Labour holds Seven Sisters
I spent today helping get out the Labour vote in the Seven Sisters Ward in Haringey.
I've just heard from the candidate, Joe Goldberg, that he has won with 1032 votes to 968 for the Tories, 581 for LDs, 166 for the Greens, 36 for the independent.
This is quite an achievement for Labour given the context in Haringey of the Baby P scandal, and a humiliation for the Lib Dems who ran a gutter campaign trying to make political capital out of the case.
The Tory vote came almost entirely from the polling district containing the Haringey part of the Stamford Hill Chassidic Jewish community.
This means that even in extreme circumstances the LDs cannot break into wards in Tottenham and hence cannot take control of Haringey in May 2010.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 12:03 am
13 Comments:
Oh Christ almighty ...
What you mobilised in your support was a band of welfare scroungers who were dependent on you for their support of their welfare claims.
Some politics.
Why don't you copy the Chassidic community?
Great civic pride, great moral order, great educational achievement, great social order ... and not one of this genetic pool would vote for a pile of pooh like you lot.
Enough to want to make you want to join a kibbutzh and launch an air attack on Gaza.
12:55 am, January 16, 2009
The Tories only lost by a small amount of 64! and the Lib Dem was quite high 581. Next time watch out?
1:01 am, January 16, 2009
"The Tory vote came almost entirely from the polling district containining [sic] the Haringey part of the Stamford Hill Chassidic Jewish community."
That's quite a statement - what is the source of this information? I never knew they collected this information during a ballot.
10:11 am, January 16, 2009
I detect a whiff of sour grapes in these replies. Face it lads, the Cameron bandwagon has lost its wheels. Time for a leadership challenge. Is Sir Anthony Meyer still available?
10:37 am, January 16, 2009
Sadly, Sir Anthony "Hero of the Soviet Union" Meyer died a few years ago.
11:07 am, January 16, 2009
Great result for Haringey, but your maths aren't quite right, Luke - there are 19 wards in Haringey, 10 of which are in Hornsey & Wood Green. Also the Lib Dems have representation in Harringay, which culturally and geographically is half-way between Hornsey & Wood Green and Tottenham, but is technically one of the 9 Tottenham wards.
However I agree that with good Labour representatives and well-run campaigns neither the Lib Dems or the Tories are likely to take seats in Tottenham proper - there's a ceiling to their vote even in extreme circumstances.
The Lib Dems have been on the back foot for quite some time in Haringey - losing in 2006 when they were confident of winning, suffering two defections, performing badly in the mayoral elections even in seats they were guaranteed in 2006, and scraping through in the Alexandra by-election, a ward they would have sailed through in four or five years ago. I think they ran the kind of campaign they did out of desperation, as a last chance to try and regain some momentum.
11:36 am, January 16, 2009
Anon 10.11am
It's a statement based on Labour's canvassing and the "sampling" all the parties do at the count - the different polling districts are opened on different tables so in the early stages of the count the observers from all parties can see which geographical bit of the ward their support came from. In this case the population of the one polling district (number 5) is demographically very different to the rest of the ward. PD number 5 is very heavily Chassidic whilst polling districts 1 to 4 are more typical of the rest of Tottenham.
It wasn't a great secret that the Chassidic community mainly voted Tory as lots of families had Tory posters in their windows.
11:36 am, January 16, 2009
OK thanks for clearing that up - I didn't realise the count operated like that. Good luck to Joe - it's a ward with a lot of issues (I'm not a resident but live in St Annes ward, next door). I hope he takes an active role.
1:09 pm, January 16, 2009
Senor Akehurst, what about the disagrace that is the plan to demolish the Wards Corner Latin American market there? On the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution it is fitting that socialists uphold the dignity of the Latin peoples in our London home.
1:15 pm, January 16, 2009
Any chance of showing some examples of dodgy Lib dem attempts to exploit Baby P for their own ends?
I suspect that the Lib dem vote among the jewish community collapsed after some of the statements leading MPs on Israel. Jenny Tongue on Question Time last night was all over the shop.
4:36 pm, January 16, 2009
What next? Hold the presses -
"Tories hold Sloane Square" !
5:42 pm, January 16, 2009
How great that is, and how great it is that Brown wants yet more air traffic on this small island.
Lets set unachievable carbon targets that we don't intend to keep and then build more airports and tax people for driving to work.
When my grandchildren ask me why there are no polar bears apart from in Zoos I will explain to them that our government just could not be arsed. Too concerned with growing our economy on debt and high street spending.
3:42 pm, January 17, 2009
I am not sure your confidence in Labour holding Haringey in 2010 is well placed. The crucial indicator in the byelection is the drop in the percentage of the Labour vote which is around 9%. That gain in vote was split somewhat evenly between Lib Dems and Tories, had it all gone to the Tories then we would have lost the ward but given it probably is not a ward that has been fought keenly before a split increase in the opposition vote is not surprising. If you look at Labour wards in Haringey vulnerable with a drop of 9%, on memory I count six seats at risk, including a number of split wards and the ward of the former leader. All requiring swings rather lower than occured in Seven Sisters and all to the Lib Dems who are already in a clear second place. Where is your confidence coming from again?
9:33 pm, January 20, 2009
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