7/23/2009

Norwich North By-Election Awards

As the campaign is now over, I thought it a good time to do the "Norfolk Blogger By-Election Awards".

Missed Opportunity Award

Nominees
- Liberal Democrats (For missing local campaign opportunities in Taverham to show how badly the Northern By-Pass plans the Tories support will affect that area)
- Labour (For failing to choose a candidate that had some local support and didn't look parachuted in)
- Greens (For proclaiming that they were set to snatch second place then failing to run a campaign worthy of 4th place)

Best Campaign Award

Nominees
- Conservatives (For virtually not putting a foot wrong in terms of not doing anything that might expose their candidate to scrutiny)
- Lib Dems (For shrugging off claims the party would come 4th and running a campaign that was clear, visible and effective)
- Craig Murray (For at least being heard in a crowded field of candidates)

Worst Campaign


Nominees
- Labour (Where was their campaign ?)
- Greens (Where was their campaign ?)


Best Candidate

Nominees
- Chloe Smith (Very on message, very much the Tory girl, very assured, if slightly boring)
- April Pond (Visible, carried the flag for the party well, massively improved the Lib Dem position and energetic)
- Craig Murray (Did well at events he was allowed to, spent a fortune of his own cash)

Best Minor Party Campaign

Nominees
- Craig Murray (Perhaps the only campaign outside of the main 5 parties that was seen)
- Libertarian Party (First time campaign, a leaflet, some canvassing and some coverage)
- NOTA (More an idea than a party, a brave attempt)

I'll post who I think should be the winner tomorrow. Your ideas are, of course, welcome.

9 comments:

Null said...

Interesting to see positive comments about Craig Murrey after all that has been said by him.

Nich Starling said...

I don't like his campaign, but credit where credit's due.

Anonymous said...

No doubt he'll say you're criticising him, though.

Psephologue said...

This is a fun post to lessen the agony of waiting.

Are you going to post your recommendations before or after the count? I feel it would be more honest to recommend on the basis of results achieved.

Better still might be a 'before and after' recommendation. After all the game in elections is to distinguish between perceptions and realities.

My thanks to you for providing a great port of call during the by-election even if we were batting for different teams.

Henry North London 2.0 said...

well having been in Norwich on the first saturday after the candidates were announced and having heard and seen craig murrays trestle table, well I think we were better Chloe processed past me like the Queen of Sheba

It would do her good to lose..

She wouldnt have that stuck up attitude anymore

Anonymous said...

of course UKIP were non existant in all of this

Stuart said...

Interesting take on the local candidates and good to actually see an honest opinion!!

Stephen W said...

Best Example of Irony: April Pond "massively improved the Lib Dem position".

Best Joke Nomination: Lib Dems (For shrugging off claims the party would come 4th and running a campaign that was clear, visible and effective) [They were less than 750 votes from 4th, despite all their leaflets about being the "only" party capable of beating the Conservatives in Norwich]

Anonymous said...

Right, let's see, the Greens said they might come second and were 3,000 votes short. Yes, that's quite bad.

How would you rate a party that was putting out leaflets saying "it's so close" and then fell nearly 9,000 votes behind their opponents? Is that three times as bad, perhaps?

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