I've had a number of emails from subscribers to milton-news mailing list asking for more background on the elections and how people voted last time so with that in mind here's some facts and figures you might like to consider. As some of what follows is also opinion I'll remind you that this web site and this page are nothing to do with Milton Parish Council.
In the general election to elect our MP our constituency is Cambridgeshire South East and our MP is James Paice (Con). The results in the last two general elections for the three main parties were as follows:
| Con | Lab | LDem | |
| 1997 | 24397 | 15048 | 14246 |
| 1992 | 36693 | 12688 | 12883 |
As you can see this is a very safe Conservative seat, and the Labour and Lib Dem vote, even when added together would only have defeated James Paice by about 5,000 votes in the Labour landslide last time. The time before he had an absolute majority of around 11,000! So if you've wondered why none of the main parties seem particularly active here at election time, especially compared to the city for example, now you know.
James Paice is one of the party's Shadow Agriculture spokesmen. He has a web site where you can discover more about the man, his position of a wide variety of issues and the constituency, including maps.
The Labour party candidate is Andrew Inchley. He works for a consultancy firm managing internet business strategy and is a district councillor from Hertfordshire. He's also the treasurer of the Christian Socialist Movement and is on their national executive. He has a web site with details about himself and the party.
Standing against them for the Lib Dems is Sal Brinton, bursar of Selwyn College and leader of the Lib Dem group on the county council. She has a web site too where you can find more about her and also some carefully chosen statistics (compare her figures with those above - full marks for trying though).
Neil Scarr is standing for the UK Independence party. He lives in Fulbourn and represents the area on both the parish and district councils. He switched to the UKIP from the Lib Dems in 1999. Although this isn't his official web site for this election there's a page about him here which you might find useful.
As far as I'm aware no other candidates have declared for the constituency, but if they do I'll let you know.
The County Council is responsible for things like education and transport. There's a complete list on the excellent County Council web site. The last election was in May 1997. The current state of the parties is:
So the Conservatives are currently in control of the council. Colin Rosenstiel's web site has a good map showing the wards and which party holds them.
Previous results were as follows (NB: there were 77 Councillors prior to 1997 as the county also included Peterborough, now a Unitary Authority):
| 1993 | 1989 | Conservative | 33 | 46 | Labour | 21 | 20 | Liberal Democrat | 20 | 9 | Liberal | 1 | 1 | Independent | 2 | 1 |
Our ward is Waterbeach, which covers the villages of Waterbeach, Landbeach, Milton and Chittering and we have one councillor. The voting figures for the last two elections were as follows:
| Con | Lab | LDem | |
| 1997 | 1350 | *345 | 3143 |
| 1993 | 593 | 248 | 1437 |
* the candidate didn't put a party on the ballot paper, but is believed to have been standing for Labour.
The election could be closer this time as the Conservatives have been actively leafleting, unlike in 1997. There are four candidates:
Jane Coston, our current county councillor, who is standing again for the Lib Dems. She lives in Milton and is a Milton parish councillor as well as our county councillor. She's also the publisher of the village news sheet "Milton Village View".
James Hockney, a parish councillor from Landbeach, is standing for the Conservatives.
Thomas Lachlan-Cope lives in Waterbeach and is standing for the Green Party.
Tim O'Dell from Willingham is standing for Labour. He was, until this election, the county councillor for East Chesterton.
