Lib Dems win bye election

A very gracious loser's speech - it must be hard to do that.

Posters should really check their facts before posting what someone has or has not 'reputedly' done.

Thanks for the link daphnedill, it was clear that no one apart from the two candidates either side of Sadiq shook his hand. I hold no brief for Goldsmith but reputations can be ruined by unfounded rumours.

The mayoral campaign was disgusting and I'm sure it put a lot of voters off Zac. I don't live in Richmond, but not far away. It's not a typical constituency, but where is? I'd rather live in Richmond than plenty of other places!

Stand by, I want to defend a multi millionaire Tory MP. I don't think he is arrogant , I think he is a damaged man, who could survive unscathed with a father like Jimmy Goldsmith ? I could be so wrong though

That's not quite fair, Jess.

This is the video of the announcement:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChY4nooWgGs

Goldsmith clapped and the people standing next to Khanshook his hand, but Goldsmith wasn't standing next to him.

Look at the Britain First candidate's face and look how he turns his back when Khan makes his acceptance speech.

Suspect Richmond is quite diverse in a wealthy kind of way. My relative's best mates are German and Chinese. Many people were shocked at Zac's mayoral campaign e.g. the letter to "hindus" i.e. people with Indian-sounding names, warning them that Sadiq would tax their jewellery. Also he reputedly did not shake Sadiq's hand after the announcement of the result.
I do think that the whole Goldsmith family saga is so like a Jilly Cooper trilogy. Entitled something like Lolly! Bowled! and Member!

Hopefull?

unless he has a permanent cold?

Not my word, it was in the dictionary !!

Therefore I decided that it was not an appropriate word
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/arrogant

'snotty' is a horrible word, surely slang? I suppose 'snooty' is closer to arrogant but implies more of a looking-down-on-others attitude.

I thought we decided on too confident or over-confident?

One synonym for 'arrogant' is 'snotty' so I thought not.

If believing that you are right is a form of arrogance, then virtually every politician who ever lived has suffered from it.
And a good many other people, too.
Sarah Olney firmly believes that she is right - would anyone call her arrogant? Very likely not, since she is not guilty of the heinous sin of being a rich Tory.

If I were an MP and my constituency had voted to bring back the death penalty I could not support the death penalty

Synonym - Snotty

Probably not then!

I should look up the meaning, is such belief that you are right a form of arrogance? I don't know.
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/arrogant
not sure

Confident or over-confident?

Certainly he thought he knew better than his consitutents but they had the final say.

I don't know Jalima, I don't think he was arrogant . perhaps too confident ?

so was that arrogant misguided?
Not to listen to your consitituents?

I think it was his stance on Brexit which cost him the seat , he didn't represent the majority in his constituency on this so they voted for Libs who do

I just thought it required a very high degree of self-belief (perhaps arrogance is the wrong word then) to think that he was popular enough to win as an Independent - especially since he was obviously not representing the majority of his constituents as regards the EU vote plus not representing Tory voters.

Added to which it had been a Lib Dem constituency for years before he won it.

Misguided?

I dare say you would prefer to think of him as arrogant, but I honestly don't think he comes across like that in person at all.

I have a feeling he would have lost the by-election even if standing as a Con, because of his stance on Brexit.

We'll never know now though, if he would have held the seat as a Tory in a GE or whether the Lib Dems would have regained it from the Tories.
Resigning, forcing a bi-election and standing as an Independent shows a high degree of self-belief and, because of the high Remain vote, even arrogance on his part that his popularity as a constituency MP would carry the day.

I don't think the mayoral election will have had much influence. Should imagine that a good percentage of Richmond Park voters would have preferred him to Sadiq Khan.

There was a heavy Remain vote here, so I would think Brexit had rather more to do with it.

I think there is still quite a bit of respect for Zac for sticking to his promise to stand down over the Heathrow issue, though. Of course his wealth has always meant he has been able to stick to what he thinks best, and not be beholden to party Whips because he was hungry for promotion/more money, or just to hang on to his seat at all costs.

Do you think that the mayoral campaign had much influence on the result?

Until then, I hadn't ever read anything negative about Zac. I'd read that he was a good constituency MP and he campaigned for action on child sex abuse. To be honest, the campaigning in the London mayoral campaign seemed a bit out of character.

It's interesting to hear from people on the ground. All the rest of us can do is read the media reporting, which is always going to have its own spin.

Labour always come nowhere in that constituency, which is where I live. It's always been pretty much a toss up between LDs and Con, and was LD for quite a while before Zac won it from Susan Kramer.

Actually I think Zac was a pretty good and active MP - at least you got a prompt and proper reply to emails, not a standard one bashed out by a hack. And he held a lot of regular meetings where anyone could attend and raise questions.

A lot of the bile directed at him seems to come from people who have no idea what he was like as an MP in his own constituency - enough reason for hatred that he was rich and a Tory.
The disabled man who asked him to spend an entire day with him, travelling around London on public transport, to see the difficulties for himself, and had his offer accepted, might have a slightly different view.

Having said that, I did vote for Sarah Olney - in the circs no bad thing for someone else to have a go - not that I'm invariably enamoured of the LDs. To me they tend to be not just holier than thou, but holier than everybody.
Still, we shall see.

Errrmmm...yes...true! Although I did receive an email from him earlier today. I'm not sure why - I must have signed up to something or other at some time.