No seats changed hands in the elections to Gateshead Council on 3rd May. Though Lib Dem Susan Craig came within 53 votes of taking the Labour ward of Lobley Hill and Bensham, Labour's Frank Donovan managed to just hold off the Lib Dem attack on the once rock solid Labour bastion.
But if Labour were happy with being able to cling on to Lobley Hill and Bensham, Lib Dems were equally happy to have held off Labour in 2 other wards where they mounted big challenges. In both Dunston Hill and Whickham East and Crawcrook and Greenside, the Lib Dems triumphed with increased majorities.
Most Labour attention was focused on Dunston Hill and Whickham East. But Labour slipped back when their candidate Gary Haley, who fought the ward last year (and fought Whickham South in 2002, 2003 and 2004) saw Lib Dem Yvonne McNicol nearly double her majority to 521.
And in Crawcrook and Greenside, Labour candidate Helen Hughes who also fought the ward last year, saw Lib Dem Derek Anderson increase his majority to 514.
Gateshead News editor Jonathan Wallace enjoyed an embarrassingly successful list of "biggests" in the Gateshead elections! - the biggest majority (1473), the biggest vote (2043) and the biggest share of the vote (70%).
The record for the worst performance of the night goes to the Conservative candidate in Lobley Hill and Bensham, Hazel Anderson, who mustered only 121 votes. She will hopefully take comfort from the result not reflecting on her but rather on the fact her party was heavily squeezed in the ward by the Lib Dems who were slugging it out with Labour to win the seat.
Nevertheless, the Conservatives continue to poll poorly in Gateshead. Their best seat was Chowdene where they took 578 votes, but they are still 1000 votes off winning.
The BNP's hopes of winning a seat were dashed when their top target of Dunston and Teams slipped ever further from their grasp. The BNP had high hopes of success in the by-election in the ward in September 2006 but ended up trailing behind the 2nd placed Lib Dems with Labour retaining the seat. This time the BNP remained firmly stuck in 3rd place.
Returning to the council after a 3 year absence is Labour's Stephen Ronchetti who won the vacant seat in Blaydon ward though his majority was down to less that 300 over Lib Dem Mark Gardner.
Another face familiar to Gateshead Council to be elected was Bob Goldsworthy who held Bridges ward for Labour. This is Bob's first stint as a councillor but, as the husband of the current mayor, Maureen Goldsworthy, he is the Mayor's Consort.
Congratulations to all those elected and commiserations to those who were defeated.
We of course have to go through the whole process again next year! Oh joy!
10 comments:
Nice of you to mention the BNP in your postscript.
Our % in Dunston & Teams went up on last May, but, regrettably, went down on the by-election last September.
We intend to come bouncing back though.
New candidate.
New campaign.
See you soon.
New campaign...The BNP certainly needs to do something different after last Thursday's shocking results. How much was spent to make a net gain of one councillor?
Old Nick's analysis insults every BNP member who took part in the 2007 election campaign. He now wants you to run around picking up litter to make a difference to your community!!! This will come as a great shock to your leading cadre who have spent decades honing their hatred skills. Can't see Doktor Patterson picking up dog excrement between botox sessions. Not much money to be made with a poop scoop.
How will Ken's octogenarian army take the news? They might get off with light duties - scraping George's dinner medals off his jumper. Ken might have spent some of his benefits dressing the poor old sod before splashing his photo all over the place.
Losers, one and all, but especially Keiff - his time has been and gone.
Nice to see the council-funded trots and Labour party marxists of the Tyne and Wear Anti-Free Speech Association (TWAFA) read this blog.
(Check that one out Jonathan? In Gateshead they get the money via the education budget. Shocking!)
As usual they are obsessed by money. A bit ironic considering they get paid £20k+ from the local council bosses and the plod for surfing the net all day and hiding behind naive trade unionists.
As usual, they have nowt to say about the NEBNP but abuse and bile (save it for the North East White Nationalist Forum bulletin you produce) which no one but themselves finds remotely funny.
Still, I suppose it takes a bunch of losers to recognise fellow losers.However, go and bother your former mates in Respect/SWP since they are much better at it than the BNP!
Talking about losers, your resident member on Newcastle City Council, Nigel Todd, has a slim majority to defend and all his muslim pals look likely to desert him this time. No squabbling over the cash when he finds himself at a loose end though.He can always think up more ways of telling porkies about the history of the workers (white ones, that is)in the North East.
See you soon!
It's well known that you're not a happy bunny, Kevin. Must have come as a terrible shock when Nick sacked you. The failure of your successor's master plan to get a councillor elected anywhere in the region just adds salt to the wound. It's a disgrace that some johnny come lately can sail in and take the limelight from you. Must be galling. It's becoming clearer that Ken is clueless too.
Things must be bad though when you are slagging off the calibre of Gateshead bnp candidates to your opponents. At least try and stay on message. We know how hard it is given the dross with which you have to work.
Never mind, you'll have your say when Chris launches his leadership bid. You've wasted a large part of your life for the cause so far, just keep your chin up;-))
More bile and nonsense.
Hats off to Mr Eagle.
As predicted, he was on the phone quick. Still, Mr Eagle was always a sucker for a good joke.
Pity, Mr Henry didn't see the funny side!
But save all the gossip for your NE White Nationalist bulletin. Some backtracking to do over Mr Agnew. It hasn't been the same since Mr Martin last spoke to you.
Gerry dropped a clanger in the latest issue with regards his "ex-partner".
Almost gave the game away!
Be sure to wave next time we meet.
Sorry, Kevin, but I don’t understand references to Eagle or Henry.
This NE white nationalist bulletin sounds interesting. Can you scan and post it so we know what you’re on about. Agnew = Trevor Agnew Darlington bnp organizer who was telling everyone that he’d quit the bnp but then reappeared and claimed responsibility for sorting out the town’s 8 bnp candidates. Trev’s magic didn’t quite work as your side came last in all but one of the wards.
Martin = John Martin, the former bnp organizer in Sunderland sacked by yourself a few years ago. It was under Martin’s guidance that the bnp fielded a full slate and gained nearly 14,000 votes in 2003 across the city. On May 3rd Sunderland again saw a full slate but only scored 7650 votes, a significant drop on 4 years ago. The decline continues.
Sacking Martin wasn’t one of your smarter moves, was it Kevin? The duffers who replaced him are more useless than the Gateshead squad and that’s saying something – as you yourself have said. Maybe you should have taken Martin’s allegations (sexual harassment of a female member by some of the dead wood still around today) more seriously and kept Martin onside. Who knows, under Martin’s leadership the breakthrough might have been made in 2004. By taking the line of least resistance you find yourself in the wilderness and Martin continues to pedal anti asylum, racist bilge on behalf of the N9S. No change there then since his bnp days.
I have never spoken to Martin, nor would I wish to. I do not know anyone who has spoken to Martin. You’re being obtuse again re. his “ex-partner”.
The sacking of anyone who’s of any use as an organizer in the NE bnp seems to be a recurring theme. Remember Alan Hardy, former Stockton organizer, sacked by you after allegations made by him of drug dealing by another member. Once more you chucked out a willing and able organizer and held on to an idiot (I see he stood again this year). Line of least resistance again.
I was winking like mad at you in the Sunderland count on the 3rd but you never even noticed. Your mind must have been elsewhere. Keep your pecker up;-))
More bile and blather.
And all with the public's money.
What a waste!
More blather I'm afraid Kev, since we can't stop laughing at the state of the bnp nationally and locally.
Bad luck about Stoke bnp councillor Mark Leat quitting the party. Word on the street is that he's in talk with the tories. The loss of Leat means that the bnp made no net gains in terms of councillors on May 3rd despite the expense and effort. Also gives an insight into the integrity of the scum that stands for the bnp.
Re. Wingrove.
Tell Ken that we live in BRITAIN not BRITTAN. Looks like another run of leaflets for the recycling bin.
You will be familiar with the following statement from Chris Jackson concerning his leadership challenge to Griffin. I'm reposting for the entertainment and edification of others.
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE.
"A proper Party structure and Constitution."
This challenge to NG’s leadership is made as a start to the process in which the Party gets a recognisable normal Constitution for a corporate body under English law. As a talking point, the current leader has, and the founder leader had, enormous talent in some directions and, it seems, none in others. This has meant the Party has not been developed in a balanced manner.
Currently, the Party is effectively run as a dictatorship. There are no ‘checks and balances’. NG appoints all Party officials and consequently, many are ‘yes’ men. Opinions, other than those of NG, lead to dismissal from Party positions and even dismissal from the Party. Over the years NG has held widely varying political views. This means, in our opinion, that his political judgement is very poor. He has made some serious errors in his appointment of personnel, most particularly the appointment of the unstable character, Tony Lecomber, as his chief regulating officer. Further it should be noted that NG has had a poor history concerning money. No prudent organisation would allow someone with his history to be responsible for Party funds.
In our view, the Party must have a proper structure. It must have a number of the key officials directly elected by the members, in particular, the offices of Vice Chairman and Party Treasurer must be directly elected. The Party Chairman would be bound to discuss and agree with the majority of the other elected officials, matters of policy and discipline.
The Party must adopt a set of basic principles; for example, the Party is a party of the whole United Kingdom. It is not just a party of England, or any other part of the United Kingdom. Again, only the original peoples of the United Kingdom would be eligible for membership of the BNP and eventually citizenship of the UK. (An exception would be for people currently living in the UK of closely related European stock.) No Asians, Africans and so on, including half-castes could be members, or expect to live permanently in the UK. It would be understood that all foreigners would be sent back to their homelands, however gently.
The Party would make an effort to unite genuine nationalists into one party. NG is unable to do this. He is an ex-chairman of the National Front and is now persona non-grata in that direction. Similarly, he is unacceptable to the Freedom Party and the BPP. He is also the ex-leader of the International Third Position.
For ideas concerning organisation and principles, please see thenationalparty.org.uk . The articles on this website are not meant to be a definitive. They are meant as a starting point for discussion.
I pledge myself to see the reform of the Party on the above lines.
Chris Jackson Challenger.
Richard Edmonds. Proposer
BNP founder member.
Mike Easter. Seconder
BNP founder member.
"We hold our land in trust from our forefathers for our children and our children’s children".
Been posting on Stormfront again, I see.
It could be easy to feel sorry for the reactionary cranks at TWAFA, but spare them your sympathies.
They are paid to to say what they say (a combination of half-truths, second-hand gossip and fabrication) and do what they do (set up silly front groups to campaign in elections), since the terms of their public subsidy ptrevents them from campaigning under their own name).
The defend a system they despise (democracy) for paymasters they have nothing but contempt for (local councils and the police) driven by a hatred of all that has gone before.
A nice little website exposing some of these people (many of them remain camera-shy, particularly those who pocket the wonga) is this one.
http://www.twafa.co.uk
TWAFA's own site remains moribund. Obviously , the grant doesn't stretch that far!
In 2003/04, TWAFA raked in £23,196 in grants from local councils in Tyne & Wear and the Northumbria Police authority, paying themselves £20,640 in salaries.
In 2004/05, the grants reached £23,201 and they trousered £21,566 of that.
For what?
Just read the nauseating posts from 'sandy' above.
The sound of silence from TWAFA.
Nowt to say, other than lies.
Nowt to offer, other than defence of the status quo.
Only bile, blather and boredom.
No one would care if they did it with their own money.
Unfortunately, they do it with ours!
To see who pulls their strings politically. See here.
http://www.searchlightexposed.com
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