Chris White has won Warwick and Leamington with a majority of 3,500, a massive 8.8 per cent swing from Labour to Conservative. His majority is much bigger than I forecast. It reflects all the hard work he has put in since losing in 2005. Now that the result is out, I can also say that some time ago I picked up a sense that James Plaskitt had given up.
The turnout was a massive 84 per cent.
I have just seen David Butler on the BBC election progamme talking about electoral systems on which he wrote his PhD and his first book.
4 comments:
Do you think now is the opportunity to get a new and fairer voting system? Should we work together to demand, whatever the end result of this election, that our outdated voting system is fixed? Me and others are voting on the matter at, http://labs.38degrees.org.uk/content/election-what-next
It is clear that there is going to be a discussion about this and quite possibly a referendum.
I think it's unfair to say that "James Plaskitt had given up," he fought to win, but unfortunately the political climate within the Labour party at the time meant a loss.
But, the people of Warwick and Leamington have lost a good constituency MP - James Plaskitt put this area on the map. After decades of Dudley Smith - Plaskitt was a welcome change.
His achievements are evident in the local area. He pioneered campaigns to re-build local schools; waiting times at Warwick hospital are now much lower than they were before 1997. There are now 7 Sure Start centres in the local area. And these are only a few examples of James's outstanding work. None of which would have happened without his sheer determination and enthusiasm.
Let’s just say... Chris White MP has got "big shoes to fill!"
It wasn't a verdict on him personally even though the swing was higher than the national average and he was certainly a considerable improvement on Dudley Smith. I do think that he was unwilling to admit that Labour had ever made any mistakes or that anything might ever be wrong with public services.
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