Oliver Letwin, Conservative MP for West Dorset (again). Photograph by Geoff Moore, Dorset Media Service.
SO THE Conservatives were relieved and non-Conservatives grieved as Oliver Letwin was re-elected as West Dorset’s MP with an increased majority.
Dr Letwin got 27,287 votes, his main opponent – the Liberal Democrat Dr Sue Farrant – 23,364.
That means Dr Letwin’s majority is now 3,923 (it was 2,461 in 2005).
The figure’s worth analysing for a moment in relation to the tactical voting campaign urged in West Dorset by the Liberal Democrats and by figures like David Partridge of the Bridport Peace & Justice Group. Vote Labour, Get Tory was the message.
So how many did vote for Dr Steve Bick of Labour? 3,815.
So even if every single Labour voter had switched to the Lib-Dems Dr Letwin would still have won.
He put his success down to his track record as an MP since 1997.
In his victory speech at the Thomas Hardye Leisure Centre in Dorchester, Dr Letwin said: “On the doorstep the biggest issue, regardless of party politics, was that most of the electorate realised that over 13 years I have been a competent constituency MP.”
Dr Letwin then waited to be interviewed live on TV, but London kept going to other parts of the country, and so he left for London – safe now to play his part in the Conservatives’ deliberations over what to do in the almost-certain event of a hung Parliament.
UKIP’s Oliver Chisholm got 2,196 votes, Susan Greene (Green Party) received 675.
The total number of votes cast was 57,334. The turnout was 74.6%, down from 76.4% in 2005 (which was then the highest in the country).
Dr Farrant congratulated Dr Letwin, but West Dorset was the Liberal Democrats’ target seat number 14, and many Conservatives and Lib Dems alike expected the contest to be closer. One leading Tory activist told me that that he’d thought Dr Letwin’s majority could be cut to just 150.
Dorchester Lib Dem Stella Jones, sounding bemused, said: “The Tories have done nothing in West Dorset during this campaign.”
The Liberal Democrats made an issue of West Dorset District Council’s plans to spend £10.7 million on a new HQ in Dorchester, and Dr Farrant vowed that her party’s campaign against this scheme would continue.
Editor’s Note: Many thanks for the video to Alastair Nisbet.
As for a hung Parliament, you only have to go to Bridport
As a ‘grieved Non Tory’ and supporter of the Lewesdon Hill party decked out in bluebell blue and beech green why not elect William Crowe to represent West Dorset?
He was, after all, vicar of Stoke Abbot and a good poet (c.1788) and the top of Lewesdon Hill would make a good polling station for all those that could reach its lofty leafy summit. Mount Parnassus of West Dorset and marvellous views to be had of the rolling countryside. None of those late night queues.
Then again you could have the Good Cider Party based in Powerstock, campaigning for better cider nationally and for juice contents to be displayed on the labels, in an attempt to bring the big cider firms under some kind of control.
Then again you could have an alliance with the New Lerret Party which has a very good following on Chesil beach.
Three party politics in a nutshell and, as for a hung parliament, you only have to go to Bridport… where they used to make the Bridport dagger. Why go to London??