @mike4eastleigh eastleighlibdems.nationbuilder.com/donate. Try and do likewise (but maybe not so modest!).
— Chris Bramall (@ChrisBramall) February 25, 2013
Making an extra trip to campaign in Eastleigh today and will go back every day if I am needed. Tight but winnable against all the odds.
— Paul Strasburger (@LordStras) February 25, 2013
Welcome Faye, our 200th volunteer of the day (and a new Lib Dem!) #Eastleigh twitter.com/EastleighLibDe…
— Eastleigh LibDems (@EastleighLibDem) February 25, 2013
It’s been a tough few days, but…
Here’s a quote from a report in today’s Financial Times:
LibDem official in Eastleigh “of 3,000 people we contacted over the weekend only one mentioned Rennard” ft.com/cms/s/0/c54720…
— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) February 25, 2013
And that’s backed up by the local newspaper:
@stephentall I can believe that .Peeps I’ve talked to not interested…or even aware
— Eastleigh News (@Eastleigh_news) February 25, 2013
Not that that’s stopped the Conservatives relishing it all. Just look at the smiles of Tory activists in a photo tweeted by the party’s deputy chairman, Michael Fabricant:
Fighting a Positive Campaign here!!!! #Eastleigh twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant…
— Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) February 24, 2013
And here’s another charming Tory official quoted in The Spectator:
… don’t forget that the by-election was triggered by Chris Huhne’s ‘guilty’ plea for perverting the course of justice, and in spite of repeated references in Conservative campaign material to ‘trust’, Huhne appears to have had little effect on the by-election. One Conservative MP I spoke to about the Rennard scandal over the weekend suspects it may have similar limited impact on the Lib Dems. ‘They’re a bit like cockroaches: we can’t get rid of them with Huhne, and we can’t get rid of them with these ‘sex pest’ stories, either.’ This says a fair bit about Tory MPs’ faith in their own party’s Eastleigh campaign, too.
Here’s Polly Toynbee (no friend of the Lib Dems) on it all:
If the accusations are true, Lord Rennard’s gropings will be all too familiar to women everywhere, harried by grimy colleagues fondling, pinching, leering, and pretending women can’t take a joke if they complain. … But (so far) the Rennard allegations look less than criminal: a grubby pawing of women candidates on a training session is revolting and all too horribly common. Yet this squalid little “not safe in taxis” tale is being bracketed with the serial rape of children in homes and hospitals by Jimmy Savile. … As that faulty elision is obvious to most people, the attack switches to the Lib Dems’ failure to investigate. However, Danny Alexander’s stern word seems to have caused Rennard’s resignation “on health grounds”. A less than mortal crime (as revealed so far) was handled too quietly, but their most senior party strategist was ejected. Clegg’s error was to try to finesse what he knew, using what the Mail splashes as “weasel words”. Nonetheless, keep it in proportion.
And finally…
Here’s today’s betting odds:
Tonight’s #Eastleigh betting bulletin sees the LDs recovering a bit with CON & Ukip moving out. LAB now a 0.7% chance twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/st…
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) February 25, 2013
And a reminder of how you can help Mike Thornton’s campaign:
- Volunteer to help out in person;
- Make some phone calls from wherever you are;
- Donate to help finance the campaign.
Next Friday morning will be too late. There has rarely been a more important by-election for the party.
It’s up to us whether we remember it for the right reasons or not…
This is the ninth of my round-ups of news from Eastleigh:
-
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of all the weekend’s news (11 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (12 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (13 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the week’s campaign news (15 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of all the weekend’s news (18 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (19 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the latest campaign news (21 Feb);
Eastleigh by-election: your essential round-up of the week’s campaign news (23 Feb).
And you can read my Co-Editor Mark Pack’s rounds-up on his site here.
* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
Leave your comment