Fylde's New MP
 Readers won't be at all surprised at the result of the Fylde Parliamentary Constituency Election Result.
As expected, Conservative Mark Menzies won a convincing
majority. It would have been amazing had this not been the case.
As we have said before, he put a terrific amount of effort into his campaign, and he has already become a familiar face to many Fylde residents. He was always going to win.
Just imagine what this result would have been if the Conservatives had chosen John Coombes as their candidate. His policies have been so unpopular locally that we think he could easily have lost this seat for them. The full result was:
| Name |
Votes |
Percent |
2005
Result |
2001
Result |
| Menzies, Mark (Con) |
22,826 |
52.2% |
24,287 |
23,383 |
| Winlow, Bill (Lib Dem) |
9,641 |
22.1% |
7,748 |
6,599 |
| Robinson, Liam (Lab) |
8,624 |
19.7% |
11,828 |
13,773 |
| Bleeker Martin (UKIP) |
1,945 |
4.5% |
|
982 |
| Mitchell Philip (Green) |
654 |
1.5% |
|
|
| Majority |
13,185 |
|
12,459 |
9,610 |
Mark Menzies has increased the majority from last time, and Bill Winlow will take quite some pride in displacing Labour to third place We offer commiserations to those that tried but didn't make it.
To us it seemed a clean and civil contest, with effort and respect in equal measure between the candidates. We hope everyone felt that way. That's not to say there were not differences between them - there clearly were, as we showed in
'Runners and Riders MP'
But now the decision is made. We're convinced we have a good MP in Mark Menzies and we look forward to following his Parliamentary career. Of course, the more difficult thing now, is sorting out what happens at Westminster.......
HYNDBURN RESULT
So what happened in Hyndburn....
.....where Princess Karen was standing?
The result was:
| Name |
Votes |
Percent |
| Graham Jones (Lab) |
17,531 |
41.1% |
| Karen Buckley (Con) |
14,441 |
33.8% |
| Andrew Rankine (Lib Dem) |
5,033 |
11.8% |
| David Shapcott (BNP) |
2,137 |
5.0 % |
| Granville Barker (UKIP) |
1,481 |
3.5% |
| Kevin Logan (CPA) |
795 |
1.9% |
| Kerry Gormley (Green) |
463 |
1.1% |
| Christopher Reid (Eng Dem) |
413 |
1.0 % |
| Craig Hall (Ind) |
378 |
0.9% |
So Princess Karen returns to Fylde.
We now expect her to contest the Fylde Conservative Group Leadership election on Monday 10th - which, coincidentally, is also the date of a Special Fylde Council Meeting to consider the Commissar's final decision to join the Blackpool Fylde and
Wyre Economic Development Company, and at which, it is expected that the new Leader of Fylde Council will be declared or elected. We'll bring you what happens..... |
Blackpool South
In the near neighbouring seat of Blackpool South (where we have been watching the first time candidate Dr SiThu Tun standing as the candidate for the new Integrity UK party)
we were able to see the count take place first hand. Gordon Marsden was the sitting MP and he was getting a mixed response during the campaign.
Things were clearly close, as an edgy Gordon Marsden flitted around the room watching the ballot papers as they were first counted to give the number to tally to, then separated into candidate piles by a small army of about 50 counters fed by
supervisors opening and bringing new ballot boxes, then counted to give the results for each sorted pile, and tallied per candidate before the totals were cross checked with the original number counted. As piles and polling stations were completed the
tellers were putting coloured blocks on a board to show progress. Red and blue were neck and neck for quite a while, then red just edged ahead.
The Conservative Candidate, Ron Bell, was implicated in the Kensington donations scandal and it could well be that this cost him votes and let Gordon Marsden retain his seat. The Lib Dems dropped their share of the vote very slightly on last time. Both the BNP and UKIP marginally increased
their share of the vote, so whilst a glum Hamish Howitt was dragging his feet around the hall, he perhaps ought to have taken some comfort from the fact that he did better than some people might have thought he would. And what of Dr Tun and Integrity UK? Well, we're sure both were
disappointed with the result.
Dr Tun was very
subdued.
In reality he should not be too dejected. In Preston, the Christian Party got 272 votes, and an Independent Candidate only 108. In Ribble Valley, and Independent got 232. In Pendle, the Christian party got 141 and in Blackburn, two independents
standing there got 238 and 173 respectively. So it seems that a couple of hundred votes is par for the course for new independents. In reality, on 1 March this year, Integrity UK was launched as a brand new party with no policies and no whips. Since then have selected Dr Tun as their candidate
for Blackpool South, they produced the literature, had it printed, and sent an election leaflet posted to all households in
Blackpool South, and he has canvassed hundreds of people.
That was quite an incredible achievement in just over eight weeks, and it is a very creditable performance irrespective of the numeric result.
We announced the Integrity's formation in Integrity UK Launched
and you can find out more about the party there. The full result for Blackpool South was:
| Name |
Votes |
Percent |
| Marsden Gordon (Lab) |
14,449 |
41.1% |
| Ron Bell (Con) |
12,597 |
35,8% |
| Doreen Holt (Lib Dem) |
5,082 |
14.4% |
| Roy Goodwin (BNP) |
1,482 |
4.2% |
| Hamish Howitt (UKIP) |
1,352 |
3.8% |
| SiThu Tun (Int.UK) |
230 |
0.7 |
The turnout was 53%Dated: 6 and 7 May 2010  |
