Say No To Nanny

Smokefree Ideology


Nicotine Wars

 

40 Years of Hurt

Prejudice and Prohibition

Road To Ruin?

Search This Site
The Pleasure of Smoking

Forest Polling Report

Outdoor Smoking Bans

Share This Page
Powered by Squarespace
« Robert Halfon, friend or foe? | Main | Nick de Bois, friend or foe? »
Saturday
Apr182015

Luciana Berger, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting my top 40 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has consistently supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is a consistent opponent of excessive regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions, like this one, I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#6 – Liverpool Wavertree
It would be a monumental surprise if former smoker Luciana Berger lost her seat. Having overcome local opposition to her selection in 2010, Labour's shadow health spokesman enjoyed a comfortable majority and if the Lib Dem vote collapses I expect her to win by a landslide this time. As readers know, I have a soft spot for Berger. I disagreed strongly with her advocacy of plain packaging and smoking in cars with children (and she is painfully 'on message' at times) but credit where credit's due - politically she played a blinder. After the election let's hope she's given a new job so she can wreak havoc elsewhere!

2010 majority: 7,167 (18.9%)
Estimated number of smokers in Liverpool Wavertree: 12,512*
Principal opponent: Liberal Democrats
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Impregnable

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>