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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Dec 31, 2017 21:18:58 GMT
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Post by timrollpickering on Jan 1, 2018 1:08:48 GMT
Is there a reason why Hackney's had so many? There's a lot of resignations in the late 1980s but even without those it's still a lot.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 1, 2018 1:18:33 GMT
In the 2014-18 term, three out of the five were side effects of Sadiq Khan becoming Mayor - he appointed Sophie Linden (causing one byelection) and Jules Pipe (causing two - since Jules Pipe was replaced by Phil Glanville, thereby vacating Glanville's council seat).
The big period for Hackney byelections was 1986-90 when there were 17 in a single term. That's the record for one council in the post-Alderman era.
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Post by timrollpickering on Jan 1, 2018 14:42:51 GMT
Was there some political turbulence in the late 1980s that led to so many Hackney councillors resigning in that term (I thought the problem era didn't begin until about 1994) or did they just happen to prove especially attractive to recruiters at the time?
Less surprisingly they were one of the more by-election prone councils for 1994-2002
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Jan 6, 2018 13:13:11 GMT
Wasn't John Chanin a Hackney councillor during the 1980s? |
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Post by John Chanin on Jan 12, 2018 16:01:11 GMT
Wasn't John Chanin a Hackney councillor during the 1980s? Just noticed this. I'm still looking at the local by-elections and psephology sections, even though I've gone back to lurking. I may start participating again in the forum at some point.
I was a councillor 1982-6, but didn't restand as the experience was stressful and depressing - this was the time of ratecapping and the Thatcher government/press assault on London Labour councils.
I don't really know what went on in the 1986-90 council, as I moved out of the borough in early 1987, and due to health problems, and subsequently taking up a politically restricted position I ceased to be active. The banning of local government staff from becoming councillors in the borough where they lived was an extremely effective partisan act that much weakened Labour councils in the early 1990s, particularly in London where working for a different council than the one in which you lived was very normal. It may be that some councillors stood down early for that reason, and the factions led to a number of defections, although I'm not sure exactly when that was - I think later in the 1990s. Being a councillor wasn't much fun in the 1980s. These days they have even less power, so it's hard for me to understand why people want to do it. There is certainly a lot less competition now. For my safe Labour Birmingham ward one candidate was selected unopposed, and it wasn't a sitting councillor either.
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Post by gwynthegriff on Jan 12, 2018 18:05:48 GMT
Wasn't John Chanin a Hackney councillor during the 1980s? Just noticed this. I'm still looking at the local by-elections and psephology sections, even though I've gone back to lurking. I may start participating again in the forum at some point.
I was a councillor 1982-6, but didn't restand as the experience was stressful and depressing - this was the time of ratecapping and the Thatcher government/press assault on London Labour councils.
I don't really know what went on in the 1986-90 council, as I moved out of the borough in early 1987, and due to health problems, and subsequently taking up a politically restricted position I ceased to be active. The banning of local government staff from becoming councillors in the borough where they lived was an extremely effective partisan act that much weakened Labour councils in the early 1990s, particularly in London where working for a different council than the one in which you lived was very normal. It may be that some councillors stood down early for that reason, and the factions led to a number of defections, although I'm not sure exactly when that was - I think later in the 1990s. Being a councillor wasn't much fun in the 1980s. These days they have even less power, so it's hard for me to understand why people want to do it. There is certainly a lot less competition now. For my safe Labour Birmingham ward one candidate was selected unopposed, and it wasn't a sitting councillor either.
I was a councillor in the 1980s. It was fun. Perhaps it depended on where you were a councillor? Perhaps it depended on how confrontational your authority was toward national government? |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 14, 2018 23:22:19 GMT
Just updated this again - discovered I had missed off one byelection in Sutton.
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Post by overthehill on Jan 15, 2018 0:22:23 GMT
You have missed some - election potions in Barking and Dagenham and Waltham Forest following erroneous counts caused by elections.
Pawan Gupta in Brent vacated his seat following a by election (he is on your list as an employee of the authority, but this was a court finding)
Lutfur Rahman Ali (not the ex Mayor) was elected and vacated seat in Tower Hamlets in 2002 as he was a fire authority employee
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 15, 2018 0:36:24 GMT
You have missed some - election potions in Barking and Dagenham and Waltham Forest following erroneous counts caused by elections. No, they were not byelections. In Eastbury ward Barking and Dagenham (2006) and High Street ward Waltham Forest (2010) where a candidate was erroneously returned after 1,000 votes were accidentally deleted from their total, the result was corrected by the election court directly: the person who had been erroneously returned was declared unduly elected, and the candidate who should have won was declared duly elected. There was no byelection. Indeed an election petition was used, but his employment was enough to disqualify him in itself. Yes, I should count him as a disqualification not a resignation. |
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Post by overthehill on Jan 15, 2018 20:52:29 GMT
ha! of course - no by elections just a redeclared result - silly me! - how on earth did you dig up the info from the 1960s - should have said thanks - a great resource!!
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 15, 2018 21:13:30 GMT
ha! of course - no by elections just a redeclared result - silly me! - how on earth did you dig up the info from the 1960s - should have said thanks - a great resource!! Byelections after 1968 are all (in theory) in the London Borough Council elections series, but for the first term in 1964-68 it's more difficult. Some of the later ones are listed in the Annual Abstract of Greater London Statistics but there is no single source. To get them, and also to get a complete list of London Aldermen and the causes of byelections up to 1978 (which aren't given in the London Borough Councils series until 1982 for the 1978-82 term), I looked through every set of full council minutes for each of the 32 London Boroughs. Got to mention again that there is one result which I don't have. On 15 May 1967, John Donald McIlwain was elevated to the bench of Aldermen on Haringey Borough Council, vice Walter Kenneth Gomm, resigned. McIlwain had been a councillor and this move created a vacancy in High Cross ward. The byelection was held on 15 June. The electorate was 5,343 and 1,416 people cast votes. James Robert Searle (Labour) was elected, and the only other candidate was Mrs. Ivy Emily Harrington (Conservative). The Labour majority was less than in 1964. But I do not know how many votes were given to Searle and how many to Harrington. It's not in any local newspaper and I could not find any record of the result in the Haringey archives. |
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neilm
Non-Aligned
Posts: 25,023
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Post by neilm on Jan 18, 2018 19:08:30 GMT
The banning of local government staff from becoming councillors in the borough where they lived was an extremely effective partisan act that much weakened Labour councils in the early 1990s, particularly in London where working for a different council than the one in which you lived was very normal. Have I misunderstood this, or have the the rules changed? I'm aware of people who woke for one authority and are members of the one in which they live. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 18, 2018 19:22:43 GMT
The banning of local government staff from becoming councillors in the borough where they lived was an extremely effective partisan act that much weakened Labour councils in the early 1990s, particularly in London where working for a different council than the one in which you lived was very normal. Have I misunderstood this, or have the the rules changed? I'm aware of people who woke for one authority and are members of the one in which they live. There used to be no rule. Then the Widdicombe Report recommended a prohibition, which was enacted in part I of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 - all posts over a certain salary level were deemed politically restricted, starting in 1990. In 2002 the prohibition was significantly changed, with politically restricted posts cut back to only chief officers, the monitoring officer, and a small range of others including press officers. |
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neilm
Non-Aligned
Posts: 25,023
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Post by neilm on Jan 18, 2018 19:27:52 GMT
Have I misunderstood this, or have the the rules changed? I'm aware of people who woke for one authority and are members of the one in which they live. There used to be no rule. Then the Widdicombe Report recommended a prohibition, which was enacted in part I of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 - all posts over a certain salary level were deemed politically restricted, starting in 1990. In 2002 the prohibition was significantly changed, with politically restricted posts cut back to only chief officers, the monitoring officer, and a small range of others including press officers. Aah yes I remember a rule change in 2002. Thanks. What happened to the people who were in office when the 1989 act went into force? Could they finish terms? |
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 13,607 
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Post by J.G.Harston on Jan 18, 2018 19:45:53 GMT
There used to be no rule. Then the Widdicombe Report recommended a prohibition, which was enacted in part I of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 - all posts over a certain salary level were deemed politically restricted, starting in 1990. In 2002 the prohibition was significantly changed, with politically restricted posts cut back to only chief officers, the monitoring officer, and a small range of others including press officers. Aah yes I remember a rule change in 2002. Thanks. What happened to the people who were in office when the 1989 act went into force? Could they finish terms? It was probably worded as "if you hold position X you cannot stand for election to position Y", so forcing them out through "natural" attrition. |
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