The provisional results are in – Chris Davies had 1760 first preferences with Saj Karim on 706 first preferences. They were 59% and 23% respectively.
The third person to be on the list is provisionally Helen Foster-Grime just about 2 votes ahead of Flo Clucas. Whether Flo will cause a storm (seeing that her family of four voters didn’t receive ballot papers) is anyone’s guess.
Liberal Revolution 
The Returning Officer has directed a recount because of an extremely close position between 3rd and 4th places. A decision will be made whether any further action is required in the light of the result of the recount. A further announcement will be made as soon as possible.
Jonathan Davies
Senior Returning Officer
By: Jonathan Davies on November 10, 2007
at 5:04 pm
What further action? A whole re-run of the election?
By: John on November 10, 2007
at 5:16 pm
I dispair of North West party members. Chris Davies is damn cheeky to even consider standing for reselection in the first place. The idea of the activists actually voting him back in is just distasteful.
By: Jonny Wright on November 11, 2007
at 1:14 pm
er, Jonny Wright – what’s your problem with CD?
By: crewegwyn on November 11, 2007
at 4:35 pm
Well, the fact that he made anti-semitic comments and got away with it … if the comments he made about Jews had been said other ethnic minorities or about about LGBT people, he’d have been thrown out of the party. It still mystefies me why he hasn’t been.
By: Jonny Wright on November 11, 2007
at 5:28 pm
One thing about him is that he has actually visited the Palestinian territories.
The other thing to mention is that the `anti-semitic` remark was at the end of a long rant from a Jewish person that even I (with some obvious Jewish blood from way back when) would have felt like giving some sort of facetious remark.
Sometimes we can all look at things in a black and white fashion – and I know different individuals focus on different things – what’s important is to look at things in the round.
By: John on November 12, 2007
at 10:43 am
I don’t know why you put scarequotes around “anti-semitic” – saying that there’s a Jewish lobby, and that it has too much influence in political opinion making, is undoubtedly anti-semitic. Jewish people don’t all think the same way, there isn’t some unified Jewish political agenda, and it’s outrageous for a legislator to suggest that there is.
I know he’d just received a very overheated and ranting email from a constituent, but that doesn’t excuse him in the slightest. MPs have been deselected for less; TV presenters have lost their jobs for less. And without wanting to sound paranoid, I’m very sure that he’d have been forced to resign the whip if he’d lumped all black people, or all disabled people, or all women, together as a category, and accused them of having some sort of group agenda. Why is it OK to turn a blind eye when it’s Jews on the receiving end?
By: Jonny Wright on November 12, 2007
at 2:07 pm
Just to give you the exact quotation:
“I shall tell them that I intend to speak out against this oppression at every opportunity, and I shall denounce the influence of the Jewish lobby that sems to have far too great a say over the political decision-making process in many countries”
By: Jonny Wright on November 12, 2007
at 2:09 pm
Fair enough that’s your view – it’s not anti-semitic exactly is it? Unless you assume that the Jewish lobby is Jewish people.
By: John on November 12, 2007
at 4:57 pm
Chris himself might not be an anti-semitic person, but he made comments which are most definitely anti-semitic. I don’t know how much more clearly I can explain it. I have no idea why any Lib Dem activists should be making excuses for the guy, still less voting for him to represent us in Brussels.
By: Jonny Wright on November 12, 2007
at 6:23 pm
Well they DID vote for him perhaps despite all this. You can get too into this holy politically correct stuff as if it applies to every nth degree.
btw context is everything – something i’ve learned this week! I never stop learning it!
By: John on November 12, 2007
at 7:54 pm
Palestinians are also Semites. Chris’ error was to fail to distinguish between Jews & the Government of Israel. There are many Jews who are appalled at the behaviour of the Government of Israel over the last 40yrs. No one excuses Palestinian terrorist atrocities and much public noise is made about such incidents and rightly so.But by the same token the infinitely worse State sponsored terrorism of the Israeli Government towards the Palestinians should be roundly and unequivocally condemned. But it isn’t. Far from it – at best a mild rebuke, a gentle slap on the wrist. No where within leagues of the suspension of aid and other punishments that the Palestinians suffer. It is this blatant double standard that Chris was quite rightly addressing. He was just wrong to get exasperated by some hate mail. Why doesn’t Jonny Wright condemn the writer of the ‘overheated & ranting’ Email?
By: Mike Turner on November 23, 2007
at 1:36 pm