This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Say, wasn’t Sheffield Central Perkins’s constituency in A Very British Coup?

[CumbrianLefty]

Though that was the "old" Sheffield Central, more a "traditional" inner-city seat than the current one.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Though that was the "old" Sheffield Central, more a "traditional" inner-city seat than the current one.

Yes, that constituency was effectively abolished at the last boundary review even if they kept the name. Always a very safe Labour seat.

[Wiswylfen]

Say, wasn’t Sheffield Central Perkins’s constituency in A Very British Coup?

In the series, yes. It's not stated in the book, but...

Harry Perkins is elected to Parliament in a by-election between 1970 and 1974 (not stated but can be inferred). It's not Hallam. Before then he works at Firth Brown and the constituency he's selected for is on the other side of the city, so not Brightside. It's a safe seat, so not Heeley. Attercliffe is right next door so I don't think it fits "other side", nor does Park (later Central) really, so that leaves Hillsborough, but all of the last three are possibilities.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Thread subtitle idea: "we're here, we're kier, we don't want anymore Blairs"

[Wiswylfen]

Say, wasn’t Sheffield Central Perkins’s constituency in A Very British Coup?

In the series, yes. It's not stated in the book, but...

Harry Perkins is elected to Parliament in a by-election between 1970 and 1974 (not stated but can be inferred). It's not Hallam. Before then he works at Firth Brown and the constituency he's selected for is on the other side of the city, so not Brightside. It's a safe seat, so not Heeley. Attercliffe is right next door so I don't think it fits "other side", nor does Park (later Central) really, so that leaves Hillsborough, but all of the last three are possibilities.

Never mind: I checked The Friends of Harry Perkins, which with its Labour leader who suddenly changes names, anti-Brexit Sir Peregrine, and ending you can see coming from a mile off I had tried to forget. Perkins is MP for the fictional Sheffield Parkside, and is succeeded by Fred Thompson.

20XX general election, Sheffield Parkside

LAB: 28,956 (69.6%) (Thompson, Frederick Aneurin)
CON: 4,780 (11.5%) (Farrow, Melissa Catherine)
ENP: 3,941 (9.5%) (Lawton, Frank Oswald)
LDM: 2,120 (5.1%) (Bonham Carter, Michael Francis)
AFA: 980 (2.4%) (Dixon, Richard Francis)
GRN: 743 (1.8%) (Blagdon, Jonathan Algernon Crispin)
MRL: 98 (0.2%) (Norton, Tracey Jane)

Majority of 24,176 (58.1 points)

[CumbrianLefty]

Is it *really* true that someone was excluded from the shortlist for a key Labour target seat because they "liked" a tweet from Nicola Sturgeon saying she didn't have Covid?

Because that's what is apparently being claimed.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Occam's razor probably applies here.

[Blair]

Forgot to post at the time but was slipped out at a Fringe event that Sadiq intends to run for a third term as London Mayor in 2024.

It will be under first past the post and while national headwinds will help I’m surprised it hasn’t been more contested- I know he is broadly popular internally too. I guess a lack of competition comes from the role having no power and London MPs sensing Government- ofc Sadiq wouldn’t have ran in 2015 if he was Justice Minister.

[CumbrianLefty]

Occam's razor probably applies here.

Though that also arguably applies in the sense that certain people at party HQ have proved capable of acting in a both highly petty and overtly factional manner.

[Oryxslayer]

Forgot to post at the time but was slipped out at a Fringe event that Sadiq intends to run for a third term as London Mayor in 2024.

It will be under first past the post and while national headwinds will help I’m surprised it hasn’t been more contested- I know he is broadly popular internally too. I guess a lack of competition comes from the role having no power and London MPs sensing Government- ofc Sadiq wouldn’t have ran in 2015 if he was Justice Minister.

At the same time Khan no doubt at this point would desire back into Westminster if Labour had a position for him in their future government. Sure his old seat is occupied and will be reconfigured if the election is after the boundary review, but there are plenty more London seats that Labour will be easily winning in the event they even get close to government. Starmer I guess just wants Khan where he is.

[Blair]

Forgot to post at the time but was slipped out at a Fringe event that Sadiq intends to run for a third term as London Mayor in 2024.

It will be under first past the post and while national headwinds will help I’m surprised it hasn’t been more contested- I know he is broadly popular internally too. I guess a lack of competition comes from the role having no power and London MPs sensing Government- ofc Sadiq wouldn’t have ran in 2015 if he was Justice Minister.

At the same time Khan no doubt at this point would desire back into Westminster if Labour had a position for him in their future government. Sure his old seat is occupied and will be reconfigured if the election is after the boundary review, but there are plenty more London seats that Labour will be easily winning in the event they even get close to government. Starmer I guess just wants Khan where he is.

I think his best bet is what people expected Burnham to do; have someone retire months before & get selected. I half expected he would retire & get offered a seat in the Lords- which would allow for some sort of job.

The problem with London is that an insanely high number of London Labour MPs are on the frontbench so won't be retiring, it's also generally quite a youngish set of MPs & there's only been one retirement in an inner london safe seat- Camberwell and Peckham.

[CumbrianLefty]

As things stand, the next London Mayor (though not Assembly) election will be held using FPTP.

[Blair]

As things stand, the next London Mayor (though not Assembly) election will be held using FPTP.

Yeah it's that reason alone I'm a bit worried about how it would go; Sadiq benefits from the fact that he would do really well with transfers from the Greens and Lib Dems.

The fun hypothetical is whether Ed Vaizey or Justine Greening could have won in 2021 with a well financed and non-joke campaign; probably not under AV but still could have been a lot closer.   

[CumbrianLefty]

OTOH one reason why Shaun Bailey did "surprisingly" well last year was that he was widely perceived to have next to no chance. And the pandemic probably didn't help turnout amongst Labour voters.

[afleitch]

Oh dear

https://mobile.twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1587503173064851457

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

I realy don't understand the obsession some parts of the british left have with making abortion a political issue in the uk. Criticise what he said on the grounds of trans rights or whatever, but  this is just weird.

[Blair]

Anybody know why Ian Byrne is facing issues in his selection?

I know there was issues over his original selection (iirc some local cllrs and others were kept off the shortlist) but he’s not really annoyed anyone in THIGMOO.

[MaxQue]

Anybody know why Ian Byrne is facing issues in his selection?

I know there was issues over his original selection (iirc some local cllrs and others were kept off the shortlist) but he’s not really annoyed anyone in THIGMOO.

Labour North West want to place one of their staff in, it seems.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anybody know why Ian Byrne is facing issues in his selection?

I know there was issues over his original selection (iirc some local cllrs and others were kept off the shortlist) but he’s not really annoyed anyone in THIGMOO.

It does seem as if he never bothered to bed himself down particularly, which is always an error when a candidate was selected in a contentious manner. But I wonder if the general state of upheaval and drama in Liverpool Labour now that the Anderson-McCluskey duumvirate is no more might be a factor. West Derby (like Walton) is also quite a small CLP and has deselected an incumbent in recent memory.

[CumbrianLefty]

I still think it likely that he wins re-selection in the end.

[Blair]

It really doesn't help that my brain keeps confusing his name with Liam Byrne.

[CumbrianLefty]

I see that Wes Streeting had to help the leader out yesterday regarding the overseas workers in the NHS question, not ideal. Though it is also notable that the BBC headline that caused a lot of the fuss was later changed to something less clickbaity - party HQ on the blower?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I see that Wes Streeting had to help the leader out yesterday regarding the overseas workers in the NHS question, not ideal. Though it is also notable that the BBC headline that caused a lot of the fuss was later changed to something less clickbaity - party HQ on the blower?

Another example of Starmer not being a career politician having odd effects: he's not very adroit in interview situations and will often speak in open-ended generalities (as, well, people who aren't politicians tend to) which can be taken out of context quite easily sometimes.* Given that he's sixty years old there's really not much hope of successfully changing that, so there needs to be an effective fielding system. Against that he's much more comfortable in other situations (inc. with random members of the public) than average: it's an interesting trade-off.

_{*Which might seem surprising given former occupation and his standing in it, but isn't really: it's a profession that rewards careful preparation and the ability to react quickly in a system of formalized interrogation, which is very different to sitting down for a chat on a sofa in a TV studio...}

[Torrain]

Christian Wakeford has been selected for Bury South.

Not particularly surprising, given Starmer's focus on selections (and his embrace of Wakeford, who spent the summer as a PPS, and joined the Labour Whip office a few weeks back), and Wakeford's rather effective charm offence (and seemingly genuine Damascene conversion).

But still slightly impressed that there was less intra-party noise over selecting a former Tory MP, than in the wide-open selections in other seats.