Is this it?

Well it is just over 12 hours until the polls open and campaigning is drawing to a close. I have had another Labour party leaflet through today, the only one from any party this week.

Searching for a word to sum up the 2010 election campaign in York Central I have landed upon lackluster, or perhaps unenthusiastic.

Over the last four or so weeks I have received a few leaflets from the main parties (chart below) but no canvassers, no one knocking on my door, no-one phoning, emailing or stopping me in town. On my street there are perhaps 2 leaflets stuck up in windows.
Obviously a lot of attention locally has been diverted into the much more marginal York Outer constituency. Even accepting that it does not feel as though the main candidates, especially those trying to unseat Hugh Bayley, have really put in much of an effort to win my vote.

Leaflet tactics - are Labour smarter than the rest?

A slightly arcane but, I think, interesting topic this one. Section 91 of the 1983 Representation of the People's Act basically entitles election candidates to each have one piece of election literature delivered by the Royal Mail for free.

In York Central the Conservatives and the Lib Dems both appear to have done the same thing, that is to use their free mailshot to have one leaflet delivered to everyone on the electoral register. So far so straight forward.

The problem arises when you have houses where more than one person is on the electoral register, for instance there are three people registered at my address. The result is that three identical leaflets from the Conservatives turned up at my house on the same day, and then a week later three identical leaflets from the Lib Dems turned up. One of these leaflets get read and the other two get discarded.

What Labour appear to be doing is breaking their mailshot down into stages. So last week we received one leaflet addressed to one of the people at my address. This week we received a different leaflet addressed to another one of the people at my address, and one presumes we will receive a third leaflet to the third person next week.

The impact is that Labour effectively get double or triple value from their free Royal Mail delivery. At the same time they lessen their reliance on local volunteers pounding the streets doing deliveries and potentially make their campaign seem more active than it really is.

Leaflets flooding in

Above is an updated version of my candidates contacts chart showing the recent influx of leaflets from the various candidates in York Central.

On Monday I received a leaflet from the BNP and one from UKIP. Both were waiting for me together when I got home from work and both are the same size and of equally lurid design. This did seem a little suspicious but the BNP leaflet explicitly criticises UKIP so we will put their simultaneous arrival down to a coincidence.

Of the other parties the latest Labour leaflet concentrates on what Labour and Hugh Bayley have done for families while the Lib Dem leaflet contains the word "change" 11 times. The Greens focus on their local work as councillors and campaigners but also include more of their national policies than they have on previous leaflets. Interestingly they are continuing to push the message that the Tory's are not targeting York. Something which can be seen from my own candidates contacts chart above. (Although to be fair Susan Wade-Weeks may have been preoccupied this week what with the assassination attempt on her at the weekend).

Last, but certainly not least, the Monster Raving Loony leaflet puts forward a range of local and national policies. My favourite of which is the elimination of red tape - by making it blue.

York Central Election Hustings

There are a number of hustings events happening in York central over the next few days. The main ones open to the general public are:

Sunday 25th April 8pm at the Salvation Army Citadel - organised by a couple of local church groups

Monday 26th April 7.15pm at Holy Trinity Church Micklegate - all candidates confirmed apart from Hugh Bayley

Wednesday 28th April 6pm at York Race Course - joint York Central and York outer hustings organised by the York Press (you need to email in advance to attend this one)

If you can't make it to any of these events, or if you missed it first time around, you can download a podcast of the Minster FM hustings which took place last week and featured the Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem candidates.

Vote for Change!

Susan Wade- Weeks has sent me a leaflet, in fact she sent me three (all the same leaflet addressed to different people who live or have lived in my house). More on that in a minute.

But first Vote for Change! This is the message from the Conservatives (Vote for change in York Central), Lib Dems (If you want Change you have to vote for it) and the Greens (Vote Green for a real change). Can anyone spot a pattern?

Anyway, back to Susan Wade-Weeks. The bulk of the leaflet is concerned with promoting the work Susan Wade-Weeks has been doing in York over the last three years. This includes campaigning on behalf of local taxi drivers, working with insurers on flood damage and campaigning against barriers at the train station. A lot of the campaigning that Susan Wade-Weeks highlights seems to be her "standing together" with people on existing campaigns. There isn't much evidence of her actually achieving anything on her own.

The new Liberal Democrat leaflet (hand delivered by Christian Vassie) is more focused on national politics. It promotes the Lib Dems as the alternative to the Conservative and Labour parties, and plays on the fallout from the first election debate (although it doesn't actually mention it). The main body of the leaflet gives the Lib Dem solution to a range of problems in the format How to create a fairer nation, How to tackle immigration, How to save British jobs, etc. etc.

The new Green Party leaflet is split pretty equally between Andy Chase's campaigning work in York and national Green party policies. Andy Chase repeats his claims from earlier leaflets that based on the performance of the the Green party in recent local elections, and the fact that York Central is not a priority target seat for the Conservatives or the Lib Dems, the Greens represent the major challenge to the Labour incumbents.

New University of York Politics Blog

The Politics Department at the University of York have started up a new blog to give their expert commentary on the general election. Only 2 posts so far but might be one worth keeping an eye on.

Professor Neil Carter has already had some interesting things to say about the history of the York constituency and the chances of the main candidates in the new York Central seat.

Susan Wade-Weeks - Facebook Crazy?

As I said in my last post I had been getting a bit worried about the Conservative Candidate Susan Wade-Weeks. Getting on for a week and a half into the election and no sign of her anywhere.

Her website hasn't been updated for two weeks and the facebook page linked off her website also seemed pretty dead. Then I found her second facebook page, which looked more promising, but also hadn't been updated very recently. But I kept digging and I have now found her third facebook page and this one was updated yesterday!

Not only does this facebook page suggest that Susan Wade-Weeks is alive but it also gives handy details of all the campaigning she has been doing.

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Hugh and Su

It has been nearly a week since my last post and to be honest not a lot of very much interest seems to have happened. I have had another leaflet through from Hugh Bayley. The content is basically the same as his last leaflet giving lots of facts and figures about the things he has achieved as York's MP.

Hugh Bayley's claimed achievements include saving you £47 on your water bill, better pensions, better schools, more jobs, more doctors, more police and less crime. In this leaflet he does very briefly refer to his expenses saying that he was the first MP in the region to publish his expenses in full and was not found to have over claimed at all by the independent auditors.

This second leaflet means that Hugh Bayley is now in first place on the candidates contacts chart with Christian Vassie and Andy Chase in equal second place.

I am starting to get a little bit worried about the Conservative Candidate though. We are 9 days into the election campaign and Susan Wade-Weeks, the presumed main challenger to Hugh Bayley, has yet to make contact. I checked her website and that doesn't seem to have been updated for over 2 weeks. I do hope she is OK. If anyone has heard from Susan please can they let me know.

While we wait for her to make contact I suppose we will have to make do with this video of her talking about the campaign

Hugh Bayley Leaflet

I got my first leaflet through from the Labour party yesterday. (Not actually addressed to me but to a previous occupant of my house).

It looks like the local Labour party have beaten me to it and got a copy up on The Straight Choice already.

The leaflet is basically pretty positive. Hugh Bayley does not attack anyone. Instead his leaflet concentrates on what he claims to have done for York since the last election. His claims include an extra 5,800 jobs, halved NHS waiting times, £91 million investment in schools plus £60 million on city college, reducing crime and increasing payments to pensioners.

Obviously a lot of these are, at least partially, down to national Labour party policies rather than just Hugh Bayley's personal influence but it is a positive start from the Labour candidate. It will be interesting to see if the other candidates try and critique Hugh Bayley's claimed achievements or continue, as some of them have been doing so far, banging on the sleaze drum.

Candidate Contacts Chart

I have created the chart above (and in the right hand navigation) to show the number of contacts that I personally receive from each of the York Central Candidates.

As contacts I am counting leaflets, letters, emails, phone calls, knocking on my door or accosting me in the street. I will not be counting any attempts at contact though this blog though. What I am interested in is the amount of contact that an ordinary voter in York Central gets from each candidate.

I am using the beginning of this week as the starting point. So far I have had 1 leaflet each from the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Labour. I will update the chart periodically through the next few weeks up to election day.

Paul Abbott - UKIP

I now have some more details on Paul Abbott the new UKIP candidate. He is the same Paul Abbott who runs the Micklegate Post Office and is involved in various local campaigns through the Micklegate Traders Association.

Paul Abbott now has his own page on the UKIP Candidates website which is rather charmingly rambling and full of spelling mistakes. This page gives some basic biographical information but is rather light on policies and ideas. Giving his reasons for standing in this election Paul Abbott says that

I want to become a Member of Parliament primarily because of what I learn over our post office counter. Bearing in mind it is 2010; it is an absolute disgrace how we treat the elderly, family life, students, self employed, ex armed forces and freedoms.

Paul Abbott doesn't give any indication what he would do to improve things, but it is early on in the campaign so there is time yet.

Interestingly, given that he is the UKIP candidate, there isn't much mention on Paul Abbott's UKIP Candidate page of Europe.

Campaigning gets underway

Like a lot of people in York Central I have been getting sporadic election leaflets from some of the parties for the last couple of months. Most have come from the Lib Dems and Greens. I personally have not seen any leaflets from the other parties. It would be interesting to hear if this is reflected across the constituency.
The latest leaflet from Christian Vassie (above) centres on the fact that Hugh Bayley, who has been elected to represent the interests of the people of York in London, spends most of his time in London. Christian Vassie uses this revelation to accuse Hugh Bayley of lying to the people of York.

Other than revealing that he hadn't quite grasped that being an MP involves spending quite a lot of time in London, Chritian Vassie's latest leaflet has his "Four Steps to a Fairer Britain". These are

1) Tax Cuts
2) More money for education
3) More money for renewable energy
4) Giving you the right to sack corrupt MPs - (is that not what elections are for?)

Christian Vassie does not reveal where the money for steps 1, 2 and 3 of his 4 step plan will come from but I am sure he will let us know in his next leaflet.

Andy Chase (above) meanwhile is using the 2007 local election results to claim that the Green Party are the real challengers to Labour in York Central. He is basing this on two things. First the new York Outer constituency is effectively a three way marginal which means it is where the Lib Dems and Conservatives are concentrating most of their efforts leaving the Greens more room to maneuver in York Central. Secondly Andy Chase claims that if the results of the 2007 local elections were replicated then the Greens would be in second place on about 20% of the vote (with Labour ahead at 33% and both the Lib Dems and Conservatives on about 17%).

I am not entirely convinced by his logic on this one as the Greens only managed 4.5% of the vote in the 2005 general election. Even to replicate their claimed 20% effective vote from 2007 would be a massive step up for them in this election. Let alone getting the extra 10 or 20% on top of that that they would probably need to take the seat.

Andy Chase has a copy of this leaflet on his blog and you can see a copy of Christian Vassie's leaflet on The Straight Choice.

4 weeks to go

We now have 4 weeks until the election on May 6th. The confirmed candidates for the York Central Constituency are

Hugh Bayley MP (Labour)
Susan Wade-Weeks (Conservative)
Christian Vassie (Liberal Democrats)
Andy Chase (Green)
Paul Abbott (UKIP)
Eddy Vee (Monster Raving Loony)
Jeff Kelly (BNP)


There has been a boundary change since the last election. The results from 2005 were

Labour 46.9%
Conservative 24.4%
Liberal Democrat 21.8%
Green Party 4.5%
UKIP 1.8%

The BNP and the Monster Raving Loony's did not put up candidates for the seat in 2005. There were 3 other candidates in that election but none of them got more than 0.5% of the vote.

The BBC have done a projection of what the 2005 vote would have looked like with the new boundaries. This gives

Labour 48.8%
Conservative 22.9%
Liberal Democrat 20.1%
Other 8.2%

Which ever set of results you look at the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are going to have to do something fairly dramatic to unseat Hugh Bayley who has, after all, been MP for York for 18 years.

UKIP Candidate Change

It seems there has been a change in the UKIP candidate for York Central. John Upex is now standing in Harrogate and Knaresborough. The new UKIP Candidate for York Central is Paul Abbott.

Paul Abbott stood in the Scarborough and Whitby seat in the 2005 general election where he came in last with 2% of the vote. So far I haven't been able to find much other information about Paul Abbott but it seems from his recent letter to the York Press that he is a local businessman who owns holiday cottages. This letter also suggests he is involved with the Micklegate Traders and it is therefore possible that he is the same Paul Abbott who is the Micklegate Sub-postmaster but I have not yet verified whether this is correct.

More information and, hopefully, a photo once I have confirmed Paul Abbott's identity. As yet I have not found a website for him.

Christian Vassie

Christian Vassie has had a pretty major update to his website. It now includes his manifesto and vision for York.

As with the election leaflets he recently put out part of Christian Vassie's pitch on his website is his political experience as a City Councillor in York, but he is also trying to pitch himself as an outsider, accusing MPs of hypocrisy.

Christian Vassie (or someone claiming to be him) has also posted a response to an earlier story on this blog regarding the, apparently ongoing, planning dispute going on with his neighbour.

Green Candidate website update

Just a quick update to say I have changed the main website link for Andy Chase (on the right hand side of this page) from his biog on the York Green Party site to his View from the Castle Green Blog as it gives more details on his own views.

Lib Dems Start Campaigning

Christian Vassie and the Lib Dems have started sending out election literature. Under the tag line Community, Sustainability, Liberty, Equality they reference a bunch of issues including MP's expenses, the transition to a post carbon economy and Christian Vassie's record as a councillor.

One of the repeated themes of the leaflet is that Christian Vassie is an outsider not tainted by the same brush as career politicians (he has been on York Council for 6 years). The leaflet includes a cartoon suggesting that most MP's are just empty suits and poses the question "Do you want an MP who will do more than sit there drawing a salary?"

The "outsider who can make a difference" is of course a tried and tested political campaign strategy and it doesn't seem that Christian Vassie will be alone in claiming this status in the 2010 general election. Indeed the York BNP end their most recent blog with the statement
"We are the real alternative to the LIB-LAB-CON crooks". It will be interesting to see if UKIP and the Conservatives try and use the same tactics once the campaign proper gets under way.

BNP stirring up fears over paedophiles

The York BNP blog is continuing to try and stir up fears about paedophiles in the local area. Specifically it suggests that convicted paedophiles being housed at the Southview Bail hostel have been filming children playing at Poppleton Road Primary School.

Helpfully the York BNP blog includes images of what appear to be official BNP leaflets entitled “Paedophile Scum out of our Community”.

The address given on these is PO Box 669, YO32 2WB. This is the same as the contact address provided by the York BNP blog. Why does this matter? Well the York BNP blog claims that

We are an independent Community Voice Group in York that supports the British National Party. Please note that these posts are entirely the opinion of the author/s and not the British National Party.

So the York BNP blog claims not to represent the opinions of the BNP but it is based at the same address as the BNP in York. So are the York BNP confused about their opinions, or their address or both?

John Upex - UKIP

John Randall Upex was born and raised in Leeds. He has had a long career in engineering and owns and runs his own manufacturing company. He is 63, married with two grown up children. He has lived in Harrogate since 1984.

John Upex has stood in a number of elections in recent years. In the 2005 General Election he stood in the Wakefield seat for UKIP, finishing in 6th place with 1.1% of the vote. In 2008 he stood as an independent in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election gaining 0.2% of the vote. Also in 2008 John Upex stood in the Nidd Valley Ward of the Harrogate Borough Council Elections where he got 2.6% of the vote.

As one would expect John Upex's main concern is with Europe. In election literature attributed to him during the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election he likens the EU to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and claimed that if he was elected he would overthrow the government and lead a peasants revolt in order to remove Britain from the European Union.

Jeff Kelly - BNP

Updated 24/01/10 with picture of Jeff Kelly

Jeff Kelly stood in the recent council by-election in the Heworth ward of York gaining about 6.7% of the vote and finishing in 5th place.

Jeff Kelly also stood in the Rydale Distict (Norton Division) of the North Yorkshire County Council elections in June 2009 where he got over 10% of the vote and beat Labour into 4th place.

Jeff Kelly's website doesn't contain any biographical information on him and none seems to be available from the official BNP website. Jeff Kelly's website does not contain much in the way of policies. Instead it concentrates on the unfairness of the York Press Newspaper not publishing his letters.

The BNP did not field a candidate in the York constituency in any of the last three general elections (1997, 2001 or 2005).

Contact Details

The Secretary, PO Box 699, York, YO32 2WB

Telephone: 07531 339238

email: Heworth_BNP@live.co.uk

Eddie Vee - Monster Raving Loony Party

Elvis impersonator Eddie Vee is the official Monster Raving Loony Candidate for York Central. Eddie stood for the Monster Raving Loony Party in York in 2001. He officially stood as "The Yorkshire Elvis, Minister for Yorkshire Tea, Yorkshire Puddings and Elvis Music", with one of his main aims to get an Elvis Presley Memorial Garden set up in the Museum Gardens in York.

Alongside his political and musical careers Eddie has appeared on numerous TV shows including The Weakest Link, Trisha and This Morning.

Check out Eddie Performing

Andy Chase - Greens

The Greens got 4.5% of the vote in York in the 2005 General Election (up from 3.1% in 2001 and 1.5% in 1997).

Andy Chase is 37 years old. He has previously stood for election to York City Council. In May 2007 he beat both Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates to finish in second place to the Labour candidate in the Micklegate ward.

Andy Chase has lived in the Micklegate Ward for over 10 years and has been active in a number of local campaigns, particularly on planning issues. He opposed the Coppergate II shopping mall scheme and plans for the former Terrys chocolate site. He spoke out in favour of re-opening the Barbican centre as a non-profit community run venture. He has also been vocal in opposing the introduction of ticket barriers at York Railway Station.

His blueprint for the City of York includes introducing congestion charging, increasing the number of night buses and promoting independent retailers.

Contact Details

York Green Party, Basement, 22A Fishergate, York YO10 4AB

Telephone: 01904 636239

e-mail: yorkoffice@greenparty.org.uk

Christian Vassie - Liberal Democrat

Christain Vassie has been the City Councillor for the Wheldrake ward since 2003. Christian Vassie was educated in York at the Minster Song School and later at Archbishop Holgate's School.

Christian Vassie studied African Languages and World Music at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London from 1978-1982 graduating with a BA (hons.). Since graduating he has worked as a musician and composer, running his own production company since 1986 creating music for various TV productions and films. Christian Vassie is also a published author of both children's and adult books.

Christian Vassie claims on his website (as of 10/01/2010) that he is currently a member of York City Council's ruling executive with responsibility for Leisure and Heritage. He was sacked from this job in May 2009. He has since been critical of his council colleagues on a number of issues.

Christian Vassie was involved in a three year legal battle with his neighbours over their garden boundary. In 2007 this resulted in him having to pay £22, 500 in legal costs.

Christian Vassie identifies his two main campaign interests as the environment and civil liberties.

Contact Details

Chritian Vassie, 10 Blake Court, Wheldrake YO19 6BT

email: christian@vassie.co.uk

Susan Wade-Weeks - Conservative

Susan Wade-Weeks has recently moved to York from Sussex in order to stand as the Conservative Party's candidate in the 2010 General Election. Educated at the prestigious Cheltenham Ladies College (1970-1975), Universite de Lille (1976) and St Andrews University (1976-1980) she graduated with an MA in French Language and Literature.

Susan Wade-Weeks' professional career has largely revolved around advertising and marketing with one of her biggest clients being the Sofa Workshop. Alongside her professional career. Susan Wade-Weeks has raised three children, Honeysuckle Weeks, Perdita Weeks and Rollo Weeks. All three have become actors and Susan often accompanied them on set as a tutor and chaperone when they were children.

Susan Wade-Weeks joined the Conservative Party in 2005. She was elected to Chichester Borough Council in May 2007 and resigned her post in May 2008 after being adopted as the Conservative Candidate for York Central in March 2008. During this period Susan Wade-Weeks says that she

achieved a number of local improvements, campaigning to support village shops, save local post offices and fighting to retain local accident and emergency services, as well as facilitating and funding the introduction of broadband internet access.

In her own PR material Susan Wade-Weeks concentrates on the importance of the family, improving schools and the NHS and highlights her campaigns on behalf of local small businesses. She also highlights her support for green issues and her opposition to the war in Iraq.

The Guardian have an interview with Susan Wade-Weeks from September 2008 which covers her views on Tax, the Family and Europe.

Contact Details

1 Ash Street, York, YO26 4UR

email: susan@susanwadeweeks.co.uk or susanwadeweeks@yahoo.co.uk

Find her on Facebook and Twitter (empty when I last looked).

Hugh Bayley - Labour

Hugh Bayley has been the Member of Parliament for the City of York (now York Central) since 1992. At the last election his majority was over 10, 000.

Hugh Bayley is considered to be a loyal backbencher with a solid voting and attendance record. Although he had claimed close to the maximum allowed his expenses claims have not raised too many eyebrows.

Hugh Bayley has voted for the war in Iraq, ID Cards, Student top up fees, the hunting ban and the smoking ban. He has voted against inquiries into the war in Iraq and some climate change bills. More details on his voting record can be found on They Work for You, The Public Whip and The Guardian.

Hugh Bayley has in the past served as a junior health minister. He is currently on the International Development Select Committee and the Chairman's Panel.

Hugh Bayley was born in Oxford in 1952. He is married with two children.

He got his first degree from Bristol University with a subsequent degree from the University of York.

• From 1977 to 1982 he was a National officer with NALGO
• From 1982 to 1986 he ran the International Broadcasting Trust making documentaries about international development issues.
• From 1986 to 1992 he worked as a lecturer and research fellow at the University of York.
• He was a councillor in Camden (London) in the early 1980s.

Contact Details
Publicly available contact details

Hugh Bayley, 59 Holgate Road, York YO24 4AA

Telephone: 01904 623713

Email: bayleyh@parliament.uk

Facebook Page

The Candidates

So far there appear to be 7 candidates standing for the York Central constituency in 2010 General Election.

Labour Hugh Bayley (sitting MP)
Green Andy Chase
BNP Jeff Kelly
UKIP John Upex
Liberal Democrat Christian Vassie
Monster Raving Loony Eddie Vee (Elvis)
Conservative Susan Wade-Weeks

I have put links up to their personal websites/blogs on the right hand side of this page. The exception being John Upex from UKIP for whom I could not find a site (or even a profile of him on the UKIP website).

The York Central Constituency

There has been a boundary change in the York area creating two new constituencies. York central (largely based on the old York City constituency) and York Outer. York Central Covers Acomb, Clifton, Fishergate, Guildhall, Heworth, Holgate, Hull Road, Micklegate and Westfield.

The sitting MP is Hugh Bayley (Labour) who has a majority of over 10,000 and almost 47% of the vote. .

Hugh Bayley has been the MP for York since 1992 when he took the seat from the Conservatives. Since then the conservatives have consistently finished 2nd with around 24% of the vote.

Over the same period the Liberal Democrats have increased their share of the vote from just over 11% to nearly 22% putting them only 2.6% behind the Conservatives in the 2005 general election.

You can see a more detailed breakdown of the voting figures on the Guardian website.