The Candidates’ Blog: How Did They Do?

13th May, 2010 by Webmaster

Emily Benn, Labour

It turned out not to be a good night for Emily, as East Worthing and Shoreham turned out to be an easy Conservative hold at the election. While the Conservatives increased their vote by almost 4,000, the Liberal Democrats gained 1,000 more votes than in 2005 and forced their way past Labour into second place. Things got worse for Emily as her share of the vote dropped from 25% to just 17%, dropping into third place and reflecting the Labour party’s shaky performance across the country. And of course, Labour have lost control of the Government – but don’t worry, Emily, being in opposition is much easier!

Nick Varley, Conservatives

David Cameron has finally got to Number 10, and while Nick won’t be part of the new government he put in a good performance in the City of Durham seat. Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods held on to continue being the area’s MP, but Nick increased the Conservatives’ vote by 4%, polling 6,146 votes in all. The North East of England is still a difficult area for the Conservatives and time will tell just how much Nick can do to change that.

Adrian Ramsay, Green

Adrian writes: Whilst I’m disappointed not to have won the Norwich South seat, I’m very pleased
at the big increase in the Greens’ vote share here, which has more than doubled
since the previous General Election. The Lib Dems won the seat, but didn’t increase their vote by much, while the Green Party share increased by 7.5%. Norwich South
produced the second highest Green Party vote anywhere in the country, so it’s seen as the
constituency most likely to produce the next Green MP. It’s a
fantastic national breakthrough to see Caroline Lucas elected as the first
Green MP in Brighton. It is important to have an ethical voice in Parliament to
press for a fairer society, opposing cuts in public services
and challenging the growing gap between rich and poor. Now that the Green
Party has its first seat, and the credibility which goes with it, we’ll be
campaigning hard to build on that next time.

Jamie Saddler, Liberal Democrats

There’s no denying it wasn’t a great result for Jamie in Wirral South. Labour held on to the seat by the skin of their teeth, winning with a majority of just 531 votes. But it was the Conservatives in second place, and their late surge, cutting Labour’s majority by more than 3,000, didn’t do Jamie any favours at all. The Conservatives took a large number of votes from the Lib Dems, and Jamie’s vote fell by 5% since the last election. Now of course, the Lib Dems have their first ever chance to make decisions in the British government, so while the election is Wirral South was disappointing for Jamie, the party is breaking new ground this year.

Harry Aldridge, UKIP

Harry writes: An
exhausting night – Horsham finally declared the result around 6am, to everyone’s
relief. I was very happy with an increase of 287 votes from 2,552 to
2,839. Reaching a 5.1% vote share means I retained my
deposit – a first for UKIP in Horsham, and our best result yet here. There was a
jump in voter turnout by 5.5%, a swing towards the Conservatives, and 8 candidates in Horsham, up from 4 in 2005,
so our result was very respectable! Natonally, UKIP fell slightly short of our 1 million vote target, getting
920,000, which shows some solid progress from our 603,000 in 2005. While it could’ve gone better, I’m very happy with our result overall.

Well done to all our bloggers for the campaigns they fought, and for finding the time to write for us amid all the chaos of competing for a seat in Parliament. We’ve found some of the brightest young politicians in the UK, and we’ll be keeping an eye on them in future, to see whether one day they make it to the famous green benches.

This is my last entry as editor of the Catch21 blog, so thanks everyone for the brilliant pieces you’ve submitted and thanks for reading! Keep checking back for more great content at Catch21.