Bedfordshire South West: Where national, not local, will prevail
Stable, prosperous but unglamorous, Bedfordshire South West is the spiritual home of the ‘ordinary hard working family’ beloved by political leaders.
Just north of Luton, there is little of the radical about this constituency. It is made up of two semi-industrial towns of Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable, with a wide strip of agricultural land in between.
At the centre of the constituency is Leighton Buzzard, a pretty market town just west of the M1. Unlike some of the south’s market towns, which have turned into tourist destinations to cater for urban elites, the sounds and smells of the market are based around local pockets and needs. The traders still have local accents and offer cardboard boxes of fruit for £2, rather than premium organic food.
The population is predominantly white, with 77 per cent of the inhabitants owning their own homes, and is best described as skilled working class. Although the constituency was hit by the closure of Vauxhall’s Bedfordshire plant, the skilled workforce has encouraged other companies to relocate to the area and unemployment is low.
With the average nature of the seat, it is an unlikely political flashpoint, but the constituency has turned on its head twice. Formed in 1970, it took 85 per cent of the old constituency of South Beds, which had been held by the Labour Party for the previous four years. But the 1970 election saw a dramatic shift in electoral support with Conservative MP David Madel elected. As late as 1992 he held a majority of 17,340 over Labour.
But then came the 1997 Labour landslide and a second enormous swing saw the Conservatives hold on the seat by only 132 votes, increased in 2001 by current Conservative MP Andrew Selous to 776.
The loyalty of the electorate in Bedfordshire South West can clearly not be taken for granted.
Like other constituencies in the south east, the Government’s plans to build a million new homes have caused considerable disquiet, with real concerns about the current state of the infrastructure.
Labour’s candidate, community nurse and health visitor Joyce Still, accepts that the plans are “controversial” and “there should be adequate infrastructure introduced beforehand and it must be done sensitively”. However, she stresses that “people do need houses in which to live”.
If elected, she intends to push to bring forward the completion date of the proposed North Dunstable by-pass, linking the M1 to the A5, and currently due to open in 2011.
Traffic and congestion is an issue that crops up frequently in the constituency, with residents worried about heavy lorries thundering through the villages. If thousands of new houses are to be built, there are concerns that traffic could increase to unmanageable levels.
But Still believes there is a distinct possibility that the completion date for the relief road could be brought forward – something she says shows that Labour is prepared to address the question of infrastructure – with suggestions that the road may now be completed in 2008.
UKIP candidate Tom Wise MEP – who is hoping to capitalise on his party’s European election success in the Eastern region – says there is disquiet in the constituency at the plans for housing.
He says Leighton Buzzard is the biggest town in Britain without a hospital, that the schools are under pressure and there is a general “paucity of facilities, hospitals, schools and dentists”- which could be funded if the UK withdrew from the EU.
Wise says the constituency does not “have the infrastructure now” and “there is a need now, before all the green fields between here and Dunstable are concreted over.”
Andrew Strange, Luton councillor and Liberal Democrat candidate, says local people are worried about protecting their environment. On an immediate level, he says that the role of elected representatives is to “fight to make sure that the Government sticks to its promises” in terms of developing infrastructure.
On a wider level, Strange believes there has been a failure of development policy nationally with the Government “failing to develop proper policies to alleviate the pressures of housing” in the South East.
Beyond the relief road and housing, there are few local issues likely to swing this seat – no football clubs in crisis, no controversies over hospitals or schools – so all the candidates are concentrating on national messages.
Labour candidate Joyce Still says simply “it’s the economy” that will form the core of the party’s message.
Highlighting predominantly national themes like action on anti-social behaviour and investment in education, she stresses that unemployment in Bedfordshire has fallen, and says that themes like trust and Iraq have not been mentioned on the doorstep.
That is not the take of Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Strange, who places trust high on the agenda. Though the Lib Dems were a distant third in the last election, Strange is hoping to capitalise on the growing national profile of the Lib Dems and the disillusionment with some aspects of the Labour government. 
He believes that Labour’s support in the constituency has reached the “high water mark” and voters are looking for an alternative. The Lib Dem policy to scrap tuition fees is something he believes will have particular resonance.
Strange says that the skilled working class of region are the group most hit by the current funding set-up. “Though the middle classes are the most vocal on the issue, those hit hardest are those on lower incomes.”
He argues that in terms of social diversity the UK’s universities are actually “going backward” and stresses the fear that young people from average income backgrounds have of “starting working life with a massive burden of debt”.
Strange says that in Westminster it has been the Lib Dems, not the Conservatives providing the ‘real opposition’ and believes that with the prospect of a third term Labour government, people will look for an effective opposition.
A further squeeze to the Conservative vote could come from UKIP candidate Wise. He polled 1,203 votes here in 2001 and has since been elected as MEP for the Eastern region. If the fight between Labour and the Conservatives is tight, votes switched to UKIP could prove decisive.
Wise rejects any suggestion that a vote for UKIP would be wasted, or gift victory to Labour by reducing the Conservative vote. In the 2003 European elections “the vast majority of our votes came from people who were never involved in the electoral process before,” he says.
Tom Wise describes himself as a “Eurorealist” not a euro-sceptic, citing Peter Mandelson’s quip that a sceptic is someone who can be persuaded either way
While the Tories have hardened their line on Europe and promised to renegotiate treaties, Wise dismisses suggestions that there are now fewer reasons for people to vote UKIP.
Without a commitment to withdrawal Wise believes nothing can change, saying: “When you are in the European Union, you are run by the European Union, they are in charge.”
Europe, he says, is not a side issue but the issue. “The problem with both persuasions, Labour and Conservative, is that they have abdicated responsibility for running this country.
“Eighty per cent of our laws, the laws that are passed in Westminster are now originating in Brussels. They come either as regulations which have to be implemented without discussion in Parliament, or they come as directives which have to be rubber stamps and Parliament can not change a comma in that directive without unanimity from the other 24 countries.
“Until we get back control of our own destiny then we are going to be part of a vassal state, part of a superstate.”
“We are often called ‘L
