Your vote counts in East Devon

May 2010 seems to be the likely time for a General Election and a chance for the British electorate to vote in a new government.

Some of the candidates representing political parties in the East Devon constituency which includes Budleigh Salterton have been kind enough to accept my invitation to answer questions that voters might ask.





Over the next few weeks I intend to profile them in this way, as mentioned at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.com/2010/03/choosing-new-house.html

The candidates are presented in no particular order.

New boundaries drawn up for constituencies mean that East Devon stretches along the coast from Exmouth in the west to Sidmouth in the east, but now excluding Seaton and Axmouth. It extends northwards almost to Exeter, having also gained recently towns such as Topsham and Ottery St Mary and villages like West Hill and Whimple. In the last General Election of 2005, 49,247 votes were cast, giving a turnout of 69.4%. This was higher than the UK national average of 61.4%.

Above: Debate in the House of Commons
© Parliamentary copyright
Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament

Five political parties were represented in the 2005 General Election.
Hugo Swire for the Conservatives won for his second term with 23,075 votes. This was 46.9% of the total votes cast.
Tim Dumper for the Liberal Democrats came second with 15,139 votes and 30.7%
James Court for Labour had 7,598 votes and 15.4%
Colin McNamee for UKIP had 3,035 votes and 6.2%
Christopher Way, an Independent candidate had 400 votes and 0.8%

This year the prospective parliamentary candidates are as follows:
Hugo Swire for the Conservatives is going for a third term.
Paull Robathan is standing for the Liberal Democrats.
Gareth Manson is standing for Labour.
Sharon Pavey is standing for the Green Party.

I hope to post profiles of all the candidates who have time to respond to my questions, and I look forward to reading their answers.