History made as Bournemouth elected its first Labour MPs

Tom Hayes and Jessica Jade Toale have been elected to be the MPs for Bournemouth.

Tom Hayes, who will represent Bournemouth East beat Tobias Ellwood, the previous Conservative MP, by 5,479 votes.

Mr Hayes has described the result as "phenomenal".

He added that his first step would be to set up his office in the heart of his constituency and recruit local people to help with issues.

He said: "Being able to represent Bournemouth East in parliament, fighting our corner for investment and attention, because the town desperately needs both."

Jessica Jade Toale, who has been elected for Bournemouth West, beat Conservative candidate, Conor Burns, by 3,224 votes

Sourced from BBC

Jessica said: "It's been an extremely long but positive campaign."

She spoke about her aims: "We've proposed to hire 13,000 community officers around the country and give them the powers that they need to tackle anti-social behaviour, I will certainly be fighting for our fair share."

As well as talking about the housing mission to 'Get Britain Building Again'.

She said: "Building 1.5 million homes over the next parliament and delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation, building these extra homes is the first part. Also making sure we introduce a rentals charter to make renting fairer and more affordable and doing things like banning no fault evictions as well."

Poole was too close to call and did a total of three recounts before announcing the final result.

Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour) won by just 18 votes.

Sir Robert Syms, the Conservative candidate, had held the Poole constituency since 1997.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Duncan-Jordan thanked the other candidates, as well as those working at the polling stations, the police and others involved in the electoral process.

He said: “But I tell you something, we’ve made history tonight."

He added: "The fact that I got in by 18 votes shows how important it is that you exercise your democratic right and get out there and vote."

While most the night was Labour dominated, Sir Christopher Chope, Conservative MP, managed to hold on to his constituency.

He held on to Christchurch winning by a massive 18,224 votes, he had a total of 28,887

Labour only had 7,762, meaning the Liberal Democrats came in second.

Full results:

Bournemouth East

Tobias Ellwood (The Conservative Party) 12,837

Tom Hayes (Labour Party) 18,316

Martin James Houlden (Reform UK) 6,268

Jon Martin Nicholas (Liberal Demoncrats) 3,082

Miles Penn (Social Democratic Party) 88

Joe Angus Salmon (Green Party) 2,790

Kieron Wilson (Independent) 1,529

45,054 ballot papers,

72,354 electorate,

143 rejected ballot papers,

a turnout of 62.27%

Bournemouth West

Ben Aston (Reform UK) 6,647

Conor Burns (Conservative and Unionist Party) 11,141

Jeff Hanna (Liberal Democrats) 4,311

Darren Jones (Green Party) 2,614

Jessica Jade Toale (Labour Party) 14,365

Julie Vivienne (Christian Peoples Alliance) 201

David Warden (Social Democratic Party) 139

39,555 ballot papers

70,259 electorate

137 rejected ballot papers

a turnout of 56.30%

Christchurch

Robin Thomas Adamson (Reform UK) 8,961

Christopher Robert Chope (Conservative Party) 16,941

Mike Cox (Liberal Democrat) 9,486

Susan Graham (Green Party) 1,900

Joanna Claire Howard (Labour Party) 7,762

Sasha Jolliffe Yasawi (Animal Welfare Party) 335

Simon Jonathon McCormack (Independent) 1,728

Trevor Parsons (Social Democratic Party) 59

Steve Unwin (UK Independence Party) 163

47,478 ballot papers

71,060 electorate

143 rejected ballot papers

a turnout of 66.81%

Poole

Leanne Barnes (UK Independence Party) 325

Joe Cronin (Independent) 698

Andrei Silviu Dragotoniu (Reform UK) 7,429

Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour Party) 14,168

Robert Andrew Raymond SYMS (The Conservative Party) 14,150

Oliver John Walters (Liberal Democrat) 5,507

Sarah Catherine Ward (Green Party) 2,218

44,642 ballot papers

72,509 electorate

148 rejected ballot papers

a turnout of 61.57%

All photos are taken by Cat Lindsay

Hate crime: the indirect effects

For the LGBTQ+ community hate and harassment are never far away. But for someone who has never been directly targeted, how do such incidents affect them?

For a more interactive experience of this article use this link:

https://buzznews.shorthandstories.com/hate-crime-the-indirect-effects/index.html

Carmilla Williamson first questioned her gender identity when she was 21 while doing a degree in Drama and German at the University of Kent. It took her two years to accept she was transgender. At 26 while volunteering as a Room Guide at Highcliffe Castle, where she lives, she started to socially transition.

Eight years on Carmilla has come to realise that she has been living as a transgender person for much longer. “Looking back, I was starting to show maybe some signs as a teenager but the whole concept of being trans was very remote to me.”

Carmilla admits she feels lucky that her friends and family were instantly accepting of her transgender identity. “I have not been a direct target of discrimination or any kind of transphobia.”

Yet although she is confident being her true self, there is a worry about harassment or assault because of who she is. “Even if we get through a whole day of not being on the receiving end anything, it still feels like we have because we will have played out those scenarios over and over again in our head as a kind of mental preparation for the possibility that it might happen.  It is exhausting, absolutely exhausting and I do not get why the fuck I should have to live like that.”

Does such anxiety ever dictate what Carmilla does or stop her going out?’

“It certainly makes me careful. I don’t think it would stop me because I think especially since living full time as my true self, and gaining a lot of confidence from that, it’s become a lot easier to just tackle things head on.” Whilst she is confident going out, while out with friends she feels a duty of care. “I would take it upon myself to almost be the ‘mum friend’ and protect them a bit.”

Another fear of Carmilla’s is how little help she might get if something happened to her and tried to report it.

Martyn Underhill is a former Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset Police and now lectures in criminology. As an LGBTQ+ ally, and someone who has been involved with policing for over 40 years he is adamant that no matter how small the incident you should always report it. “The only way politicians can steer the police, whether a Police and Crime Commissioner or the Home Secretary, is by knowing the extent of the problem. We need everyone reporting.”

Martyn recalls a time he met 20 disabled people. “I said to them how many of you here have received hate crime comments about being disabled?’ Every hand went up. Then I asked, how many of you reported to the police? One hand went up.”

“I think the numbers are scary and unless the police and other authorities know how big the problem is, they can't deal with it, says Martyn. He understands that trust in the police is very low, why would people report to a force they don't trust? Martyn admits the police need to rebuild trust with the public again.

So, if he were still the Police and Crime Commissioner what would he do?  “When I was the Police and Crime Commissioner, I commissioned a gay charity to be the third-party reporting arm of hate crime and the reason I did that is a lot of LGBTQ+ people do not trust the police. It made a huge difference. The report numbers doubled.”

In February 2024 I submitted 45 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on hate crime towards the LGBTQ+ community, for the last six years, to every police department in the UK.

In 2018, just over 3400 hate crimes were reported. In 2023 over 6600 were reported.

Martyn believes hate crime up because everybody is angrier since the pandemic. “Assaults have gone up. Public order offences have gone up, and everything involves bad-tempered people. When people are angry, they say things they're going to regret and that leads to more hate crime in all across all of the protected categories. I'm quite depressed by it, actually, but I don't know what we do to make people happier.”

Dorset Police’s statistics from the FOI requests were 154 reported but only 24 were arrested or charged in 2023. Martyn said that compared to some other crimes the figure is not as bad as it looks. “When you think police are solving 6% of burglaries and less than 1% of rape allegations. The numbers you've just given me is roughly 20 to 25%.”

Martyn explained the problems the police face in pursuing hate crime directed towards the LGBTQ+ community. “A lot of LGBTQ+ crimes happen late at night; the victim is often intoxicated. The offender is often intoxicated, it's very difficult to then locate that offender unless they’re on CCTV.”

Martyn said the other big problem is that a lot of anti LGBTQ+ hate happens online. “A lot of the social media companies are very slow at assisting police inquiries and by time you actually get the details of the person who made the homophobic comment, the victim quite often says ‘I've moved on’.”

Whilst there are challenges the police face with catching perpetrators, Martyn says is not creating excuses for the police.

Martyn also thinks the FOI responses do not reflect what’s actually happening. “154 LGBTQ+ hate crimes in 2023, I would estimate there's at least 1000 people who won’t report them.”

Knowing that hate crime has risen in the last five years has caused Carmilla to worry that she could be a target in the future. “It definitely causes my mental health to dip. It makes me very cautious at times and I always make sure I have contingency plans for a situation. I wouldn’t say it’s a constant paranoia, it fluctuates from day to day.” She adds: “It can be quite draining; you know having to expend all that energy constantly thinking about this. I have looked back and realised how many contingency plans I have come up with.”

Carmilla feels the general public could do a few things to support her community. “One thing that can be great for allies to do to help members of the community is to just treat us like people, I mean that’s all we really want is to be treated like everybody else"

Carmilla’s mum who also volunteers Highcliffe Castle has told her that her presence has helped to educate other members of staff about being transgender and the staff all now where pride flag badges all year round. “Even just wearing something like a pride flag badge, it’s a small but often quite a powerful gesture I find. Even without saying anything it’s conveys solidarity.”

This shows how important education is and Carmilla feels education needs to start as early as possible. “Again, in the name of normalisation and that goes for any kind of education about minorities in society. Yes, we only make up a small percentage of the population, but we are still people.”

Martyn agrees “if you're steering a tanker, it takes you about three hours to change direction. It takes a long time to change public attitudes. Education needs to be started early on at school. I'm a governor of my local school and hate crime is discussed with children who are six.” Martyn thinks Pride events educate too, “you're educating every time you do a parade.”

Martyn feels hate crime needs to be better understood “This great saying sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, they do. I've realised the offenders don't realise the huge damage they caused with one-off comment,” admits Martyn, who adds “you have no idea how your comments going to be received, so just don't make it.”

(Known as the five stages of grief, whilst people are not necessarily ‘grieving’ about minorities and allies standing up for themselves, but the journey to acceptance mirrors the stages of grief. Change to public attitudes takes years and often involves backlash, hate crime and hostility before it gets better.)

Even if someone isn’t directly targeted, Camilla says the knock-on effect of an incident can cause lasting damage to a transgender person’s life. “I would just ask, almost as a rhetorical question, why should we have to live like that? It’s a horrible way to live. No-one should have to live life that way”.

Martyn says there are several ways for allies to celebrate diversity on social media but also “go to gay-friendly venues. In Bournemouth there’s Flirt Café which is a massive beacon for celebrating diversity. It always sponsors the BourneFree pride events.”

On an individual level, one thing that can be great for allies to do to help members of the community is to just treat us like people, I mean that’s all we really want.

- Carmilla

Opening night for AUB Productions

Tonight is the opening for Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) Productions at the Palace Court Theatre in Hinton Road, Bournemouth.

Their first show is The Ballad of Maria Marten.

Photo taken by Cat Lindsay

2024 is the first time in 40 years, using the spaces that have been refurbished, the venue will host a full programme of educational and cultural events.

Head of Production at AUB Productions, said: “The cost for renovations to be £2.5million and has now cost them £20million.”

The Palace Court Theatre is a 1930s Art Deco building, situated in Bournemouth town centre.

Owned by AUB since 2020, it's being reactivated as a civic venue for educational and cultural engagement.

Our presiding vision is "Education by day and community by night".

Photo taken by Cat Lindsay

They originally thought they would be able to leave the building and simply take up the carpet but asbestos was found during renovations.

The team are also determined to make the theatre eco-friendly and sustainably run.

Photo taken by Cat Lindsay

Tax reliefs from the Spring Budget will permanently set at 40-45% which help the costs behind the scenes at the Palace Court Theatre.

Although post-election plans were unchanged from the Spring Budget, local governments are historically the biggest funder of the arts which could follow more cuts that could be disastrous for future public investment in the arts.