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.