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10 tweets,
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Many sighs of relief will be heard today, following LAB retention of a seat when much seemed stacked against them: disgraced incumbent; bullish and v.active challenger; less than scintillating candidate; etc
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Turnout was also pretty high (48%), so can defend result as more as being more than just core votes
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However, it was still very close (under 700 vote majority), main danger for LAB (& CON) is complacency: if BP couldn't here, now, then we've nothing to worry about.
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As longer-run of euroscepticism has shown, even if successes appear fleeting, this doesn't undermine the persistence of such narratives and groups.
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Indeed, repeated failure to get into office is cast as The Establishment 'just not getting it' and working to keep these concerns off the agenda
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So yes, Farage has failed in yet another by-election, but as you will notice he has still done pretty well by it all, over the years.
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Those looking for a more meaningful way to address scepticism/populism/etc need to think beyond the ballot box and come up with different ways of addressing underlying concerns of disconnect and disaffection
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Again, longer-run view suggests that's rarely done and even more rarely successful, but to rely on the weight of the status quo is a poor strategy (cf. #euref)
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Any way, back to a day of everyone justifying how this result is a vindication of their strategy
/end
(And no, there was no tweet 2)
/end
(And no, there was no tweet 2)
