Wasted On The Young?

Not only have the Tories of safe Labour Swansea East selected a candidate with the slenddid name of Christian Holliday, but 19-year-old Nick Varley was selected yesterday to contest City of Durham. He grew up in nearby Chester-le-Sreet, and has lived in the constituency itself for the last couple of years, and is a second year law student at Hull.

Labours Roberta Blackman-Woods has a majority of 3,274 over the second-placed Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives are in third place with 9.4 per cent of the vote and Nick would require a swing of over thirty per cent to win the constituency. The seat last had a Consevative MP in 1922.

But that's the student Tories at Durham out of the campaign at Tynemouth, and those at Hull out of the campaigns in any Yorkshire marginals. They'll be trying to get young Varley in, which they won't.

MPs are getting younger, of course. Funnily enough, that trend has coincided with Peers' getting older. Hereditaries would quite often inherit in their thirties or even twenties, quite often take their seats at 21 having inherited in childhood or adolescence, and occasionally even do so having inherited at birth as posthumous sons.