Election 2012: Gabalfa, Cardiff

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I’m not really very political, but I thought it would be interesting to get a bit hyperlocal and see how much of a web presence my local wannabe counsellors have. (The actual hyperlocal blog for my area — heathlands.us — seems more interested in organising a street party and setting up a pirate radio station…)

Peter Law writing in WalesOnline says about the Gabalfa lineup:

A difficult ward to call. Lib Dem incumbent Ed Bridges is well regarded and increased his share of the vote four years ago. Labour has a lot of ground to make-up, but may well snatch one of the two seats up for grabs.

Based on their engagement online, these are indeed the only two parties who seem to have any interest in this little ward.

Ed Bridges & Gareth Holden (Welsh Liberal Democrats)

Team Gabalfa: Ed Bridges & Gareth Holden (Welsh Liberal Democrats) The Liberal Democrat Focus Team seem to be the most organised online, but they have been serving the ward for many consecutive years (Cllr. Cathy Pearcy is standing down this year after a decade representing Gabalfa).

Clare Jones & Gerald Crocker (Welsh Labour)

Clare Jones (Welsh Labour) Did you know that Harriet Harman visited Gabalfa earlier this year? Well I do now thanks to this active little blog (active compared with the competition anyway). Clare Jones also makes occasional use of Twitter.

Jonathan Owen Breeze & Purdey Miles (Welsh Conservatives)

Despite having two very distinctive names, I couldn’t dig up any kind of web presence for either of these characters. I’m not convinced they exist.

Brian Coman & Anthony Evans (Plaid Cymru)

Although they have a dedicated website for Plaid counsellors, no information about these candidates seemed to be available. I did unearth the neglected blog of a Marc Anthony Evans, who was a nursing student in 2008 and “interested in Politics and currently supporting Plaid Cymru […]. During 2007 I was very politically active helping Plaid Cymru with their campaign for the Welsh Assembly Elections.”

David Robert James Hamblin (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)

I could only find him on Facebook (he likes Orwell, Trotsky, Hendrix and The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

Ed Mason (Green Party)

Ed Mason (Green Party) The Greens do have some ward-specific social media presence (Cathays, Canton), but nothing for Gabalfa.

As a bonus though, I found this little biography (presumably written by Ed himself) on the Young Greens website.

Ed is a recovering Lib Dem, having left the party to join the Greens in September 2010. There was no one reason for him leaving – just general dissatisfaction with the party and the Greens being better – but the whole thing about tuition fees didn’t exactly help much.

He is taking part-time courses in German and Italian at Cardiff University, and before this finished an MA in Philosophy there. He’s really trying not to become a perpetual student – he’s on the dole looking for jobs, and everything – but unfortunately without much success so far.

When not doing more important things, he can usually be found wasting time on the Internet, or playing Mario Kart.

He’s got my vote!

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8 thoughts on “Election 2012: Gabalfa, Cardiff”

  1. Don’t forget you have TWO votes today – be sure to use them both (ideally for the Lib Dems, but I would say that…)

  2. I know it’s not the point of this post, but did you get any material thourgh the letterbox? Granted, they tend to be vague and it’s good to be able to find more on-line to see what the person might really be like and what he/she stands for. Sounds like the Green guy doesn’t take him self too seriously (a good thing?).

    I flirted (in a non-sexual way) with the idea of voting Green, but didn’t in the end. Had a chat with one of their cantidates in my ward, but he shot himself in the foot in the end by making a needless (and false) claim about one of the other parties.

    No idea what your current (or now former) Lib Dem coincillors are like, but in your ward I’d probably go for them just to keep Labour out. I’d wouldn’t like to see Labout have overall control of the council.

    The ever entertaining Dic Mortimer LONG piece about he doesn’t know who to go for.

    • I know we received a Lib Dem leaflet. If there was anything else, I missed it. We’re at a location where we don’t get any cold-callers either, so the web really is the best way for me to figure out what all the candidates are about.

  3. Rhys – I can assure you that we’ve delivered LOTS of election material…! Plenty of info also on what we’ve done in the area via the link in the story above. Fully agree that folk should vote for us to keep Labour out! :-)

    • Thing is, I haven’t work out a method of voting that keeps the whole lot of you out :-)

  4. Pingback: Election 2012: Gabalfa, Cardiff | Gabalfa, Cardiff

  5. To prove the world is small. Went to a meet the candidate evening here in Moscow (USA) where there was an American version of your Ed Mason. Ours traveled from Republican Party, through Libertarian and Green parties to trying to roost in our Democratic Party. This one was more driven and purposeful (that is, reactionary) I am sure than your wistful Mr Mason. It turns out this one is a self ordained minister with seven home schooled kids. I’m afraid he’s ready made for the American electorate. I hope your elections have turned out well.

    • Hi Lance, thanks for the comment! Your chap sounds like quite a character — far more driven than this Green chap (who ended up with 1% of the vote in a district where 75% didn’t bother to vote for anyone).

      The Liberal Democrats ended up keeping our ward. Party politics aside, they seem like a pretty good team, so I guess we’ll be fine. :)

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