UK General Discussion

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Liberal seats, 1945-92

1945 - 12
1950 -   9
1951 -   6
1955 -   6
1959 -   6
1964 -   9
1966 - 12
1970 -   6
1974 - 14
1974 - 13
1979 - 11
1983 - 17 (23 Alliance)
1987 - 17 (22 Alliance)
1992 - 20 (as Liberal Democrats)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I didn't particularly like him (old fashioned Commie that he was), but he did a decent job for his members, so RIP and all that.

Anyway, the wave of insincere tributes from public figures/the media has been amusing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The word you're looking for is 'pretext'. Dafydd El has been semi-detached for years.

Still, the vitriol Plaid have directed at UKIP is probably not unrelated to the possibility of the party losing their MEP in the Euro Elections (which would be a huge blow to Plaid for various reasons).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sir Peter Tapsell, the Father of the House, has announced that he will retire at next year's General Election. He was first elected in 1959, gaining Nottingham West in one of the biggest upsets of the election. He was (predictably) defeated in 1964, but returned to the Commons for the safe Conservative seat of Horncastle in 1966 and has represented the general area (through various boundary and name changes) ever since. He has never held ministerial office.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The next Father of the House (assuming that he runs for re-election, doesn't die, etc) will be Sir Gerald Kaufman, who was first elected in 1970 and was the first to be sworn in of the remaining cohort of that year. The others (in order) are Ken Clarke, Michael Meacher, and Dennis Skinner. David Winnick was first elected as long ago as 1966, but he lost his seat in 1970 and didn't return until 1979.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Stephen Kinnock has been selected as the Labour candidate in Aberavon.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Good piece on Tony Benn, his influences and career - and how the one influenced the other - here. I.e. there's a reason why he sometimes came across as a latter day Old Testament Prophet.

It also features the following magnificent photo:

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Stephen Kinnock has been selected as the Labour candidate in Aberavon.

Is that a solid Labour seat? It would be great if we could export HTS to Wales (not that I have anything against the Welsh in particular, but still: Better them than us.)

Extremely safe: main town is Port Talbot (home to one of the biggest steelworks in Europe) and the rest of the constituency is mostly old mining towns. Labour since 1922 with a majority of 35.7% in 2010.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's being reported that he won selection by a single vote. Bet he's glad he had the Community endorsement.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

UK Coal is going to the wall, it seems. This likely means the end of the Kellingley and Thoresby collieries. All things considered this would be about two thousand jobs (probably slightly less) gone. Government has indicated that it won't help: if it were a bloody bank they'd probably be playing a different tune.

This will leave just Hatfield colliery, the many opencast pits, and the various driftmines.

Britain will, of course, continue to burn coal in its power stations. Imported coal. Which is insane from pretty much all perspectives. If you must burn coal, it makes sense (both economically and environmentally) to make it yours.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I would rather have eaten a razorblade sandwich than watch that...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ministers in this government have had a strangely limpet like quality: it's been obvious for a while that Miller's position was untenable, yet she clung on regardless. Of course it could be argued that the 'a scandal? OUT THE DOOR AT ONCE!' frequently taken by the previous government wasn't that healthy either.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

They didn't perform terribly in the 2013 county council elections, but they didn't perform terribly well there either. In a by-election caused by a scandal they'd throw the kitchen sink at it (of course), though Labour would also make an effort (parts of the town have a decent Labour vote and the constituency would have been Labour for part of the Blair era on present boundaries). Though presumably she's not going to quit as an MP.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, I can understand that.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nigel Evans found not guilty, therefore no Ribble Valley by-election.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Richard Hoggart, massively influential public intellectual and author of The Uses of Literacy, has died aged 95.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nigel always strikes me as solidly middle class in a dull suburban way.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Well, so have we. In the 1990s. And in the 1970s.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ridiculous: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035

[Filuwaúrdjan]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/01/patrick-mercer-tory-mp-worst-ever-breaches-rules

Some of the details are quite... oh wow...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No one votes based on PPB's so why take them seriously?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-27322837

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Andy Coulson found guilty, hurray. Tragically Brooks et al got off, but then juries always suck at this kind of thing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The ultimate source for many of the rumours is the late Geoffrey Dickens (Conservative MP for Huddersfield West 1979-83, for Littleborough & Saddleworth 1983-95) who was... well... a crank. Amongst other things he was a firm believer in the truth of the Satanic abuse nonsense that needlessly ruined so many lives in the late 1980s. He was also virulently homophobic, even for a right-wing Tory backbencher of the 1980s. Stopped clocks are, of course, right two times a day and obviously everything related to possible child abuse should be taken seriously, but: caution.