[Cyclist]

Is he so dumb as to believe no one would find out?

Tory Nadheem Ahmed, who claimed his Labour rival was parachuted in, actually lives in a village outside Wakefield - in a neighbouring constituency

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... 269712.amp

People who live in glass houses...

[Youngian]

Fair few Labour leaflets without Corbyn on them. But even in rock solid Tory Tiverton they wouldn’t hide the fact that they’re the Labour Party.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is he so dumb as to believe no one would find out?

Tory Nadheem Ahmed, who claimed his Labour rival was parachuted in, actually lives in a village outside Wakefield - in a neighbouring constituency

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... 269712.amp

People who live in glass houses...

In fairness it doesn't sound like he lives very far out of Wakefield.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fair few Labour leaflets without Corbyn on them. But even in rock solid Tory Tiverton they wouldn’t hide the fact that they’re the Labour Party.

The Lib Dems during the Coalition had to do that.

[mattomac]

A LD internal polling suggests a tie, I don’t really bother with internal polling it’s usually about as reliable as those sources on election night.

I do think the Tories will hold it as it’s an absolute stonking majority and the reason for resignation was low on the utter shit count.

It might mean they continue as they currently do though and lose yet more. Saying that I doubt they will change anyhow.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, that was a particularly funny poll. They might as well have just send out a piece of paper with "We can win this, but don't be complacent, and forget about Labour!" written on it.

[RedSparrows]

https://t.co/f622PCRewu


Oh, very Westminstery, you know...

Fuck off to the sea and fuck off into it.

[mattomac]

I wonder if she has done enough for a safe seat in 2024/25 or whenever, oh wait this is a safe seat.

[Youngian]

https://t.co/f622PCRewu


Oh, very Westminstery, you know...

Fuck off to the sea and fuck off into it.

Heartening to know that’s the best the Tories could find for a key by-election.

[mattomac]

According to the Express “key” Tories are ignoring Wakefield due to the anti Brexit mutterings of the candidate, not the fact they are about as popular as a fart in a lift then.

You’d think they would like to engage with red wall voters, after all they are forever telling us what they think which neatly ties in with what the Tory MPs think.

[Andy McDandy]

Tiverton lady comes across as an absolute airhead.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Heartening to know that’s the best the Tories could find for a key by-election.

She's basically Chloe Smith on Newsnight, put in an impossible position by what the leadership would allow her to say. The Tories couldn't allow a candidate in by election to criticize Bozo.

Having said that of course, you can sort of defend Bozo without telling Tiverton locals they're "Westminstery" and spouting bollocks about how Johnson is honest "in his pledges". And don't sound like you think the electorate are 13.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This looks promising. People who's faces were eaten by leopards not voting for the face eating leopard party.

[Youngian]

Where can I find contacts for these farmers? I have some high yield magic beans for sale

[mattomac]

Right I think Labour will win comfortably
Tories sneak Honiton & Tiverton on three figures.

Dare I say it I think Johnson’s bravado is wearing thin.

[Andy McDandy]

Where can I find contacts for these farmers? I have some high yield magic beans for sale

"Vote for Helen Hurford because Carrie's not putting out any more, I'm bored with Nads, and I've heard Devon girls are dirty"

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah, I thought Johnson has swerved a trip to Tiverton. Looks like they still think they're in with a shout.

I would think the Lib Dems will win. Too many Tories want Johnson gone, and a by-election is a freebie. No need to worry about "waking up with Ed Davey".

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://unherd.com/2022/06/the-tories-d ... -tiverton/

Not the most complimentary on the Tory candidate.

A few indignant people BTL, including one who says this article breaks the NUJ code of conduct or something.

“The first part of that question, I believe, was about the resignation of the ethics advisers,” says Hurford. “It’s very Westmistery. That’s the expression I use. I’m not in Westminster but my understanding is that it was a commercially sensitive issue.” There are heckles at this, but she moves through them like a tank: “That’s what I’ve been told, thank you very much!” The chair presses her: do you have any concerns about his character? “I have no concerns that his pledges are honest”. Foord says: “To lose one ethics advisor could be regarded as misfortune, but to lose two ethics advisers can only be carelessness.”

Hurford is pressed on the cost of living (“I’m feeling it too!”) the environment (“I don’t have the answer!”) and the policy of sending refugees to Rwanda: when the refugees get there — “and it will happen” — they should “be treated kindly and fairly!” She summons Zelenskyy in her support and, at the end, when she is asked who her favourite thinker is, she names her grandfather. (Westcott names Gandhi, Pole Dickens and Foord W. B. Yeats and Paddy Ashdown). “You know, I hated school,” Hurford says conversationally, and it sounds like the truest thing she has said. “Slightly ironic that I became a head teacher.”

I think of May Welland from The Age of Innocence: Hurford has that hard, unyielding brightness. It shines. It lets nothing in. She is a typically Johnsonian Tory; evasive, anti-intellectual and self-obsessed; quick to anger when threatened, slow to change her mind, if she ever does. Every time she speaks, I feel materially closer to autocracy. At the end she says: “This is a fantastic opportunity for a girl that was born and raised and absolutely adores this constituency Tiverton and Honiton”. I wonder if she will burst into song. “Everything that I do will be for the benefit of Tiverton and Honiton because I am Tiverton and Honiton.”

Later I meet Richard Foord. He is not as interesting as Hurford, not being a mad kind of nadir

[davidjay]

You can only give the right kind of opinion, otherwise it's bias.

[Watchman]

Wonder if she has a shrine to Birbalsingh