Sunday, July 06, 2008

Stirring Up Apathy in Haltemprice & Howden

The reason for my silence today is that I have been up in Haltemprice & Howden emulating Willie Whitelaw and stirring up apathy. Sunday is not an ideal day to campaign in a by-election, but it is the only day I had free. I've spent most of the afternoon leafleting in Willerby with a good team of volunteers, one of whom has flown in from Israel especially to help David Davis. You can't get much more committed than that! There's a good show of posters and from the reaction from people we spoke to during the course of the day, it seems reasonable to expect a fairly good turnout. What constitutes a good turnout? Not sure to be honest, but there's one thing for sure - the DD campaign needs a good Get out The Vote operation on Thursday - essentially they need to knock on every door, and not just Conservative pledges.

Interestingly, I encountered two Labour voters in Willerby who were both intending to turn out for DD on Thursday. They said they were disgusted at Labour's failure to put up a candidate.

DD has got William Hague, Francis Maude, Liam Fox Dominic Grieve and the Shadow Home Affairs team coming tomorrow, Martin Bell on Tuesday and on Wednesday there's a big lunchtime public meeting with Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews, 7/7 survivor Rachel North and Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty. And tomorrow night DD is debating with Tony Benn at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in London. More details on the David Davis for Freedom Website.

31 comments:

DiscoveredJoys said...

Um, the David Davis for Freedom Website link goes directly to Terapad.com.

Anonymous said...

I imagone from your remarks on "apathy" that turnout is going to be abysmal. Much as I agree with DD's position this was a very Quixotic thing to do and will give Labour ammo on Friday morning to laugh at us. Which should be water off the duck's back but I can't bear giving the arrogant gobsh*tes a laugh and a fillip, even if it is Pyrrhic.

Unknown said...

Yes, a good turnout will be needed in order to prevent the NuLab machine claiming that the by-election was a stunt.

Bob Marshall-Andrews should be an entertaining affair. Sounds like everyone is having fun except Brooon N Co.

Good.

Anonymous said...

I thought Whitelaw wasn't stirring up apathy but was accusing Harold Wilson of doing it?

Chris Paul said...

Debating with Tony Benn? If they stick to the subject there will be no debate there whatsoever.

Sancus said...

With the ongoing saga in Glasgow East, it is easy to forget the by-election in H&H, but the cause DD is fighting for remains important for the whole country.

2 points though:

1. It seems to me that a fair number of the H&H 'Constituents' interviewed by the media seem to be saying that the whole thing is a complete waste of money and that they don't intend to vote...does this chime with your experience there today, or is the media painting a picture to further a particular agenda?

2. Any chance of Andy Burnham popping down to H&H to apologise to both DD & Shami Chakrabarti for his stupid and ill-advised remarks?

Anonymous said...

If this were a real election DD would not be in London for any part of this week. What a waste of money. I was in Willerby on Saturday - not a sign of politics. Just wet shoppers.

Anonymous said...

If DD is such a big fan of freedom, why did he vote for the Maastricht Treaty and why did he bully other Conservative MPs into voting for it as a government whip?

If DD is so principled why did he drop his commitment to an English Parliament the second he was offered a spot in the Shadow Cabinet.

Is DD Scottish?

I think the public need to be told.

Anonymous said...

Good on you, Iain.

Tapestry said...

The revolution begins here.

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous, 6.38 I was being ironic. I have no idea what the turnout will be. I do know that 5,000 students who are on the electoral roll are not around and that a lot of people will be on holiday. I suspect 50% ought to be considered a good turnout, but it could be a lot lower. Haven't got a clue to be honest.

Nicholas 6.54, I think you are right!

Sancus, The media chose the vox pops which fit their story. Of course there are people who think it is all a waste of time. It would be odd if there weren't. All I can say is that I did not encounter any of them today.

Anonymous 7.22 - incorrect. DD wanted to spark a national debate. Appearing on the national media is part of that. If the media won't come to Howden...

Anonymous said...

See there isn't going to be an inquiry into Lewis. Boris a bit worried about what it might turn up I suppose.

Anonymous said...

1. It seems to me that a fair number of the H&H 'Constituents' interviewed by the media seem to be saying that the whole thing is a complete waste of money and that they don't intend to vote...



The BBC interviewed Harlow people who said the same during our referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Our MP and a local MEP claimed the campaigners were right wing extremists, no one would be interested in the ballot and local people would ignore or boycott it.

We had just 19 days to campaign, a substantial proportion of the electorate who could not be sent ballot papers unless they requested these (because they'd opted out of the open electoral register) and a band of shattered volunteers.

Yet we achieved a high turnout and an astounding result:
90% against the Lisbon Treaty and 88% for a national referendum.

I believe local people in Haltemprice & Howden are not apathetic, they are as deeply concerned about the erosion of our democracy as Harlow people are.

The people of H&H will turn out and vote and they will back DD's stand. I'm confident of that.

Anonymous said...

Well done for supporting David Davis, Iain.

Anonymous said...

Iain,
Will David be campaigning against the European Arrest warrant?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkE32woTqIg

Anonymous said...

I notice that Davis called you his best friend in politics.
Yet he claims he was not not in London for the vote on Civil Partnerships.
Is that true?

Anonymous said...

Ok, I sort of understand the Tony Benn angle, sort of. But Martin Bell? When does he have anything worth listening to?

Yep, I'm sure that he believes he has something worth saying, but worth listening to? The only reason he gets any airtime is due to his old mates at the Beeb.

C'mon, you gotta be joking?! Why waste the space?

Ted Foan said...

Chris Paul said: "Debating with Tony Benn? If they stick to the subject there will be no debate there whatsoever."

Good old Tony is probably more of a libertarian than David Davis will (or can) ever be! I'd expect Benn to expose DD's fragility on why he voted for 28 days. Surely this is really the point of DD's campaign?

How far do we want our elected representatives to go in balancing our freedoms with their perceptions of what needs to be done to maintain our security?

Benn will not let Davis off any hook and Davis will have to have good arguments to justify his own position.

Chris Paul is probably not best equipped to understand the real nuances of this debate - or, indeed, many others. I leave your readers to judge!

Anonymous said...

It's hardly a tough contest?


Will this by-election change anything? No. How much did the taxpayers have to pay for this pointless by-election?

who really cares...

Anonymous said...

If Sami Charabati, residents of Israel, Tony Benn and Martin Bell are out campaigning for DD he deserves everything that's coming to him. I wasn't sure before whether or not he'd gone mad. I am now.

Anonymous said...

As I recall, what old Willie said was something like 'The Labour Party has been going around the country stirring up apathy on this question'.

They don't make them like that anymore.

Anonymous said...

Even on a tiny turn-out Davis is going to win comfortably.

The only interesting question is who will come second.

I think the Greens, but Miss Great Britain must have a chance.

labourparty said...

By doing a deal with the Lib Dems to remove any prospect of defeat, Davis played right into Labour's hands. For all the bluff and bluster of "come on then, if you think you're hard enough," Davis' by-election has rightly been reduced to the sideshow it is.

It's a shame really, because libertarian socialists tend to agree with much of what Davis has to say. Next time though, could you organise the debate be lead by somebody who isn't such a flawed advocate for freedom?

Anonymous said...

This is such a pointless by-election and a waste of effot. Clearly he will get back in but it won't be because of his "libertarian" views but because he is the only candidate anyone will take vaguely seriously. I used to like DD but this tantrum has made me lose my respect for him. Sad really.

Unknown said...

By-election apathy: some yardsticks to measure by.
Average turnout in by-elections has, broadly speaking, fallen in each Parliament since WW2. By-election turnout has fallen faster & further than turnout in general elections in the same period.

The lowest post-war by-election turnouts are as follows:
Leeds Central, June ’99, 19.6%
Shoreditch & Finsbury, Nov ’58 24.9%
Wigan, Sept ’99, 25%
Tottenham, June 2000, 25.4%
Newham South, May '74, 25.9%


Since these all are/were solid Labour seats with a historic record of lower turnout than average then personally I reckon below a 25% turnout is a very bad result for Mr Davis in failing to engage H&H voters in his crusade.

Anonymous said...

The byelection camapign sounds fascinating, and though I wouldn't usually vote Tory, I broadly support DD's crusade and hope he gets back with a healthy majority.

Who comes 2nd is anyone's guess!

Iain, could you enlighten me about the rumours that your mate Ann Widdecombe is set to resign her seat in the Autumn? Can this be true?

Anonymous said...

The public do care about this issue, but we can't all vote at H & H. Tried to give money to the campaign but the paypal wasn't taking money. Maybe ZANu-Lab has tried to sabotage DD's campaign site, who knows?

Anonymous said...

And, as of Sunday, I think I began to understand what the appeal of Gemma Garrett is

Anonymous said...

It's a Green victory (by a nose)

Anonymous said...

Just out of interest, Iain, were the team you went leafleting with just Tories or an interesting mix of people from all over the political spectrum?

eartheart said...

The day the capitalist, land owning Tories become the party of civil liberties we are in real trouble. I hope the Greens do really well, they are the only ones who have constantly predicted that the selfish ends of capitalism will result in energy crisis.
They have been proved right. Now we are facing a new form of feudalism from the privately educated toffs, Grieve, Cameron, Johnson et al - I reckon DD resigned because he could see that as a state school kid his face does not fit in this new world of the old wealthies.