In brief:
General election:
Tory Mark Francois was re-elected by a landslide to parliament for Rayleigh and Wickford, with over 30,000 votes.
Lib Dem Susan Gaszczak narrowly beat Labour to win 2nd place.
The BNP came sixth and lost their deposit.
Mark Gino Francois The Conservative Party Candidate 30257
Susan Gaszczak Liberal Democrats 7919
Mike Le-Surf The Labour Party Candidate 7577
John Hayter English Democrats 2219
Tino Callaghan UK Independence Party 2211
Antony William Evennett British National Party 2160
In Rochford and Southend East James Duddridge won for the Conservatives:
James DUDDRIDGE Con 19,509 Elected
Kevin BONAVIA Lab 8,459
Graham LONGLEY Lib Dem 8,084
James MOYIES UKIP 2,405
Geoff STROBRIDGE BNP 1,856
Andrew VAUGHAN Green 707
Anthony CHYTRY Ind 611
Council Elections:
All other 6 wards had Tory holds.
So good results for the Lib Dems everywhere we stood, a great day for John Mason and Michael Hoy, and it looks like the English Democrats and especially the BNP are on the wane.
MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR SUPPORT!
Full results are here.
Congrats Chris on the result, well done and thoroughly deserved
Good result John. Well done
…. and Michael too. Thank goodness we’ve got 1 less Conservative representing Hullbridge who doesn’t actually live in their parish.
Agree the right wing parties didnot do well but a new and dynamic leader with a clear well articulated message could see a bigger threat than ever. Well done to Margeret Hodge in Barking not only winning but standing firm against BNP.
Personally speaking, I was appalled at the way many of the Conservative candidates conducted themselves at the count yesterday. Not all the participants did act in this way but those that did disgrace themselves did their party a great deal of harm. It was as if the independent councillors or those aligned to smaller parties, had no right to win. The pompousness and smugness of it all was breathtaking. There were signs yesterday that the residents of Rochford District are beginning to see how out of touch the Tory party really is. We know now that we should not say or write anything that is in conflict with Conservative beliefs or for that matter, speak out against housing development! If there is a code of conduct for behaving while attending the count, I would have lost count at the number of times the Conservatives would have breached it.
I would like to thank the residents of Central Ward who more than doubled my votes from two years ago and gave the Conservatives a wake up call in the process.
According to The Electoral Commission “Counting agents and all others present should conduct themselves in a polite and courteous manner when representing their party or individual candidate.”
Well there were discourteous remarks and may I say some tirades by the Conservative representatives. My own view.
Take a look at the Echo Web Site and the comments added by a reader !!
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local_news/rayleigh/8154310.Tories_hold_on_to_power_in_Rochford/?ref=rss
And he was not the only one
Well, he was reacting, I think, to another Conservative Councillor thanking the BNP for standing….
Congratulations to both Chris’s for holding against the Tories – A sure sign that locally all your hard work is greatly appreciated. Well done to all the other Lib Dem candidates. Keep up the great work.
I have to say that as far as I could see the two ‘younger guys’ standing for the Tories in West Rayleigh, Nick and Aron , behaved liked real gentlemen. (And Nick didn’t have the best of days at the polling station.) I hope Hilton is proud of them.
I am. You will not be surprised Chris to learn that you are likely to see a lot more of them in future elections.
Chris, I did say not all the Conservatives in the Mill were out of order, some behaved according to the code of conduct that John alluded to but certainly the ones who should know better let themselves down. There were people there who were less than impressed.
Mike, I know exactly what you are saying.
For example, when I was on the rostrum mentioning the problems in West Rayleigh, the lady councillor and portfolio holder who mimed playing a violin as if to say “Am I Bothered?” did not impress me ….. and she wouldn’t have impressed our residents either.
Chris, the one thing I can say is that Shirley, who is not at all political was appalled at what was going on and the well known lady councillor, who was standing next to us appeared to be shouting at you as well. By the way, when I went to cast my vote at my local polling booth, the Conservative in the polling station actually wished me good luck. That is what I would call a Conservative with a decent sense of fairplay. This person should be commended, especially as some of those colleagues let her down on Friday.
By the way was this the same person who did not bother to come to the Grange when we had the meeting about the overdevelopment of Rayleigh / Rawreth?
No….
I’d just like to add my congratulations to Michael Hoy. But I do not actually know who he is. Is he well known in Hullbridge? Can someone fill me in?
As those who attended will know already, and as The Returning Officer confirmed to me yesterday, he read out my letter explaining, as a matter of courtesy, why I had, personally, decided not to attend the Count.
But I understand that notwithstanding the reasons being read out there was still further comment.
As I see it the primary reason for admitting candidates and count agents to the proceedings is to scrutinise the Count as part of a transparent democratic process.
to explain my comment above a little further The Electoral Commission provides a template to Returning Officers in which I believe that they are required to announce “Counting agents and all others present should conduct themselves in a polite and courteous manner when representing their party or individual candidate.”
Davie, look at http://mikehullbridge.wordpress.com/about/
Talk about a load of despot’s you are obviously very sad that you didnt gain any seats, perhaps it is time for a new Lib Dem leader on Rochford Council.
I think there should be a coalition as Rochford should reflect national arrangements. So the Lib Dem leader should be deputy chairman and others included as cabinet post holders. Have ofered Rayleigh town council a coalition. Terms – that jammy dodgers be made available at all meetings with chocolate digestives to be phased in by the end of the year.
Understand that the Conservatives are offering you coalition terms Bruce – you get free beer in the Con Club on Thursdays in return for cooking Mark Francois’ Sunday dinner alternate weekends! 🙂
Who is doing the other S’unday? Could
Hilton as’k Mark if bean’s on toas’t is adequate for a S’unday lunch a’s thi’s i’s the limit of my culinary s’kills’. From Bruce aka the subtle apostrophe King.
If you combine both parties in a new name you could end up with “CONDEM” !!!!
Bruce,
if I’m not allowed the odd bit of Latin on here, then you’re not allowed aberrant apostrophes, OK? Unless of course that’s a coalition policy…
Ali
I was told that if you mix blue and orange you get BROWN!!!
Alison, I think the new coalition government will allow a bit of Latin from time to time…..
Alison how about a nice Latin motto for the new Government.
Praedicatio populus, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Alison; bad use of apostrophe and confusion between plural and possessive are a bee in my bonnet, ask Town Clerk for confirmation of my pedantry. Then note coment is not a reflection on your Latin but the poor punctuation of someone else.
= “Preaching to the public, for ever and ever” ???
Motto for new government? Being A Trekkie it would have to be:
“ad eundum quo nemo ante iit”
Ali
praedicatio=condemning (read Con-Dem-ing!!!)
in saecula saeculorum=until the age of ages (=fixed term parliament with a double-lock!?!)