Beatrice Quarshie
It’s a Conservative Loughborough! Are you surprised?
The story so far: Conservatives won the national majority with 331 seats to Labour’s 232. Closer to home Nicky Morgan was able to hold onto her seat as MP for Loughborough with the Conservatives holding a 49.5% share of the polls. Label has been around campus seeing how students feel about Loughborough remaining a Conservative constituency.
Here are their thoughts:
“Not at all. I believe the Conservative candidate was the best spoken of the candidates and gained my trust in the process. She sounded like she knew what she was about.”
John Mone, 1st Year Computer Science Student
“I suppose it’s not a huge surprise the Tories won, but I thought more students would vote for labour because they were planning to scrap tuition fees.”
Michaela Painter, 1st Year Automotive Engineering Student
“Not really because I think we’re a university that is highly middle class and I think that is linked with the sporting aspect and heritage of the university so it’s not a huge surprise we’re still a conservative run constituency.”
3rd Year Geography Student
‘The results of the constituency of Loughborough were not massively surprising when you do the proper research behind them. The surrounding constituencies: Rushcliffe, NW Leicestershire, Charnwood and Rutland & Melton have all been predominantly Conservative constituencies for at least a decade; this is also the same case for Loughborough itself. Regarding my happiness with the results for the entire general election; I must say I am somewhat undecided. I did indeed vote Conservatives, however, I personally wanted a coalition like we have had for the past 5 years. The thought of one party’s ideals being in control of the country is quite scary. Especially when you think about the representation of the views of the entirety of the United Kingdom. The conservative party received just under 37% of the nation’s votes. This is something that is not necessarily what I would consider a majority. The only real way you can look at the opinion of the entire nation is if everybody votes; and unfortunately, approximately 23 million people did not in this General Election.”
Alex Cottle, 1st Year Social Psychology Student
For some the surprise or unwanted truth of Loughborough remaining conservative was harder to accept.
“It’s very easy to sit in a house you bought when it was cheaper with money from a graduate job you got with your degree, (for which you paid significantly less than you would now) and tell people to stop whinging or that “fair is fair”. The reality is that this result means the next 5 years are going to be tough for a lot of people, and not the sorts of people who are necessarily going to be well equipped or prepared to deal with it. This [Friday] morning a lot of people will wake up scared.”
Ben Deadman, 2nd Year Communication and Media Studies Student.
Most people mistakenly assume that Loughborough is a student run town. It is also assumed that all students are against the Conservatives because they increased tuition fees. It is important to remember that in this town of 60,000 residents the student population makes up approximately 16,000.
There is clearly a feeling of upset with the Conservatives holding onto their seat felt by some, however not as bad to go the levels that are being experienced in London with protestors storming Tory HQ due to their upset with the Tories staying in power…
Photography courtesy of Dan Leedham, Liam Cooke and Mark Rennie
