Post by andrewp on Nov 6, 2023 13:15:26 GMT
With credit to greenhert who wrote the original profile here
The most south westerly constituency in Cornwall, ( and stretching out 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean- more on that later) and therefore England bears the name of the seaside town of St Ives. St Ives has existed as a constituency name since 1558. making it the longest continuously extant constituency in Cornwall. St Ives itself ( population 10,700) is actually the third largest town here. The largest is Penzance (21,000) which is double the size of St Ives and the second largest is Helston ( 11,500) This constituency covers most of the former Penwith council area, a district council which was abolished in 2009 when Cornwall moved to a unitary model of local government, and which was named after the peninsula West of Penzance and could be an alternative name for this parliamentary constituency in a different time. This is a part of the world that is ‘quite a long time to get there’. It’s fully 4 hours on the train from Penzance just to get as far as Exeter. On the road from Penzance it is at least an hour to cross the Tamar and leave Cornwall and it is 2 hours to get to Exeter on a good day.
A trip around the coastline of this constituency takes one through many popular and well known tourist landmarks. Starting our journey in the South East and moving clockwise, we start at the Helford River a beautiful river creek with picturesque hamlets and a series of small inlets of rivers. Moving south we reach the Lizard Point- the most southerly point of mainland britain, and then turn westwards into the vast sweep of Mounts Bay. We pass Mullion Cove with its historic harbour, the seaside village of Porthleven and then arrive at Marazion. From Marazion one can cross to St Michaels Mount, by causeway at low tide or amphibious vehicle at high tide, to reach an island managed by the National Trust and a castle which has been home to the St Aubyn family since the 17th century. Back on the mainland with ( hopefully) dry feet one then passes through Penzance, the fishing port of Newlyn and the very picturesque harbour village of Mousehole ( pronounced Mouzel). Leaving Mousehole and travelling along the coast one reaches Lamorna, an isolated fishing cove, popular with the Newlyn school of artists. One then travels on to reach the lovely sandy beach of Porthcurno. Perched precariously on the cliffs above the beach is the open air Minack Theatre, an impressive amphitheatre dug out more or less by hand by Rowena Cade and a spectacular setting to watch a play or show. A few miles from the Minack we reach Lands End, the most Westerly point in England, and turn back along the north coast.
First passing through Sennen and its long beach exposed to the Atlantic and a surfers dream, then along the rugged north coast past Cape Cornwall and onto an eerie landscape of the remnants of tin mines in Poldark country. The Poldark Mine (named after the fictional Ross Poldark of Winston Graham's novels) has preserved much of its history beautifully. Perhaps the most famous of these tin mines was at Geevor and was operational from 1911-90 and is now a Museum and a Unesco World Heritage site. As we come to the end of our coastal trip we reach St Ives and then end the coastline of this constituency at Carbis Bay, venue for the G7 summit in 2021.
Whilst passing through Penzance and at Lands End one would probably have noticed transport leaving for the Isles of Scilly. The islands are an archaepelogo of about 100 islands, 5 of which are inhabited, 28 miles off the coast of Lands End. Transport to and from the islands is notoriously vulnerable to the weather and is expensive. The islander, traveller or holiday maker ( including this author) has the choice of a 2 and three quarter hour boat trip from Penzance, often requiring a sick bag, or a 15 minute helicopter or small plane ride, at the mercy of fog or high winds. It is the need to transfer ballot boxes from the islands back to Penzance that is often the reason for late declarations of results for this constituency. The islands are a beautiful place for walking ,relaxing and generally pottering around and have a population of about 2000. Amongst the beauty, the islands have some social problems, particularly the lack of affordable housing, low wages and a reliance on a seasonal tourism industry. The largest island - St Marys - has a population of about 1600 and the four smaller ‘off’ islands- Bryher, St Agnes, St Martins and Tresco each has a population of about 100. Local elections to the Islands council are almost entirely non political, so the only clues to island party politics that we have are islands results for Euro and PCC elections. The islands have tender to vote similarly to Cornwall as a whole with UKIP and then the Brexit Party topping the poll there in the 2014 and 2019 Euro elections respectively, and the Conservatives topping the poll in the 2016 and 2021 PCC elections.
St Ives itself (not to be confused with a settlement of the same name in Cambridgeshire) is an old fishing port, with good sandy beaches and a branch of the Tate Gallery, and is popular with second home owners. In the 2021 local elections the Conservatives won St Ives East and an Independent won St Ives West. Local elections in Cornwall still feature more independents than many parts of the country so extrapolating national results to local areas is more difficult here than in many places, but its likely that the Conservatives have carried St Ives in recent elections.
Penzance is notable for its promenade, port and being the setting of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera "The Pirates of Penzance". It is grittier than St Ives and has a certain end of the line charm to it- It is the end of the Great Western railway line. It has fallen on hard times in the 21st century, with the majority of Penzance being within the 10% most deprived LSOAs, and Penzance East has one of the highest unemployment rates in Cornwall. The Treneere estate is particularly troubled. Penzance East is normally a Labour voting division although in 2021 was won by a ex Labour Independent. The centre of Penzance has been represented by Independent Jim McKenna, who was the last chief Executive of Penwith District Council, since 2009 ( a popular council chief Executive!)
Helston is on the way to Lizard Point, and is a hilly market town. The 2 divisions in Helston elected a Conservative and an Independent in 2021. Helston is the gateway to the Lizard peninsula and is the most southerly town in Britain. RNAS Culdrose is near the town and is a major employer. It is also the home town of Andrew George, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate here for the last 8 general elections ( won 4, lost 4) and which gives him an advantage here.
As one might expect with a beautiful coastline this constituency has an older population profile, being in the top 50 constituencies nationwide for both the 50-64 ( 23.1%) and over 65 ( 28.1%) age groups and has a relatively low proportion of younger people. It is 66.4% owner occupied and 96.5% white. There is very little big business here way out west which is reflected by the constituency ranking 6th nationwide for the percentage of people employed in small enterprises.
In the boundary changes that came into existence for the 2010 general election, Cornwall was granted an extra constituency in the middle of the county, but the creation of which had knock on effects throughout the county and led to this constituency losing the town of Hayle and its surrounding area. This time the boundary changes in Cornwall consist of more minor tweaks. This constituency is currently about 1000 votes too small for a constituency in the 2023 review of boundaries but this is neatly solved by tidying up boundaries on the eastern constituency border to match local government division boundaries and moving about 1500 voters east of Helston into this constituency.
As well as its offering for the holidaymaker, this constituency has an interesting offering for the psephologist as a Conservative/Lib Dem marginal for some 40 years now. The Lib Dem’s are stronger in Penzance and Helston, the Conservatives in the more rural areas.
St Ives has, like most of Cornwall, changed hands between the Liberals/Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. Prominent past MPs include Walter Runciman, who was previously a key Cabinet minister under Sir Herbert Asquith (his wife Hilda was a Liberal MP for St Ives earlier), and John Nott, Defence Secretary during the Falklands War although his experience in said position during said conflict caused him to retire from Parliament in 1983, aged only 51, after his attempt to resign as Defence Secretary was not accepted. Mr Nott was also the last MP elected under the National Liberal label; the National Liberals formally dissolved in 1968 and joined the Conservative Party. Former Cornwall & Plymouth MEP David Harris succeeded him and served until 1997; he retired only to unsuccessfully seek selection elsewhere and that year the seat was won by the Liberal Democrats' Andrew George, who in 2005 became the first Cornish MP to swear his allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II in Cornish (Kernowek). Mr George proved to be a true liberal in many respects, opposing the creation of a Cornwall Unitary Authority and rebelling against the coalition government more than any other Liberal Democrat MP during the 2010-15 Parliament. By 2010 Andrew George had been effected by adverse publicity around expenses and Penwith councillor Derek Thomas decisively cut Mr George's majority to just 1,719 on a notional 10.4% swing, paving the way for him to gain St Ives in 2015. Messrs Thomas and George both contested the seat again in 2017 and 2019; Mr George missed out on regaining St Ives by only 312 votes in 2017, with the absence of a Green candidate helping him but the absence of a UKIP candidate benefitting Mr Thomas. In 2019, not helped by Brexit turning off many traditional liberal voters from voting Liberal Democrat (Eurosceptic liberalism is notably strong in Cornwall), the Conservative majority increased to 4,208, although tactical voting reduced Labour to its lowest ever vote share in St Ives, 6.9%, and kept the Green vote down to just 1.9%.
Andrew George, now aged 65, will seek to return to Westminster again in 2024 and he and Derek Thomas will face each other for the 5th time. The score is currently 3-1 to Derek Thomas but this is now the best Liberal Democrat target within 100 miles, and quite possibly the only realistic one. Andrew George would surely be very disappointed not to pull the score back to 3-2 and win this seat again in 2024.
The most south westerly constituency in Cornwall, ( and stretching out 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean- more on that later) and therefore England bears the name of the seaside town of St Ives. St Ives has existed as a constituency name since 1558. making it the longest continuously extant constituency in Cornwall. St Ives itself ( population 10,700) is actually the third largest town here. The largest is Penzance (21,000) which is double the size of St Ives and the second largest is Helston ( 11,500) This constituency covers most of the former Penwith council area, a district council which was abolished in 2009 when Cornwall moved to a unitary model of local government, and which was named after the peninsula West of Penzance and could be an alternative name for this parliamentary constituency in a different time. This is a part of the world that is ‘quite a long time to get there’. It’s fully 4 hours on the train from Penzance just to get as far as Exeter. On the road from Penzance it is at least an hour to cross the Tamar and leave Cornwall and it is 2 hours to get to Exeter on a good day.
A trip around the coastline of this constituency takes one through many popular and well known tourist landmarks. Starting our journey in the South East and moving clockwise, we start at the Helford River a beautiful river creek with picturesque hamlets and a series of small inlets of rivers. Moving south we reach the Lizard Point- the most southerly point of mainland britain, and then turn westwards into the vast sweep of Mounts Bay. We pass Mullion Cove with its historic harbour, the seaside village of Porthleven and then arrive at Marazion. From Marazion one can cross to St Michaels Mount, by causeway at low tide or amphibious vehicle at high tide, to reach an island managed by the National Trust and a castle which has been home to the St Aubyn family since the 17th century. Back on the mainland with ( hopefully) dry feet one then passes through Penzance, the fishing port of Newlyn and the very picturesque harbour village of Mousehole ( pronounced Mouzel). Leaving Mousehole and travelling along the coast one reaches Lamorna, an isolated fishing cove, popular with the Newlyn school of artists. One then travels on to reach the lovely sandy beach of Porthcurno. Perched precariously on the cliffs above the beach is the open air Minack Theatre, an impressive amphitheatre dug out more or less by hand by Rowena Cade and a spectacular setting to watch a play or show. A few miles from the Minack we reach Lands End, the most Westerly point in England, and turn back along the north coast.
First passing through Sennen and its long beach exposed to the Atlantic and a surfers dream, then along the rugged north coast past Cape Cornwall and onto an eerie landscape of the remnants of tin mines in Poldark country. The Poldark Mine (named after the fictional Ross Poldark of Winston Graham's novels) has preserved much of its history beautifully. Perhaps the most famous of these tin mines was at Geevor and was operational from 1911-90 and is now a Museum and a Unesco World Heritage site. As we come to the end of our coastal trip we reach St Ives and then end the coastline of this constituency at Carbis Bay, venue for the G7 summit in 2021.
Whilst passing through Penzance and at Lands End one would probably have noticed transport leaving for the Isles of Scilly. The islands are an archaepelogo of about 100 islands, 5 of which are inhabited, 28 miles off the coast of Lands End. Transport to and from the islands is notoriously vulnerable to the weather and is expensive. The islander, traveller or holiday maker ( including this author) has the choice of a 2 and three quarter hour boat trip from Penzance, often requiring a sick bag, or a 15 minute helicopter or small plane ride, at the mercy of fog or high winds. It is the need to transfer ballot boxes from the islands back to Penzance that is often the reason for late declarations of results for this constituency. The islands are a beautiful place for walking ,relaxing and generally pottering around and have a population of about 2000. Amongst the beauty, the islands have some social problems, particularly the lack of affordable housing, low wages and a reliance on a seasonal tourism industry. The largest island - St Marys - has a population of about 1600 and the four smaller ‘off’ islands- Bryher, St Agnes, St Martins and Tresco each has a population of about 100. Local elections to the Islands council are almost entirely non political, so the only clues to island party politics that we have are islands results for Euro and PCC elections. The islands have tender to vote similarly to Cornwall as a whole with UKIP and then the Brexit Party topping the poll there in the 2014 and 2019 Euro elections respectively, and the Conservatives topping the poll in the 2016 and 2021 PCC elections.
St Ives itself (not to be confused with a settlement of the same name in Cambridgeshire) is an old fishing port, with good sandy beaches and a branch of the Tate Gallery, and is popular with second home owners. In the 2021 local elections the Conservatives won St Ives East and an Independent won St Ives West. Local elections in Cornwall still feature more independents than many parts of the country so extrapolating national results to local areas is more difficult here than in many places, but its likely that the Conservatives have carried St Ives in recent elections.
Penzance is notable for its promenade, port and being the setting of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera "The Pirates of Penzance". It is grittier than St Ives and has a certain end of the line charm to it- It is the end of the Great Western railway line. It has fallen on hard times in the 21st century, with the majority of Penzance being within the 10% most deprived LSOAs, and Penzance East has one of the highest unemployment rates in Cornwall. The Treneere estate is particularly troubled. Penzance East is normally a Labour voting division although in 2021 was won by a ex Labour Independent. The centre of Penzance has been represented by Independent Jim McKenna, who was the last chief Executive of Penwith District Council, since 2009 ( a popular council chief Executive!)
Helston is on the way to Lizard Point, and is a hilly market town. The 2 divisions in Helston elected a Conservative and an Independent in 2021. Helston is the gateway to the Lizard peninsula and is the most southerly town in Britain. RNAS Culdrose is near the town and is a major employer. It is also the home town of Andrew George, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate here for the last 8 general elections ( won 4, lost 4) and which gives him an advantage here.
As one might expect with a beautiful coastline this constituency has an older population profile, being in the top 50 constituencies nationwide for both the 50-64 ( 23.1%) and over 65 ( 28.1%) age groups and has a relatively low proportion of younger people. It is 66.4% owner occupied and 96.5% white. There is very little big business here way out west which is reflected by the constituency ranking 6th nationwide for the percentage of people employed in small enterprises.
In the boundary changes that came into existence for the 2010 general election, Cornwall was granted an extra constituency in the middle of the county, but the creation of which had knock on effects throughout the county and led to this constituency losing the town of Hayle and its surrounding area. This time the boundary changes in Cornwall consist of more minor tweaks. This constituency is currently about 1000 votes too small for a constituency in the 2023 review of boundaries but this is neatly solved by tidying up boundaries on the eastern constituency border to match local government division boundaries and moving about 1500 voters east of Helston into this constituency.
As well as its offering for the holidaymaker, this constituency has an interesting offering for the psephologist as a Conservative/Lib Dem marginal for some 40 years now. The Lib Dem’s are stronger in Penzance and Helston, the Conservatives in the more rural areas.
St Ives has, like most of Cornwall, changed hands between the Liberals/Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. Prominent past MPs include Walter Runciman, who was previously a key Cabinet minister under Sir Herbert Asquith (his wife Hilda was a Liberal MP for St Ives earlier), and John Nott, Defence Secretary during the Falklands War although his experience in said position during said conflict caused him to retire from Parliament in 1983, aged only 51, after his attempt to resign as Defence Secretary was not accepted. Mr Nott was also the last MP elected under the National Liberal label; the National Liberals formally dissolved in 1968 and joined the Conservative Party. Former Cornwall & Plymouth MEP David Harris succeeded him and served until 1997; he retired only to unsuccessfully seek selection elsewhere and that year the seat was won by the Liberal Democrats' Andrew George, who in 2005 became the first Cornish MP to swear his allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II in Cornish (Kernowek). Mr George proved to be a true liberal in many respects, opposing the creation of a Cornwall Unitary Authority and rebelling against the coalition government more than any other Liberal Democrat MP during the 2010-15 Parliament. By 2010 Andrew George had been effected by adverse publicity around expenses and Penwith councillor Derek Thomas decisively cut Mr George's majority to just 1,719 on a notional 10.4% swing, paving the way for him to gain St Ives in 2015. Messrs Thomas and George both contested the seat again in 2017 and 2019; Mr George missed out on regaining St Ives by only 312 votes in 2017, with the absence of a Green candidate helping him but the absence of a UKIP candidate benefitting Mr Thomas. In 2019, not helped by Brexit turning off many traditional liberal voters from voting Liberal Democrat (Eurosceptic liberalism is notably strong in Cornwall), the Conservative majority increased to 4,208, although tactical voting reduced Labour to its lowest ever vote share in St Ives, 6.9%, and kept the Green vote down to just 1.9%.
Andrew George, now aged 65, will seek to return to Westminster again in 2024 and he and Derek Thomas will face each other for the 5th time. The score is currently 3-1 to Derek Thomas but this is now the best Liberal Democrat target within 100 miles, and quite possibly the only realistic one. Andrew George would surely be very disappointed not to pull the score back to 3-2 and win this seat again in 2024.
