Tag Archives: bristol west

The Voice

Why this Bristol student is backing Stephen Williams

By The Voice | Thu 7th May 2015 - 12:56 pm

Bristol University’s student newspaper, epigram, has a piece from Sarah Redrup explaining why she is backing the Lib Dems’ Stephen Williams when she heads to the polling station in Bristol West today:

It may seem strange to some that a 2012-entry student from an under-achieving state school has chosen to support the Liberal Democrats. There are several reasons why I believe, despite the tuition fee debacle, that the Liberal Democrats are a party that represent my interests as a student.

The policies that attracted me the most to the Lib Dems were those addressing the specific barriers to accessing university that I felt whilst at school. One of these is the Liberal Democrats’ 2010 manifesto priority, Pupil Premium , which directed funding towards children and students on free school meals, helping secondary schools like mine address serious attainment gaps.

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Caron Lindsay

So how worried should we be about the Ashcroft poll on Bristol West?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 25th April 2015 - 2:54 pm

Lord Ashcroft has released a further six constituency polls today. There is serious Liberal Democrat interest in only one of them – in Stephen Williams’ constituency in Bristol West. The results make depressing reading, showing Stephen in 3rd place behind the Greens. The figures, after they’ve been through Ashcroft’s magic manipulator, his not very transparent methodology.

Ashcroft Bristol West poll bar chart

 

As always he doesn’t use the candidate’s name, which makes no sense during an election. Let’s face it, the voters will be filling in ballot papers with the candidates’ names on them. Not only that, he doesn’t even name the constituency.

Party sources are quite bemused that Ashcroft hasn’t even tailored the poll to suit the seat. For example, with UKIP not a key player, he still asks if people have received literature from them. Yet the Greens are supposedly on 25% and he didn’t bother to ask if people had heard from them.

There’s also a feeling in the party that the truth on the ground isn’t as gloomy as the raw data would suggest for 3 reasons:

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