Humiliated Lib Dems come sixth in Barnsley Central byelection

"Labour coasted to victory in the Barnsley Central byelection, in spite of the jailing of the party's previous MP for expenses fraud, with the Lib Dems slumping to sixth place.

Ukip ended the night with a huge rise in its share of the vote and most to celebrate.

The result was particularly grim for the Liberal Democrats whose vote fell sharply despite the party fielding an experienced candidate in Dominic Carman, son of the celebrated barrister George Carman.

Voters took revenge on Nick Clegg, whose U-turn on student fees and hawkish line on cuts have made him particularly unpopular in South Yorkshire, where he represents Sheffield's affluent Hallam constituency. His party was beaten by the BNP and a local independent as well as Labour, Ukip and the Tories."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/mar/04/labour-barnsley-central-byelection-lib-dems

This is the kind of headline that Schadenfreude was invented for. Any chance it may persuade them to grow a pair?

It's not actually all that good that BNP have beaten the Lib Dems, and you could argue that Labour deserved punishment after Eric Ilsley but Labour were never going to lose Barnsley Central. What is notable is the poor performances of the Tories and the Lib Dems.

This thread from Sheffield Forum shows the Lib Dem and Tory partisans either playing with figures to disguise their own performance or bad mouthing Barnsley generally.

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=736939

on the Independent's comments thread. The party trolls are obviously out in force.

as an indication that the Tories need to move to the right in general and become more anti-EU in particular. E.g. an article by the ineffable Bill Cash on Conservative Home. Anyone would think that UKIP had won the bloody thing, rather than both them and the Tories getting utterly trounced by Labour.

If UKIP getting an extra thousand votes makes it more likely then I am all for it.

Apparently Clegg, despite being from a nearby constituency, never turned up to campaign for the LD candidate. This can mean one of two things, neither of them favourable to Clegg: (1) he couldn't be bothered to make the effort; (2) the candidate/local party had asked him not to come due to his likely electoral toxicity.

Of course, parties other than Labour will always lose badly in Barnsley. The negative side of the result is that 18% of people voted for either UKIP or the BNP. Though the hard-right parties do tend to do better in low-turnout Euro- and by-elections than in a general election with a larger turnout.

The Skin

that the Liberal Democrats are going to be put to the sword.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11256928


Ironically we had just such a contest here on the south coast in Sussex last night where Cleggs boys took a hell of a beating from a lone and not that well funded Independent.

The key point is that local government has been the bedrock upon which Liberal Democrat Parliamentary success has been built. If those activists lose their posts they are less likely to be devoting their and energy campaigning to keep Clegg, Cable, Huhne and Co in their seats. Now some people will argue that this will make Liberal Democrat MPs cling all the tighter to the Coalition because any early General Election will mean inevitable doom. However, it needs to be borne in mind that most MPs want to be a bit more than one term wonders. It wont be long before the clock starts clicking down again to another General Election. How long will it be before some of the Liberal Democrat lobby fodder start to tire of Cleggs personal agrandisement and start to be tempted by the siren calls coming from Milliband on the other side of the House. I expect some will be crossing the floor of the Commons before the next year is out.

nb Originally I thought Clegg did quite well in his negotiations over the formation of the coalition particularly when he tied the Tories to a fixed term Parliament but he completely blew it when he did the U turn on tuition fees. It was then quite obvious that he was only concerned about preserving the Liberal Democrats position in the Commons rather than any of the parties principles. Of course, the Tories lied through their nteeth through the campaign as well but they at least did not formally sign up to pledges that they were going to renege upon

but the attached article by Mark Seddon is a pretty good summary of the Lib Dem dilemma

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1363141/Will-price-power-Clegg-death-Lib-Dems.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Note that I am not alone in thinking cross party defections may be happening in the not too distant future though this piece seems to indicate that it may be the local Councillors who jump first to save their skins, particularly in London.

is the suggestion that Clegg is likely to lose Sheffield Hallam. The people who are protesting outside Sheffield Town Hall every Saturday are not the ones who voted for Clegg in Hallam.

Clegg's majority in Sheffield Hallam is very large, and it's an affluent constituency where people are happy to vote Lib Dem as the main opposition to Sheffield Labour party. Tories make little to no effort in Sheffield at the best of times.

I would not be suprised to see the Lib Dems lose control of Sheffield Council but Clegg losing Sheffield Hallam is a much, much bigger ask.

at the next General Election most local Liberal Democrat councillors will have been sent to the knackers yard by the electorate. Clegg is going to be a leader with no party.

Sheffield Hallam routinely elects Lib Dems to Sheffield Council as the Tory party in Sheffield is virtually non-existant and in their abcense people need an alternative to Labour (whose record of white elephant projects in Sheffield is both lamentable and considerable)

I know quite a few people living in Hallam (I do happen to live up this way you see) who are sympathetic to the Tories but always vote Lib Dem as the only pausable alternative to Labour in Sheffield. Such people are not going to be dissuaded from voting for Clegg unless things get a whole lot worse. I expect the Lib Dems to do badly at the next Sheffield Council elections but I would expect the Councillors from the leafy Hallam suburbs to hold onto their seats.

Shefield Hallam is quite wealthy so it's not brimming over with Labour voters. Besides, Clegg has a 15284 majority over the Tories with Labour way behind in 3rd so the chances of this seat changing hands are virtually nil.