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.