Oliver Cooper Victorious in the East Midlands

Yesterday #thingselliottsays attended the East Midland’s Hustings. Here candidates for national and regional level had a chance to put across their views to the people of the East Midlands. Only 22 people voted (less for the regional level) in each of the polls casted after the candidate’s speeches and questions, there were 3 abstentions. However, I think that there was a good representation of people from the East Midlands and will give some impression % wise of how the votes will fall in the Region. The results are:

	Jacob Wilkinson	Richard Harris
East Midlands Chair	72.2%	27.7%

	Sarah Jane Sewell	Ellie Vesey-Thompson
Deputy Chairman Membership	57.1%	42.9%

	Robert Manning	Steve Canning
Deputy Chairman Political	75%	25%

	Oliver Cooper	James Deighton
National Chairman	59.1%	40.9%

All the candidates performed well in the debates and also stressed the idea of de-centralisation. Obviously not all the candidates were there for the national positions, but some of those who abstained would have voted for those who were not there.

3 things to me are notable. Firstly Sarah Jane Sewell has held her vote fairly well across the country. She definitely has got a core support in the region due to her work last year. James Deighton has also received a very high amount of votes, the highest so far in all hustings that has taken place. This is perhaps because he went to Leicester University, where the debate took place as well. Lastly Paul Holmes, although he wasn't there consequently depressing his support, has virtually no East Midlands presence. Even if we took all abstentions as votes for him he would be miles behind James Deighton. The mood on the ground for Paul Holmes is that, whilst every other candidate promises and is likely to bring de-centralisation, he would bring a massive centralisation of CF to London.

Clearly the Money in this region is on Oliver Cooper, Robert Manning, Sarah Jane Sewell and Jacob Wilkinson.