UK MPs - 2015 Parliament

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Think you mean Ron Brown (Edinburgh Leith) though it was 1988 not 1990.

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He was later found guilty of criminal damage after trashing the flat of his ex mistress, though was found not guilty of stealing her underwear.

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The answer to that conundrum is that Bottomley is a deeply weird man with many contrary tendencies. Like Jeremy Corbyn he hails from Newport in Shropshire.

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Is Bristol no longer in the West Country? Have you heard them speak?

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It was once suggested of Brazier that in his army days he had taken on parachute drop too many and landed on his head. I think that about sums him up.

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Brokenshire is one of the most blatant careerist hacks in the Commons, and that's saying something. He's just beyond awful. The time he spent in the 2005-10 parliament desperately searching for a new seat and losing selection after selection was amusing, but then fat venal twat Derek Conway outdid himself in the venal twat stakes and...

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Leeds East has tended to pick candidates from the Right (there is a significant Irish Catholic element to the CLP) so Burgon's selection was kind of interesting. Anyway, he's one to watch.

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Burden used to have a substantial personal vote (because of efforts wrt trying to save Longbridge), but I'm not sure if he does now: getting a bit long in the tooth and his interests have strayed a long way from his constituency. As such I was briefly worried about Northfield on election night given results elsewhere and its super swingy history, but for no reason as it happened.

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UKIP doesn't do factions in the usual sense because it is a personality cult. Most of its members (wherever you go) are cut from the same cloth though: middle aged to elderly, white, and while not rich not badly off either (which, come to think of it, isn't a million miles away from their voter profile even if - like all parties - the average member is better off than the average voter). A high proportion of rejects from other parties as well, of course. Carswell is an exception to this pattern. I suspect that he's technically part of their youth wing.

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Noted fruitcake.

Anyway, his current constituency includes a big chunk of the one he held before the 1995 boundary review: a completely different setup for Staffs. was drawn for both 1983 and 1995 for some reason.

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A very unorthodox and idiosyncratic figure and about as far away from being a typical politician as you're likely to find; quite the contrast with her predecessor, fair to say. Has campaigned heavily on the already mentioned abuse issue. She was one of the MPs who featured heavily in Michael Cockerell's recent (excellent) documentary about the Commons - in which we learned that shortly after she was first elected she was informed that she had 'unparliamentary hair' - and she came out of it very well. First elected at a by-election triggered by the resignation of Denis MacShane* and was chosen as the Labour candidate from a shortlist drawn up to make sure that certain local persons were not selected (which turned out to be an excellent call on the part of the NEC). Previously worked in arts and hospice administration, which is an interesting combination.

_{*Who managed to be convicted of criminally fiddling his expenses despite not benefiting from doing so personally. One suspects that only MacShane could have managed this remarkable feat.}

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Fun fact: Blair fired her from her frontbench post in 1995 because of her pro-Kurdish activism. She was also the first woman to be elected for a Valleys constituency (at a by-election in 1985).

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There was a clear pattern of voters who would otherwise have voted Tory voting LibDem in some seata where Labour were menacing a LibDem incumbent.

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Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)

Former GMTV correspondent. Despite being a Blairite she is currently Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration. Won election to the Conference Arrangements Committee along with another politician who was a minor celebrity prior to entering politics - Michael Cashman.

Not sure if Blairite is exactly accurate even if she's very much on the Right; she is obviously one of Watson's people in ShadCab.

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Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)

Holds a ministerial position at the defence department. Like Jacob Rees-Mogg he very vaguely resembles Peter Mandelson.

My sh!t MP. One of the richest members of the Commons and one of the dullest: he's such an obscure non-entity that he's almost famous for being one. He's the scion of a local squirearchal dynasty (father was Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, grandfather and greatgrandfather were both briefly MPs, though not for seats anywhere near where they actually lived) and was a businessman before entering politics (he owned the Ottaker's bookshop chain - and made a packet from selling it off - and was also a stockbroker. He continues to have extensive business interests) and I'm sure you'll all be shocked to learn that he went to Eton and then Oxford (where, equally shockingly, he studied PPE).

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Not really what happened. The seat was Tory from 1886 until 2001 and was only lost (and narrowly) then because the Tories picked a sh!t (and non local) candidate who a) ran a lazy campaign and b) alienated a surprising number of traditional Tories (not because of his views, they were ultra-Right and that's not an issue for Shropshire Tories, but because of his manners dear boy). The LibDem candidate was from a traditional Tory family and a lot of that sort voted for him, because they knew him and thought him to be a solid fellow, etc.* As soon as it became clear that there was a race on, Labour supporters found it very easy to lend their votes. The latter was still the case in 2005, but Dunne was a much stronger candidate (as, indeed, would have been a sufficiently local lamp-post) and that was that.

_{*Since his defeat he has spent most of his time eating and is, I gather, an even solider fellow now.}

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Why are Shropshire Tories so awful?

Tradition, probably.

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In a bit of a kerfluffle...

Another one?

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Which is the norm in that part of London, actually. And is directly related to shifts towards Labour in nearby inner suburbs.

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An unnamed Staffordshire MP who liked to brag about the number of parliamentary divisions he attends was described in Tony Wright's Very Short Introduction to British Politics as a prize buffoon and used as an example of why journalists should not assume that turning up in division lobbies = doing a good job. I wonder who he had in mind.