Saturday, December 28, 2019

New Blue Redcar

Tables all done. Of the last five let's start with Redcar, which went over to the Conservatives.

(click to enlarge)

I haven't went as crazy with the colouring with these ones. Just highlighting the winning candidate.

The Labour candidate's vote really got decimated here. This was quite an incredible result. I think all the other candidates can take some credit in pulling votes from her. The fact that the Brexit Party candidate, Jacqui Cummins, essentially pulled out in the last few days no doubt made a huge difference.

As for the data in the tables what stands out to me is that we have another independent candidate giving a decent showing (1,323 votes, over double the Green vote and not too distant from the Lib Dem vote). Once again the social media profile is similar to the independents standing in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. Very nice Facebook figures, very poor Twitter presence.

His Facebook page presence dwarfs the Brexit Party, Lib Dem and Green Party presence and is almost at parity with the Conservative candidate. Conversely on Twitter he had just 10 followers.

(I should mention for context that where there are no figures in the table it's because I couldn't find a Facebook page/Twitter profile for the candidate. That's not to say one didn't exist, it may simply be that I myself couldn't find it - sometimes things can get buried on social media, especially if they're not labelled with the correct keywords. Plus I'm just 'some guy' on the internet with limited time and resources, so none of this should be taken as exhaustive.

The lack of a final Twitter figure for the Brexit Party candidate is because her account was deactivated. I'm guessing by herself when she pulled from the race.)

So returning to the independents it really does seem like these candidates were tapping into a seam that the major parties weren't quite reaching. Completely outside the media and Twitter bubble. Focused locally both out on the street and on Facebook.

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