[Marxism] Norwich By-election

[Paddy Apling]

The results of the by-election published today show utter rejection of new Labour - with the expected result that the Labour Party's rejection of its forward-looking, anti-Iraq war etc MP Dr Ian Gibson who felt impelled to resign after his treatment by the party's "kangaroo court" has led to  the election of a Conservative MP for Norwich North, on a low poll of 45.76%.

Would I have cheered if Labour had won?  Clearly NO - they got just what they deserved.

The best thing to be said about the results is that the British National Party (= fascists) came bottom of the poll, with substantially the same number (13,622) voting for one of  the five candidates other than Tory, Lab or BNP being substantially the same, or slightly greater than, as those voting Tory (13,531). .

Of course, the queer electoral system common to UK and USA, makes it an almost impossible feat for any candidate other than one of the two "leading" parties to have a chance of election - especially when there is a plethora of candidates.  (No mention made of the "Monster Raving Loony Party" in the BBC reporting of the results, so possibly the BNP was not actually bottom of the poll....).

However, it does seem that the electors of Norwich North have done their best to maintain Norfolk's radical tradition.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com