Discovering why Dudbury was the most boring town in Britain Dudbury Constituency profile by Dr Robert Waller, author of The Almanac Of British Politics Some observers have characterised the county of Yornshire as dour, but a better social, economic, political and psephological description would be average. The mean is associated most of all with Yornshire's Middle Riding, and most of all with the compact constituency of Dudbury, whose electorate is so close to the national norm that for the third time in a row it has eluded the interest of the Boundary Commissioners, being almost exactly the typical size for a parliamentary seat. It also has almost exactly the national average of professional and managerial workers (although with a slight excess of white collar clerical workers, particularly in the civil service and elsewhere in the public sector); of owner occupiers, slightly biased towards those buying semi-detached suburban housing stock with the aid of a mortgage; and of pensioners and young voters. This last factor is somewhat surprising, given one of the few controversies that have disturbed dormitory Dudbury's stable, some might say stagnant, political patterns in recent years. The local by-laws, established by both major parties in Dudbury, prohibiting many forms of sport and entertainment such as cycling, ball games, swimming and dancing earned Dudbury elders the reputation of 'killjoys', a little like the former image of Frinton-on-Sea in Essex (Harwich, now Clacton constituency), and gave Dudbury the dubious distinction of being named 'Britain's dullest town' (in succession to Grantham) in Rave magazine. Another local issue has been the lack of hospital staff. A bleary eye also needs to be kept on the state of Dudbury's main industrial enterprises, the manufacture of Nightol, Moggadon, and Vallicum. For all its calm or somnolent political demeanour, Dudbury has traditionally been a two-party Preservative - Laboratory marginal, having been successively represented by Bertram Wooster (Preservative) and Reginald Jeeves (Laboratory), who fairly conventionally themselves represented two sides of the old-fashioned employer/employee cleavage. Laboratory has traditionally done well in the wards of Dyson Perrins, Cavendish and Rutherford, while the Preservatives have overwhelmed them in their two strongholds of Aspick and Creosought. The only marginal Laboratory/Preservative ward has usually been Formal-de-Hyde. However in the most recent general election there was more of a roar from the electorate, stirring its stumps with the success of one of several independent candidatures (following that of H'Angus the Monkey in the Hartlepool mayoralty). Harry Bear took the seat for the newly-formed Fur Play party - a rare example of ursine power, as Teddy Boys in the 1950s were mainly too young to vote. Polling particularly strongly in St Rupert, Cowallah and Grisley wards, Bear nosed past the older parties by a whisker, and once elected, may use his incumbency advantage to bear up and bed in, offering comfort to many newly awoken voters, especially those young in age or spirit.