Falmouth & Camborne
Labour hold

Another terrific three way contest may be expected in Falmouth and Camborne, and the convoluted local politics of Cornwall offers little help from local or any other midterm election evidence to clarify the puzzle. It is one to be watched either locally, or if the journey to west Cornwall is too far, as the actual results come in on TV. With a Labour background and traditional support in both the port of Falmouth and the working class and gritty towns of Redruth and Camborne, one the centre of the Cornish tin mining industry but now presumably classed as rustbelt, this seat was held from its creation in 1950 to 1970, but then fell to a local Conservative, David Mudd, and then by a non-local Tory celebrity, the athlete Sebastian Coe. In 1997 many eyes were on the Liberal Democrat challenge of Terrye Jones, but she was outflanked by Labour's Candy Atherton , who benefited from the national situation to some extent to finished in the gold medal position. Nevertheless, Ms Atherton only increased the Labour vote by under 5pc, well under the national average in that country outside Cornwall. Both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat share went down, though. It was the minor parties that benefited. The Referendum party saved its deposit, and a man objecting to the all-woman shortlist under which the winner was selected stood as Independent Labour. Four others threw their hats in the ring too: a Mebyon Kernow Cornish Nationalist; UK Independence; a Liberal (not Lib Dem); and finally the only one of the nine candidates who actually stood as a Loony, and came last.

Candy Atherton, elected here in 1997, uncomfortably represents an isolated red Labour outpost in a Cornish sea of Liberal Democrat yellow, and with the Lib Dems threatening her seat she is no part of any tacit national Lib-Lab alliance against the Tories. Large and bespectacled, unlike her Lib Dem MP neighbours she has shallow Cornish roots. She was born in Surrey in 1955, was educated at Sutton High School for Girls, Midhurst Grammar School and North London Polytechnic, worked as a researcher for left-wing MPs Judith Hart and Jo Richardson. She was a Unison organiser, a probation officer and latterly a freelance journalist based in Wiltshire. She was unable to stop the closure of the last tin mine in her seat at South Crofty. Her would-be Lib-Dem nemesis comes in the shape of Julian Brazil, born 1964, a Bristol University graduate who works as researcher for the Truro Liberal Democrat MP, Matthew Taylor. The Conservatives - in what they hope is still a marginal they can win - have picked local radio presenter Nick Serpell, Plymouth-born in 1950, unmarried, educated at Saltash Grammar School and Hollings College, Manchester. He broadcasts on Truro-based BBC Radio Cornwall and previously worked, until made redundant, in food retail management with Spar and the Co-op in the South West. He opposes the euro "even if the leadership is pro" and wants a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 7.18% 14.99% 47.88 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 5.21% 2.13% 245.01 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 5.62% 2.49% 225.95 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 0.24% 4.43% 5.41 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 1.75% 7.27% 24.11 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 0.00% 2.56% 0.00 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.00% 2.04% 0.00 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 2.19% 3.94% 55.62 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 25.51% 13.04% 195.64 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 18.23% 12.70% 143.47 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 11.26% 8.14% 138.23 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 8.38% 4.02% 208.33 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 5.45% 3.19% 171.10 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 8.59% 11.31% 75.97 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 0.07% 3.06% 2.39 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 0.32% 2.52% 12.75 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.00% 0.06% 0.00

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 13.42% 9.41% 142.56 £5-10K 23.51% 16.63% 141.33 £10-15K 20.69% 16.58% 124.79 £15-20K 14.47% 13.58% 106.53 £20-25K 9.41% 10.39% 90.56 £25-30K 6.03% 7.77% 77.51 £30-35K 3.88% 5.79% 67.03 £35-40K 2.54% 4.33% 58.59 £40-45K 1.69% 3.27% 51.74 £45-50K 1.14% 2.48% 46.12 £50-55K 0.79% 1.90% 41.45 £55-60K 0.55% 1.47% 37.52 £60-65K 0.39% 1.15% 34.18 £65-70K 0.28% 0.91% 31.32 £70-75K 0.21% 0.72% 28.85 £75-80K 0.15% 0.57% 26.69 £80-85K 0.11% 0.46% 24.79 £85-90K 0.09% 0.37% 23.11 £90-95K 0.07% 0.31% 21.62 £95-100K 0.05% 0.25% 20.28 £100K + 0.20% 1.34% 14.66