Post by Deleted on May 24, 2020 19:34:22 GMT
My grandmother contributed most of the information for this one, I just added the detailed stats and put it into words
Witney
Witney sits at the western edge of Oxfordshire, taking in a comparatively large and predominately rural area. Witney markets itself as a “Cotswold town”, which is stretching credibility to breaking point: the town is some distance from the Cotswolds way, not in the Cotswold hills themselves and not the Cotswold AONB. However, the western third of the constituency is within the AONB, including the town of market town of Chipping Norton, a town of slightly over 6,000 people in the north east of the constituency. Other major towns include Carterton, a town of 14,000 people in the south western part, which is based around the RAF base at nearby Brize Norton; and Eynsham in the South Eastern area, with just over 4,500 people. The seat borders The Cotswolds to the west; Stratford-Upon-Avon to the north west, Banbury to the north and north east; Henley and Oxford West & Abingdon to the east; and Wantage to the south.
Witney is one of only two UK constituencies to have identical boundaries but a different name to a corresponding local authority, in this case West Oxfordshire. Of the two names, West Oxfordshire is probably the more appropriate. Carterton considers itself an important local centre in its own right, the south east of the seat often looks more towards Oxford than Witney, and Chipping Norton is far closer to Banbury. With an electorate of 83,845 in December 2019, the constituency is a long way oversized and will have to be cut down at the next boundary review
The history of this area goes back a very long way. The town of Witney itself is first recorded as “Wytannige” in 969AD. Eynsham is even older, and is recorded as one of four towns captured from the Britons by Saxons in the 571AD. Chipping Norton was the site of a Norman Motte-and-Bailey castle, and the Rollright Stones, an stone circle slightly to its north, are evidence of prehistoric occupation. Witney and Chipping Norton both had workhouses at one time. Brewing developed as in industry in Chipping Norton in the 19th century, although it closed in 1931. Witney became well-known for blanket-making in the middle ages and at one time was a major centre for the industry. The other major industry in Witney was engineering. In 1950, Smiths Industries took over the DeHavilland aircraft factory, the were the largest employer in the area after the car plant in Cowley. On top of this, there was also brewing and malting in the town. Two breweries remain, but in 2002 the blanket-making industry completely ceased production. Chipping Norton once had a large woollen mill, which closed in 1980 and is now luxury apartments.
Despite this industrial heritage, this was traditionally an agricultural area. The wool for both the Chipping Norton woollen mill and Witney blanket industry would have been almost exclusively from local Cotswolds wool, both from inside the boundaries of this constituency and over the county boundaries in Gloucestershire. Even today, 80% of the land in the Cotswolds AONB is used for agriculture.
The political history of the constituency is a lot more dull. The constituency was founded in 1983 and has been won by the Conservative candidate at every election; it’s only break in Conservative representation came when Shaun Woodward defected to the Labour Party in 1999. He moved and represented St Helens South & Whiston from 2001 to 2015 and future prime-minister David Cameron comfortably won the seat back in 2001. Its predecessor constituencies of Mid Oxfordshire and Banbury have had unbroken Conservative representation since 1922. The Liberal Democrats have been second more often than not, although Labour have managed it a few times as well. At general elections, the Tory majority has only been below 20% in 1997 and 2001, although at the 2016 by-election caused by Cameron’s resignation a 19.3% swing saw the Conservative majority cut to just 14.8% over the Liberal Democrats. Normal service was resumed in 2017 and new MP Robert Courts won 55.5% of the vote and a 34.8% majority over Labour. In 2019, the LibDems gained 10% to beat Labour into second place. Courts’ share stayed constant, but his majority was still a very healthy 24.7%
Witney is the 512th most deprived seat in England, and the second least deprived in Oxfordshire. However, it ranks 230th in England on the barriers to housing and services index: services are often remote from people in rural areas, while housing is both lacking and expensive. Over half the seat’s LSOAs are in the least deprived 30% in England, although Witney and Chipping Norton both contain pockets of deprivation as a relic of their industrial past. The constituency is 69.7% owner-occupied, slightly above the national average 63.5%. This figure is pulled down, however, by Carterton North East and Witney Central wards at 52.6% and 53.2% respectively. Private renting and social renting are both below their national average, although not by much. The percentage of the workforce employed in most industries closely matches the national average, with the exception of human health and social work which is massively under-represented and manufacturing which is slightly over-represented as a result of people employed in the car plant at Cowley in Oxford. It has a relatively middle class labour market profile, with just 8.1% of the work force employed in elementary occupations compared to 16.5% nationally and 50.9% employed in managerial and professional occupations compared to 47.5% nationally. This constituency also has the highest proportion of economically active residents in Oxfordshire.
It is also a very well-educated seat. 53.4% of the population are educated to degree level or above, compared to just 40.3% in Great Britain, while under 3% have no qualifications, compared to 7.7% nationally. 92% of the constituency is UK born, compared to 87% nationally; it is also the whitest constituency in Oxfordshire, with just 3.2% of the population being non-white. It voted 52% remain at the referendum, although there is a fair bit of internal division. The more liberal south eastern areas will have voted to remain; Witney will have been remain, although the blue-collar Labour base in the town centre would have been leave. Carterton and most of the rural area would also have voted to leave. Chipping Norton itself would have been very narrow either way, although the surrounding areas would have gone for remain by quite a margin.
In general, this is a centre-right, pro-free market and socially moderate seat. It combines a commuter-belt style centre-right in the town with a rural an agricultural centre-right in the more rural areas. Witney and the town centre of Chipping Norton lean are more left-wing than the seat at large, although the outer areas are much more affluent and lean to the right. The towns are also more socially liberal than the surrounding countryside, although in general the constituency gets more liberal and more pro-EU as you get closer to Oxford.
At local elections, the Labour Party often win seats in Chipping Norton and the Witney wards while the LibDems win the affluent and liberal rural areas to the east, as well as a pool of local strength in Charlbury. This pattern holds at general elections, in so far as those areas are stronger for their respective parties than the rest of the seat. However, there can be no serious doubt that the Conservatives carry every ward in parliamentary elections. The only possible exception in recent years is the outside chance that LibDem candidate Liz Leffman may have carried Charlbury and Finstock, which she represents on the District Council, but even that is unlikely.
Overall, this is a middle-of-the road seat on social issues and a distinctly right-leaning seat on economic ones. This, plus its mixture of commuter-oriented and agricultural areas has helped make it a safe Conservative seat in the past and should ensure that it stays one for the foreseeable future.
Witney
Witney sits at the western edge of Oxfordshire, taking in a comparatively large and predominately rural area. Witney markets itself as a “Cotswold town”, which is stretching credibility to breaking point: the town is some distance from the Cotswolds way, not in the Cotswold hills themselves and not the Cotswold AONB. However, the western third of the constituency is within the AONB, including the town of market town of Chipping Norton, a town of slightly over 6,000 people in the north east of the constituency. Other major towns include Carterton, a town of 14,000 people in the south western part, which is based around the RAF base at nearby Brize Norton; and Eynsham in the South Eastern area, with just over 4,500 people. The seat borders The Cotswolds to the west; Stratford-Upon-Avon to the north west, Banbury to the north and north east; Henley and Oxford West & Abingdon to the east; and Wantage to the south.
Witney is one of only two UK constituencies to have identical boundaries but a different name to a corresponding local authority, in this case West Oxfordshire. Of the two names, West Oxfordshire is probably the more appropriate. Carterton considers itself an important local centre in its own right, the south east of the seat often looks more towards Oxford than Witney, and Chipping Norton is far closer to Banbury. With an electorate of 83,845 in December 2019, the constituency is a long way oversized and will have to be cut down at the next boundary review
The history of this area goes back a very long way. The town of Witney itself is first recorded as “Wytannige” in 969AD. Eynsham is even older, and is recorded as one of four towns captured from the Britons by Saxons in the 571AD. Chipping Norton was the site of a Norman Motte-and-Bailey castle, and the Rollright Stones, an stone circle slightly to its north, are evidence of prehistoric occupation. Witney and Chipping Norton both had workhouses at one time. Brewing developed as in industry in Chipping Norton in the 19th century, although it closed in 1931. Witney became well-known for blanket-making in the middle ages and at one time was a major centre for the industry. The other major industry in Witney was engineering. In 1950, Smiths Industries took over the DeHavilland aircraft factory, the were the largest employer in the area after the car plant in Cowley. On top of this, there was also brewing and malting in the town. Two breweries remain, but in 2002 the blanket-making industry completely ceased production. Chipping Norton once had a large woollen mill, which closed in 1980 and is now luxury apartments.
Despite this industrial heritage, this was traditionally an agricultural area. The wool for both the Chipping Norton woollen mill and Witney blanket industry would have been almost exclusively from local Cotswolds wool, both from inside the boundaries of this constituency and over the county boundaries in Gloucestershire. Even today, 80% of the land in the Cotswolds AONB is used for agriculture.
The political history of the constituency is a lot more dull. The constituency was founded in 1983 and has been won by the Conservative candidate at every election; it’s only break in Conservative representation came when Shaun Woodward defected to the Labour Party in 1999. He moved and represented St Helens South & Whiston from 2001 to 2015 and future prime-minister David Cameron comfortably won the seat back in 2001. Its predecessor constituencies of Mid Oxfordshire and Banbury have had unbroken Conservative representation since 1922. The Liberal Democrats have been second more often than not, although Labour have managed it a few times as well. At general elections, the Tory majority has only been below 20% in 1997 and 2001, although at the 2016 by-election caused by Cameron’s resignation a 19.3% swing saw the Conservative majority cut to just 14.8% over the Liberal Democrats. Normal service was resumed in 2017 and new MP Robert Courts won 55.5% of the vote and a 34.8% majority over Labour. In 2019, the LibDems gained 10% to beat Labour into second place. Courts’ share stayed constant, but his majority was still a very healthy 24.7%
Witney is the 512th most deprived seat in England, and the second least deprived in Oxfordshire. However, it ranks 230th in England on the barriers to housing and services index: services are often remote from people in rural areas, while housing is both lacking and expensive. Over half the seat’s LSOAs are in the least deprived 30% in England, although Witney and Chipping Norton both contain pockets of deprivation as a relic of their industrial past. The constituency is 69.7% owner-occupied, slightly above the national average 63.5%. This figure is pulled down, however, by Carterton North East and Witney Central wards at 52.6% and 53.2% respectively. Private renting and social renting are both below their national average, although not by much. The percentage of the workforce employed in most industries closely matches the national average, with the exception of human health and social work which is massively under-represented and manufacturing which is slightly over-represented as a result of people employed in the car plant at Cowley in Oxford. It has a relatively middle class labour market profile, with just 8.1% of the work force employed in elementary occupations compared to 16.5% nationally and 50.9% employed in managerial and professional occupations compared to 47.5% nationally. This constituency also has the highest proportion of economically active residents in Oxfordshire.
It is also a very well-educated seat. 53.4% of the population are educated to degree level or above, compared to just 40.3% in Great Britain, while under 3% have no qualifications, compared to 7.7% nationally. 92% of the constituency is UK born, compared to 87% nationally; it is also the whitest constituency in Oxfordshire, with just 3.2% of the population being non-white. It voted 52% remain at the referendum, although there is a fair bit of internal division. The more liberal south eastern areas will have voted to remain; Witney will have been remain, although the blue-collar Labour base in the town centre would have been leave. Carterton and most of the rural area would also have voted to leave. Chipping Norton itself would have been very narrow either way, although the surrounding areas would have gone for remain by quite a margin.
In general, this is a centre-right, pro-free market and socially moderate seat. It combines a commuter-belt style centre-right in the town with a rural an agricultural centre-right in the more rural areas. Witney and the town centre of Chipping Norton lean are more left-wing than the seat at large, although the outer areas are much more affluent and lean to the right. The towns are also more socially liberal than the surrounding countryside, although in general the constituency gets more liberal and more pro-EU as you get closer to Oxford.
At local elections, the Labour Party often win seats in Chipping Norton and the Witney wards while the LibDems win the affluent and liberal rural areas to the east, as well as a pool of local strength in Charlbury. This pattern holds at general elections, in so far as those areas are stronger for their respective parties than the rest of the seat. However, there can be no serious doubt that the Conservatives carry every ward in parliamentary elections. The only possible exception in recent years is the outside chance that LibDem candidate Liz Leffman may have carried Charlbury and Finstock, which she represents on the District Council, but even that is unlikely.
Overall, this is a middle-of-the road seat on social issues and a distinctly right-leaning seat on economic ones. This, plus its mixture of commuter-oriented and agricultural areas has helped make it a safe Conservative seat in the past and should ensure that it stays one for the foreseeable future.
