MORE readers’ constituency reports with the election campaign in its last week. See below for how to submit your own report on the choice of candidates you have, which of them you plan to vote for and why, what you think of their chances and your stance on Brexit.
CEREDIGION, West Wales
Outgoing MP: Ben Lake (Plaid Cyrmru)
Michael Wood writes: Ben Lake was elected for the first time in the 2017 election. He beat incumbent Mark Williams of the Liberal Party by just over 100 votes.
It’s usually a straight fight between the Liberals and Plaid. Labour and Conservatives fight for third and fourth places. The Greens and Labour make up the also-rans.
In 2017 we also had a UKIP candidate which gave me someone to vote for as I am a member of the local UKIP branch. This time there is no UKIP candidate but we do have a Brexit Party representative and I will vote for him.
The Brexit Party candidate is Gethin James, who was originally the UKIP candidate in the Welsh Assembly elections of 2016. He was also the chairman of the local UKIP branch. He has now defected to the Brexit Party.
Gethin worked for Nathan Gill (UKIP MEP and Assembly member) and when the Brexit Party was formed in April this year Nathan defected to the Brexit Party along with at least three other UKIP members. I think UKIP started with eight members in the Assembly
but two defected almost immediately to the Conservatives and then the four this year. There is now only one UKIP Assembly member and that is Neil Hamilton. Opportunists the lot of them!
This election will be another Lib Dem/Plaid contest.
MORAY
Current MP: Douglas Ross (Conservative) Majority 4,159
John Mitchell writes: Moray was undoubtedly one of the biggest scalps in Scotland on election night in 2017 as the SNP’s former Westminster leader Angus Robertson and the SNP were defeated, and a Conservative MP was returned for the first time since 1983. Douglas Ross voted twice for May’s WA after initially opposing it and was one of the few to support Mark Harper in his leadership bid before switching to Boris.
In terms of the EU referendum, Moray is interesting for the fact that it was the closest-run constituency with Remain winning by 122 votes. Fishing is one of the three main industries in the area. The SNP opposed entering the Common Market in the 70s but have done a volte-face on the EU and its aims.
Despite SNP bravado, over a million voted to leave in Scotland. I will likely vote Conservative at this election because I do genuinely fear a Corbyn SNP alliance that will result in a further two referendums. I still have significant concerns about Boris’s deal, which is 95 per cent the same as May’s, and he has thrown Northern Ireland under the bus, among many other negatives such as ties to the EU defence union. That said, the Conservative offering is still better than the other mainstream parties which, should they get their chance, will carry on with this torturous cycle of stagnatio, causing more bitterness, anger and division.
The seat is a toss-up between the SNP and the Tories but I see it as leaning slightly towards a Conservative hold as that’s the only viable option for people that are sick and tired of referendums, and I believe that most people probably are.
Besides the Conservatives and the SNP, the Lib Dems, Labour and UKIP are standing in the seat.
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