Who's your MP?

[T_i_B]

I think it's about time that I did a thread asking about the MP where you live as it's your local MP who you will be voting for or against rather then the party leaders.

My own MP is Natascha Engel, who I'm afraid strikes me as just another careerist party hack. Some links are below

Natascha Engel's website. I personally find her claim to be The Positive Choice For North East Derbyshire to be a bit of a joke as her election leaflets have been little else but negativity about the other parties.
http://www.nataschaengelmp.org.uk/

Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Engel

TheWorkForYou profile
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/natascha_engel/north_east_derbyshire

Guardian profile
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/person/8703/natascha-engel

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The MP for my constituency stood down

(Mark Oaten, of the embarrassing male prostitute episode ...), so there's no record for the candidates I have a choice of. I found a local paper site with 2 minute videos of the main 3 (there are UKIP and English Democrats standing too, but I know I'd never contemplate voting for them). The Tory is a bit annoying; the Labour guy seems reasonable (was a local councillor), but there's not a chance in hell of him winning (Labour got under 10% last time - this is one seat where the Lib Dems "Labour can't win here" graphs are actually fair comment), and Labour know this - they haven't bothered putting out any leaflets yet; and the Lib Dem is OK, if not particularly inspiring.

There's one debate between the candidates that I can find happening, on the environment, so I'm going to try to get in to that.

[T_i_B]

2. I'm also planning to attend a local debate

I'm not looking forward to it as what I've seen on the leaflets from the whole lot of them has been very unimpressive but I haven't been in this constituency long and I do want to make an informed choice.

I may try and get a question asked about recall elections myself. I've had correspondance with Natascha Engel on this subject and she opposes them. (she is also very slow reply to correspondance if she bothers replying at all) However, recall elections are now Labour policy and she's very much a party loyalist so it will be interesting to see if she has done a U-turn.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Well, my local environment debate was tonight

(they had to wrap it up on time, because everyone wanted to rush back home for the leader's debate).

The main 3 were pretty much as I expected - the Tory was a bit more human and reasonable than I expected, and he takes environmental problems seriously - At least as 'green' as Cameron, and probably more so (it has to be said it was obvious from the start that the audience was 'green' itself, and most people knew each other already from local environmental groups and so on, but he seemed genuine in what he said, rather than just putting it on for the night).

I felt a bit sorry for the Labour guy - he could point to trying to introduce measures about global warming to the city council back in 1989, but, as a permanent minority member, he had never got much attention paid to him. The Lib Dem guy was OK (had a tendency to go on rather long) - he got the one piece of spontaneous applause when he made a point about educating women in developing countries being the best way to stem population growth.

The UKIP guy chickened out, it seems - in the introductions the chairwoman read out, in which he was included, he called himself a climate change denier, so there was much laughter. The English Democrat described himself as 'on the fence', but managed to say relatively sane things anyway (his main theme was "you have to have public opinion with you to do any major changes in environmental policy", which is a fair point, if a bit of a cop-out). But he was nowhere near as mad as the EDs I've read online (he's an ex-policeman, FWIW).

So I think the Lib Dems have secured my vote, as was always likely. The candidate isn't going to be a future party leader - loyal backbencher or minor spokesman, more likely - but he's better than the Tory, and the Lib Dems are better than Labour at the leadership level.

[T_i_B]

11. Went to my local debate last night

I'm not impressed with any of the candidates to be honest. They were all too keen on simply reciting their manifestos Rather then engaging with the audience.

The UKIP candidate came off worst. His name is Bush and whilst he seems a nice enough guy his politics are as bad as his American namesake. The difference being that the American Bushes can think on their feet, unlike this chap who was almost totally reliant on simply reading straight from his parties manifesto.

The Labour MP Natascha Engel is a real waffler. She will not give a simple yes/no answer over a 5 minute rambling one that doesn't really answer the question. I think she was trying to bore the audience into voting Labour.

The Conservative candidate is a typical Tory boy. I found him unremarkable, not interested in doing anything for the worse off and he's quite obviously something of a careerist.

The Lib Dem candidate (called Bull, appropriately) is a doctor and has a doctor's manner. However, he also was too reliant on simply reciting his parties platform, which meant he really struggled when the question of business policies came up. I also felt that the Lib Dems are making a lot of promises on taxation and spending which they really can't keep.

I asked a question myself about recall elections. This is in all the parties manifestos but only the worst candidate (the UKIP one) supported it with any degree of sincerity. They others were all very unenthusiastic in supporting their parties manifestos. I get the impression that they would only vote to introduce recall elections with a 3 line whip. I personally would like to see a little more sincere support myself.

IMHO what this constituency really needs is a good strong independent candidate rather then the party lickspittles we have standing for election. As it is North East Derbyshire is going to get a rubbish MP whatever happens. :-(

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. Helen Goodman MP, Labour, Bishop Auckland

An ultraloyal Blairite who leaked damaging information against the Major government in 1996 and was rewarded with being parachuted into a safe Labour seat in 2005 (the female-only shortlists were meant to be a feminist act, but ended up being subverted by Blair to install right-wing Blairites).

She's defending a 10,000 majority (polling 50%), although she was tainted by the expenses scandal. Lib Dems beat the Tories narrowly into second place last time. A large swing to the Lib Dems and/or a collapse in the Labour vote could see a close race in this one.

Besides the big three, UKIP, BNP and the Liberal Party are standing. That's the Liberal Party segment which refused to join the Alliance merger of 1988.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

12. I will say this of the BNP candidate

he's Adam Walker who got busted recently for pretending to be a servicing soldier and being paraded by Nick Griffin while Walker was wearing desert fatigues. He may end up being prosecuted for impersonating an active serviceman.

Walker was a teacher at Sunnydale School, a comprehensive in Shildon Co. Durham. He was fired for using school PCs to post hate messages on far-right websites. The BNP made it a freedom of speech issue, although the rules regarding the use of school PCs stand for students and teachers alike.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Our Labour MP, Denis Murphy, is standing down

Sad, really. He's been on the periphery of the MPs allowances thing but I've known him a long time and he's a decent bloke. Haven't agreed with all his voting but he's always been available and ready to listen and you're not going to do a lot better in these Interesting Times.

His likely successor, the Labour Candidate, is Ian Lavery, Arthur Scargill's successor at what's left of the NUM. Ian, whom I also know well, has already been knocked for his Old Labour attitudes by the Murdoch press and Labour Regional Office did everything they could to block him but he's a local lad who has always maintained a presence in the constituency. Again, I don't agree with him on everything but he has my support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Lavery

The LibDem contender, Simon Reed, is IMHO a nasty piece of work, very much to the right of his party (like many of the local LibDems, he'd be a Tory if he lived elsewhere) and not terribly popular because of the slashing and burning of local facilities he's been supporting as part of the unpopular LibDem County Coumcil team. I doubt whether he'll be able to get in on Nick Clegg's coat-tails as his public face is the diametric opposite of everything Clegg claims to stand for.

The Green, Nick Best, is a lovely man but hasn't a hope in hell of making a dent here.

As ever, the Tories and UKIP are here to make the numbers up. BNP? You must be kidding ... There's an independent environmentalist, too, who will simply channel a few dozen votes from poor Nick, I fear.

The Skin

[non sociopath skin]

34. I was right. Ian Lavery aced it.

Tories and Lib Dems fell fairly flat hereabouts. The Lib Dems missed all their much-heralded targets, including Durham City where Nick Clegg seemed to have taken up residential status.

And - joy oh joy - the Tories failed to take Tynemouth which I felt sure would fall. And to add to it, the Tories lost the North Tyneside Council (for which I work). So now the Tory Mayor will have to work with NOC with Labour as the largest group.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

5. Evan Harris, Lib Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon

I like him and agree with most of his views and will vote for him again (anyway it's him or the Tory).



Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Harris


They Work For You:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/evan_harris/oxford_west_and_abingdon


Guardian profile:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/person/2239/evan-harris

Evan Harris' blog:

http://drevanharrismp.wordpress.com



Guardian summary of current and previous elections here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/constituency/1212/oxford-west-and-abingdon


The Tory candidate is Nicola Blackwood, a 30-year-old music graduate and activist in the Conservative Human Rights Group (contradiction in terms?), who probably won't win. Her campaign leaflets are interesting from the point of view of what the Tory Party obviously thinks might attract votes in this particular constituency: she emphasizes that the local NHS is her top priority; and her biography opens with the statement that she was born in Johannesburg, 'but moved to Oxford at just two months old after her father had angered the apartheid government by speaking out for the rights of the black community to proper healthcare'. (Good for daddy, but I'm still not voting Tory!)

The Labour candidate is Richard Stevens; he evidently doesn't think he has a snowball's chance in hell, as I still haven't received any leaflets from him. I have received one from the Green candidate, but the UKIP one is a future treat, no doubt!

[LeftishBrit]

31. Update: Blackwood won. Fuckity fuckity fuck.

[BolivarianHero]

6. If she was pro-Iraq...

You better not vote for her.

[T_i_B]

7. She wasn't in Parliament in 2003

The MP for North East Derbyshire back then was the excellent Harry Barnes, who voted against the Iraq war. As to the current MP? From Natascha Engel's Wikipedia page

Asked in an interview in 2005 "If you were an MP at the time, how did you vote on military action in Iraq?", Engel answered, "Against". After entering Parliament Engel opposed motions proposed by opposition parties calling for an independent inquiry on the Iraq war, supporting the Government's proposal for an inquiry after British troops left.

[ikri]

8. Frank Cook currently

He's been deselected by the local Labour party though & a local councillor named Alex Cunningham is standing as the Labour candidate. Cook rebelled reasonably often and since the neighbouring constituency is Blair's old Sedgefield constituency it was probably a little embarrassing to have such an old Labour lefty voting against Tony.

Cook claimed "that the Labour Party is no longer the party I joined in October 1950" following his deselection and he's now standing as an independent candidate.

Considering Labour's majority here is over 12000 it'd be extremely unlikely that we'll get anything other than another Labour MP, but Cook's status could see that majority reduced by a decent amount.

[Nihil]

9. Maria Miller (Conservative)

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/maria_miller/basingstoke

I fully expect she'll get in again this time as I think there
is only a Lib Dem and a Labour against her (i.e., no UKIP or
other split of the right vote) and both of the above are
basically non-entities so I can't see any dramatic changes
about to happen.

At least Miller has helped the community she (nominally) works
for and the fact that she replaced the blatant fascist who
preceded her means that the Tory vote will stay with her.

:shrug:

[Nihil]

24. No surprise there.

There was a UKIP candidate in the end but she didn't make
any difference to the situation:

Name            Party                   Votes     %     +/-
Maria Miller    Conservative            25,590  50.5   +11.7
John Shaw       Liberal Democrat        12,414  24.5   + 2.6
Funda Pepperell Labour                  10,327  20.4   -12.2
Stella Howell   UK Independence Party    2,076   4.1   + 1.9
Steve Saul      Basingstoke Common Man     247   0.5   + 0.5

Majority  13,176 (26.0%)
Turnout   50,654 (67.1%) (+6.2)

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Jenny Willott (Lib Dem, Cardiff Central)

She's pretty certain to be returned, 5500 majority at the last election (out of c. 35000 total votes cast in the constituency).

My wife will be voting Lib Dem at the election (I can't vote, not being a citizen just yet; if I could I'd be voting Lib Dem, as well).

[mwooldri]

14. Presently it's Anne Milton.

It's a re-run between her and Sue Doughty - Liberal Democrats.

I have a hunch that Anne will win and gain a bigger majority, thanks to Labour screwing around with the health care in the locality, threatening to shut down the biggest hospital in the area... Anne came out strongly against this - Sue did too but Anne was more visible because she was the MP at that time. Also a factor against Sue is that she is for re-developing a local airfield into affordable sustainable housing and there's a good number of people (definitely with money) who are saying it'll increase traffic and pollution and be a drain on resources... and managed to put forward a successful argument against this "new village" being built. So that's ammunition against her. Plus if Labour are doing badly and the Conservatives who thought Labour were doing OK in 2001 held their nose and voted Lib Dem because they didn't like the Tory leadership at that time are more likely to swing behind Anne.

Put it like this: if my sister was seriously considering voting Conservative in this election, then there's something wrong: I kind of explained my hatred towards the Tories to her in the past and I can't bring myself to ever vote Tory.... I know my dad is favourable towards the Lib Dems because they approached him to ask to stand as a candidate for parish council... he declined because he perceived a conflict of interest in raising money for a charity which he is passionate about, and he could not see himself having the time - but to be asked by the local Lib Dem party to run in my eyes is pretty good.

[Lord Tredegars Macaw]

15. Paul Flynn (Newport West)

He should be quite safe. He has a good local reputation and has proved himself, over many years, to be an independent, outspoken voice on the Labour backbenches.

[non sociopath skin]

17. I have to admit that your moniker moved me to Wikipedia research, LTM !

I knew nothing of Lord Tredegar or his Buddies, in spite of my dad's family being from Risca.

A gap in my knowledge I need to plug. Are there any books about him?

The Skin

[Lord Tredegars Macaw]

21. Stay tuned

Should be a biography of Lord Tredegar coming out this autumn.

He was an extraordinary eccentric: a black magic practitioner, papal chamberlain, poet, bird tamer, menagerie owner, MI8 agent, socialite, and many other things besides, living just down the road from Risca at Tredegar House.

To keep up with the thread's theme - Evan Morgan (before he became Lord Tredegar) was offered his pick of safe Tory seats for the 1929 General Election. Typically he chose to contest one of the toughest. He stood against the future prime minister Clement Attlee for Limehouse! Quite what the dockers made of him is anyone's guess. He would knock on doors with a mynar bird on his arm that was trained to say 'Vote Morgan'. The Liberal candidate hated him, but he often whisked the Communist candidate off to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant for cocktails!

Makes the current campaign seem rather dull.....

[Harry Perkins MP]

16. David Lammy

Mine is David Lammy. A truly terrible Blarite careerist. I'll be voting Green. Stuff the nonesense about letting the Tories in.... HE IS A TORY!

[miscsoc]

23. I find David Lammy intensely annoying

If he could lose his seat to the conservatives hold your nose and vote for the bastard, though.

[D-Notice]

18. George Galloway

... but he's moving to fight the constituency next door (Poplar & Limehouse)

[T_i_B]

19. Which begs the question...

Who's standing in Bethnal Green this time around?

[dipsydoodle]

26. Well he sure didn't win Poplar & Limehouse

Political Party

Vote Share %

Labour
40.0
Conservative
27.1
Respect-Unity Coalition
17.5
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/d56.stm

Result not expected for Bethnal Green until 11.30 this morning.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Worse than Respect did in the nominal 2005 count

Galloway's personal usefulness has finished.

[dipsydoodle]

28. Personally

I never could stand him. He's an opportunist and I thought it was tragic when he beat Una King. Popular and Limehouse is a tinder box and I'm pleased Labour took it.

[T_i_B]

29. Could never stomach Oona King either

Horrible Blairbot.

That said, maybe if Galloway hadn't had such a terrible record as Bethnal Green MP he would have done a lot better this time around?

[dipsydoodle]

30. Thanks for correcting

Oona's spelling for me. :)

[Mr Creosote]

20. Andrew Lansley

Ho Hum.

[miscsoc]

22. Menzies Campbell (Lib Dem, NE Fife)

A good man, if a bit conservative for my liking. Promoted a lot of those Orange Book types. I won't forget his stance on Iraq, though.

I'd vote for him, but I can't be bothered going home from Edinburgh to do so since it's a safe seat. Tories a distant second.

[dipsydoodle]

25. Richard Harrington - Conservative

Conservative parliamentary candidate Richard Harrington has been elected to represent the people of Watford.

Mr Harrington, whose victory was greeted by rapturous cheering at this morning’s heavily delayed count inside the Colosseum, ousted incumbent Labour MP Claire Ward, who was beaten into third place by Liberal Democrat rival Sal Brinton.

The results recorded by the three main party candidates, based on a turnout of 68.55 per cent, were as follows:

* Richard Harrington (Conservative): 19,291
* Sal Brinton (Liberal Democrat): 17,866
* Claire Ward (Labour): 14,750

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/8152994.Harrington_wins_Watford/

I'm really surprised - I thought Sal Brinton would take it.

[mrfrapp]

32. John Pugh

The excellent John Pugh of the Liberal Democrats retained his seat in Southport with a 2.2% swing away from the Tories. Although there was little doubt he would retain his seat the increased majority is a little surprising because the Tory candidate, Brenda Porter, has been a very popular and very effective local councilor. A head scratcher for the local Conservative party for sure.

All things considered, a good night for the people of Sunny Southport.

[Liberal Elitist]

33. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a 41 yr old tory still looked after by his nanny!

I kid you not - Dan Norris, my hardworking Labour MP, has been beaten by a tory who thinks it's normal to have a nanny{

"I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal"

Asked if it was wise to travel by Mercedes in a Labour area (Wrekin 2001) he said: “I thought I’d better not bring the Bentley”

He was turned down as a candidate by Kensignton & Chelsea tories because he was too posh...

[LeftishBrit]

35. Wow

Reminds me of 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator', sequel to 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', where the President of the United States is an idiot, still looked after by his elderly nanny whom he has made Vice-President!

What is it about the Rees-Mogg family? Jacob's little sister Annunziata tried to get elected in Somerset and Frome (where friends of mine live) but was fortunately seen off by the LibDem MP. Wonder if she has a nanny too!

[D-Notice]

36. Mine's now

Rushanana Ali (Bethnal Green & Bow; Labour) - 1st female Bangladeshi MP