West Bromwich West
2010 Results:
Conservative: 10612 (29.34%)
Labour: 16263 (44.96%)
Liberal Democrat: 4336 (11.99%)
BNP: 3394 (9.38%)
UKIP: 1566 (4.33%)
Majority: 5651 (15.62%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 17104 (54.8%)
Conservative: 7149 (22.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 2984 (9.6%)
Other: 3971 (12.7%)
Majority: 9955 (31.9%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 8057 (23.1%)
Labour: 18951 (54.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 3583 (10.3%)
BNP: 3456 (9.9%)
UKIP: 870 (2.5%)
Majority: 10894 (31.2%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 7997 (25.1%)
Labour: 19352 (60.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 2168 (6.8%)
UKIP: 499 (1.6%)
BNP: 1428 (4.5%)
Other: 396 (1.2%)
Majority: 11355 (35.7%)
1997 Result
Labour: 23969 (65.3%)
Other: 12727 (34.7%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Adrian Bailey(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Andrew Hardie (Conservative) GPAdrian Bailey(Labour) (more information at They work for you)Sadie Smith (Liberal Democrat)Mac Ford (UKIP) Russ Green (BNP)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 81294
Male: 48.4%
Female: 51.6%
Under 18: 24.8%
Over 60: 20.4%
Born outside UK: 6.8%
White: 84.7%
Black: 2.8%
Asian: 10.6%
Mixed: 1.6%
Other: 0.2%
Christian: 71.6%
Hindu: 1.7%
Muslim: 3.8%
Sikh: 4.7%
Full time students: 2.3%
Graduates 16-74: 7.3%
No Qualifications 16-74: 47.7%
Owner-Occupied: 55.9%
Social Housing: 35.1% (Council: 31.6%, Housing Ass.: 3.5%)
Privately Rented: 3.9%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 18%
I can’t think of many voters – Tory or Labour – who actually want more housing anywhere.
Joe
I’m not sure how much credit the government can take on the sentancing of the rioters.
Though its certainly the case that the rioting would not have been as severe and would not have spread around the country if the plods hadn’t been so weak willed in the initial days.
How much that is the fault of Boris and May I don’t know.
Cameron of course was more concerned in making a fool of himself over whether or not to tip an Italian waitress.
Wolf
Young people certainly.
This country needs lower housing costs and more housing is one way of helping achieve that.
I’m a Labour voter & I’m strongly in favour of more housing
Spain had that idea. Didnt work out well.
I’m a Tory voter and I’m strongly in favour of more housing, both social and private.
“I’m a Labour voter & I’m strongly in favour of more housing”
“I’m a Tory voter and I’m strongly in favour of more housing, both social and private.”
This is starting to sound like some political variation of alcoholics anonymous.
I’m in favour of more housing as well. In communities that can handle it, and I’m afraid that that rules out large swathes of the south of England.
People seem to think that they have some god given right to move to the south to find work whether they can afford it or not. We then hear endless complaints about how the state must help them to be able to live down there.
But if they can’t afford it, they should be living in cheaper parts of the country where they can. There are hundreds of thousands of empty homes in the north and the midlands that are borded up, left to go to wrack and ruin and generally bringing down the environment of the cities. Its time they were either put to use or demolished!
Well if I had my way Shaun I’d move to the Manchester area, but as long as I’m married that won’t happen. My wife loves London & at present we both have jobs here. I was lucky to get a house in a nice area before they became impossibly expensive. I would like it if the country became just a little less London-centric.
Anyway Shaun how do you know we aren’t AA members anyway?
You’d expect me to say it, but I think given the choice, I’d probably rather live in Richmond-despite the vastly increased risk of bumping into a Liberal Democrat (something which I’m pleased to say is practically impossible here in Stoke)
‘People seem to think that they have some god given right to move to the south to find work whether they can afford it or not. We then hear endless complaints about how the state must help them to be able to live down there’
I don’t really understand why so many people from other parts of the country come to the South. Surely housing costs alone make it impractical in an economic sense
Also the overpopulation in the South East has made many places nowhere near as beautiful as they once were – this is particularly true of certain parts of London but other places like Essex and Herfordshire which have no shortage of ‘ugly’ towns
I live in the South because that’s where I was brought up and that’s where nearly all my friends are from – but if I were from the North any my friends and family were too, I wouldn’t really see any benefits to venturing South and i’m not just talking about high prices and the ‘unfriendly’ vibe
I am surprised Barnaby – or anyone for that matter – would want to leave leafy, trendy and affluent Richmond Upon Thames for gritty, impoverished Manchester.
I find most of London vastly overpriced but that’s mainly because so many areas that are up and coming still carry the scars of their past. Richmond is oine of the genuinely nicer parts of London and I’m sure if he did move it would only take a couple if weeks foir him to wish he was back in Richmond
Richard
I was about to mention that under Boris crime has dramatically come down on public transport
but left that out because it’s not the Government.
Bit of a stereotype to call Manchester “gritty and impoverished” when there is some really very nice areas. Id imagine that the equivalent of whatever BM has in Richmond would go a hell of a long way in Manchester in a very nice area.
It wouldn’t be exactly out of character for Tim to unfairly stereotype an area, but I think in this case his description is a fair one
‘Bit of a stereotype to call Manchester “gritty and impoverished” when there is some really very nice areas.’
There are nice areas around Manchester – not many but they do exist
I remember going up there on business about 3-4 years ago – and I used to visit friends who were at university there in the mid-90s fairly frequently, so I do know the area a little – and have to say I was pretty shocked as it was a lot worst than even I remembered
And I can’t think of too many places – particularly in the North – that were nicer in 1994 than they were in 2008
My point is that you couldn’t really get a more dissimilar place to Richmond than Manchester – and I’m sure even a good old fashioned Socialist like Barnaby would find it an uncomfortable contrast
Could I ask the Tory opponents of Lords reform on here what they think of Cameron’s rumoured compromise?
ie. replacing the 92 hereditory peers with elected members at the 2015 election and for the time being leaving the rest of the Lords alone?
Cameron is said to believe that this would reduce the Tory rebellion to 30 MPs, allowing the reform to pass.
I wonder if this isn’t wishful thinking. Having secured a huge victory, the rebels don’t seem in the mood to compromise.
“‘Bit of a stereotype to call Manchester “gritty and impoverished” when there is some really very nice areas.’
There are nice areas around Manchester – not many but they do exist”
Absolutely, but most of them are around the heavily redeveloped city centre where few people actually live.
Much the same with the otrher major cities really.
It may be enough regeneration to allow you to say that stereotypes are wrong, but not really convincingly.
Nice areas in Manchester; Altrincham, Sale, Wilmslow, Poynton, some of the villages in the High Peak area that should have been part of Greater Manchester.
Back to Lord’s reform. I think there are 3 fairly minor changes that should be made and it should stop there:
1) The system of by-elections for hereditary peers should be abolished, thus turning the remaining 92 hereditary peers into life peers.
2) Peers convicted of criminal offences should be automatically expelled.
3) There should be mandatory retirement for life peers at age 65 with pension provision being put in place.
Shaun, if you want to live in a leafy area come here to Sutton Coldfield. No Lib Dem’s here. Well not many.
Richmond Park is of course Conservative.
Twickenham is still Lib Dem
but is covered by Conservative run Richmond Council.
The LDs didn’t win any ward in the Borough in the GLA election.
I rarely meet Lib Dems in the street – as far as I know.
I am in full agreement with Adam. Those are reforms which would command widespread support and concensus and would allow Cleggy to say he’s achieved something. If he was more responsible and intelligent, he would snap it up.
The one area I slightly differ on is ‘forcing’ peers who reach 65 to retire from the Lords. I’m all in favour of allowing life peers to retire if they choose to, but I’m not sure I would go along with the forcing option. There are so many peers in the present house above the age of 65 who contribute such a lot to our politics by them being there.
…And I can’t condone anything that would ‘force’ Lady Thatcher out of Parliament.
However, broadly, that seems to me the sensible way forward.
Whatever one’s opinion of Lady Thatcher, of course she is no longer able to play much of a part in the proceedings of the House of Lords. This has also applied to numerous elderly peers on all sides of that house – for example Ted Short (Lord Glenamara) had played very little part for a long while before his recent death at the age of 99. And maybe that’s the point. Many of those who have attained distinction in the political field have been given life peerages; there surely is a good argument that, while if they want they could continue to call themselves by these titles, they shouldn’t remain legislators at a time when they can no longer devote the attention to the House’s affairs that would normally be regarded as requisite for a legislator. The automatic one-term election for 15 years is, however, rather arbitrary-seeming; I think it’s a shame to replace one unsatisfactory system with another. We’ve had generations, Labour and Conservative, to bring in a decent alternative to the existing House, and I hope that if there is reform it will be a sustainable & proper alternative.
This may surprise you Barnaby, but I don’t disagree with you.
But as so often is the case in politics, it isn’t the actual policy that is important but what it represents as a totem or a principle.
For example, the department for International Development was not created because it necessarily made international aid any better organised, but because it represented that New Labour “approved” of the principle of international development.
Similarly, we cannot now abolish it (although many of us would derely love to) because to do so would send the message that we “don’t care” about international aid. ts all nonsense of course, is just a totem of convenience.
Similarly, we can’t abolish the Scottish or Welsh offices even though they no longer do anything that a single department of the regions could not do as well because we have to be seen to “approve” of Scotland and Wales (particularly in the face of the scottish nationalist threat).
And so in this case, it isn’t because Lady Thatcher necessarily brings anything of substance to the work of the House of Lords, it is because she represents a totem that shows we “approve” of Thatcherism and concede her general greatness.
That makes her sitting in the Lords no less important however, as far as many of us are concerned!
‘Nice areas in Manchester; Altrincham, Sale, Wilmslow, Poynton, some of the villages in the High Peak area that should have been part of Greater Manchester. ‘
when i meant manchester i was referring to ther city – not the outer suburbs
Wilmslow, Poynton and the whole Alderly area are certainly nice but even after the 1974 county boundary changes, where most of nothern cheshire was brought into the greater manchester comnurbation, these towns are still in cheshire today
altricham and sale may technically be in greater manchester – but both have a very surburban cheshire feel to them – as say does somewhere like bromley which wehilsat technically in greater london is still recognised by the people who live there as being in kent
The Peak District towns you mention – which certainly are beautiful) all stradle the border between derbyshire and cheshire
one area that I always imagined to be okay (at least until I went there) in Manchester was Trafford – I remember it as one of the only metroplitran councils the Tories controlled in the 90s (although they did eventually lose it) but that seemed little more than an urban wasteland
My point being the nice parts of Manchester you refer to are far way enough not really to be considered Manchester
“I remember it as one of the only metroplitran councils the Tories controlled in the 90s”
And indeed only held now along with Solihull.
Obviousdly Trafford borough includes Altricnham and Sale and even further out (and nicer) places like Hale and Bowdon, hence the Tory control of the council. The area around Old Trafford itself is in Stretford and little different to the inner city area of Manchester which it borders