Differing Views on Debates in Folkestone and Hythe

Conservative and Labour parliamentary candidates have said the leadership debates have had a minimal effect on Shepway voters, while Lib Dems are unsurprisingly buoyed by Leader Nick Clegg’s good showing.

The staging of leadership debates has produced vast amounts of comment and speculation. Mr Clegg appears to have gained the most, although the he had the least to loose from the debates.

Riding high in opinion polls, with some showing the Liberal Democrats more popular than Labour, Mr Clegg regularly appears on the front pages of newspapers, has hit the number one spot in ‘trending’ on Yahoo and is getting exposure that previous Lib Dem leaders could only dream of.

An excellent report in today’s Herald, which carried out a poll of Shepway voters, appears to show a ‘Clegg effect’, although it is not thought to be decisive.

Shepway Lib Dems have remarked on Mr Clegg’s strong performances on their website and are the only local party to publicise the debates on their website, perhaps an indicator of how wary other parties are of Mr Clegg's performances.

Senior Lib Dem Tim Prater stated to FUTS that ‘the Lib Dems are already about 10% up in the polls from the start of the campaign and averaging around 30%. If we got to 38-39% on polling day (which is less of a rise than we've already seen) then we'd be looking not just at a big gain in seats, but Lib Dems as the largest party.

‘And that would include Lynne Beaumont as the next MP for Folkestone and Hythe.

‘Is it going to happen? Don't know. But I do know I've been a Lib Dem Party member and activist for 19 years. Until a fortnight ago, there had been literally 3 or 4 national polls in total in that time that had the Lib Dems as anything but third, and never ONE during a General Election campaign.

‘In the last fortnight, we've been fairly consistently 2nd and within 3-4% of the Tories, and occasionally even ahead of them. I've never seen that before. Something has changed.’

In response to questions from FUTS, Conservative Damian Collins stated; ‘To be honest, we've not seem any real impact from the debates one way or the other.

‘Our campaigning data shows that our support remains at the levels we would hope for it to be, so there doesn't appear to be any evidence that people are switching. We also get a positive response out on the streets.

‘Conservative supporters will often tell us that they think David Cameron did very well and that this wasn't reported strongly enough in the media.

‘There is more scrutiny of Lib Dem 'policy' now as well. I have had people bringing up the issue of keeping trident, and saying they don't agree with the Lib Dem position of getting rid of it.’

The Herald report also has the Conservatives predicting a reduced majority of 9,000 votes, down from almost 12,000. This is put down to Michael Howard’s standing down and the effect of this on voters in the constituency.

Labour Leader Gordon Brown is arguably the least media savvy of the three main leaders, and is the only of the three not to have worked in Public Relations.

Labour Candidate Donald Worsley decried the debates as reducing politics to a ‘Beauty Contest’ but feels the impact will be minimal.

‘Talent shows thankfully do not hold the final sway on the Election outcome. Policies do and now the initial novelty is starting to wear off people on the doorstep and at the Hustings are beginning to ask about policies and seeing through the veneer of presentation.

‘Yes people mention the debates but then when they ask about the Labour Party's policies the debates are very quickly forgotten.’

Labour Leader Gordon Brown is arguably the least media savvy of the three main leaders, is the only of the three not to have worked in public relations and yesterday suffered arguably the worst gaffe of the campaign when he called an elderly voter ‘bigoted.’

Recent polls show the Liberal Democrats moving into second place behind the Conservative party, although the Liberal Democrats forming the next opposition party seems unlikely without reform of the ‘first past the post’ voting system.

Mixed Response to Budget

Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour politicians in Shepway have criticised the Government’s budget, announced March 24.

Shepway Liberal Democrats posted an article ‘Stealth Income Tax Increase will hit Folkestone and Hythe hard’ which opens with; ‘The 2010 Labour budget has frozen income tax threshold limits, meaning a real terms rise in income taxes on tax payers across Folkestone and Hythe. The Lib Dems had announced plans to take all those earning under £10,000 out of income tax entirely by raising the lower tax threshold.’

The article has a quote from leader Nick Clegg but little about the specific impact on Shepway’s economy and voters.

In a statement on the Shepway Conservatives website parliamentary candidate Damian Collins criticises the budget as offering ‘more of the same debt, taxes, and waste that have got the economy into the terrible mess it’s in.’

Mr Collins then offers opinions specific to Shepway around the changes to taxes on holiday lets, stating; ‘local businesses who offer self catering holiday accommodation could be particularly badly hit, and will lead to higher prices, putting off visitors.’

Mr Collins also criticises the 10% tax increase on cider, although his joining of the Kent Cider Company on Facebook was criticised as ‘shameless electioneering.’

Labour Candidate Donald Worsley has also criticised the budget, though he does not think it will lose the election for Labour. Talking to FUTS, Mr Worsley described the budget as ‘Too little, too late – this should have been done a year ago. It will not win the election – neither will it lose it.’

Mr Worsley has past form of disagreeing with Labour Government decisions such as Dungeness C and the failure to hold a referendum on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, although he has maintained any disagreements with the national party are for the benefit of Shepway.

Labour Campaign Kicks Off on Saturday

Labour Parliamentary Candidate Donald Worsley will begin his campaign tomorrow in the town centre.
Although Labour is a distant third in the district to the Conservatives and Lib Dems, Mr Worsley says his campaign will show the national Labour Government is delivering for Shepway, citing the High Speed rail link the Little Cheyenne Windfarm and the new academy schools among its achievements.

Talking to FUTS, Mr Worsley denied that this was part of a long term strategy and that he had little chance of succeeding in the forthcoming election. ‘This is about showing the voters we care about the constituency.’

Promising to ‘put employment at the heart of everything we do’ Mr Worsley emphasised the importance of existing technical colleges and academies of the area and road and rail network saying ‘all we need now is industry.’

When challenged that industry has either already established other bases in the country or died out in the face of global competition, Mr Worsley countered that ‘we need a council that will create employment rather than take it away.’

Emphasising the importance of Dungeness, Mr Worsley vowed to fight for the power station. Questioned that his Conservative rival Mr Collins had stolen a march on this issue, Mr Worsley countered that ‘he might have the high ground on publicity, but I think I win the argument when it comes to commitment and determination.’

Listing the granting of Gurkha settlement rights as one of Labour’s achievements, Mr Worsley countered the observation that in fact the Labour government initially went against this saying ‘Yes, we listened. Yes, we bowed to pressure. It wasn’t a Conservative or a Liberal Democrat that did it.’

When asked about his chances against his Conservative rival’s, Mr Worsley said ‘I accept he has a good chance of winning. Sadly he will be in opposition for the next decade or more, and we will show the people of Shepway that they made the wrong choice.’

It is almost certain that membership of the local Labour party is lower than that of the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. When asked if the local party had the resources for campaigning, Mr Worsley said ‘the journey of a thousand miles starts with the fist step.’