I NOTE that rumblings from the last general election continue to reverberate.

Now that the dust has settled, presumably both Labour and the Tories have held inquests into their varying fortunes within Stroud.

I know that many would like to know the outcomes.

I correctly forecast in the SNJ the outcome of the last two general elections, but am frankly baffled by the recent Stroud result.

On the surface Stroud is a typical semi-rural Cotswold constituency that one would consider staunchly Conservative but which has voted Labour in four of the past six elections.

Stroud was 40th on Labour’s list of target seats that it needed to form a government.

Dr Richard House, who I guess will answer for Labour, will probably say that it was Labour’s core message that was deciding factor for Stroud voters. However that does not explain why that message was not heeded by most of the other 39 target seats which had lesser Conservative majorities.

Or why hitherto staunch Labour constituencies such Mansfield voted Conservative for the first time in its history.

The Stroud Conservatives cannot blame the result upon a large immigrant community which traditionally vote Labour, or a vast industrial heritage that have always voted Labour or even a university campus where the students have used their digs as voting address to collectively vote Labour.

Labour could claim that the Conservatives were cockily arrogant in thoughts of retaining seat, so much so that their candidate went canvassing in Cheltenham and failed to totally commit in Stroud.

But against that he increased the size and percentage of his count from 2015.

Like I earlier wrote, I’m baffled and can only think the Stroud result was a rogue one that happens at every general election.

Tom Newman

Stroud