Eastleigh Seagull
Member
Bolton West - Labour majority of 92 - first time in my life i have lived in a place where it will actually be worth voting. I reckon a three way race with Labour, Tory and UKIP, which prob means a Labour hold
Winchester has been Lib Dem in the past, and Chandlers Ford used to be part of the Eastleigh Constituency, which is Lib Dem and has been for a while. I was surprised, though, that it was not a bigger majority last time round.
I'm amazed that Fatty Soames has the 2nd smallest majority in West Sussex. Thought it would be 10,000+.
I've always wondered this - do you notice any difference in how good a constituency MP you have while he's serving as Speaker compared to just having a 'normal' MP?
Is that a fact? Well, you learn something new every day.
Do you feel a bit robbed if your MP becomes Speaker, I wonder?
Makes you think about all those people who don't vote in Mid-Sussex because they think their vote is wasted. That majority could be overturned. This is why the major parties encourage apathy.
I'm amazed that Fatty Soames has the 2nd smallest majority in West Sussex. Thought it would be 10,000+.
Makes you think about all those people who don't vote in Mid-Sussex because they think their vote is wasted. That majority could be overturned. This is why the major parties encourage apathy.
This is what I posted on UK Polling Report. My attempt to explain why Mid Sussex is not so clear cut a Tory seat as it might seem (you might disagree with me on Bentswood, but that certainly did apply when I worked with someone from there):
As a local of 35 years (yes, I vote in Battersea where my flat is, but I grew up in this area and still spend a very large amount of my time here), I can give a bit of a guide. People are surprised that Soames has a fairly small majority here. It is not really that surprising. The constituency was pared down in 1997 to its urban base of East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and the administrative centre of Haywards Heath in the middle. East Grinstead and Burgess Hill have local Lib Dem strength, with several of the BH wards being strongholds until recently. EG is more marginal, but until recently the Lib Dems won all but one of its 10 seats. Haywards Heath and its surrounding areas such as Cuckfield and Lindfield are more Conservative, though HH has some Lib Dem strength and has the one Labour ward in the district, Bentswood, based on a solidly working class council estate. There are also some strongly Conservative villages such as West Hoathly and Scaynes Hill. However large, mainly Conservative areas have been moved to other seats – Ardingly to Horsham and a large area in the south around Hurstpierpoint to Arundel and the South Downs (the Conservatives did not do well in the boundary changes of 1995, which came into effect for 1997).
This is not the seat that Tim Renton held for 23 years. Had those boundaries been in operation in 1997, I think Soames would have held the seat with a majority of 12,000 to 13,000, allowing for some lost personal vote from Tim Renton (he actually held it by about 6,500).