Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Barnsley Central by-election shows hostility towards major parties

Dave Hyland | 08.03.2011 15:35 | Public sector cuts | Sheffield

The result of the Barnsley Central by-election last week showed there is deep and widespread hostility towards the Conservative Liberal-Democrat coalition. Labour benefitted from this in the poll, although the main phenomenon was a significant decline in voter turnout.

In the final tally, Labour received 14,724 votes, the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) 2,953, the Conservatives 1,999, the British National Party 1,463, an independent 1,266, the Liberal Democrats 1,012, the English Democrats 544, the Monster Raving Loony Party 198, and a second independent 60.

Receiving 60.4 percent of all votes cast, the Labour Party increased its overall majority and finished with nearly 12,000 more votes than its nearest rival, the right-wing nationalist UKIP, with the Conservative Party coming in a poor third. However, the turnout of 36.5 percent ranks as one the lowest ever recorded for a by-election in the UK and a drop of almost 20 percent from the vote in the General Election last May—an already low figure.

The Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition government is becoming increasingly unpopular and isolated. In Barnsley Central, the Liberal Democrats trailed in sixth, only 800 votes in front of the Monster Raving Loony Party, and had the humiliation of losing their deposit—practically unheard of for a major party.

The day after the by-election, the media focused almost exclusively on the Liberal Democrats and their candidate, demanding to know what this disastrous result meant for the coalition and its survival. The general attitude expressed was that the party would weather the storm, taking what leader Nick Clegg called a “kicking” in the election and carry on. Andrew Rawnsley’s headline in the Sunday Observer urged, “The Lib Dems need to whistle their way through these dark days.”

Clegg was interviewed standing outside his home while being quizzed about the hemorrhaging of both members and support from his party. He tried to strike a Churchillian pose, restating his commitment to the coalition’s austerity programme. He was sure that in 18 months’ time, people would understand the sacrifices demanded by his government and agree they had been necessary.

Winston Churchill, the old Tory-class war-horse, could draw on 200 years of British imperialist history to make his famous wartime speeches aimed at uniting the people of Britain in what he declared was the fight for “freedom against fascism”. Clegg, on the other hand, is calling for workers and youth to give up their jobs, take wage cuts, accept mass unemployment, a loss of education and the destruction of the National Health Service and other social services, all in order to save the banks and big corporations. During his remarks, Clegg looked ashen-faced.

The Tories hardly fared better than their coalition partners. The Liberal Democrats’ vote share tumbled from 17.28 percent to just 4.18 percent, while the Tories fell from 17.26 percent to 8.25 percent. The increased vote for the UKIP came at their expense.

Labour benefited from the mass defections by former Liberal Democrats, who transferred their vote out of disgust with the role being played by their own party in the coalition. But the majority of workers and youth no longer see Labour as a party that represents their interests and continue to abandon it in droves. One reason why the Labour vote held up was because there was no party standing on its left. The Socialist Party and Socialist Workers Party sought to prop up Labour during the election, urging an anti-fascist vote against the BNP in alliance with the trade unions.

In the lead-up to the election, the media was insistent that the social anger amongst workers would take a right-wing form. However, the other big loser in Barnsley Central election was the fascist BNP, whose vote collapsed from 8.9 percent in the general election to 3.6 percent.

The biography of the winning Labour candidate indicates just how right-wing the Labour Party has become. Having joined the Army at the age of 22, Dan Jarvis spent 15 years in the elite Parachute Regiment. He became assistant to a NATO commander in the Balkans and served in Sierra Leone, Iraq, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan, where he led a company of troops from the Special Forces Support Group in Helmand Province. He left with the rank of major just five weeks before the by-election. Politically too he was parachuted into Barnsley by means of the recently adopted “rapid selection system” created by the Labour leadership to impose the candidate they chose onto particular constituencies.

In the election campaign, Jarvis adapted himself to his audience by stating he was brought up in Nottingham and remembered the cuts and closures of the Thatcher years. He wanted to help fight the ferocity of the Coalition’s cuts, he said, but will do so by helping a Labour government bring them in more slowly. His desire to become an MP was the same desire that had prompted him to join the Army—a commitment to public service. Most of all, he wanted to help the people of Barnsley by attracting more investment. As every worker has now learned, this type of rhetoric is routinely used to conceal a wage-cutting programme.

It will not be very long before workers come into direct conflict with Jarvis and the Labour-controlled council, which is about to make millions of pounds in cuts to social services. These reductions will devastate the health service, education and other vital areas in a town that has already seen the closure of its traditional mining and glass industry, and has a high and growing unemployment.

Dave Hyland
- Homepage: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/barn-m08.shtml

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech