"The year of the Tory weather"

[YL]

According to an article in a Sheffield newspaper in 1967 (see here, and the file labelled 1967 (3).jpg) which summarised the Sheffield local election results from 1945 to 1966, 1960 was "The year of the Tory weather". Turnout was low (25%, whereas just above 30% seems to have been more usual at the time), apparently because it rained for most of the day, and Labour did (relatively) badly: they lost Heeley, Moor and Sharrow to the Conservatives and Firth Park to a Ratepayers' Association candidate. (Moor ward covered parts of the modern City and Manor Castle wards, not the sort of area you'd expect to vote Tory.)

Anyway, did this happen elsewhere in the country, or was it a local Sheffield thing? And was the weather the real reason, or just an excuse for something else?

[swanarcadian]

I'm not sure how much the weather was a factor, but 1960 was certainly a good year for the Tories and a bad one for Labour in terms of local elections across the UK as a whole (things were to start turning the other way in 1962).

Here are some articles from the Glasgow Herald from that year:

For Scotland:

Socialists lose ground in town council elections - pages 1 & 11 (Wednesday 4th May)

Labour's losses in drift to right - page 11 (Thursday 5th May)

For England:

Right swing in borough elections - page 1 (Friday 13th May)

Widespread Labour set-back in English elections - page 1 (Saturday 14th May)

And also:

The Met Office's monthly weather report for May 1960

[YL]

Thanks for that. So it was generally a bad year for Labour; there was rain on polling day (12 May in England) in some areas (the Met Office report particularly mentions the West Midlands and the Cheshire Plain) but I don't see any evidence that Labour's performance was worse in those areas, and the earlier polling day in Scotland seems to have been largely dry. Labour losses of control included Darlington, Bristol, Ipswich, Great Yarmouth and Ealing, so were quite spread out geographically.

There was also the Brighouse & Spenborough by-election, a rare Government by-election gain, a couple of months earlier.

[swanarcadian]

Rather surprisingly the Tories made gains in 1961 local elections as well, just three years before being consigned to Opposition.  All this was because 1957 and 1958 had been bad years for the party and we were making up the lost ground (after Suez and all that; council seats were fought triennially in those days).  There must have been a bit of afterglow from the 1959 landslide as well. 
Move on to 1962 and beyond and it all turns sour (Profumo, Lib gain Orpington, Night of the Long Knives etc).

[YL]

Mar 22, 2018 17:52:01 GMT swanarcadian said:

Rather surprisingly the Tories made gains in 1961 local elections as well, just three years before being consigned to Opposition.  All this was because 1957 and 1958 had been bad years for the party and we were making up the lost ground (after Suez and all that; council seats were fought triennially in those days).  There must have been a bit of afterglow from the 1959 landslide as well. 
Move on to 1962 and beyond and it all turns sour (Profumo, Lib gain Orpington, Night of the Long Knives etc).

In Sheffield it is 1960 which stands out, with Labour doing much better in 1961, when Moor, Sharrow and Heeley were all comfortable Labour holds. On these boundaries (so elections from 1952 to 1966 inclusive) 1960 was by some way the worst result for Labour; as far as I can tell it was the only year they lost Moor, Heeley or Firth Park and one of only two when they lost Sharrow.

[hullenedge]

A clip, Halifax Courier, from 1960:-



Turnout slumped across the North in 1960 (27% approx in Leeds). Perked up the next year. There may be a correlation between turnout and Labour's vote...

Supermac's honeymoon lasted until summer 1961. This article by Richard Rose from April 1962 is worth a read:-

archive.spectator.co.uk/article/27th-april-1962/6/the-prospect-before-us