Coventry North West
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 19905 (48%)
Conservative: 11151 (26.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 7619 (18.4%)
Other: 2816 (6.8%)
Majority: 8754 (21.1%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 11627 (26.8%)
Labour: 20942 (48.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 7932 (18.3%)
BNP: 1556 (3.6%)
UKIP: 766 (1.8%)
Other: 615 (1.4%)
Majority: 9315 (21.4%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 11018 (25.9%)
Labour: 21892 (51.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 5832 (13.7%)
UKIP: 650 (1.5%)
Other: 3159 (7.4%)
Majority: 10874 (25.6%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 14300 (26.3%)
Labour: 30901 (56.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 5690 (10.5%)
Referendum: 1269 (2.3%)
Other: 2162 (4%)
Majority: 16601 (30.6%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Outgoing MP: Geoffrey Robinson(Labour) Born 1938, Sheffield. Educated at Emanuel School and Cambridge University. Proir to his election was Chairman of Jaguar, and later founded a multimillion pound aerospace technology company. Owner of the New Statesman between 1996-2008. Chairman of Coventry City FC 2005-2007. MP for Coventry North-West since 1976 by-election. Paymaster General 1997-1998, he resigned after it was revealed he had leant Peter Mandleson £373,000 to buy a house (more information at They work for you)
Candidates:
Gary Ridley (Conservative) born 1980, Coventry. Educated at Cardinal Newman RC school and Coventry University. Consultant and director of Coventry transport museum. Coventry City councillor since 2002.
Geoffrey Robinson(Labour) Born 1938, Sheffield. Educated at Emanuel School and Cambridge University. Proir to his election was Chairman of Jaguar, and later founded a multimillion pound aerospace technology company. Owner of the New Statesman between 1996-2008. Chairman of Coventry City FC 2005-2007. MP for Coventry North-West since 1976 by-election. Paymaster General 1997-1998, he resigned after it was revealed he had leant Peter Mandleson £373,000 to buy a house (more information at They work for you)
Joanne Asselman (UKIP)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 97285
Male: 49.5%
Female: 50.5%
Under 18: 22.7%
Over 60: 21.4%
Born outside UK: 10.6%
White: 88.8%
Black: 1.4%
Asian: 7.6%
Mixed: 1.4%
Other: 0.7%
Christian: 70.2%
Hindu: 2%
Muslim: 1.7%
Sikh: 3.8%
Full time students: 6.7%
Graduates 16-74: 16.1%
No Qualifications 16-74: 30.4%
Owner-Occupied: 74.7%
Social Housing: 13.7% (Council: 6.9%, Housing Ass.: 6.8%)
Privately Rented: 8.3%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 12.7%
“I don’t think there’s a disproportionate number of younger people serving as councillors.”
No, but there is this particular group who appear all to be of the same generation and of a similar background. (But point taken about the work of the older members.)
Aggregate votes from the 2008 local elections;
C 9757 42.4%
Lab 7468 32.4%
BNP 2596 11.3%
LD 1448 6.3%
Oth 1746 7.6%
I dislike the Lib Dem personalised campaigns,
despite portraying this very sanctimonious “nice” attitude.
Very rarely have I felt that about a Labour politician, as
they usually have their heart in the right place.
Nevertheless, the smug, shambolic character of Geoffrey Robinson,
who clearly thinks he understands business, deserves
to be taken to task in the election for his own role in the current recession.
He who gave so much bad advice to his colleagues, and pressed hard for
the tax on pension funds in 1997/98>, aswell, I strongly suspect,
as the splitting of the Bank of England from the FSA, which has been shown to b
e a very bad regulator.
I confess I would enjoy seeing the removal of this particular politician.
(I’d go further, probably nearly always, rather than usually).
That post kind of goes against your desire (which I support) to see more people with senior business/industry experience in parliament, Joe.
Despite the faint whiff of sleaze that has hung over him, Geoffrey Robinson is one of the relatively few Labour MPs that I have any time for and is one of the very few Labour MPs with real world experience of being a captain of manufacturing industry (having been Chairman of Jaguar). He understands business better than most Labour MPs do and comes across relatively well on TV.
To the extent that Robinson was responsible for taxation of pension funds, blaming that for the subsequent collapse of the final salary pension system is pretty far fetched IMHO. Yes it was a small contributing factor, but much more significant causes were the collapse of the dotcom bubble, the long term effect of much lower inflation since the 1990s, the rising retiree to employee ratio, increased life expectancy and of course the latest stock market crash.
Robinson will be 71-72 by the next election so might have been expected to retire.
Those points you make are quite right – but it was still a significant factor in the poor payouts.
I’m pretty sure – in the summer of 1997 – they thought it would be a cost absorbed by the pension companies, not passed on.
I had rather forgotten about Jaguar I confess, but thought he ran another firm which collapsed [although often that isn't always a fair thing to hold against someone], but he doesn’t actually inspire much confidence IMO, the impression given that he’s from the rather scrappy end of business.
I think Digby Jones is a very good chap, but he tried to be a non political politician which not sure is the tradition in Britain.
It’s interesting that Robinson became an MP through a byelection in 1976.
Was there any special reason Labour managed to win that one when they had defeats at Walsall North and Birmingham Stechford soon after?
“I think Digby Jones is a very good chap, but he tried to be a non political politician which not sure is the tradition in Britain.”
Sadly there’s a list of captains of industry who were fast tracked into politics and failed – John Davies, Lord Young and Archie Norman all spring to mind – also Digby Jones as you mention.
I think there is resentment amongst MPs who have started at the bottom towards fast tracked big names from business and this combined with lack of a parliamentary base often makes such appointments unsuccessful. I think it is really a disadvantage for Britain that that is the case.
My prediction for this seat;
Labour 18500
Cons 15000
Lib Dem 6000
BNP 2500
Others 1500
I thought Lord Young did quite well. I havent really studied the case, but my recollection from the time was that he was a succesful minister.
I think Lord Young had a bit more of a track record of working with the PM before, so perhaps he wasn’t quite so seen as fast tracked in. But he was resented by Tebbit in the 1987 election, as Pete will of course have heard, for the reason above partly that he hadn’t come up through winning himself.
On Richard’s point, yes Labour and Geoffrey Robinson have undoubtedly done well at dire times – 1976 and 1983, and decisively.
I think the Tories might have led in 1982 but it came to nothing.
I think, basically, Thatcher and Tebbit were very close but she was slightly worried that he might be making a hash of the election campaign and didn’t know how to tell him.
Looking at the result, it seems it was over-blown, but I suppose with a catalogue of gaffes the majority could have come down somewhat. But I couldn’t quantify it in detail.
“On Richard’s point, yes Labour and Geoffrey Robinson have undoubtedly done well at dire times – 1976 and 1983, and decisively.”
Coventry was and still is a car-making city, and Robinson’s credibility as a car industry man must have helped him a great deal. He has been quite high profile on news programmes recently supporting the car industry bailout.
Also he was until recently the chairman of Coventry FC (he is still a director), which probably also helps his reputation locally.
All-in-all he is quite a strange mix of rich champagne socialist and locally-rooted industrialist.
It seems to have paid off for him – no denying it,
but actually those points make one suspect he has his fingers in too many pies, with a trail of devastation.