Comments on: Croydon North

By: RR

RR — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:37:28 +0000

“Does anyone know the last time a Conservative was elected in Broad Green or Bensham Manor Wards. Both solid Labout now but I have been told they were Conservative at one point (shocking!).”

It was in 1982. In that year, the only Labour seats were in New Addington (3) and Fieldway (2). thornton heath ward was Residents’. The rest of the Borough was Blue.

Bensham Manor was also Conservative in 1978…it was a much better area for them than now. Broad Green was Labour that year…it was always more “traditionally” Labour (the Inner w/c terraces of Croydon Town centre) than Bensham (then lower m/c areas in Thornton Heath) was.

Labour gained Broad Green and Bensham Manor (among others) in 1986…the former VERY easily and the latter more marginally. They have never gone Blue since.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:03:16 +0000

Does anyone know the last time a Conservative was elected in Broad Green or Bensham Manor Wards. Both solid Labout now but I have been told they were Conservative at one point (shocking!).

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:46:20 +0000

FWIW my own figures concur with the notionals – I have the Conservatives ahead by about 1,000 in Upper Norwood and 1,200 in South Norwood with Labour about 400 ahead in Thornton Heath

By: Andy JS

Andy JS — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:28:08 +0000

Dalek:

Since the Tories were 7,500 votes ahead in Croydon NE overall it seems entirely reasonable that they might have been 2,000 votes ahead in those three wards.

Personally I think Croydon North would have been won by Labour in 1992 by a few hundred votes, not because the notionals were wrong but because a few more LDs would have voted Labour in Croydon North compared to Croydon NE knowing there was a better chance of the Tories being defeated. That was a pattern that existed in 1992.

By: Barnaby Marder

Barnaby Marder — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:39:36 +0000

IIRC John Major started his ill-fated 1997 election campaign in this constituency, though he visited Luton South (of soapbox fame) very early on too – it was the constituency of his PPS Graham Bright.

By: Dalek

Dalek — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:49:36 +0000

Its amazing that Croydon North was a notional Labour Gain in 1997. Labour had won Croydon NW by around 1700 in 1992, but the 1992 notional Conservative Majority in North was 163. The swing to Labour was 16.7%.

Conservative: 14274 (27.2%)
Labour: 32672 (62.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 4066 (7.7%)
Referendum: 1155 (2.2%)
Other: 396 (0.8%)
Majority: 18398 (35%)

Were the Conservatives nearly 2000 votes ahead in the three NE wards or could this have been one of these questionable notional results?

By: Barnaby JL Marder

Barnaby JL Marder — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:48:29 +0000

1982 was a truly shocking year for Labour in Croydon. I think we were down to about 5 seats, all in the centre of the borough not the north. Nevertheless it is a good illustration how much the northern wards (& constituency) of the borough have swing to Labour since then.

By: Andy JS

Andy JS — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:23:02 +0000

I like this result from 1982:

South Norwood:

C: 1,785; 1,752; 1,745
L: 965; 927; 927
Lab: 600; 588; 585

Rather different to 2010 (on a general election turnout):

Lab: 3,365; 3,338; 2,942
C: 1,928; 1,603; 1,585
LD: 1,282; 1,232
Green: 791; 400; 371
UKIP: 295

By: Andy JS

Andy JS — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:17:01 +0000

In December we were having a discussion about the 1982 election results in Croydon. Happily those results (and those for other London borough elections that year) are now available online:

htttp://data.london.gov.uk/documents/LBCE_1982-5-6.pdf

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:40:21 +0000

Most likely Unison (or other union members) who are supporters or members of other parties would opt out of the political levy to the Labour party and therefore be ineligible to vote. Even of those who were eligible only a bit over 5% of ballot papers issued were returned from Unison members. As it happens I am a member of Uniosn and was eligible to vote and did exercise my vote. I voted for Diane Abbott – you can draw your own conclusion as to why, but I don’t suppose the practice is all that common