The Conservative Kennet Valley

Following yesterday's General Election in the UK, all of the constituencies through which the River Kennet flows are now Conservative territory.

Flowing down the valley, the Devizes constituency has a first time MP in the shape of Claire Perry, who has inherited this safe seat from Michael Ancram, and increased her party's share of the vote to over 55%.

Downstream in the neighbouring Newbury constituency, the incumbent MP Richard Benyon has similarly entrenched his position, with a 7.4% increase in vote share giving him 56.4% of the total votes cast.

In Reading West, Labour MP Martin Salter stood down and handed the seat to the Conservative's Alok Sharma, who has hammered the previous party positions into reversal with a 9.6% increase, taking over 43% of the vote.

Long standing Wokingham MP John Redwood continued the trend of Conservative improvement by increasing his share of the vote by 4.6% to take 52.7% of ballot papers cast.

In Reading East 2005 first time MP Rob Wilson substantially improved on his previously slim majority by taking 42.6% of the vote, 6.9% up on his previous share.

What does this all mean for access to and navigation of the River Kennet?  Probably no change in the status quo of attempted restriction...   so paddling continues as normal.