Lib Dems outspent Tories in South East Cornwall

South East Cornwall's Liberal Democrat candidate, Karen Gillard, outspent her Tory conqueror Sheryll Murray by £33,625.26 to £31,146.73. I wonder if the activists who worked hard to raises these sums would have been quite so active if they had known that a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition was just around the corner. Even with Labour failing to make any contribution at all to the "election economy" here, the total campaign spend in South East Cornwall was £71,345.94.

The best value candidate so far...

is Michael Sparling, Labour, South East Cornwall. I've called him to ask how he got through the entire "long" and "short" general election campaigns (ie before and after the official starting gun was fired) without spending any money at all. Waiting for a call back.

Labour's Janet Hulme, North Cornwall, spent only £640, which make her 1,971 votes look pretty good value at 33 pence each - except that she lost her £500 deposit, which raises the price to 58 pence each. Still the cheapest cost-per-vote in North Cornwall.

It's going to take a while to blog every detail so please check back at least once a day.

St Austell & Newquay cost per vote

Dick Cole (Mebyon Kernow) spent £4,708.20 for 2,007 votes - £2.35 each
Caroline Righton (Conservative) spent £40,968.07 for 18,877 votes - £2.17 each
Steve Gilbert (Liberal Democrat) spent £33,852.39 for 20,189 votes - £1.68 each
Clive Medway (UKIP) spent £947.50 for 1,757 votes - 54 pence each
James Fitton (BNP) spent £400 for 1,022 votes - 39 pence each
Lee Jameson (Labour) spent £1,208.75 for 3,386 votes - 36 pence each

These figures represent only campaign expenditure and do not include the £500 election deposits, payable by all candidates but lost in the cases of Dick Cole, Clive Medway and James Fitton.

Caroline's magic bus

Fasten your seat belts for a series of reports on how general election campaign funds were spent in Cornwall. For example, according to Caroline Righton's declaration of expenses, her campaign bus cost just £3.71 per day. At that price we should all have one.

Caroline's agent, Bob Davidson, tells me that this £3.71 was just the fixed cost of running the vehicle at 40 pence/mile from 2008 and that once the official "long campaign" period kicked in, the declared costs increased to more like £20 per day. Still remarkably cheap, given the distances travelled. And perhaps just as well - the £40,968.07 she spent in her unsuccessful campaign to become the Conservative MP for St Austell & Newquay was just £1,663.57 within the statutory limit.

Caroline's 18,877 votes cost £2.17 each. Compare with Labour's Michael Sparling in the neighbouring South East Cornwall constituency: Michael claims to have spent nothing at all. Not a penny. His return declares a big fat zero. I know Labour wasn't trying very hard in some parts of Cornwall but that really takes "not trying" to a whole new level. His 3,507 votes therefore look remarkably good value.

A notebook full of data, and more constituencies to examine. But this looks like it was time well spent. More soon.

Who spent what to get your vote

On my way to Liskeard to start looking at the declared returns of general election expenses. These are not held centrally, nor published on-line, so inquiries might take a few days. I hope the story's worth it!

Rural bus routes next up for the chop?

The Bus Service Operator Grant, worth £500 million to local councils, is now apparently under review. If it's scrapped completely (a possibility) then one route in 14 will have to be withdrawn, as fares rise by 6.5 per cent. As usual, questions are on their way to County Hall about what this means for Cornwall...

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