Bromley & Chislehurst

[where2travel]

Bromley & Chislehurst is situated in the northern part of the London Borough of Bromley and this is very much the outer London suburbs, situated approximately 10 miles from the centre of London. The northern boundary of the constituency borders three other London boroughs: Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. Its southern boundary runs alongside the other two of the borough’s main constituencies, Beckenham and Orpington.

This constituency was created in 1997 from parts of two safely Conservative constituencies, Ravensbourne and Chislehurst. Smaller boundary changes occurred in 2010 but weren’t significant in maintaining this constituency’s position as one London’s safe Conservative seats.

The Constituency
Bromley is largely a commuter town today but historically a market town (chartered in 1158) and was an ancient parish in the county of Kent. Its location on a coaching route on the way to Hastings from London and the opening of a railway station in 1858 were key to its development, and the shift from a village to commerce and retail. Its close proximity to London and fast train links now make this prime commuter-land, with families further attracted by the increasing open space and good schools. Of political note, Harold McMillan was the MP for Bromley from 1945 to 1964.

The west of the constituency consists of the town of Bromley (population c88K, by far the largest town in the constituency), including the town centre and its residential surrounds, with commuters heading into London from the town’s two railway stations: the much larger Bromley South providing frequent and fast trains into central London, and smaller Bromley North at the other end of the town centre. Bromley North is the terminus of a short 2-mile line with an intermediate station (Sundridge Park, also in the constituency), before reaching the other end at Grove Park where passengers need to change trains to reach central London.

Bromley town centre has arguably seen better days. The opening of “The Glades” shopping centre in the early 1990s gave Bromley a significant edge over other south-east London town centres such as Croydon and Lewisham. The more recent opening of Bluewater, and closure of some of the key department stores in Bromley has meant it’s needed to fight to keep pace. Direct Line also has its head office in Bromley.

Not all of the residential areas of Bromley (the town) sit in this constituency. The areas that do, moving from the town centre which consists largely of flats, terraced and semi-detached housing, heading east begins to tell the story of what’s been a safe Conservative seat. Moving towards Bickley, Elmstead Woods and Chislehurst (all with their own train stations for easy commuting into London), the move is rapid to one of very affluent suburbia and increasingly one of large detached homes and private roads. This reaches the more village-like feel of Chislehurst itself, with its narrow lanes and “country” (for London) pubs. It’s easy to see why the constituency ranks highly for professional and managerial occupations and it’s hard to believe a constituency with Chislehurst in the name voting anything other than Conservative today, but the Chislehurst constituency did have a Labour MP between 1966 and 1970 (albeit covering a very different area to any constituency today).

Chislehurst is also home to the Chislehurst Caves, a series of intersecting man-made tunnels and caverns covering over 20 miles. Now a tourist attraction (and worth a visit if in the area), from the 13th to the 19th centuries the 'caves' were created from the mining of flint and chalk. They’ve had many varied uses over the years, including as an air-raid shelter during WWII and concert venue (hosting David Bowie (who attended primary school in this constituency), Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and others) in the 1960s.

EU Referendum and Local Election Results 
At this point, it’s worth looking at the EU referendum results by ward, noting the constituency as a whole was very close, 49.8% voting leave. The wards covered so far (Bromley Town, Plaistow & Sundridge, Bickley, and Chislehurst) were all reasonably comfortably remain (each around the mid-40s for leave). This points to the two remaining wards which were strongly leave, Cray Valley West (65%) and Mottingham (59%) and it is these wards which contain pockets of social housing and are typically more white, working class areas than the rest of the constituency (perhaps having more in common with their neighbouring areas in Bexley and Greenwich respectively).

Bromley & Chislehurst can easily (as now) elect a clean sweep of Conservative councillors. In the last 20 years it’s only been Cray Valley West that on occasion has prevented this clean sweep, by electing Labour and UKIP councillors. Despite the Conservatives current dominance locally, the more recent results are throwing up some more competitive wards, not really seen since the Lib Dems won some of the Bromley wards in the 1990s.

The 2018 local election results were good for the Lib Dems in Bromley Town and for Labour in Plaistow & Sundridge. The Conservatives held on, but demographic changes are working against them in these wards in particular. Labour are often close behind in Mottingham and it’s not hard to believe Labour could be competitive again in Cray Valley West. The Conservatives may not have it all their own way in future. Demographic changes are fairly slow in this part of south-east London but there are more left-leaning public sector professionals buying property here, again attracted by some good local schools and possibly priced out of more expensive areas of capital, and bringing their voting habits. Perhaps not surprisingly, looking at levels of owner occupancy (68%) and ethnic breakdown (84% white), these percentages are significantly higher than London averages, and much closer to national averages.

General Election Results and 2006 By-election
All this has meant General Elections haven’t provided much to report from here. The Conservative majority has exceeded 20% at every election since 1997 (and occasionally exceeded 30%). Labour are the main challengers (with the exception of 2010, when the Lib Dems came second).

The only time the Conservatives have looked in any trouble here is in the 2006 by-election, caused by the death of the provocative right-wing MP, Eric Forth. The Conservative candidate (Bob Neill, member of the London Assembly for Bexley & Bromley at the time, and labelled as “Three Jobs Bob” by the Lib Dems) scraped home. In what became a two-horse race Bob Neill managed to fend off the Lib Dems by just over 600 votes (a 2% majority). Also worth noting is that UKIP (candidate Nigel Farage) pushed Labour (Rachel Reeves) into 4th, with Labour securing less than 7%. These lower-placed candidates in the by-election have arguably gone onto have more notable political careers than the winner.

Although the Conservative majority returned to normal levels in the subsequent General Election in 2010, there is a feeling that they have perhaps underperformed a bit here of late (the 2019 majority at the same sort of level as the 1997/2001 elections). That said, Bob Neill should have a seat here for as long as he wants it.

[jacoblamsden]

That's a really well-written profile of an area I know very well. The only thing I might quibble with is the comment Bromley town centre has seen better days - I'd say Bromley has one of the smartest outer London town centres, especially since the pedestrianised bit was redone a couple of years ago. Certainly compared to Croydon, Bexleyheath, Romford, Ilford, etc Bromley comes out very well! As you allude to but especially since the Whitgift centre debarcle, Bromley is now better for shopping than Croydon which would have been unthinkable 30/40 years ago.

I still think it somewhat surprising that it is Labour rather than the Lib Dems who are in a clear second in this constituency as Bromley and Chislehurst is relatively similar to Sutton and Cheam or Kingston and Surbiton, say. Certainly if the Lib Dems ever begin to recover locally in Bromley, they could get far closer to the Conservatives than Labour have ever been able to.

[timrollpickering]

Bromley is not helped by relatively poor railway links. Bromley North is actually the more central station but suffers from only having a shuttle service to Grove Park (the through service was ultimately sacrificed on the altar of simplifying London Bridge and improving times on the Hastings line) which often brings long waits on the platform there including a climb over to the other platform and a fight to get onboard peak hour services. Bromley South has a better service but is further out and the station feels incredibly small and cramped compared to similar significant stations and/or towns. It also primarily goes to London Victoria and the Thameslink services go via Elephant & Castle to Blackfriars and City Thameslink at the western end of the City which isn't the best access to the centre and Docklands.

Unsurprisingly the Bromley North branch attracts all manner of attention from both politicians and transport buffs who believe that it could be better utilised to give Bromley a much improved service to... somewhere. There have been proposals to link it to the Bakerloo Line, to the DLR, to Tramlink, to London Overground and give Bromley better access to variously the West End, Canary Wharf, Croydon and Highbury.

From what I understand historically the Lib Dems in the borough & area spent decades concentrating everything on Orpington (it was often their best miss in the whole of London) and so they underperformed in the other seats thus making the 2006 by-election in part a correction. The by-election was pretty nasty and full of hypocrisy with the Lib Dem candidate already having multiple jobs and both living and representing a ward outside the constituency whereas Neill was the sitting local Assembly Member. It was pretty much the first by-election to be heavily tracked online thanks to the rise of the blogosphere and may have helped expose and confirm some of the traditional tricks certain parties play.

[heslingtonian]

Jul 22, 2020 10:35:16 GMT timrollpickering said:

Bromley is not helped by relatively poor railway links. Bromley North is actually the more central station but suffers from only having a shuttle service to Grove Park (the through service was ultimately sacrificed on the altar of simplifying London Bridge and improving times on the Hastings line) which often brings long waits on the platform there including a climb over to the other platform and a fight to get onboard peak hour services. Bromley South has a better service but is further out and the station feels incredibly small and cramped compared to similar significant stations and/or towns. It also primarily goes to London Victoria and the Thameslink services go via Elephant & Castle to Blackfriars and City Thameslink at the western end of the City which isn't the best access to the centre and Docklands.

Unsurprisingly the Bromley North branch attracts all manner of attention from both politicians and transport buffs who believe that it could be better utilised to give Bromley a much improved service to... somewhere. There have been proposals to link it to the Bakerloo Line, to the DLR, to Tramlink, to London Overground and give Bromley better access to variously the West End, Canary Wharf, Croydon and Highbury.

From what I understand historically the Lib Dems in the borough & area spent decades concentrating everything on Orpington (it was often their best miss in the whole of London) and so they underperformed in the other seats thus making the 2006 by-election in part a correction. The by-election was pretty nasty and full of hypocrisy with the Lib Dem candidate already having multiple jobs and both living and representing a ward outside the constituency whereas Neill was the sitting local Assembly Member. It was pretty much the first by-election to be heavily tracked online thanks to the rise of the blogosphere and may have helped expose and confirm some of the traditional tricks certain parties play.

Based on the scenes from the declaration, it was one of the most acrimonious by-elections we have seen in modern times. The Lib Dem candidate who didn't exactly behave with much decorum at the declaration was considered a bit of a rising star at the time but appears to have subsequently sunk without trace.

[timrollpickering]

The Lib Dems ran a campaigning heavily attacking the Conservative candidate individually to the point there were even Lib Dems put off - a senior Lib Dem in next door Lewisham publicly posted this:

groups.google.com/group/uk.politics.electoral/msg/80a0fc1ac48391e4

In other words, the Conservative Party in Bromley chose someone THEY wanted, who had a local connection as the GLA member for the Bromley and Bexley, and who was not some empty-headed celebrity dumped on them by party HQ who could be assumed to act as a Cameron yes-man. Good for them, I'm glad their man won. He deserved it, ours with his nasty negative campaign did not.

Elsewhere in that thread he recounted his increasing disgust with the literature he was asked to deliver when he went there.

[froome]

Jul 22, 2020 10:35:16 GMT timrollpickering said:

Bromley is not helped by relatively poor railway links. Bromley North is actually the more central station but suffers from only having a shuttle service to Grove Park (the through service was ultimately sacrificed on the altar of simplifying London Bridge and improving times on the Hastings line) which often brings long waits on the platform there including a climb over to the other platform and a fight to get onboard peak hour services. Bromley South has a better service but is further out and the station feels incredibly small and cramped compared to similar significant stations and/or towns. It also primarily goes to London Victoria and the Thameslink services go via Elephant & Castle to Blackfriars and City Thameslink at the western end of the City which isn't the best access to the centre and Docklands.

Unsurprisingly the Bromley North branch attracts all manner of attention from both politicians and transport buffs who believe that it could be better utilised to give Bromley a much improved service to... somewhere. There have been proposals to link it to the Bakerloo Line, to the DLR, to Tramlink, to London Overground and give Bromley better access to variously the West End, Canary Wharf, Croydon and Highbury.

From what I understand historically the Lib Dems in the borough & area spent decades concentrating everything on Orpington (it was often their best miss in the whole of London) and so they underperformed in the other seats thus making the 2006 by-election in part a correction. The by-election was pretty nasty and full of hypocrisy with the Lib Dem candidate already having multiple jobs and both living and representing a ward outside the constituency whereas Neill was the sitting local Assembly Member. It was pretty much the first by-election to be heavily tracked online thanks to the rise of the blogosphere and may have helped expose and confirm some of the traditional tricks certain parties play.

I wouldn't agree with you there. Bromley South is really more central - on the main shopping street and no further from the historic centre than Bromley North station. It has fast trains running non-stop into London termini at frequent intervals, so hardly relatively poor links, especially as it is easy to link into all sorts of other local services there or to change at Beckenham Junction for the tram.

[froome]

Jul 21, 2020 16:49:53 GMT where2travel said:

Bromley & Chislehurst is situated in the northern part of the London Borough of Bromley and this is very much the outer London suburbs, situated approximately 10 miles from the centre of London. The northern boundary of the constituency borders three other London boroughs: Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. Its southern boundary runs alongside the other two of the borough’s main constituencies, Beckenham and Orpington.

This constituency was created in 1997 from parts of two safely Conservative constituencies, Ravensbourne and Chislehurst. Smaller boundary changes occurred in 2010 but weren’t significant in maintaining this constituency’s position as one London’s safe Conservative seats.

The Constituency
Bromley is largely a commuter town today but historically a market town (chartered in 1158) and was an ancient parish in the county of Kent. Its location on a coaching route on the way to Hastings from London and the opening of a railway station in 1858 were key to its development, and the shift from a village to commerce and retail. Its close proximity to London and fast train links now make this prime commuter-land, with families further attracted by the increasing open space and good schools. Of political note, Harold McMillan was the MP for Bromley from 1945 to 1964.

The west of the constituency consists of the town of Bromley (population c88K, by far the largest town in the constituency), including the town centre and its residential surrounds, with commuters heading into London from the town’s two railway stations: the much larger Bromley South providing frequent and fast trains into central London, and smaller Bromley North at the other end of the town centre. Bromley North is the terminus of a short 2-mile line with an intermediate station (Sundridge Park, also in the constituency), before reaching the other end at Grove Park where passengers need to change trains to reach central London.

Bromley town centre has arguably seen better days. The opening of “The Glades” shopping centre in the early 1990s gave Bromley a significant edge over other south-east London town centres such as Croydon and Lewisham. The more recent opening of Bluewater, and closure of some of the key department stores in Bromley has meant it’s needed to fight to keep pace. Direct Line also has its head office in Bromley.

Not all of the residential areas of Bromley (the town) sit in this constituency. The areas that do, moving from the town centre which consists largely of flats, terraced and semi-detached housing, heading east begins to tell the story of what’s been a safe Conservative seat. Moving towards Bickley, Elmstead Woods and Chislehurst (all with their own train stations for easy commuting into London), the move is rapid to one of very affluent suburbia and increasingly one of large detached homes and private roads. This reaches the more village-like feel of Chislehurst itself, with its narrow lanes and “country” (for London) pubs. It’s easy to see why the constituency ranks highly for professional and managerial occupations and it’s hard to believe a constituency with Chislehurst in the name voting anything other than Conservative today, but the Chislehurst constituency did have a Labour MP between 1966 and 1970 (albeit covering a very different area to any constituency today).

Chislehurst is also home to the Chislehurst Caves, a series of intersecting man-made tunnels and caverns covering over 20 miles. Now a tourist attraction (and worth a visit if in the area), from the 13th to the 19th centuries the 'caves' were created from the mining of flint and chalk. They’ve had many varied uses over the years, including as an air-raid shelter during WWII and concert venue (hosting David Bowie (who attended primary school in this constituency), Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and others) in the 1960s.

EU Referendum and Local Election Results 
At this point, it’s worth looking at the EU referendum results by ward, noting the constituency as a whole was very close, 49.8% voting leave. The wards covered so far (Bromley Town, Plaistow & Sundridge, Bickley, and Chislehurst) were all reasonably comfortably remain (each around the mid-40s for leave). This points to the two remaining wards which were strongly leave, Cray Valley West (65%) and Mottingham (59%) and it is these wards which contain pockets of social housing and are typically more white, working class areas than the rest of the constituency (perhaps having more in common with their neighbouring areas in Bexley and Greenwich respectively).

Bromley & Chislehurst can easily (as now) elect a clean sweep of Conservative councillors. In the last 20 years it’s only been Cray Valley West that on occasion has prevented this clean sweep, by electing Labour and UKIP councillors. Despite the Conservatives current dominance locally, the more recent results are throwing up some more competitive wards, not really seen since the Lib Dems won some of the Bromley wards in the 1990s.

The 2018 local election results were good for the Lib Dems in Bromley Town and for Labour in Plaistow & Sundridge. The Conservatives held on, but demographic changes are working against them in these wards in particular. Labour are often close behind in Mottingham and it’s not hard to believe Labour could be competitive again in Cray Valley West. The Conservatives may not have it all their own way in future. Demographic changes are fairly slow in this part of south-east London but there are more left-leaning public sector professionals buying property here, again attracted by some good local schools and possibly priced out of more expensive areas of capital, and bringing their voting habits. Perhaps not surprisingly, looking at levels of owner occupancy (68%) and ethnic breakdown (84% white), these percentages are significantly higher than London averages, and much closer to national averages.

General Election Results and 2006 By-election
All this has meant General Elections haven’t provided much to report from here. The Conservative majority has exceeded 20% at every election since 1997 (and occasionally exceeded 30%). Labour are the main challengers (with the exception of 2010, when the Lib Dems came second).

The only time the Conservatives have looked in any trouble here is in the 2006 by-election, caused by the death of the provocative right-wing MP, Eric Forth. The Conservative candidate (Bob Neill, member of the London Assembly for Bexley & Bromley at the time, and labelled as “Three Jobs Bob” by the Lib Dems) scraped home. In what became a two-horse race Bob Neill managed to fend off the Lib Dems by just over 600 votes (a 2% majority). Also worth noting is that UKIP (candidate Nigel Farage) pushed Labour (Rachel Reeves) into 4th, with Labour securing less than 7%. These lower-placed candidates in the by-election have arguably gone onto have more notable political careers than the winner.

Although the Conservative majority returned to normal levels in the subsequent General Election in 2010, there is a feeling that they have perhaps underperformed a bit here of late (the 2019 majority at the same sort of level as the 1997/2001 elections). That said, Bob Neill should have a seat here for as long as he wants it.

I agree this is a well written piece. I think some may take exception to the bit in bold about Croydon being described as south-east London!

Might be worth saying a bit more about Chislehurst. When I grew up nearby, this always felt very rural because of the common right in its centre, and it still retains a bit of a rural feel (though I haven't visited that way for some years now). The campaign to retain the common for public use is worth mentioning, as without it, Chislehurst would most likely ave developed into a very different place now.

[timrollpickering]

Jul 22, 2020 16:14:51 GMT froome said:

Jul 22, 2020 10:35:16 GMT timrollpickering said:

Bromley is not helped by relatively poor railway links. Bromley North is actually the more central station but suffers from only having a shuttle service to Grove Park (the through service was ultimately sacrificed on the altar of simplifying London Bridge and improving times on the Hastings line) which often brings long waits on the platform there including a climb over to the other platform and a fight to get onboard peak hour services. Bromley South has a better service but is further out and the station feels incredibly small and cramped compared to similar significant stations and/or towns. It also primarily goes to London Victoria and the Thameslink services go via Elephant & Castle to Blackfriars and City Thameslink at the western end of the City which isn't the best access to the centre and Docklands.

Unsurprisingly the Bromley North branch attracts all manner of attention from both politicians and transport buffs who believe that it could be better utilised to give Bromley a much improved service to... somewhere. There have been proposals to link it to the Bakerloo Line, to the DLR, to Tramlink, to London Overground and give Bromley better access to variously the West End, Canary Wharf, Croydon and Highbury.

I wouldn't agree with you there. Bromley South is really more central - on the main shopping street and no further from the historic centre than Bromley North station. It has fast trains running non-stop into London termini at frequent intervals, so hardly relatively poor links, especially as it is easy to link into all sorts of other local services there or to change at Beckenham Junction for the tram.

I think we could argue endlessly over which station is closer to the modern centre of the town but South feels the more remote one at the distant end whilst North is closer to the heart. But the real problem is the stubby branch with awkward onward connections - changing trains is not always the best option especially at peak hours - and the lack of a direct link to the heart of the City (much valued in this part of the world - although in the Beckenham and Lewisham West & Penge seats just look at the opposition to proposals to transfer the Hayes branch to the Bakerloo Line have generated). Contrast with the rail service Croydon gets. North attracts all manner of excitement and suggestions that it could be part of something really useful.

[where2travel]

jacoblamsden, froome - thank you for the specific feedback points, that's much appreciated. I'll have a think about some additional wording for Chislehurst. It's a part of the constituency I know, but not in any depth in relation to its history so the comments made about the Common and keeping it for public use are interesting. I don't think Chislehurst has changed much at all in recent years compared to some other parts of the borough (rather than knocking down houses and building flats, they knock down a house to build an even bigger one in Chislehurst).

I haven't written a profile on here before. What happens now, am I expected to update my original entry to correct mistakes or make improvements as you've suggested, or is the intention that the full audit trail as now remains as the thread with the original post left as was originally written?

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 20:08:30 GMT where2travel said:

I haven't written a profile on here before. What happens now, am I expected to update my original entry to correct mistakes or make improvements as you've suggested, or is the intention that the full audit trail as now remains as the thread with the original post left as was originally written?

That's up to you. With some of them I updated it in a different colour, with some I've left it to the editors.

[The Bishop]

Jul 22, 2020 13:50:44 GMT heslingtonian said:

The Lib Dem candidate who didn't exactly behave with much decorum at the declaration was considered a bit of a rising star at the time but appears to have subsequently sunk without trace

A google reveals that they appear to have gone into lobbying.

[No Offence Alan]

Jul 24, 2020 11:39:48 GMT The Bishop said:

Jul 22, 2020 13:50:44 GMT heslingtonian said:

The Lib Dem candidate who didn't exactly behave with much decorum at the declaration was considered a bit of a rising star at the time but appears to have subsequently sunk without trace

A google reveals that they appear to have gone into lobbying.

The UKIP, Labour and OMRLP candidates are all well known political figures now.

[🏴‍☠️ Neath West 🏴‍☠️]

Jul 22, 2020 13:50:44 GMT heslingtonian said:

Jul 22, 2020 10:35:16 GMT timrollpickering said:

Bromley is not helped by relatively poor railway links. Bromley North is actually the more central station but suffers from only having a shuttle service to Grove Park (the through service was ultimately sacrificed on the altar of simplifying London Bridge and improving times on the Hastings line) which often brings long waits on the platform there including a climb over to the other platform and a fight to get onboard peak hour services. Bromley South has a better service but is further out and the station feels incredibly small and cramped compared to similar significant stations and/or towns. It also primarily goes to London Victoria and the Thameslink services go via Elephant & Castle to Blackfriars and City Thameslink at the western end of the City which isn't the best access to the centre and Docklands.

Unsurprisingly the Bromley North branch attracts all manner of attention from both politicians and transport buffs who believe that it could be better utilised to give Bromley a much improved service to... somewhere. There have been proposals to link it to the Bakerloo Line, to the DLR, to Tramlink, to London Overground and give Bromley better access to variously the West End, Canary Wharf, Croydon and Highbury.

From what I understand historically the Lib Dems in the borough & area spent decades concentrating everything on Orpington (it was often their best miss in the whole of London) and so they underperformed in the other seats thus making the 2006 by-election in part a correction. The by-election was pretty nasty and full of hypocrisy with the Lib Dem candidate already having multiple jobs and both living and representing a ward outside the constituency whereas Neill was the sitting local Assembly Member. It was pretty much the first by-election to be heavily tracked online thanks to the rise of the blogosphere and may have helped expose and confirm some of the traditional tricks certain parties play.

Based on the scenes from the declaration, it was one of the most acrimonious by-elections we have seen in modern times. The Lib Dem candidate who didn't exactly behave with much decorum at the declaration was considered a bit of a rising star at the time but appears to have subsequently sunk without trace.

Apparently, "He left Lansons in March [2013] following the arrival of Andrew Silverman as director of public affairs. The time he has taken out is understood to be partly due to gardening leave."
www.prweek.com/article/1186569/ben-abbotts-join-westbourne-communications

[finsobruce]

Jul 24, 2020 18:18:35 GMT 🏴‍☠️ Neath West 🏴‍☠️ said:

Jul 22, 2020 13:50:44 GMT heslingtonian said:

Based on the scenes from the declaration, it was one of the most acrimonious by-elections we have seen in modern times. The Lib Dem candidate who didn't exactly behave with much decorum at the declaration was considered a bit of a rising star at the time but appears to have subsequently sunk without trace.

Apparently, "He left Lansons in March [2013] following the arrival of Andrew Silverman as director of public affairs. The time he has taken out is understood to be partly due to gardening leave."
www.prweek.com/article/1186569/ben-abbotts-join-westbourne-communications

2013? must be a bloody big garden.

[John Chanin]

Jul 23, 2020 20:08:30 GMT where2travel said:

I haven't written a profile on here before. What happens now, am I expected to update my original entry to correct mistakes or make improvements as you've suggested, or is the intention that the full audit trail as now remains as the thread with the original post left as was originally written?

If I have made an actual mistake I go back and correct it.  If there is simply additions or differences of opinion I leave it as it is, even if I agree with the comment

[The Bishop]

Jul 24, 2020 18:50:30 GMT finsobruce said:

Jul 24, 2020 18:18:35 GMT 🏴‍☠️ Neath West 🏴‍☠️ said:

Apparently, "He left Lansons in March [2013] following the arrival of Andrew Silverman as director of public affairs. The time he has taken out is understood to be partly due to gardening leave."
www.prweek.com/article/1186569/ben-abbotts-join-westbourne-communications

2013? must be a bloody big garden.

Sorry to spoil the joke, but the report is itself from June 2013

[Deleted]

The by-election here was perhaps the earliest awakening of this forum.

[Robert Waller]

2011 Census

Age 65+ 16.5% 340/650
Owner-occupied 67.6% 297/650
Private rented 13.4% 374/650
Social rented 17.2% 288/650
White 84.0% 507/650
Black 5.4% 97/650
Asian 6.1% 186/650
Managerial & professional 40.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 16.7%
Degree level 33.1% 118/650
No qualifications 19.0% 501/650
Students 7.1% 281/650


2021 Census

Owner occupied 65.6% 297/573
Private rented 18.8% 250/573
Social rented 15.7% 263/573
White 75.0%
Black 7.9%
Asian 9.0%
Managerial & professional 43.9% 49/573
Routine & Semi-routine 14.9% 528/573
Degree level 43.4% 76/573
No qualifications 14.2% 467/573




General Election 2019: Bromley and Chislehurst

Party Candidate Votes % ±%

Conservative Bob Neill 23,958 52.6 -1.4
Labour Angela Wilkins 13,067 28.7 -4.7
Liberal Democrats Julie Ireland 6,621 14.5 +7.3
Green Mary Ion 1,546 3.4 +0.9
CPA Zion Amodu 255 0.6 N/A
Renew Jyoti Dialani 119 0.3 N/A

C Majority 10,891 23.9 +3.3

Turnout 45,566 68.3 -3.4

Registered electors 66,711

Conservative hold
Swing 1.7 Lab to C

[Merseymike]

Feb 9, 2021 20:21:01 GMT Robert Waller said:

2011 Census

Owner-occupied 67.6% 297/650
Private rented 13.4% 374/650
Social rented 17.2% 288/650
White 84.0% 507/650
Black 5.4% 97/650
Asian 6.1% 186/650
Managerial & professional 40.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 16.7%
Degree level 33.1% 118/650
No qualifications 19.0% 501/650
Students 7.1% 281/650
Age 65+ 16.5% 340/650


General Election 2019: Bromley and Chislehurst

Party Candidate Votes % ±%

Conservative Bob Neill 23,958 52.6 -1.4
Labour Angela Wilkins 13,067 28.7 -4.7
Liberal Democrats Julie Ireland 6,621 14.5 +7.3
Green Mary Ion 1,546 3.4 +0.9
CPA Zion Amodu 255 0.6 N/A
Renew Jyoti Dialani 119 0.3 N/A

C Majority 10,891 23.9 +3.3

Turnout 45,566 68.3 -3.4

Registered electors 66,711

Conservative hold
Swing 1.7 Lab to C

The seat Labour need to win to get a majority of 1.

[where2travel]

Feb 9, 2021 20:26:48 GMT Merseymike said:

The seat Labour need to win to get a majority of 1.

Interesting. I read somewhere not so long ago that it was neighbouring Beckenham that was the clincher for Labour. Either way, it shows a bit of both the task Labour have ahead of them and that these are the former solidly Tory seats where they have underperformed relatively in recent years. The Tories had an 11K majority in Bromley & Chislehurst in 1997, on not hugely different boundaries, and now Labour need it for a majority of 1.