Copeland Youth: Labour win Oldham West and Royton election: why it matters

There is a general election every four years, when the public gets to choose who will represent them in Parliament. But what happens if you need a new MP between times? This might happen if the previous MP dies, resigns, or is sacked (which doesn't happen very often).

Obviously, the people in a constituency don't want to have to wait until the next general election, it might be years until then and their opinions would be unrepresented until then.

So we have by-elections.

They don't get as much national news coverage as the general elections, and to many people they don't seem very important. But actually, a by-election can tell us a lot.

This week, there was a by-election in the constituency of Oldham West and Royton. Which, for those who are interested, is somewhere around here:

The MP there was a member of the Labour Party called Michael Meacher, and he died in October. So this election was to look for his successor.

Now, as we all know, Labour didn't win the last general election, because they were nationally less popular than the Conservatives, but there are some places where there are many more Labour voters than Conservative ones. These are sometimes called safe seats.

At the general election Michael Meacher won this safe seat with almost 59% of all the votes. If at this by-election the new MP got fewer votes, or if another party won the seat, it would tell us that maybe the Labour Party was even less popular than their opponents (don't forget, they have a new leader now -- Jeremy Corbyn).

But Labour did win, and the new guy Jim McMahon, won over 62% of the votes, which suggests that Labour isn't unpopular with the voters (at least in Oldham West).

The other thing to take notice of is how many people vote.
In general elections there's usually a good turnout, but in by-elections less so (like I said before, some people see them as less important).

At the last general election (in May) 43,137 people voted, in this election 27,706 people voted. That's a lot less obviously, but it's still about 40% of all the people who can vote.

Over the last 18 years there have been 59 by-elections and the average turnout is... about 41%.

That suggests that people are about as engaged in politics and democracy now as they have been for the past two decades -- so people aren't totally put off, which is good.

Local News

I reckon the majority of people in West Cumbria are aware of the rain last night, and the flooding.

My wife was supposed to be singing in a concert in Keswick, but most of the choir were unable to get there without a boat...

This was in Seaton last night