Blaenau Gwent Double By-election

[Sibboleth]

When is it?

29th of June for the Assembly election. The Westminster by-election is almost certain to be on the same day.

Candidates...

Labour are running the leader of Blaenau Gwent CBC for the Assembly by-election and a man who used to work for a former NI and Wales Secretary, in the Westminster by-election.

The Lawite candidates will be Trish Law (in the Assembly by-election) and Dai Davies in the Westminster by-election.

The LibDems are running one of their few local councillers for the Assembly seat and someone I've never heard of for the Westminster seat.

The Tories are running a Cardiff counciller for one, some unknown for the other.

Plaid have yet to pick candidates. Whether they'll make an effort after Llwyd getting his metaphorical figures publically burned is another question.

[Sibboleth]

As many as 350 jobs could be lost in Ebbw Vale...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4773779.stm

...although there are some rays of light from the news. And there's still a 90 day consultation period.

This will likely have more effect (if any) on the Assembly by-election.

[Sibboleth]

Posted by Harry elsewhere and kinda-moved here now...

Blaenau Gwent Polls

Pollster: NOP
Commissioned by: ITV 1 Wales
Size of sample: 1,000
Date of sample: May 24th - 28th

Westminster: Lab 47% (+15%), Ind Lab 35% (-23%), Lib Dem 6% (+2%), Plaid Cymru 6% (+4%), Con 5% (+3%)
Assembly: Ind Lab 43%, Lab 40% (-13% on Lab 2003), Lib Dem 6% (-5%), Plaid Cymru 6% (-4%), Con 3% (-3%), Green 2% (+2%)

Comment: the accuracy of constituency polls is...er... somewhat mixed... but has tended to to be a bit better in Wales than elsewhere (NOP constituency polls in 2003 were pretty good on the whole. They *did* overestimate Marek in Wrexham though; they had him up by a lot and he only just squeaked back in. The 2005 poll of Ynys Môn called the winner wrong o/c). However, the Labour lead in the Westminster poll is large enough to assume a Labour lead in the Westminster by-election, while Law's lead in the Assembly by-election would have been narrow enough to assume "too close to call" anyway.
It's also very clear that a lot of ticket-splitting is to be expected...

Still a about month to go though...

[Sibboleth]

As far as I'm aware, not much has changed in recent weeks. Labour are running a very local campaign though; reports are that a lot of posters and literature say "Blaenau Gwent Labour" on them rather than the more common "Welsh Labour".

[afleitch]

As far as I'm aware, not much has changed in recent weeks. Labour are running a very local campaign though; reports are that a lot of posters and literature say "Blaenau Gwent Labour" on them rather than the more common "Welsh Labour".

If that doesn't work they can always drop 'Labour'

[Sibboleth]

As far as I'm aware, not much has changed in recent weeks. Labour are running a very local campaign though; reports are that a lot of posters and literature say "Blaenau Gwent Labour" on them rather than the more common "Welsh Labour".

If that doesn't work they can always drop 'Labour'

Seeing as most of the people who'll vote for the official Labour candidates will only do so because of the word "Labour" next to their name on the ballot paper... maybe not such a good idea...
...o/c most of Trish Law's voters will only vote for her because of her surname so...

I do hope that no-one plays a trick on the ballot paper like "putting [insert placename here] first"... or even worse... "save our hospital"

[Harry Hayfield]

Nominations for Blaenau Gwent:

Blaenau Gwent Assembly

Stephen Bard (Welsh Liberal Democrats)
Jonathan Burns (Welsh Conservatives)
John Jones Hopkins (Blaenau Gwent Labour Party) *
Patricia (known as Trish) Law (Independent)
John Matthews (Welsh Green Party)
Norman John Price (Plaid)

Blaenau Gwent Westminster

David Clifford Davies (Independent)
Alan 'Howling Laud' Hope (Monster Raving Loony Party)
Amy Elizabeth Kitchener (Welsh Liberal Democrats)
Steffan Lewis (Plaid)
Owen Smith (Blaenau Gwent Labour Party) *
Margrit Anna Williams (Welsh Conservatives)

* Technically speaking, that is NOT a registered party.

[Sibboleth]

Random news updates...

Owen Smith has said that he opposes replacing Trident. A nasty row is taking place between the police and Blaenau Gwent CBC. I think that that's it.
Rumour remains that Smith will win the Westminster seat, but the Assembly seat is still very close; although Trish Law has apparently been (slowly) losing ground over the past month or so.

[Sibboleth]

The inevitable postal vote rumours are here... although much less detailed than is the norm; two sides "level" apparently, though no rumour says whether this is for the Westminster or Assembly seat (and everyone excepts that there will be ticket-splitters).
Seeing as Labour's current theme is trying to get people to not vote for Trish Law (Amicus have sent a letter to their members telling them this, and Neil Kinnock was running a similer line) I'm guessing that it's the Assembly election that be level.
If the rumours are accurate that is; for an example of this, see the local elections in the northern part of Southwark this year. Two entirely different rumours of what the postal votes indicated were spread around (note that in all cases this is only ever an incomplete sample; the actual counting won't have happend yet).
And it goes without saying that it is in the interests of Labour to claim that the Assembly seat is very close...

[Sibboleth]

Been trying to find some real news and have failed; these by-elections have hardly been covered in the London media and have had only patchy coverage in the Cardiff media...
For what it's worth (which may not be much) I'm told that the bookies have Smith as favourite for the Westminster seat and Law as favourite for the Assembly seat.

[Sibboleth]

Apparently there's a marked difference in the sign war between the different towns in the constituency; by the sound of it Labour "lead" in the smaller towns (including Tredegar) but trail in Ebbw Vale. Not that that is at all suprising (this was always likely to develop in a parochial way; this is South Wales after all) but I felt like mentioning it.

Today is also the anniversary of the Six Bells disaster (which killed 45 miners near Abertillery in 1960).

[Rural Radical]

I predict a Labour Gain in Both seats.

First Labour Gain in a Westminster by Election since Wirral South in 1997.

[Sibboleth]

Personally I think (although I'm certainly not sure) that Labour will win the Westminster seat and Law will win the Assembly seat; no outcome involving a combination of Labour and Indies winning would be suprising at all though (O.K... Hopkins and Davies both winning would be suprising).

But will the other parties save their deposits?

[many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese]

Election is today. I'll find out about the results tomorrow I suppose.

[Sibboleth]

Election is today. I'll find out about the results tomorrow I suppose.

Yeah; result expected 3am or so (although we'll know who's won before then).

Senior people in Labour have briefed some newspapers that they're optmistic about taking the Westminster seat, but think that Law will win the Assembly seat, although maybe not by much.