Labour, Ukip & Jim Dobbin's old consituency!

WHEN soon after Jim Dobbin, MP for Heywood and Middleton, died in Poland the Labour Party made an early announcement of the date of the by-election, Ukip accused them of running scared.  Yesterday Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News tweeted that:
'One Labour source said to me earlier re anti-politics Ukip vote: 'Middleton don't even like Rochdale. Why would they like Westminster?'

Down South they wouldn't understand that places like Middleton and Heywood on the south and west side of Rochdale have clear and distinct identities of their own:  in Middleton the people are known as the Moonrakers suggesting a taste for booze; Heywood is nick-named Monkey Town because they are supposed to have holes in their stools to accomodate their tails.

Last week, Nigel Farage sent out a carefully crafted letter to constituents argueing that the people up North and the working-class had been betrayed by the Labour Party. 

Now Michael Crick is asking:
'Is Labour in serious trouble in the north west seat of Heywood and Middleton, where the party faces a by-election on 9 October?'

Reports in the Rochdale Observer suggest that things were not smooth in the run up the selection of Liz McInnes as the candidate for Labour in the constituency.  Liz McInnes is a councillor in Rossendale, works as a healthcare scientist and is a Unite union rep.

However, while Rochdale councillor Karen Danczuk originally tweeted her dissatisfaction that 'not one local person has been short listed for Midd & Heywood', she has now retracted her comment to give support to the 'fab local candidate' Liz McInnes.

Mr. Crick claims local a Labour source told him:  'Shadow cabinet members are sh****** themselves about losing.'

Local trade union sources told me last weekend that the fratricide within the local Labour Party in the Rochdale area has not healed up yet.