Thursday: Oldham West & Royton by-election

[-:Undertaker:-]

The first by-election of this new parliament takes place this Thursday.

Here's a quick summary; the seat is located in Greater Manchester and was held by long-time Labour MP Michael Meacher until his death in October. The seat is heavily working class and deprived and is one of the strongest Labour seats in the country with Labour holding the seat more or less since the 1920s. The seat is around 20% Islamic and the rest White working class.

John Harris of the Guardian newspaper always does interesting analysis that isn't boring and here's his one below for the Oldham West constituency. It's well worth a watch just for a background to the seat and the way the campaigning in the area is going, as well as what normal people say.

Thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Polls have opened.

Results expected at 1.30am tonight.

It's an interesting one as we've had no public polling published. Huge Labour majority to overturn for any of the parties though.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Labour retain by 10,000 but serious questions over postal voting. It's not over in the north yet, trust me.