As Helen Duffett’s Lib Dem Voice council election results round-up highlighted, the Lib Dems last night gained a seat from the Conservatives — in a seat that might have been thought to be True Blue territory, Eton and Castle ward in the Berkshire borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.
Congratulations to George Fussey! Here’s how the BBC reported it:
Mr Fussey won on Thursday night with 208 votes, beating Tory candidate Adam Demeter who had 182 votes. … Mr Fussey has lived in Eton for 25 years and is also a governor at Windsor Girls’ School. He is the second Liberal Democrat to join the royal borough, which is otherwise made up of 50 Conservative councillors, four independents and one councillor representing a residents’ association.
Another step along the road to converting Etonians to the Liberal cause…
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8 Comments
You can find out more on the ALDC website: http://www.aldc.org/elections/by-elections-commentary/2467/12/08/2011/Tories_Eton_alive
you could say that the Tories messed it up!
Sorry to be a more downbeat voice – whatever happened to our hugely strong position in Windsor and Maidenhead 10 years ago? By 2005 Maidenhead was a target Parliamentary seat. All gone. Why?
Yes, very well done to those who fought and won Eton and Castle, which may be the first time ever (?) but the context is a microcosm of some of the disasters that have befallen the party over the last few years.
Eton & Castle ward was LD from 2003-2007.
What happened in ’07 was serious infighting within the local party and meant no time to take on the Tories.
Thanks, Harry. Was that just personal / power struggle, or did it have a policy edge?
Before we allow the author to get carried with hubris, we won Eton and Castle in 2003, lost it in 2007, before being annihilated (bar one) in 2011 across the whole of W&M.
With such a local candidate we should have won this time. The good news is that he agreed to stand and fight. Hurrah!
I’m afraid I had been misinformed (I wasn’t even a member in 2007). Sorry for being unintentionally misleading. It was in fact that the Windsor party didn’t do enough early enough and were up against a very well organised Tory party.
I think the Maidenhead side of the District has been stronger anyway – Windsor was never, I don’t think, ever a likely Parliamentary win, whereas Maidenhead was. So, do I understand that it was mainly in the mayhem of this May’s elections where we lost most of our Councillors, David?