Respect is Looking Good. posted by Richard Seymour

According to the Respect website, our candidate is in third place in the Hodge Hill polls:

Anti-war party Respect received an unexpected but welcome boost to its electoral campaign in the Hodge Hill by-election yesterday.

For an internal Tory party opinion poll published in yesterday's Birmingham Evening Mail shows Respect running in third place - ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

"Blair's New Labour is more unpopular than ever because of the war in Iraq and the Lib Dems are backing the occupation and dispatch of 3000 more troops, so it's hardly surprising that Respect is gaining ground at the expense of the pro-war and pro-occupation parties," said Respect's Hodge Hill candidate, John Rees.

The poll is not reported on the Birmingham Evening Mail website, but it is on the Birmingham Tory website . *shudder* Linking to the Tories feels dirty...

The reason for this (which involves, as a corrolary, a serious drop in the Labour vote) could be to do with many things, not least of which is New Labour's conversion to gutter politics in Hodge Hill. From smashing teen gangs and banging up crackheads to forcing 'failed' asylum seekers into starvation, it seems there is no debasement of labour movement values to which Liam Byrne, the local candidate, and Tom Watson MP , the campaign manager, will not stoop. They will thoroughly deserve it if they lose this seat.