Tariq Sadiq, Labour 929
Andrew Bower, Conservative 830
Thomas Yates, Lib Dem, 325
Valerie Hopkins, Green, 314
Albert Watts, UKIP, 159
Labour clearly fought a hard campaign in the ward, many congratulations to Labour candidate Tariq Sadiq who has achieved a remarkable result in view of the collapse of Labour elsewhere, and commiserations to Andy Bower, who has worked incredibly hard in the ward for a long period of time.
Without taking anything away from Tariq, there is little more I think I could have done personally to represent the best interests of Coleridge ward - so the result is a slightly disappointing reflection of the work that we have put in. If anyone has any constructive comments as to why it is so many people who voted Conservative locally last year decided not to vote for us this year, or what the big issues were for you at this election that caused you to vote something other than Conservative, please be in touch!
9 comments:
A very unfortunate and narrow loss.
The reason was simple: UKIP.
You can lay the blame at the door of MPs expenses, or at David Cameron's refusal to guarantee a referendum no matter what, or just at bad luck. But I don't think you should blame yourself.
Very good try. Very nearly made it. Hopefully next time...
Any idea why there were 43 more votes counted than people who voted?
As for why less people are voting Conservative, it might be related to the guided bus and the Conservative County Council's failure to rebuff the Government on the congestion charge and the top-down growth targets.
I think Andrew had a strong personal position on key areas such as his opposition to the congestion charge and desire to keep council tax low. I think he was let down by his association with the Conservatives ruling the County Council. He might have done better as an independent.
I'm not sure what UKIP were doing in the local elections at all.
I can answer the last one - UKIP were standing in the local elections to help Labour get Councillors elected.
I will ask about the turnout...
I am in Trumpington ward and a libdem voter. I voted libdem as I believe in their policies and the county council is Conservative dominated. The same may have happened in Coleridge. However, I have a lot of time for John Ionides, the Tory candidate. He works hard for the ward and puts forward sensible alternative views. The council could do with a bit more variety (as long as it stays libdem:-)). I hope he will run again for the local council. Then I will vote for him as a 1 off.
Bad luck; hope it doesn't put people off continuing to push hard in Coleridge. On a positive note, the swing towards Conservative was by far the largest, and if that trend continues then the writing is on the wall for nulab around here.
Steve,
Congratulations on your own election! I hope that you can achieve good things on the county council, preparing to take advantage of the what we hope is to be a Conservative government.
Clearly there was a significant 'protest' vote but as Richard Taylor says, it is the county council's record that would have affected my polling specifically, even though of course a Conservative councillor would be best placed to rectify things!
Thanks, Steven!
We will keep working hard in Coleridge.
I'm not sure that the swing from the 2005 election indicates much, though, as that was a general election year and there have been four polls held on the same boundaries since then.
The city council election in May 2008 is probably the best comparator and that shows a 5.6% swing from Labour to Conservative this year. That must be one of Labour's best results in the country I would have thought and therefore in fact amounts to a pretty poor showing by me in the national context!
Sorry, I keep getting the calculation wrong! Both Labour and Tory lost votes to other parties but there was also a swing of 2.2% from Conservative to Labour.
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