Hayes and Harlington gain from Conservative Terence Dicks 0 ( 0.0%) 11,167 (27.2%) 25,458 (62.0%) 3,049 ( 7.4%) 0 ( 0.0%) 1,417 ( 3.4%) 56,829 41,091 (72.3%) Terence Dicks Hayes and Harlington 44 ( 0.1%) 19,511 (44.9%) 19,467 (44.8%) 4,477 (10.3%) 0 ( 0.0%) 0 ( 0.0%) Conservative 58,655 43,455 (74.1%) -17.7% +17.2% -2.9% +0.0% +3.4% -3.1% -1.8% If one travelled the streets of the west London marginal constituency of Hayes and Harlington during the days before the April 1992 election, one would have thought that Labour was on target to make a vital gain. Every fourth house or so sported a poster for the Labour candidate John McDonnell. Very few proclaimed 'I love Dicks', the rather engaging slogan for the sitting right wing Tory MP Terry Dicks. Yet, when the votes were counted, Dicks had been returned to Westminster by the slender margin of 53 votes. Perhaps Conservatives had been reluctant to flout publicly the 'politically correct' line that holds that Labour support is based on caring values, while Conservatism is associated by some with economic self-interest. This may be associated with the same reasons why the opinion polls consistently underestimated the Conservatives' chances in the general election as a whole. The Tories' ability to win Hayes and Harlington shows how they have won general elections since 1979. This is not a glamorous seat, but a gritty lower middle-class and working-class part of west London, around Heathrow Airport, with a substantial non-white population, mainly Sikh. The Conservatives are tipped not to win the next general election, and in that case they certainly would not win Hayes and Harlington either. Terry Dicks is not standing again, and this time a majority of the voters really might 'love' John McDonnell. 0 0.00 9.03 0 57 0.18 11.17 2 5,680 17.57 11.25 156 5,350 16.55 14.70 113 10,693 33.07 10.45 317 0 0.00 2.81 0 2,559 7.92 8.01 99 3,316 10.26 15.25 67 2,721 8.42 7.13 118 912 2.82 10.17 28