How will Woking vote ?

Well here's a turn up for the books, the local faithful Lib Dem "Winning here" poster site is sporting a Labour poster. The coalition has clearly been a bit too much for at least one  Woking former Lib Dem voter.

I wonder how wide spread their problem is ?

Each party has it problems in Woking this time round.

There have been warnings in the press on electoral fraud, and I hear that (all) parties have been called by the returning officer to be warned on the subject.

Labour have lost all their councillors in Woking and will be looking to claw some ground back, and perhaps even get to the balance of power position.

The Conservatives are looking to extend their recent period in overall control, and on paper should have a good chance especially given the 0% town council tax rise ( but the unhelpful Surrey (also under Conservative control) large rise completely blows this out of the water ), however that's before you factor in the disillusionment with the modernising Cameron Conservatives. Woking has strong Christian and Muslim voting constituencies and Cameron's attack on marriage is going down like a bucket of cold sick here. Apparently it looks like it will be hard to get the vote out, and even if they do can they be sure that X isn't going in the UKIP box in the privacy of the ballot booth ?

The Lib Dems have the problem of being in coalition nationally, but relying on squeezing the Labour vote as the party of the left locally. Their tactics have been to be more positive this year, trying to take credit for things that have happened, rather than the usual range of Tory phobic attacks. How will that work ? Is the vote squeeze over ? ( I know some people who think there are more Labour supporters in Woking tactically voting Lib Dem than Lib Dem supporters, so there could be a dramatic unwinding. However the record shows that where the Lib Dems have high voting support it holds up - regardless of the national picture. )

For UKIP the aim will be to carry on the steady increase in local votes, potentially altering outcomes which will at least put the other parties under pressure.

What will today bring in Woking ? About the only thing I can predict confidently now is rain !

Woking general election results 2010

Rob Burberry UKIP 1997
Jonathan Lord Conservative 26551
Tom Millar Labour 4246
Julie Roxburgh Peace party 204
Rosie Sharpley Lib Dems 19744
Ruth Temple Magna Carta 44

Its a good result for the Conservatives and for Jonathan Lord after a lot of hard work on the ground over the last few weeks.

Full details here

Right that's it I'm off to bed and I hope someone's figured out who's running the country by the time I wake up.

Update: In case your interested here's the Woking result being announced.



If your looking for the local election results for Woking borough they are here. These results will officially put the council in no overall control.

A bar chart you can believe in !

Its election time, which means the Lib Dems will be out playing their usual tricks and of course to ubicutous dogey bar chart.

Well this year the local Woking Conservatives have poked fun back at the hobbiests as you can see below.If you want Brown Out - vote Conservative. Any Lib Dems might keep Brown in power !

H/T to the Conservative leaflet that just dropped through my door.

Results from first round at Woking

And the result is Jonathan Lord with more than 50% of the vote. ( Which means he will be the new Conservative Candidtae for Woking, subject to formal adoption by the constituency party ).

Congratulations Jonathan.

Sorry the picture's a bit blurred - HTC Hero not too good in poor light !

The room was however packed for a very successful event.Further And a slightly better picture of the chairman ! The HG Wells centre was packed.


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Voted for

Voted for Jonathan Lord.

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About to vote

Lynne Hack clearly has much experience and good Conservative instincts.

Peter Lord was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of presentation and confidence. I have no doubt he will become an MP.

But who to choose ?

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Woking primary

We've had the first two candidates up. Stephen Phillips was very very competent, but you'd expect that of a QC.

Fiona Kemp very passionate.

I'm not going to say anything negative about the candidates as they could all become our candidate, but I will tell you who I vote for !

Right now for the second half.

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Off to the Woking open primary tonight

I have to say I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

Anyone else going along ? Tickets were apparently 'sold out' on Tuesday.

Will recognisable Lib Dem supporters turn up and try to vote for the weakest candidate ?

The four candidates are described as follows below (lifted from the Woking Conservtaive Web site H/T to Ron ) .

PS Does anyone have any news reports, newspaper articles about any of them etc ( ie stuff other than anon comments about them being wonderful people placed by the candidates mothers and best friends ) ? It would be nice to know a bit more about them all.

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Dr Lynne Hack

Born in Surrey and lives here with her husband and family. She is a long standing Borough and County Councillor. Lynne has worked in hospitals as a cancer research scientist and lecturer for over 20 years, including 10 years at the Royal Marsden.

Dr Fiona Kemp

A GP with 20 years front-line experience of the NHS who has lived and worked in Surrey for many years. She was a hospital doctor in the Breast Cancer Unit of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford and obtained a degree in Human Biology at the University of Surrey prior to entering General Practice.

Jonathan Lord

Chairman of Guildford Conservative Association and since June 2009 a Surrey County Councillor. He has a background in media, communications and marketing and is currently a Marketing Consultant helping small and medium size enterprises succeed in the current difficult economic climate.

Stephen Phillips

Grew up on the Goldsworth Park Estate in Woking before reading Law at Oxford. After a short stint in the Welsh Guards and attending Sandhurst he was called to the Bar in 1993 and appointed a QC in 2009. He is Chair of the Governors of the only sign-bilingual school in Britain.

Interesting results in Woking

The Conservatives have taken back Horsell from the Lib Dems, and held the division I live in St John's and Brookwood in a close result ( with UKIP syphoning of a considerable amount of the vote ).

The Lib Dems have won Woking central from the Conservatives, which will please them. The UKIP vote, if it originated from Conservative support, considerably weakened the Conservative vote, but the Lib Dems would have defeated both Conservatives and UKIP vote.

The interesting pattern here is a strengthening UKIP vote, which appears to be at the expense of the Conservatives. This will give the Lib Dems hope.

( Results from Surrey CC are coming in here ).

Update:

I note the Lib Dems have won Woking south - with what looks like a squeeze on the Labour vote and UKIP squeezing the Conservative vote.

So vote UKIP - get Federalist Lib Dems ....

The choice in Woking's local elections on Thurs

Woking in Surrey elects councillors every year. Last year the Conservatives at last gained a majority on the borough council for the first time in 12 years, with a effective campaign on council tax rates.

This of course has piled the pressure on for their first years performance. The result ? A zero % tax rise for the borough component of the council tax. ( If only all politicians kept their promises so effectively ).

But the Lib Dems are campaigning to break back in. They have bemoaned almost every attempt to control costs made by the Conservatives. The local free papers wouldn't be the same without quotes from a Lib Dem councillor (dig deeper and find out who owns the local papers if you want to know why .....).

They have taken a more ruthless approach to candidate selection for Knaphill - bringing in an outsider who lives a quite some distance from the ward. Lib Dem groupies have been dragged in from far away to give the impression of local activity. There is a great deal of scepticism about some of the campaigning techniques the desperate Lib Dems are employing this year.

I would also remind people that the Lib Dems have been, and still are as far as I know, in favour of abolishing Surrey - so they can have a little fiefdom in Woking to play with. ( Of course thats totally impractical, but it doesn't stop the political hobbyist and careerists in the Lib Dems ).

The decision, for those who have it (my ward has no election), on Thurs is this:

Vote Conservative: Get good services run knowing its your money that's being spent ( ie high quality good value ).
Vote FibLib Dem: Get a muddle - spending more money and raising council tax, but not getting good value for money - much like Gordon Brown's Labour party really.

Think about it ....

Woking council set zero percent council tax rise

First the good news - Woking borough council have set a 0% council tax rise for the next year.

That's a cut in real terms !

The Conservative group that won control last year has made this a key priority of their first year.

Well done !