Well despite a lot of tramping around the streets we didn’t hold on to the Babergh seat that recently came vacant in Great Cornard. We came second, quite well ahead of the Liberal Democrats who beat UKIP by a good margin.
The victor was the Labour candidate, Tony Bavington, who held the Babergh seat some years ago. I hope that rumours of a poor attendance record in the past prove to be untrue. His win means that Babergh will no longer be a Labour free zone which will make life even more interesting politically than it is currently. In his acceptance speech, Bavington said that his win was due to ‘putting New Labour behind him’, so expect some red blooded socialism anytime soon!
I am sorry that we were unable to do better since Martin Fryer, the candidate, is a good bloke who worked very hard during the campaign. In fact a lot of people turned out to help (a selection in the picture above). The reception on the doorstep was better than the result implies but this may be due to the natural courtesy of the people of Great Cornard who were too polite to tell us where to go!
I suppose that it is understandable that the political scene changes with a change of Government. Also last time it was a straight fight between Labour and Conservative. On this occasion despite the fact that the swing to Labour was only 3 percent, the presence of other parties in the mix meant that the dynamics were very different. It is also difficult to tell to what degree local factors came into play.
Anyway, we all live to fight another day!
Tory supporters Adrian Osborne and Peter Burgoyne litter picking while on the campaign trail.
