Friday, November 05, 2010

Back to Old & Sad

I am delighted to hear the news that the Election Court has ordered a re-run of the Oldham East & Saddleworth election.

The campaign run by Labour's Phil Woolas in May was the most despicable I have ever seen and one he and the Labour Party should be ashamed of.

The last time I was in Oldham it was to help run the Royton South by-election (which we won), which preceded the Littleborough & Saddleworth parliamentary by-election in July 1995.

We won in Royton South, which was next door to Little & Sad, and I well remember a very gloomy Peter Mandelson turning up on the Friday morning expecting to celebrate a Labour victory but having to excuse a bad loss.

I helped with the local by-election because I was getting married on the penultimate weekend of the main by-election campaign and was therefore unable to be part of the campaign team.  I even had to undertake extensive negotiations with Chris Rennard in order to persuade him to release some of our guests for the wedding!

I am already going through my diary to work out when I will be able to head up to help and look forward to meeting Lib Dem activists from around the country there.

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