Dear Editor,
As we head towards the second half of 2024, there are a variety of scenarios for the domestic political scene.
A general election has to take place before January 2025.
There is a big Labour poll lead but a sizable percentage of the population are still undecided so the election will be hard fought.
The general election will be on the new Constituency boundaries, with Chester split into two as a result of the changes enacted by the Conservative Government.
That will make results harder to predict.
That is certainly true for the Chester South and Eddisbury seat.
In 2019, the Conservatives had a substantial majority, with Labour in second place, but that was on the old boundaries.
Looking at the respected and independent You Gov website, the most recent prediction is Conservative 38%, Labour 31%, Lib Dem 11%, Green 7%, in round figures.
So it looks to be a two horse race, in which tactical voting could make a big difference.
The Conservative candidate hails from South London, has just opened a vets business with her husband there, and lost the Kingston and Surbiton seat for the Conservatives at the General election in 2019 and her seat on the Richmond Council in 2022.
The Labour candidate has lived in Manchester for 30 years but in her day job has worked extensively on environmental projects in Cheshire, and has just picked up a national environment and sustainability pioneer award for her work in cutting emissions and encouraging more use of low-carbon forms of transport.
Clearly, a Conservative MP is not a shoo-in and some may be tempted to vote tactically making life difficult for the Tories.
General election results will be interesting in these parts!
Yours,
Phil Tate
Chester
THE RIVER DEE THAT RUNS THROUGH US AND NOW DIVIDES US IN THE HISTORIC CITY OF CHESTER:
TIME NOW FOR A CHESTER TOWN COUNCIL.
What a mistake it is to split the City of Chester constituency in two, with many obviously disenfranchised (regarding representation between tow cross border MPs for example restricting interest from residents Chester North in such as Handbridge Meadows and Dukes Drive and from South of the river over various city issues such as impact of Chester race days, traffic and parking and heritage issues in town) and especially as we have no town council from direct engagement with city issues obviously of concern to us re representations to our MP or is that MPs across the divide.
When consulted just about all of us here voted to keep our one city constituency but an undemocratic government and their pet poodle the boundaries commission were having none of that.
It seems Chester, now split in half due to the stupid boundary changes, is now facing notional guard stations set up and warning signs put up as to the fact you are crossing the border half-way across such as The Old Dee Bridge and Grosvenor Bridge to police our now two separate communities concerning our comings and goings and interests and use of our city?
Interesting I can exchange views with Welsh MPs and Senedd members in one direction but not be directly represented by the new member for North Chester on a number of city-wide issues I have long been involved with and that are as much based on the North as on the South of the Dee, and this while the MP for the South of the Dee will be restricted over our concerns as her constituents about what goes on in the city cross the divide?
And does this mean the Duke of Westminster living in Eccleston following his marriage at Chester Cathedral will not be represented by a North Chester MP? Although no doubt he and his wealth and influence and commercial city interests will!
And us not even with a town council, in the past refused to us by CWAC.
If we were electing by Proportional Representation/Single Transferable Vote in a five member extended constituency Chester would be whole again as part of that with five members (not necessarily all of one party) to go to, and hopefully at least not just the one we have endured of late evasive of us as has been the case with CCV UK representations over the need for student HMO and PBSA owners to pay rates, the use of e scooters on our streets, and evasion by the LA of consulting its community over certain issues when asked to so do. Not that has been publicly commented on and challenged in Parliament in the House having been asked to speak up on our behalf. Five might well in terms of getting fair representation be better than one for one half and one for the other half. A situation that might deliver even less effective representation than the questionable standard we already get for the current MP!
We wait to see where any of the candidates stand on the issue of Proportional Representation; with only the UK and the BELARUS dictatorship now the only countries using First Past the Post in Europe.
Reg Barritt
GEN SEC CCV UK
99 HARTINGTON STREET
HANDBRIDGE
CHESTER
CH4 7BP
GOD BLESS THE LEVELLERS
Strange prediction given the locals here last year which the Lib Dems were the challengers in all the wards. Most of the labour vote in the past came from Winsford which isn’t in the constituency this time . Given how similar the new constituency is to North Shropshire I’d think it would be more of a Lib Dem Conservative contest