Editor's Blog: A good night for the Tories
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Amid the confusion over the national political
picture in yesterday’s general election, one thing is for sure –
the Tories have retained control of Maidstone council.
It didn’t look good for Chris Garland’s
administration when cabinet member Brian Moss lost his seat to Lib
Dem David Pickett, now back on the council after a two-year
absence. But just when Fran Wilson’s Lib Dems looked odds-on
to regain control, a couple of surprise wins turned it back in
favour of the incumbents and Cllr Garland said it had vindicated
decisions like the closure of public toilets in the town centre and
pressing ahead with the £4m High Street regeneration scheme.
But of course the most eagerly-awaited result
at the count, being held at the County Showground, was the
Maidstone and the Weald parliamentary election which, as expected,
turned out to be a genuine two-horse race between Tory Helen Grant
and Lib Dem Peter Carroll. The campaign had been a real
head-to-head tussle between the two, despite the Tories having Ann
Widdecombe's whopping majority of 15,000 to defend.
It was a fascinating contest mainly because
they were totally contrasting political breeds. Helen a smart,
well-dressed Cameroon, who had flirted with Labour, and Peter, a
dyed-in-the-wool Lib Dem haulier and a bit of a political bruiser.
We had a little competition in the office about what the result
would be and I have to say our fag-packet guestimates were not far
off the mark and the Tories got home with under a 6,000
majority.
So a good night for the Tories in Maidstone
and in Kent.
And likewise in Medway, where I was, until the
obscenely small hours. Our readers in Aylesford and Ditton have a
new MP in the youthful shape of 35-year-old Tracey Crouch, who
soundly beat Jonathan Shaw in Chatham and Aylesford. The
constituency was high up the national political battleground which
led to visits from Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and William Hague during
the campaign. It must be said that Miss Crouch was very generous in
her tribute to Mr Shaw, who admitted afterwards that he never
expected to win in 1997 and had thoroughly enjoyed the ride
since.
As far as the paper is concerned, elections
are always difficult because a Friday publication date means we hit
the street without any results, while our readers already know the
outcome (well, most of them). As I mention in our editorial comment
today it’s not a comfortable position for a journalist to be in
when our audience is in possession of the facts ahead of you. You
can’t completely ignore the election so we’ve come up with a list
of the lighter moments from the campaign. And we’ve also uncovered
our very own David Cameron, who is in his 80s and living in
Leybourne. And guess what? He’s met Gordon Brown (not the real
one).
Friday, May 07 2010
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