Who would you have supported? British party leadership contests.

[afleitch]

Pick and choose

Conservatives (all candidates to in 1st, 2nd etc ballots)

1965: Edward Heath, Reginald Maudling, Enoch Powell

1975 : Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Hugh Fraser, William Whitelaw, Geoffrey Howe, James Prior, John Peyton

1989: Margaret Thatcher, Anthony Meyer

1990: Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine, John Major, Douglas Hurd

1995: John Major, John Redwood

1997: Kenneth Clarke, William Hague, John Redwood, Peter Lilley, Michael Howard

2001: Michael Portillo, Iain Duncan Smith, Kenneth Clarke, Michael Ancram, David Davis

2005: David Davis, David Cameron, Liam Fox, Kenneth Clarke


Labour Party:

1955: Hugh Gaitskell, Aneurin Bevan

1960: Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson

1961: Hugh Gaitskell, Anthony Greenwood

1963: Harold Wilson, George Brown, James Callaghan

1976: Michael Foot, James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins, Tony Benn, Denis Healey
Anthony Crosland

1980: Denis Healey, Michael Foot, John Silkin, Peter Shore

1983: Neil Kinnock, Roy Hattersley, Eric Heffer, Peter Shore

1988: Neil Kinnock, Tony Benn

1992: John Smith, Bryan Gould

1994: Tony Blair, John Prescott, Margaret Beckett 

[afleitch]

1965: Edward Heath
1975: William Whitelaw
1989: Margaret Thatcher (I wouldn't quite want to commit political suicide )
1990: Michael Heseltine
1995: John Major
1997: Kenneth Clarke
2001: Michael Portillo
2005: David Cameron

[afleitch]

Eric Heffer was the leftwing M.P for Liverpool Walton from '64 until his death in the early '90's. Strongly religious IIRC.

He was active during the early 1970's and, quite literally headed in the opposite of contemporary Reg Prentice who [hack] heroicly [/hack] crossed over to the Conservatives in 1977. IIRC he was not a fan, to put it mildly of the Lib/Lab pact

And here is walking out of Kinnocks infamous conference speech

[afleitch]

Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea; Heffer wasn't a supporter of Militant. He walked out because he felt that his adopted home City was being unfairly attacked by Kinnock.

Thats true; 'scuttling round in taxis' 'grotesque chaos' etc did seem quite focused on Liverpool rather than the Militants on the whole and as far as I'm aware he was not made aware of the context of the speech before hand

[afleitch]

Not to hijack the thread...but is there anyone in the UK who adores Thatcher?

It seems that Reagan's far more popular in the US than Thatcher is in the UK (probably an understatement I know)...but why?

Adore? No.  Admire- increasingly so.