UCL Conservative Society

The results of the by election are as follows:

Candidate Party Votes cast

Richard James Merrin Conservative 1180
Alex Goodman Green 1482
Michael Nicolaides Labour 1185
Henry William Windle Potts Liberal Democrat 633

Alex Goodman was duly elected borough councillor for Highgate ward. The voter turnout was 56.47%.

I have just discovered our former member, and now Cllr, Stuart Davenport has setup a website for his ward. He also has started blogging on his own here.

Nice to see him working hard!

I completely forgot to update everyone about the council results in Mid-Sussex. Afer our amazing campaign day for our Life President, Nicholas Soames, (reported here) we seem to have made a difference.

Conservatives gained 5 extra councillors to take the total to 30, which means that we have kept control of the council!

Well done everyone!

We now have 311 out 312 councils declared (with the last coming soon) and we have gone over the 900 gain mark!!

A gain so far of 904 councillors and 38 councils, against Labour’s 500 loses and the Lib Dems 246 loses.

What brilliant results!

UPDATE: Final result now in with us winning Warick and taking in total 39 councils (gain) and 911 councillors (gain)!

Conservative Home have this map.

Theresa May has compiled a list of 12 stories here that the Government tried to bury under the election coverage.

We are still waiting for the last two councils to announce their results, but we currently have a gain of 885 councillors and 38 councils! I have tried to compile a list of the biggest swings to us (I have only included results against the other 2 Parties):

Top 5:

Bournemouth - took 23 seats from Lib Dems to take over control
Waverly - took 24 seats from Lib Dems to take control
South Norfolk - took 20 seats from the Lib Dems to take control
South Ribble - took 9 Labour and 14 Lib Dems to take control
North Somerset - took 15 Lib Dems and 6 Labour to take control

Others:

Blackpool - took 12 seats from Labour to take over control
East Riding of Yorkshire - took 10 from Labour and 5 from Lib Dems to take control
Forest of Dean - took 7 from Labour and 2 from Lib Dems to take control
Gedling - took 11 from Labour to take control
Gravesham - took 7 from Labour to take control
Harborough - took 7 from Lib Dems and 1 from Labour to take control

Herefordshire - took 7 from Lib Dems and 2 from Labour to take control
High Peak - took 9 from Labour and 2 from the Lib Dems to take control
Malvern Hills - took 13 seats from Lib Dems to take control
North Somerset - took 15 Lib Dems and 6 Labour to take control
North West Leicestershire - took 16 seats from Labour to take control
North Wiltshire - took 9 from Lib Dems to take control
Windsor & Maidenhead Royal - took 18 Lib Dems to take control

Not really sure how the Lib Dems can call this “a mixed bunch”

UPDATE: the two remaining councils (Breckland & Warwick) have delayed there counts till Tuesday because of the bank holiday.

UPDATE: breaking that 800 gain mark, for councillors, now means that we have the largest number of Tory councillors since 1978 - can anyone remember what happened a year later in 1979?

The last few days have been extremely exciting politically and I thought I would just share my views both on Cllr Davenport’s count, and on the election as a whole.

Being the keen bean I am, I was delighted to be invited to the count by Stuart, I had never attended such an event before, and I was intrigued as to how the proceedings would go. Though Stuart had been assured a number of times (by Tories I may add) that he would win, I remained sceptical on the basis that elections give shock results. The morning dawned bright and early, and unusually the count began at 9:30. Agonisingly, Dunchurch and Knightlow is not only big in population when compared to other wards, but also had a much higher turnout, 54% which meant that ours was the last ward to declare the result. There was a genuine buzz about the place, and activity was mainly focussed towards two marginals which as it turned out, we won. Much attention was rightly given to Stuart, because of his age and the highly negative campaign run by Cllr Ron Ravenhall, who appears to have shot himself in the foot.

Watching the papers being emptied from the boxes gave a real feeling of aprehension, especially as the early indications were that the race was far closer than was predicted. It even seemed at one point that for every vote Stuart picked up there were two for the libdems. Once the votes had begun to be counted for real it became apparant that we were in the lead, and by the end we were almost certain of victory. By the time the annoncement arrived, the Conservatives already knew they had won the council, with three seats gained overall. It could have been even better, with one Tory candidate losing by 17 votes! The announcement brought nerves and then brilliant scenes when Stuart became Cllr Stuart. It seemed everyone in the room, even some opposition parties were rooting for him and many congratulations were given by all. Naturally, Stuart lapped up the press attention and then was brought back down to earth when recieving his Cllr induction pack - which seemed to be bigger than your average tree, that is where the council tax goes these days it seems. All in all it was a fantastic morning, hopefully to be repeated for years to come.

Nationally, in my opinion, the Conservative party performed excellently. It is important to remember that we were sitting on quite a high level to start with, and to at least match that performance is proof that Cameron is achieving good results. Commentators always harp on about gains in the North. I am of the opinion that the foundations are there. My council is only one Tory away from gaining overall control. The result which I think deserves lots of credit is in Sunderland, where 3 wards were won by the Conservatives. Obviously, the complete turnaround in Bournemouth where 23 seats were won from the LibDems was also an incredible result.

It is great to have maintained our 40% record, and given London did not hold any elections I think we are well on track to form the next government, providing we keep out of any controversy.

Feel free to give your opinions.

Again not the greatest result for the Conservatives, but the main news there is about the success of the SNP! Labour have been given a real thrashing by the voters and it will be interesting to see who forms the coalition (please not the Lib Dems again!).

The saddest thing though must be the mess-up with the voting ballots - all over the country, but especially in Scotland. Something will have to happen, but what about the appeals that are being called?

UPDATE: The results finished a little better actually with us just scraping infront of the Liberals!

The press seems to have spent most of today saying that the Conservatives did not have a great night - that we were let down in the North etc… What rubbish!The results below speak for themselves - the Liberals have ground to a halt and only seem to be losing councillors, Labour have been routed in England, Scotland and Wales.

The message is being seen: we are sick of Labour, the Liberals have stalled completely and the Conservatives are winning all over the country!

With the current 40/41% I find it hard for the critics to have a go - yes they can find a few holes in the North, but the bigger picture is far more importantly and this result will be echoed in the next General Election when we sweep into power!

Most predicted around 400-600 Conservatives councillors - we have risen so high above that! Well done to all the UCL Conservatives who helped out over the last few weeks…it was so worth it!

UPDATE (18:42): 12 councils to go and we currently have 861 councillor rise - can we reach 900?

UPDATE (19:02): Very interesting maps from CCHQ here and here. (source: Conservative Home)

UPDATE: We control more councils in the North now than Labour do - think about that…

UPDATE (22:56): Still waiting on the final 4 council results - currently 875 gain of Tory councillors - just a few more needed to break that 900 mark!

The full results are now in for the Welsh assembly and it has been a bit of a let down from the Conservatives.
It is nice to see Labour lose control, but now we must wait and see who they will form a coalition with (probably the Lib Dems), which will mean that we wont even be the Party of Opposition.

UPDATE: the BBC got it wrong! The Conservatives 12 seats in the Assembly is actually a rise by 1 from last time. Not a big change, but with only 60 seats in the Assembly it is actually an important rise.

Stuart has been elected with a huge majority of around 400 votes! The Conservatives also took control of Rugby Council!

Full details to follow soon - well done Cllr Davenport!

UPDATE: the specifics:

Dunchurch and Knightlow Candidate:

DAVENPORT Stuart Philip (Elected) Conservative Party - 1225
Lib Dem Candidate - 858
Green Party Candidate - 188
Labour Party Candidate - 170

Details Seats: 1 Eligible Votors: 4510 Electorate Turnout: 54.2%

Alas - no joy for your President. A good fight and it looks like we are going to take control of the council, which is a welcome ending!

Independent - 422
Lib Dem - 408
Conservative (me) - 333
Green - 87

Good luck Stuart!

UPDATE: Oh my God!!! Well this really is a very nice surprise - not expected at all. All those hours of helping from UCL Conservatives really helped!

A great Tory 10-people strong campaign team descended today on King’s Cross station led by yours truly and comprising various activists from over London. We distributed free leaflets that looked like newspapers to commuters going (hopefully) out of London and (hopefully) living in a ward which is up for election.

The first minutes seemed quite tense, with us annoying (and being annoyed by) Network Rail and the Evening Standard. We managed, however, to find some good spots outside their evil reach and went through approximately half of over 2000 leaflets. After doing a bin run close to none were found in the bins at King’s X and St Pancras, which is very encouraging. Hopefully we managed to remind some voters about the chance they have to change their local community for the better, by supporting a party that trusts people to take care of their community and environment.

Many thanks to those involved if they read the blog and let us wait for the count tonight and tomorrow!

Well the day has finally arrived! Today 39 million (should) go out and vote in England, Wales and Scotland. It is a huge ‘Super Thursday’ and is much more important that most think.

On behalf of the Society I wish Stuart Davenport all the best for today (and tomorrow) and we look forward to welcoming Cllr Davenport at our summer party at the end of May. For me it is also the end of a huge campaign, which has been very tiring and I am looking forward to some rest!

Today the Conservatives are going to make huge gains in England, Wales and even possibly Scotland - on our road back into power!

Please, if you can go along and help Luca out tonight - it is so important that we ‘get out the vote’. With the huge mess around postal votes we must fight to keep getting people out to vote. All the best Stuart!

It is difficult to gauge the quality of a particular campaign day until the ballot boxes are opened and the raw voting data is available, but for three reasons the UCL team that blitzed Dunchurch on Saturday can consider what they achieved succesful:

1. The canvass returns are better this year than last
2. The Association Chariman, who saw us all out, rang me to wax lyrical about the enthusiasm and dynamism of the team.
3. Two members of the team were abused by the vilest of creatures: double glazing salesmen.

In the sunshine, Dunchurch received the attention of 8 UCL Tories, an MP and a senior Councillor. The whole village of a not inconsiderable 1400 residences was canvassed and there cannot have been many voters who didn’t see a blue rosette.

Every member of the team contributed. Eamonn showed us his remarkable knack for tracking down Socialists in an area where Labour received only 5.6% of the vote last year; Christian demonstrated an ability to charm the birds from the trees; Tatiana was adored by everyone who met her on the doorstep and was often found engaged in deep conversation with a resident; Iain offered endless enthusiam, constantly encouraging me to allow us to canvass a few more houses before we stopped; Stuart offered Dunchurch a taste of Mr ‘Middle Class’ in his own inimitable style; Laura showed organisational prowess, a dedication to the cause (especially if DC was mentioned) and stoicism in the face of Luca, who offered humour, inappropriateness and an ability to get lost in the mean streets of Dunchurch.

During the day we were pleased to meet Jeremy Wright MP who gave us an informal pub talk on issues ranging from the leadership and immigration to April Fools pranks. We were also joined by Cllr Bill Shields, a senior Councillor who was, as ever, charming, funny and knowledgable. He likened Gordon Brown to Philip II of Spain - we wondered whether this comparison would feature on future Tory literature.

I end by thanking the people who gave up a Saturday before exams to help me. I offer special thanks to Christian Waterfield for driving to Warwickshire - without such genrosity the day could not have happened. Christian is a tremendous asset to the society and we should be grateful he is a Conservative.

Negative campaigning is not good for anybody. It doesn’t help the party that campaigns negatively; it doesn’t help the target; it doesn’t help the body politic. This weekend I was subjected to a leaflet drop by the Liberal Democrats that was personal, nasty and totally unnecessary. On the doorstep people were not impressed. My campaign has been unremmitingly positive and has only mentioned my policies - I hope the electorate recognise this.

The weather has been glorious. With good weather brings good moods and I hope my presence on the doorsteps this weekend didn’t dampen the high spirits in my locality! With my big campaign day fast approaching it was also an opportunity to once again show the public that the Conservatives are young and diverse. The 4 of us out this weekend had an average age of 20 and it was 2 males and 2 females! We spent the Grand National in the pub and as soon as Silver Birch stormed home we left to continue spreading the good word!

I look forward to welcoming the team to Warwickshire next week hopeful that the weather continues to make campaigning such an enjoyable event!

Check out the Flickr photo gallery for images from the campaign.