Politics
The town is generally seen as a conservative area, and this can be backed up by the fact that in the 2010 national elections Mark Prisk was elected for the Conservative Party with a majority of the votes cast (53.8%). Bishop's Stortford's constituency, Hertford and Stortford, covers many other settlements including Hertford. Caroline Spelman, the Conservative Cabinet Minister, is also from the town.
The most controversial political issue for the town relates to the expansion of Stansted Airport. A long-standing protest group called Stop Stansted Expansion vehemently opposes unsustainable growth at the airport and is wholly against plans for a second runway.
The town has a Youth Council that meets once a month. It is made up of students from the local schools, and many local and youth issues are discussed.
The International Monarchist League is based here.
In December 2011 the Conservative council of Bishop's Stortford voted 13 to 3 in favour of cancelling its twinned status with Friedberg in der Wetterau in Germany and Villiers-sur-Marne in France. It is thought that anti-EU sentiment within the grassroots Tory party was behind the vote.
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“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)