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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 20:37:26 GMT
First by-election I remember is Corby 2012.
Good thing too because wouldn’t have waned to be around for the endless Tory losses from 1990-97.
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Post by swanarcadian on Mar 9, 2018 21:25:44 GMT
Crewe and Nantwich in 2008 - a long overdue event after 26 years of crap by-election results. How many of us can actually remember Mitcham and Morden in 1982, or Ashfield, Workington and Walsall North in the 1970s? Most of us are too young.
Copeland was great at the time, but it turned out to be a false dawn. It ought to have been our Hull North of 1966, but turned out not to be.
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Post by swanarcadian on Mar 9, 2018 21:26:47 GMT
First by-election I remember is Corby 2012. Good thing too because wouldn’t have waned to be around for the endless Tory losses from 1990-97. I was wondering, are you sure you're non-aligned? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 21:33:58 GMT
First by-election I remember is Corby 2012. Good thing too because wouldn’t have waned to be around for the endless Tory losses from 1990-97. I was wondering, are you sure you're non-aligned? Absolutely. But would’ve voted for Major in 1992 and felt sorry for him during the 1992-97 parliament because Labour benefitted from Black Wednesday even though Kinnock supported joining the ERM in 1990. |
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carlton43
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Post by carlton43 on Mar 9, 2018 22:30:27 GMT
I'm going to indulge in memory. Preston 2000 happened only five months after I had joined the Liberal Democrats. Suddenly I was plunged into the world I had only previously known through the TV or internet. From leaflet dropping to being at the count, I was inside the tough and tumble of campaigning and I really enjoyed it. That must have been rough? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 23:45:37 GMT
2012 Batchwood by election. Best by election I've ever campaigned in. Best contact rate I've ever seen.
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Khunanup
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Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
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Post by Khunanup on Mar 9, 2018 23:48:14 GMT
Richmond Park, because I worked it, including on polling day, and it's an area I know a bit. The declaration was also on the day before my birthday so it was a lovely early birthday present.
Eastleigh was also extraordinarily satisfying, won despite us being in the deep hole we were in at the time.
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Post by finsobruce on Mar 9, 2018 23:49:59 GMT
2012 Batchwood by election. Best by election I've ever campaigned in. Best contact rate I've ever seen. Has everybody got their old notebooks and pencils out now?  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 23:56:27 GMT
Beaconsfield 1982 - good to see Tony Blair lose an election for once!
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Post by uhurasmazda on Mar 10, 2018 0:32:24 GMT
My favourite by-elections are those which capture a state of affairs which existed between GEs but would seem out of place if it had happened in either GE surrounding it. The immediate post-Iraq ones were good examples of this.
The 2010-15 Parliament was full of them. Bradford West, obviously, and Eastleigh the following year with that huge UKIP surge. Less obviously, there was Barnsley Central in which both UKIP (one of their first successes of that phase) and the BNP (signalling their final decline) saved their deposits, and Rotherham, where the Conservatives came behind not only Labour, but also UKIP, the BNP and Respect. Another minor favourite of mine is Middlesborough, where Cllr Imdad Hussain of the Peace Party got that party's best ever result and a saved deposit. By the time 2015 rolled around, all that opposition had united around UKIP.
Another run of interesting ones of this sort came during the wartime truce between the major parties, and a string of rather odd Independents and Common Wealth Party candidates became focuses of opposition to the way Churchill et al were conducting the war. Most notably Tom Driberg and (unsuccessfully) Douglas-Home's younger brother. Naturally, by 1945, the circumstances that allowed these people to be successful had changed and only a few of them held on.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2018 1:01:09 GMT
I imagine Glasgow Garscadden 1978 would’ve been pretty interesting too, the end of the rise and rise of the SNP in the 70s, culminating in their abysmal 1979 GE performance.
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Post by cherrycoffin on Mar 10, 2018 1:11:08 GMT
Richmond Park 2016 - first by-election I really followed/was aware of. Was great to see a gain (obviously) and Goldsmith’s loss (obviously) but will be primarily remembered for the somewhat inebriated celebrations with a few friends on campus. We’re students, what else are we to do? The first time I was forced to eat humble pie by the bowlful - and not the last! The difference between you and I is that you’re willing to do that in a public space. I eat plenty of humble pie in uni but never make such statements online. Mighty commendable |
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Mar 10, 2018 1:40:50 GMT
The first time I was forced to eat humble pie by the bowlful - and not the last! The difference between you and I is that you’re willing to do that in a public space. I eat plenty of humble pie in uni but never make such statements online. Mighty commendable Do universities not teach the rules about prepositions and pronouns these days?? |
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Post by uhurasmazda on Mar 10, 2018 6:15:15 GMT
In terms of NZ by-elections, most are fairly humdrum with the occasional gain. The most enjoyable ones are the ones following a change of party allegiance (we've tended to follow the Carswell Precedent).
Carswell Precedent by-elections
- Northern Maori, 1980 - Matiu Rata left Labour to form a Maori rights party called Mana Motuhake, and came a decent second place to Labour.
- Tauranga, 1993 - Winston Peters left National, fought his seat as an Independent with no major-party opposition, and subsequently founded NZ First
- Te Tai Hauauru, 2004 - Tariana Turia left Labour to form the Maori Party in the midst of the Foreshore and Seabed controversy and held her seat, again with only minor-party opposition.
- Te Tai Tokerau, 2011 - Hone Harawira left the Maori Party to form the more leftist Mana Movement. He was opposed by both Labour and the Maori Party, but was victorious.
Then there are those which were won or nearly won by minor parties:
- Rangitikei, 1978 - Always a hotspot of Social Credit activity, this yielded the first Social Credit victory in a decade for Bruce Beetham.
- East Coast Bays, 1980 - At the high point of Social Credit polling, Gary Knapp edged over future National leader Don Brash in a close race, which was lost by National solely because they had increased the Auckland Harbour Bridge toll shortly beforehand.
- Tamaki, 1992 - Social Credit having now joined the Alliance, their candidate Chris Leitch came close to gaining former PM Rob Muldoon's seat against an unpopular National government, only losing because he was arraigned on a traffic violation a week before polling day.
- Selwyn, 1994 - When hardline Finance Minister Ruth Richardson resigned, this blue-ribbon seat almost fell to a former Socred member of the Alliance, but future Speaker David Carter held it narrowly. The Labour candidate went on to be an MP, and the NZ First candidate continues to be a minor celebrity and Mayor.
- Taranaki-King Country, 1998 - Jim Bolger resigned as PM and one of the safest National seats in the country almost fell to ACT, who stood a former President of Federated Farmers. This was the equivalent of standing Benedict XVI in Belfast West.
- Northland, 2015 - Winston Peters' triumphant return to an electorate seat defeating National at their highest ebb.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2018 6:15:38 GMT
I'm going to indulge in memory. Preston 2000 happened only five months after I had joined the Liberal Democrats. Suddenly I was plunged into the world I had only previously known through the TV or internet. From leaflet dropping to being at the count, I was inside the tough and tumble of campaigning and I really enjoyed it. That must have been rough? It helped keep my expectations low, that's for sure. |
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Harry Hayfield
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Post by Harry Hayfield on Mar 10, 2018 8:56:06 GMT
My favourite one is the only one that I have had a personal interest in, and that is Ceredigion in the millennium. First by-election of the 21st century (and that's from the statement that Peter Brooke made in the Commons in 1997 stating that the millennium would start on January 1st 2000) and on polling day I was taking part in a dress rehearsal for the pantomime I was in (Jack and the Beanstalk) and had asked if it was possible to have as part of my costume a "VOTE RAVING LOONY" rosette. Even though I had cleared it with the rest of the directing team, when the dress rehearsal started I appeared on stage wearing this rosette and was beckoned by the director to come forward. As I did, thinking that she wanted me to be closer to the audience, she got up, unpinned the rosette and threw it away. At the interval she said "There are to be NO political statements during this production"
Twenty four hours at the first night, she handed me a mask of Tony Blair and said "I was wrong" and told me to say "Here's Tony!" during a scene where the chief villainess was making eyes at me.
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Post by froome on Mar 10, 2018 9:08:37 GMT
The first parliamentary by-election I remember was Orpington in 1962. My school had a few children whose homes were in Orpington, so it was talked about at school, but nobody expected the result, given the doldrums the Liberal party had been in for the previous 10 years. It was amazing to see a safe Conservative seat fall like that, and the first time I realised that the Conservative government weren't invincible, a memory that held me up during the long years of the later Thatcher government.
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Post by AdminSTB on Mar 10, 2018 9:28:46 GMT
My favourite has to be Dudley West in 1994. Went with a colleague & friend (still is) from Richmond, the canvassing returns were extremely good, and we had some magnificent ale - the borough of Dudley is one of the ale-drinking paradises of Britain, in fact perhaps the very best now. All the breweries whose wares we sampled are happily still thriving. More than my party is in the area now. I would argue that there are no good breweries in Dudley proper, but my definition of Dudley proper is quite small. It's a Black Country thing. Unfortunately, you were about 10 years too late for Simpkiss, which was one of the best and sold to Greenall's and closed when it was still profitable. To return to the topic, whilst I've gone to many a by-election, I think my favourite was Cheadle. |
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carlton43
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Post by carlton43 on Mar 10, 2018 9:33:48 GMT
The first parliamentary by-election I remember was Orpington in 1962. My school had a few children whose homes were in Orpington, so it was talked about at school, but nobody expected the result, given the doldrums the Liberal party had been in for the previous 10 years. It was amazing to see a safe Conservative seat fall like that, and the first time I realised that the Conservative government weren't invincible, a memory that held me up during the long years of the later Thatcher government. I too remember the shock and distress that caused in our circles. It did seem to come out of the blue or should i say yellow? Our candidate Gold was a central office faceless apparatchik and i understand the campaign was poorly handled. Yet to lose that badly only a couple of years on from the Brighouse and Spenborough victory was a salutary warning all round. |
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Post by LDCaerdydd on Mar 10, 2018 14:14:56 GMT
First by-election I remember was Ogmore in 2002 as it was the neighbouring seat to where I grew up and the late MP lived near my school and I remember his funeral.
I remember paying quite a bit of interest to Brent East the following year and I joined the party a few weeks after.
My favourite might be unusual in that it was Leicester South and whilst the success didn’t last I enjoyed the campaign and the aftermath.
Was shocked in Bradford West and shocked yet delighted by Richmond.
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