Ok guys I figured a special thread was in order for British election news, news from the trenches..how many seats you expect each party to win and which party will win in your area..
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
first things first zakk...are u actually going to vote?
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
Probably Lib Dem MM..and I think they'll pick up a lot of labour seats in areas with large Muslim communities or students.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
why Lib dem?
i dont know...i dont actuallly vote in the general elections, only local and even then i vote for Green Peace.
Im one of those "its only 1 vote" people
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
I will be voting Lib Dem. Looks like a very close race. I will be actively campaigning in my constituency for Lib Dems. It is a marginal seat for Labour and traditionally it has been a conservative seat. I would rather see Conservatives win and Labour lose this seat as our current Labour MP was very pro war and obviously I had heated discussions with her on a number of occassions. Under normal circumstances I would have voted Labour but not this time. It is payback time for Blair's pro war policy. Moreover we need a British PM in 10 Downing street, not an American foreign minister.
Having said all that I think Labour will win the election with a very reduced majority.
The most interesting contest will be in Blackburn where Jack Straw will be defending his seat in a constituency with a large Muslim population.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
Blackburn should be worth watching..it would be a huge victory for the anti war movement if it brought down Straw..whats unique is that the war aside..Labour has done a lot for the Mulsim community in the area..so you have a situation where there are a lot of Muslim Labour members who will try to get out the vote for labour..but the average Muslim is so anti war they'd vote for anyone to teach labour a lesson
Re: Blair’s Britain?: Elections called for May!
a closer look at the role of the Muslim vote in B’Ham
Roy Hattersley returns to his old constituency and finds a mood of defiance
Friday April 8, 2005
The Guardian
For more than 30 years, I took the votes of Birmingham Muslims for granted. The Muslims themselves I treated with more respect. But if, at any time between 1964 and 1997 I heard of a Khan, Saleem or Iqbal who did not support Labour I was both outraged and astonished.
My presumption was justified. It was the Muslim vote - increased by an influx of families from Kashmir, the Punjab and other parts of Birmingham - which expanded my majority from barely 1,200 to more than 12,000.
Roger Godsiff, my successor, cannot rely on such unswerving loyalty. The Muslim view of Labour has changed. Back in Birmingham this week it was clear that the Khans, Saleems and Iqbals have developed a new - and more healthy - attitude towards politics.
Anxious immigrants who throw themselves on the mercy of their members of parliament are now a minority. Their children and grandchildren will only vote for politicians who explicitly meet their demands.
The change has not produced quite the results which the pundits anticipated. When I represented Sparkbrook, Mustaq’s was a corner grocery shop. Now it is a huge glass and stainless steel emporium owned by Mustaq Food Machinery Limited - an international company which exports throughout Europe from its showroom on the other side of the road.
Its managing director is P Ahmed, Mustaq’s English-born son and university graduate. Mustaq voted Labour. Ahmed, although a member of the new Muslim middle class, will vote Respect on May 5. His immediate complaint against the government was the war in Iraq. But he went on to make clear that his criticisms of the coalition are shorthand to describe a deeper resentment. George Galloway chose the name of his new political party with care.
Respect is what the Muslim community - more confident than ever before - demands. They are not sure that it is available within the present political system. And they are certain that the west’s war on terror has made its achievement far less likely.
Dr Naseem - a retired general practitioner, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque and Respect candidate for Perry Barr - believes the attack on the New York trade centre was orchestrated by the CIA. Dawn, the mosque’s newsletter (distributed to the 4,000 worshippers who attend prayers each weekend) publishes what he regards as evidence to support that fantasy.
But Farah Naz, at the Sparkhill women’s centre, expresses a more typical view. Discrimination has increased since newspapers became obsessed with “Islamic extremism”. Her 18-year-old daughter, Henna Mahmood, is now reluctant to wear the traditional headscarf in public. “She gets called a Paki and told to go back home.”
In the Islamic Resource Centre, Mohammed Shafique - an accountant by training but a community worker by vocation - makes the same point more aggressively. “When,” he asks “did anybody ever talk about Catholic terrorists in Northern Ireland? Only Muslims are lumped together in this way. Nobody ever speaks out against Islamic phobia.”
His concern reveals a Muslim characteristic which has survived the generations. Muslims expect something approaching a personal relationship with their members of parliament. They demand audible and visible support - particularly in face of the fashionable suspicion of all things Islamic.
Nobody to whom I spoke during my visit to Birmingham chose to talk about the postal vote rigging which had been exposed and condemned the previous day. Reaction to my own inquiries confirmed the reason for their reticence. The six corrupt councillors happened to be Muslim. There is a real fear that, in the present climate, the whole community will be libelled as the enemies of democracy.
Shafique (the chair of Labour’s Sparkbrook branch) insists that his party, which has gained so much from Muslim support, has done too little in return. Part of his complaint concerns the perennial dispute about whether or not the Sparkbrook-Small Heath constituency (where in one ward 80% of residents are classified as “ethnic minority”) should be represented by a Muslim MP. But he also insists that “the authorities” have an oppressive “attitude” towards his community.
“Labour still believes what the 70- and 80-year-olds said to it 20 years ago.” By that he means that the leadership - local and national - asks for unthinking support rather than creative partnership.
Khalid Mahmood, the young and able MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, lists the national policies which, despite that, will guarantee his re-election. The minimum wage and income support are profoundly welcome to the poor. And Muslims suffer more than their fair share of poverty. Increased child benefit has provided spending power for Asian women and baby bonds appeal to the Islamic instinct for thrift. But he also points out that, paradoxically, one great Labour reform has broken a bond which bound me to my constituents.
Most of the families who queued to see me at my advice bureaux asked for my help with “immigration cases”. Many of them were oppressed by the “primary purpose rule”. Lawful and loving husbands were denied entry into Britain unless they could prove that their marriage had no ulterior purpose.
Jack Straw at the Home Office changed all that. A legal marriage - accompanied by proof of job and living accommodation - now guarantees a visa. The change was morally essential. But it ended the married couple’s need for the “MP’s letter” which (they assumed) would change the immigration officer’s mind. Gratitude is short-lived in politics. More Islamic activists remember David Blunkett’s confusion of “forced” and “arranged” marriages than recall Jack Straw’s reforms.
The young women who asked for help with their husbands’ visa applications were often very unIslamic in appearance. Because I always assumed that their mothers and aunts (often on instruction) voted the same way as their husbands, I wondered if their daughters’ short skirts, high heels and tight jeans were a symbol of political emancipation. Now, Muslim women are openly expressing their own opinions and voting according to their own judgments. Perhaps they were never as dominated by their men as white liberals supposed. Rubina Parvez told me that, although her husband invariably voted for me, she did not. But, whatever happened 20 years ago, Muslim women now take politics seriously.
A new generation - educated in English schools and influenced by western mores - behave increasingly like their Christian sisters. And there are conscious attempts from the younger radicals to drag middle-aged women into the 20th century.
“Outreach” groups seem to meet on every street corner. The talk, which begins with health and hygiene, naturally leads on to politics. And the women who stay at home all day are becoming politicised in a different way. Many of them, speaking no English, pass their time watching the satellite television programmes which are beamed into Birmingham from the Middle East. The broadcasts constantly attack “western aggression against Iraq” as a conscious assault on Islam itself.
Between now and May 5 British Muslims will face choices which did not disturb them during previous elections. There were always Muslim fringe candidates and no doubt a variety of “no-hopers” will be nominated this year.
The People’s Justice Party - largely formed by dissident Labour councillors to protest against the Indian “occupation” of Kashmir - faded out of existence. It was revived to support the complaint against the postal ballot rigging. Something called the Islamic Democratic Party is widely believed to exist. It is impossi ble to locate its policies, premises or personnel. But next month, as in the past, most Muslims will choose not to waste their votes.
Birmingham Liberals have always concentrated on local issues. In Sparkbrook this week more people complained about the local council’s refusal to fund neighbourhood advice centres than denounced successive governments’ failure to reduce the local unemployment level below 20%.
So the pre-occupation with dustbins and paving stones will pay dividends. But the Liberals will compete with Respect for dissident Muslim support. By cancelling each other out, the anti-war parties will guarantee that Labour holds (by respectable majorities) each of the three seats - Perry Barr, Sparkhill-Small Heath and Hodgehill - in which the Muslim vote could be crucial. But its candidates will have to work harder than ever before.
The end of dependence and deference marks the emergence of the Muslim community from the bad old days of grateful subservience. Much to his credit, Roger Godsiff welcomes the change.
“In your day,” he told me, “Muslims needed Labour MPs for protection. Now most of them can protect themselves.” In future they will pick and choose between the parties and ask: “What have you done for me?”
As well as the usual demand for houses, jobs and education, they will expect the personal involvement which they regard as proof of real respect. Representing Sparkbrook will be a much more demanding occupation than it was in my day.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
^ Quite agree. In last year's local council election Labour lost overall control of Birmingham city council after 19 years, due mainly to huge swings from Labour to Lib Dems by Muslims. In some seats the swing from Labour to Lib Dems was over 60%. I hope this continues during the current election and we give Labour and Blair a bloody nose in Birmingham. Khalid Mahmood losing his seat will be a bonus.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
I live in Hodge Hill and will NOT be votin 4 Labour. I will possibly vote 4 Lib dems. But i think Labour will win anyway. Any Muslim who stands 4 Labour is against Islam in my opinion, but then again r the others any better? why cant we all unite. UNITY IS VICTORY.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
The formal dissolution of parliament takes place, with MPs elected to this parliament losing that title at 5.00pm. Parliament will reassemble after the general election on May 11, when the first business will be the election of the Speaker and the swearing-in of members. The state opening of parliament and the Queen's speech will follow on May 17.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
anyone here from Blackburn? I wont be voting labour.. I doubt id vote Lib Dems either.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
Oh comeon guys, quit agreeing with each other. Argue fight like we did before the US Pres. elections. No wonder English are soo boring.
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
no ahmadji, we'r not boring, we'r just civil and generally know whats right and whats wrong :p
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
I won't be voting. There is no party which represents what I believe to be right. The labours are pseudo-conservative, pushing the conservative agenda further right wing and the Lib Dems are never getting into power.
The conservative agenda is based on immigration and asylum watch and I hate the way these issues have been homologenised as if all immigrants are also asylum seekers and as if if it WASNT for immigrants this country would have remained the rubble and mess that they had managed to dig themselves into. The country was a mess. I know several people who came to England being promised a brave new world and to now be wilfully made the subject of negitive goverment popoganda is imo sick.
lib dems want to abolish top up tuition fees for uni: Good for me but they also want to increase taxation to fund the education system... not so good. And they stayed silent on the terrorist bill.
Labour wants "Education education education" these words sound awfully familiar and there had been little to no improvement in schools so long as I have studied in them. Standards have fallen and classroom behaviour has worsened. There is a huge absence of competant teachers and after all that I still can't spell and literacy rates in school leaving kids has dropped. They also have no decent foreign policy (stating the obvious). The economy however has done very well. They also seem to want to increasingly enfringe our human rights. a) the id cards b) the terrorist bills etc.
It's a question of lesser of three evils.
Re: Blair’s Britain?: Elections called for May!
A good site to follow during the elections:
Re: Blair’s Britain?: Elections called for May!
i recived a letter today telling me that i should vote with confidence and not worry about the case in Birmingham of electoral Fraud? whats that all about?
oh and i remembered a political party broadcast from the BNP last year…a sikh man (with turban) saying how we should vote for BNP and kick all the pakis out 
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
^ oh yeah I remember that BNP guy..the BNP was saying they aren't anti colour just anti Muslim..(which I am guessing makes it more acceptable lol)
Anyway the BNP is gonna see votes pulled away from it by UKIP..Labour by Respect..Lib Dems by the greens..
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
isnt the frontman for the BNP getting sacked?
recalling that sardarji made my day!...my dad reckons we should vote Respect..but im still waiting for a sign from another party...
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
Can British citizens overseas vote?
Re: Blair's Britain?: Elections called for May!
^ yes they can by registering at the nearest British embassy.