JimThere are ten wards in the Brentford & Isleworth constituency - Chiswick Riverside, Chiswick Homefields, Turnham Green, Brentford, Syon, Osterley & Spring Grove, Isleworth, Hounslow South, Hounslow Central and Hounslow Heath. Each ward has three seats on the London Borough of Hounslow.Although the ward map was quite radically redrawn, the boundary changes were fairly minor where the constituencies were concerned.The changes were imposed by the Boundaries Commission in attempt to make the wards more equal in size following demographic changes over the years. I am advised that this happens about every twenty years.Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Dakers has a good political brain and is a genuinely nice lad, but regrettably I cannot see his party mounting a realistic challenge to Ann Keen at the general election. Last time around the party was well down in third place with 13.5%, only a slight increase on its 1997 percentage. In the councils in 2002 not only did the Lib Dems not win any seats in the constituency, but they didn't come second in any of the wards either. Their best campaign at this end of the borough was in Syon (in which Andrew was one of the candidates), where following a tenacious campaign they came third behind Labour and the ICG but ahead of the Tories. The party's strength in the borough lies in the west, where it holds five seats and will hopefully improve on this in 2006.The last time the ICG and the Lib Dems went head-to-head was in a by-election in Hounslow South, where the two groups had received a similar number of votes in the council elections proper just five months previously. The result of the by-election was - Labour 866 votes (38%), ICG 657 votes (29%), Conservative 594 votes (26%), Lib Dem 165 votes (7%). The ICG candidate was one Paul Fisher.See http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/other/h-south/index.htm for a Lib Dem perspective on the result.
Phil Andrews ● 7452d