Post by iainbhx on Oct 4, 2020 8:01:47 GMT
This seats core is the old Bilston seat and three of the wards come directly from the old Bilston Municipal Borough - Bilston East, Bilston North and most of Ettingshall, a few bits of Bilston MB went into Walsall - mainly Bradley (pronounced Brady). To make up the numbers Sedgley and Coseley UDC went into the old Bilston Parly, but they were merged into Dudley although the most recent review brought back Coseley East (there is no Coseley West). To make up the numbers, East Park, Spring Hill and Blakenhall come in from Wolverhampton proper. Spring Vale is logically part of Bilston anyway, the old Steel Works was on part of the seat, East Park fits in well with Bilston, Blakenhall which is massively South Asian (55% in 2011) does not fit so well with the rest of the seat.
Of course, the seat has changed a lot from the old days, the days when Bilston was a thriving industrial town have been since the 70’s, this is one of the places where decline really started in the late 50’s but wasn’t quite so obvious until the early 70’s. At first the seat relied on coal, then on steel, GKN were the big employers here and there wasn’t so much of the usual Black Country small metal bashing. The seat is firmly working class and always has been, these days it is fairly poor with low pay and routine and semi-routine jobs dominating, only bits of Coseley can be said to be working class. The seat has a lot of council housing, particularly in Bilston proper but also in Ettingshall and East Park, a lot of it is fairly good quality inter-war and post-war housing but Right to Buy wasn’t as heavily exercised here because of earlier economic decline. There’s a lot of newer housing on brownfield land, but there’s also a lot of industrial parks and warehousing because Bilston is on the Black Country Spine Road and has good access to the perpetual traffic jam which is the M6.
Bilston is quite an old seat in terms of its age profile, although Blakenhall and East Park make up for that and the new build housing on old industrial land has de-grayed some parts of Bilston proper. It is also a much more mixed seat with a large South Asian minority, although this is concentrated in Blakenhall, most of this minority is Sikh or Hindu rather than Muslim as in Birmingham and parts of Sandwell.
It has long serving MPs, Bob Edwards was the MP from 1974 to 1987 but had been the MP for Bilston since 1955, Dennis Turner, who became Lord Bilston was MP from 1987 to 2005 and Pat McFadden has served since. Bob Edwards was a Scouse left-winger who wasn’t terribly well regarded, Dennis Turner was a true Black Country man from the right of the party who was very popular with electorate but less popular with some of his activists. Pat Mc Fadden seemed like an odd choice at the time but fits in very well but there are those who lust to succeed him. At a local level, things are a little more patchy, there’s a working class Tory tradition in the Black Country which has always led to a decent Tory vote and much of that was lured away by UKIP, there’s also always been a decent vote for the Far Right in the seat but not up to Sandwell or Dudley levels. At the local level, the Wolvo wards are solid Labour, with the exception of one Tory surprise in Bilston North once and Spring Vale which was a LibDem/Lab marginal until the Coalition and has since gone to Labour. Coseley East however has the more tempestuous Dudley politics, had a very large BNP vote and this was inherited by UKIP at its peak to win in 2014, they even came a very good second in 2019.
Overall, the seat has been safely Labour since its creation, but the last election brought the Tories to their closest result yet, slashing McFadden’s majority to 1,325 and he might well have fallen if a different Tory candidate had been chosen. This is deep Brexit land and the Tories fortunes are partly dependent on that and partly dependent on seeming like a party that will level the country up, if they fail at that they will drop to their former levels, if they succeed then this seat (if it still exists in this or a similar form) is in danger especially if they continue to lose Hindu/Sikh votes.
The seat is very much a place you pass through not a place to stay, I am guilty of that, getting off the Metro here when travelling to Darlaston. Having said all that, if you want a bargain and a decent bacon butty and a mug of tea, I can recommend Bilston Bus Station Cafe and you can a lot worse for a pint than the Trumpet although a tolerance of live jazz is (or was, it’s been a while) needed.
Of course, the seat has changed a lot from the old days, the days when Bilston was a thriving industrial town have been since the 70’s, this is one of the places where decline really started in the late 50’s but wasn’t quite so obvious until the early 70’s. At first the seat relied on coal, then on steel, GKN were the big employers here and there wasn’t so much of the usual Black Country small metal bashing. The seat is firmly working class and always has been, these days it is fairly poor with low pay and routine and semi-routine jobs dominating, only bits of Coseley can be said to be working class. The seat has a lot of council housing, particularly in Bilston proper but also in Ettingshall and East Park, a lot of it is fairly good quality inter-war and post-war housing but Right to Buy wasn’t as heavily exercised here because of earlier economic decline. There’s a lot of newer housing on brownfield land, but there’s also a lot of industrial parks and warehousing because Bilston is on the Black Country Spine Road and has good access to the perpetual traffic jam which is the M6.
Bilston is quite an old seat in terms of its age profile, although Blakenhall and East Park make up for that and the new build housing on old industrial land has de-grayed some parts of Bilston proper. It is also a much more mixed seat with a large South Asian minority, although this is concentrated in Blakenhall, most of this minority is Sikh or Hindu rather than Muslim as in Birmingham and parts of Sandwell.
It has long serving MPs, Bob Edwards was the MP from 1974 to 1987 but had been the MP for Bilston since 1955, Dennis Turner, who became Lord Bilston was MP from 1987 to 2005 and Pat McFadden has served since. Bob Edwards was a Scouse left-winger who wasn’t terribly well regarded, Dennis Turner was a true Black Country man from the right of the party who was very popular with electorate but less popular with some of his activists. Pat Mc Fadden seemed like an odd choice at the time but fits in very well but there are those who lust to succeed him. At a local level, things are a little more patchy, there’s a working class Tory tradition in the Black Country which has always led to a decent Tory vote and much of that was lured away by UKIP, there’s also always been a decent vote for the Far Right in the seat but not up to Sandwell or Dudley levels. At the local level, the Wolvo wards are solid Labour, with the exception of one Tory surprise in Bilston North once and Spring Vale which was a LibDem/Lab marginal until the Coalition and has since gone to Labour. Coseley East however has the more tempestuous Dudley politics, had a very large BNP vote and this was inherited by UKIP at its peak to win in 2014, they even came a very good second in 2019.
Overall, the seat has been safely Labour since its creation, but the last election brought the Tories to their closest result yet, slashing McFadden’s majority to 1,325 and he might well have fallen if a different Tory candidate had been chosen. This is deep Brexit land and the Tories fortunes are partly dependent on that and partly dependent on seeming like a party that will level the country up, if they fail at that they will drop to their former levels, if they succeed then this seat (if it still exists in this or a similar form) is in danger especially if they continue to lose Hindu/Sikh votes.
The seat is very much a place you pass through not a place to stay, I am guilty of that, getting off the Metro here when travelling to Darlaston. Having said all that, if you want a bargain and a decent bacon butty and a mug of tea, I can recommend Bilston Bus Station Cafe and you can a lot worse for a pint than the Trumpet although a tolerance of live jazz is (or was, it’s been a while) needed.
