Maldon
2010 Results:
Conservative: 28661 (59.84%)
Labour: 6070 (12.67%)
Liberal Democrat: 9254 (19.32%)
BNP: 1464 (3.06%)
UKIP: 2446 (5.11%)
Majority: 19407 (40.52%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 23371 (58.1%)
Labour: 9146 (22.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 5796 (14.4%)
Other: 1923 (4.8%)
Majority: 14225 (35.4%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 23732 (51.5%)
Labour: 11159 (24.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 9270 (20.1%)
UKIP: 1930 (4.2%)
Majority: 12573 (27.3%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 21719 (49.2%)
Labour: 13257 (30.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 7002 (15.9%)
UKIP: 1135 (2.6%)
Green: 987 (2.2%)
Majority: 8462 (19.2%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 24524 (48.7%)
Labour: 14485 (28.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 9758 (19.4%)
Other: 1620 (3.2%)
Majority: 10039 (19.9%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: John Whittingdale(Conservative) born 1959, Sherborne, Dorset. Educated at Winchester and University College London. Former correspondence secretary to Margaret Thatcher as leader of the oppostion, then CRD researcher, special advisor and finally political secretary to Thatcher from 1989-1992. Awarded the OBE in Mrs Thatcher`s resignation honours. First elected as MP for Colchester South and Maldon 1992. PPS to Eric Forth 1994-1996, opposition whip 1997-1998, treasury spokesman 1998-1999, PPS to William Hague 1999-2001, shadow trade and industry spokesman 2001-2002, shadow culture media and sport 2002-2003, agriculture spokesman 2003-2005 (more information at They work for you)
John Whittingdale(Conservative) born 1959, Sherborne, Dorset. Educated at Winchester and University College London. Former correspondence secretary to Margaret Thatcher as leader of the oppostion, then CRD researcher, special advisor and finally political secretary to Thatcher from 1989-1992. Awarded the OBE in Mrs Thatcher`s resignation honours. First elected as MP for Colchester South and Maldon 1992. PPS to Eric Forth 1994-1996, opposition whip 1997-1998, treasury spokesman 1998-1999, PPS to William Hague 1999-2001, shadow trade and industry spokesman 2001-2002, shadow culture media and sport 2002-2003, agriculture spokesman 2003-2005 (more information at They work for you)
Swatantra Nandanwar (Labour) Lecturer. Basildon councillor. Former Essex county councillor. Contested Saffron Walden 2005. 
Elfreda Tealby-Watson (Liberal Democrat)Jesse Pryke (UKIP)Len Blain (BNP) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 86597
Male: 49.6%
Female: 50.4%
Under 18: 23.4%
Over 60: 19.6%
Born outside UK: 3.6%
White: 98.2%
Black: 0.3%
Asian: 0.5%
Mixed: 0.6%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 75.9%
Full time students: 1.9%
Graduates 16-74: 17%
No Qualifications 16-74: 25.8%
Owner-Occupied: 82.4%
Social Housing: 9.9% (Council: 2.4%, Housing Ass.: 7.6%)
Privately Rented: 5.3%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 4.8%
A good example of the Boundary Commission moving in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform…
This seat is based on the old Maldon and East Chelmsford. It now contains less of Maldon District and more of Chelmsford District and so, naturally, has been renamed plain Maldon!
Still, at least it bucks the trend for ever-longer constituency names including ever-smaller elements within a seat – no version of South Basildon and East Thurrock or Mid-Dorset and North Poole here to trouble the dreams of innocent psephologists…
It’s a very conservative, Conservative rural heartland seat. Note the ethnic mix (non-existent). I live here and it’s a time warp; with a blink of an eye one could easily be back in the 1950s. There isn’t even a cinema here, not even of any sort. It’s a very pretty, historic theme place but not for those who want the bright lights-you should have seen the fuss when a Pizza parlour wanted to open long hours…
Things have certainly changed since Labour was able to win a seat called Maldon until losing to Brian Harrison in 1955. Of course, that was a very different seat which included almost all of the Braintree seat won by Labour in 1997 and 2001; nevertheless it’s clear that the Labour vote has declined a great deal in this neck of the woods.
Valentine Crittall’s narrow win for Labour in 1923 when this seat contained Braintree & Witham was achieved because of a straight Lab Con fight.When a Lib candidate took part Labour were out with the washing,until Alan Hurst’s famous victory in Braintree in 97.
It was Labour from 1945 until (as Barnaby says) 1955 – it was Tom Driberg’s seat then
I cannot see why the name does not mention Chelmsford. Just checked electionmaps, it could have maintained “East Chelmsford”, or maybe “South Chelmsford”.
The Boundary Commission does come up with these little curios doesn’t it?
The Labour candidate seems to be a bit of a non-starter here, he is just being shifted around save Tory seats to make up the numbers, i also take it he lost his County seat?
This is a strongly Conservative area, and the share of the vote recovered a shade above average.
Even when the previous government was on the way out of office, they clung onto effective control of Maldon council with Independent support.
But I think it should be noted that Labour has also done rather well in the last three elections, although nowhere near.
“I cannot see why the name does not mention Chelmsford”
The new seat doesnt include any part of the town of Chelmsford – only rural wards from the district. The current seats includes Great Baddow and Galleywood which are part of the town which (barely) justified the mention of Chelmsford in the title of the seat
On the name issue, I found this in the Assistant Commissioner’s report on the matter…
“… Alternative names were suggested for Maldon CC constituency: Maldon and Crouch CC, Maldon and Woodham CC, and Maldon and South Woodham Ferrers CC. Its composition would be perfectly expressed by “Maldon and Rural Chelmsford South CC” but that is very wordy. On the basis of simplicity and in order to recognise the historical importance of Maldon I recommend adoption of the proposed name “Maldon CC”. “
a rare example of good sense prevailing. If that assisstant commissioner has time on his hands i suggest he is urgently needed in Scotland at this time.
I was interested to find out what the population of Maldon is, and according to Wikipedia the “town” apparently has a population of 59,433. Sounds like another example of a Wikipedia page where the writer has mixed up the town and the district.
The population of the town in 2001 was 21,669 (including Heybridge). Its annoying this tendency not to distinguish between towns and districts or boruoghs. I remember reading in some encylopedias that St Alban’s population was 120,000 or whatever when it is half that. The extension of this erroneous method of calculation was that in a listing of British cities by size, Bradford came out as larger than Manchester. I also note that according to Wiki, Wakefield is the 88th largest city in the EU with a population of some 320,000 whereas Wakefield itself is a medium sized town of about 80,000.
Defining the edges of cities and towns is not easy and administrative boundaries do not always reflect reality on the ground. How do you define the boundaries of Manchester? The City is unquestionably at the centre of a large metropolitan area stretching southwards into Cheshire and westwards to Warrington but this ‘city region’ isn’t the City (and contains two other Cities – Chester and Salford). The most commonly applied method is to use self-referencing (i.e. asking people where they live). We’ve used this to define the urban villages that make up Bradford’s suburbs (e.g. Wibsey, Wyke, Queensbury) and it can be applied on a wider basis. The alternatives are to use the physical boundaries of the built up area but this presents problems – North Kent and South Essex area mere extensions of the Greater London conurbation, Leeds and Bradford make up one urban area and you’ll be hard pressed to find a break in the urban sprawl between Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It’s pretty easy to make the distinction between Harrogate as a town and Harrogate as a district but much less easy to make these definitions in the larger urban areas.
It is difficult. For example, the boundaries of the City of Manchester extend over only a very small area of what most people would consider to be Manchester. At the same time, the boundaries of the City of Bradford extend over a much wider area than what most people would consider to be Bradford.
I think the logical, easiest and realistic way to calculate the true size and population of Manchester would be to do exactly what is considered for London and has been implemented for London which is the Greater London set up so the Greater Manchester set up for Manchester. Greater London is not officially a city but the very small city of London is. The City of Manchester is absolutely not anywhere near a true reflection of the size and population of Manchester. The City of Manchester like the City Of London is just the central administrative/business/financial hub of the larger city although most of Greater London’s political/business areas are based in the City Of Westminster. There is even an inner Manchester and outer Manchester easily identified like London. One could claim that everything within the M60 is inner Manchester and everything outside of it outer Manchester. Inner Manchester could be even larger than the M60 area so it’s hard to define. Central Manchester covers more than just the City Of Manchester. The central zone covers Salford, Trafford, Bury and some of other boroughs but as I’ve said this is just the central zone, so the suburbs of Manchester go well into all of the boroughs of Manchester such as Tameside, Oldham and Rochdale. I do not like the fact that although London and Manchester are set up in the same way, There is one rule for London and another for Manchester. Manchester in every way is England’s and the United Kingdom’s second largest and major city so the same needs to officially happen and be recognised for Manchester as has been recognised and happened with London. The government needs to do more to tart Manchester up and show it off as they do for London. What I will say though is that a lot of things already work in Greater Manchester as one big Manchester city such as transport, entertainment and attractions. Also a vast amount of people consider Greater Manchester as Manchester. Thank you for reading.
60% is a certainty for John Whittingdale and 65% not out of the question.
Assuming the notionals are accurate, I would certainly be surprised if the share didn’t reach 60%.
The majority of 45% may be possible.
I would have thought about 65% if the notionals are correct.
(66-19-10-5 perhaps)
In fact, I think this seat could have given the Tories 70% in 1992.
This seat is a bit like a Tory version of the new Knowsley seat – drawn in a way that makes it as safe as could be.
I do wonder whether the estimate is correct.
Although the boundaries are different, there was a drop of over 15 points in 1997 here, and with only a moderate recovery since they are already saying this is almost a 60% seat.
It could perhaps turn out to be the safest Tory seat perhaps?
That could be right, or maybe Beckenham will turn out as some people are predicting as the safest Tory seat – HH made some comments on that thread about it. Interesting that according to the notional results above it’s the LD vote which has been hit rather than Labour which is the opposite of what I would have assumed, although I don’t know enough about the area – only been to Colchester once and never to this area itself.
John Whittingdale’s political career is quite unusual in some ways.
He was already working for Margaret Thatcher before he was 20, and presumably did so in the intervening period before he was her Political Secretary at the end of her Premiership.
So he was probably there throughout.
But his own Parliamentary career itself has rather gone to waste in opposition, as he didn’t seem to get very far in 1992-97,
I wonder whether he will return to office?
‘It now contains less of Maldon District and more of Chelmsford District’
But surely it contains the town of Maldon itself?? Hence the name!!
‘Labour was able to win a seat called Maldon until losing to Brian Harrison in 1955. Of course, that was a very different seat which included almost all of the Braintree seat won by Labour in 1997 and 2001′
Maldon has been Conservative since 1955 and on current boundaries will probably remain so
‘it was Tom Driberg’s seat then’
Driberg won at the 1942 by-election as an Independent, and was elected at the 1945 general as the Labour candidate, whence he remained until his retirement in 1955
“I wonder whether he will return to office?”
Well of course he was in the shadow cabinet under IDS wasn’t he. I seem to remember stories that Lady Thatcher herself ensured that he remained on the frontbench under Howard I think it was when he was thinking of dropping him. I don’t known how true that is though.
But it seems that Whittingdale has a number of black marks against him under Cameron. For a start, he seems to not only be a conservative, but worse has conservative credentials. Also, he’s not so far as I know trimmed to fit in with Cameron’s bland new party and hes not in the Cameron clique.
I fear Whittingdale shouldn’t expect to rise to great heights in the next government either.
Cons Hold= 17,000 maj
BNP: Len Blair
Source: http://easternregioninformation.blogspot.com/2010/04/len-blain-ppc-maldon-constituency.html
Website says its Len Blain
Con Hold
Maj 17 200
Con maj 16,500
Full List:
Len BLAIN – BNP
Swatantra Dhanraj NANDANWAR – Labour
Jesse PYRKE – UKIP
Elfred TEALBY-WATSON – Lib Dem
John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale – Con
Both the Labour and Lib Dem candidates have contested Saffron Walden previously.
CON HOLD
This is one of seven Tory seats with a majority of 40% or more (40.5% to be precise)… it is number seven on this exclusive list.
However, the Tory share did not quite reach 60% – t’was 59.8%.
Maldon was represented by Labour MP Tom Driberg between a June 1942 by-election and 1955. He became chairman of the Labour Party in 1957.
According to Wikipedia, one of Driberg’s activities was to “solemnly pledge himself to the Great Work in the presence of the Beast 666″. In other words, he was a secret occultist.
Former MP for Maldon (1955-74) Brian Harrison passed away last Sunday aged 89.