Post by bungle on Apr 7, 2020 13:34:20 GMT
Thirsk & Malton
In my Burton constituency profile I implicitly chided the Boundary Commission for a modish desire to use more than one conurbation in the names of constituencies. However, turning my attention to vast constituency that is Thirsk & Malton I realise that I have slurred them with an unjust calumny. In the re-creation of this seat in 2010 they have righted a wrong and, having correctly chosen not to continue with the blandly-named ‘Ryedale’, they restored a historic name which was previously in use from 1885 – 1983.
This is a geographically vast and mainly rural constituency in North Yorkshire covering some 2,135 sq km which makes it the 21st largest constituency by area. There is no single focal point to the constituency; as the name implies two of the most notable conurbations within the constituency are Thirsk (pop 5,000) and Malton (also pop 5,000). Technically, they aren’t the most populous. Pickering and Filey both have populations of around 7,000. Before we reach for the suggestions book and demand the seat is renamed ‘Pickering & Filey’ it should be pointed out that both Thirsk and Malton suffer from that wonderfully Yorkshire trait of resistance to ‘sensible’ administrative change. Both have a contiguous conurbation that stubbornly refuses to cede its independence. For Thirsk, this is Sowerby (pop 4,500) and any visitor will be hard pressed to work out where one ends and the other begins. For Malton, its immediate neighbour is Norton-upon-Derwent - known to all locals as simply Norton (pop 7,500). The boundary here is the much more obvious River Derwent and it is historically far more significant for Norton used to be in the East Riding until 1974. Woe betide anyone who publicly states that Norton is simply a suburb of Malton: the local Liberal Democrat Focus Team would have a petition set up before you could finish cooking a James Martin Yorkshire Curd Tart (he is from Malton, btw).
The bulk of the seat is formed by the district of Ryedale whose headquarters is in Malton. The electorate of Ryedale DC is only 37,000 which makes for a barely viable unit of local government. This is not their fault: about half of their original population closest to York (Haxby, Strensall, Huntington etc) was incorporated into the new City of York Unitary in 1996. These suburban wards remained with the Ryedale parliamentary constituency throughout its existence from 1983-2010 but then became part of York Outer CC. This meant some re-jigging was required to create a viable constituency and this saw the arrival of Thirsk and the southern/eastern wards of Hambleton district from the abolished Vale of York CC. Filey itself also adds to the hotchpotch of wards that make up Thirsk & Malton; it is part of the borough of Scarborough and it does look on the map as if it is some kind of awkward bolt-on. However, Filey and its neighbouring Hertford ward were always part of the old Ryedale constituency so in fact they have now been connected to the inland areas for nearly 40 years.
Filey is a small seaside town with a very fine sweeping beach and it doesn’t really suffer from that East Coast ‘run-down resort’ type of deprivation of its neighbours further down the coast towards the Humber (for one thing, it still retains its railway station). It did have one thing in common with some of these areas - a brief flirtation with UKIP locally - but largely the politics here is Con vs Filey Independents. As you’d expect Filey isn’t a typical geography for this constituency – this is a seat of small market towns, pretty villages and attractive countryside. The northern end of the constituency contains several dales that make up some of the North York Moors National Park: Bilsdale, Farndale and Rosedale. Within the Vales of Pickering and York agricultural interests dominate (both arable and livestock) and there is a strong equestrian presence around Norton. It may come as a surprise that the real-life vet who gave rise to James Herriot was based in Thirsk rather than the Yorkshire Dales. The population trends in T&M are distinctly older than average but it should be noted that incomes here are below national average. This isn’t the North Yorkshire of Harrogate-style affluent conservatism; instead this is slightly more insular with limited population mobility, especially the further away from York you travel. There are some noticeable areas of housing growth – both Norton and Thirsk continue to expand rapidly with manly private, family-sized housing.
All of the above description does imply that this isn’t an area steeped in party politics and this would be correct. This is an area where that wonderful paradox emerges: as the electorate become ever more small ‘c’ conservative, the less likely they are to vote Conservative in local elections. The Conservatives are often the largest group but rarely take control of Ryedale. Local election results at a district level show limited relevant trends for parliamentary purposes. Small ‘c’ conservative independents do very well in the remote areas while the old Liberals are very active in Pickering and regularly secure seats there and in Cropton. The Liberal Democrats are active in Norton but their challenge has been blunted somewhat by some very young enthusiastic local Conservatives (the former Liberal MP Elizabeth Shields, aged 90, lost her Norton East seat in 2019 after 39 years service). Labour has won a seat in Kirkbymoorside as recently as 1999 but since then no successes despite a growing number of candidates. At a county level the only marginal division is Pickering which is a Con:old Lib battle; the rest are either safe Conservative or Independent. Despite all of the above, one recent big political issue which crossed party divides was a strong and vocal opposition to fracking when tentative drilling was approved in Kirkby Misperton early in the Cameron administration.
So does all of the above mean the history of parliamentary elections in Thirsk & Malton is somewhat predictable and straightforward? Yes it is a very safe Conservative seat and not one to look out for on election night. But a bit like a solid pork pie, its psephology might be quite dull but occasionally the right seasoning is found to spice up the story. In 1929 the sitting Conservative member Sir Edmund Turton died unexpectedly one week before close of nominations for the General Election. By then, the posters had been printed - “Vote for Turton”. The story goes that rather than face the expense and organisation of new election materials the family rootled around and found a willing volunteer with the same surname: a fresh-faced 25 year old called Robert ‘Robin’ Turton. Given his lack of preparation he might have been expected to sink without trace, but in fact his stamina kicked in and after a medium-ranking ministerial career he ultimately became Father of the House in 1965. He was supposed to retire at the 1970 GE and the local association had selected as his replacement a 26 year old debonair old Etonian, who at the time was making his presence known locally as a newsreader on Yorkshire TV’s Calendar programme. Given his later notoriety this aspect of Jonathan Aitken’s story is often forgotten but in 1970 he got into hot water over the leaking of secret papers to the Sunday Telegraph & a right-wing Tory MP and ended up on trial. Despite being acquitted, this was all too much for the gentle backwoodsmen and tweeded ladies of Thirsk & Malton and he was dropped: Turton was asked to stand again.
If we whizz forward to the re-birth of the constituency in 2010 there was a moderate degree of tumult when sitting Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh defeated the sitting Ryedale MP John Greenway for the nomination (her % territory in the new seat was a distinct minority compared to Greenway's claim). In 2010 McIntosh had to wait 3 extra weeks to become the MP as the UKIP candidate died after nominations closed; the resulting deferred election was probably only remarkable for the unique sight of Harriet Harman campaigning from a London bus in Thirsk Market Place. I am confident this experience is something that will never be repeated. This wasn’t the only by-election in living memory to take place within the bulk of the seat. In 1986 the aforementioned Mrs Shields managed to score a convincing victory in Ryedale for the Liberal Alliance. A year later at the General Election normal service resumed.
After 2010 normal service did not resume in Thirsk & Malton. Those seeds of discord over that initial selection battle continued to germinate and by 2013 McIntosh was effectively estranged from her association. After much manoeuvring she was de-selected and promptly threatened to run as an independent. This fizzled out when David Cameron promised her a peerage if she went quietly. She was replaced by Kevin Hollinrake who has held the seat comfortably in the last three general elections by an average margin of just under 40%. Thus in three generations the local Tory story has gone from the Member of Parliament being a local squire & landowner, Sir Robert Turton of Upsall Castle, through to an estate agent called Kevin. Some may see this as illustrative of how Conservatism has evolved over the same time. Nevertheless it is easy to say that whomsoever that party chooses as candidate in a General Election for the foreseeable future, they will find a secure birth here.
In my Burton constituency profile I implicitly chided the Boundary Commission for a modish desire to use more than one conurbation in the names of constituencies. However, turning my attention to vast constituency that is Thirsk & Malton I realise that I have slurred them with an unjust calumny. In the re-creation of this seat in 2010 they have righted a wrong and, having correctly chosen not to continue with the blandly-named ‘Ryedale’, they restored a historic name which was previously in use from 1885 – 1983.
This is a geographically vast and mainly rural constituency in North Yorkshire covering some 2,135 sq km which makes it the 21st largest constituency by area. There is no single focal point to the constituency; as the name implies two of the most notable conurbations within the constituency are Thirsk (pop 5,000) and Malton (also pop 5,000). Technically, they aren’t the most populous. Pickering and Filey both have populations of around 7,000. Before we reach for the suggestions book and demand the seat is renamed ‘Pickering & Filey’ it should be pointed out that both Thirsk and Malton suffer from that wonderfully Yorkshire trait of resistance to ‘sensible’ administrative change. Both have a contiguous conurbation that stubbornly refuses to cede its independence. For Thirsk, this is Sowerby (pop 4,500) and any visitor will be hard pressed to work out where one ends and the other begins. For Malton, its immediate neighbour is Norton-upon-Derwent - known to all locals as simply Norton (pop 7,500). The boundary here is the much more obvious River Derwent and it is historically far more significant for Norton used to be in the East Riding until 1974. Woe betide anyone who publicly states that Norton is simply a suburb of Malton: the local Liberal Democrat Focus Team would have a petition set up before you could finish cooking a James Martin Yorkshire Curd Tart (he is from Malton, btw).
The bulk of the seat is formed by the district of Ryedale whose headquarters is in Malton. The electorate of Ryedale DC is only 37,000 which makes for a barely viable unit of local government. This is not their fault: about half of their original population closest to York (Haxby, Strensall, Huntington etc) was incorporated into the new City of York Unitary in 1996. These suburban wards remained with the Ryedale parliamentary constituency throughout its existence from 1983-2010 but then became part of York Outer CC. This meant some re-jigging was required to create a viable constituency and this saw the arrival of Thirsk and the southern/eastern wards of Hambleton district from the abolished Vale of York CC. Filey itself also adds to the hotchpotch of wards that make up Thirsk & Malton; it is part of the borough of Scarborough and it does look on the map as if it is some kind of awkward bolt-on. However, Filey and its neighbouring Hertford ward were always part of the old Ryedale constituency so in fact they have now been connected to the inland areas for nearly 40 years.
Filey is a small seaside town with a very fine sweeping beach and it doesn’t really suffer from that East Coast ‘run-down resort’ type of deprivation of its neighbours further down the coast towards the Humber (for one thing, it still retains its railway station). It did have one thing in common with some of these areas - a brief flirtation with UKIP locally - but largely the politics here is Con vs Filey Independents. As you’d expect Filey isn’t a typical geography for this constituency – this is a seat of small market towns, pretty villages and attractive countryside. The northern end of the constituency contains several dales that make up some of the North York Moors National Park: Bilsdale, Farndale and Rosedale. Within the Vales of Pickering and York agricultural interests dominate (both arable and livestock) and there is a strong equestrian presence around Norton. It may come as a surprise that the real-life vet who gave rise to James Herriot was based in Thirsk rather than the Yorkshire Dales. The population trends in T&M are distinctly older than average but it should be noted that incomes here are below national average. This isn’t the North Yorkshire of Harrogate-style affluent conservatism; instead this is slightly more insular with limited population mobility, especially the further away from York you travel. There are some noticeable areas of housing growth – both Norton and Thirsk continue to expand rapidly with manly private, family-sized housing.
All of the above description does imply that this isn’t an area steeped in party politics and this would be correct. This is an area where that wonderful paradox emerges: as the electorate become ever more small ‘c’ conservative, the less likely they are to vote Conservative in local elections. The Conservatives are often the largest group but rarely take control of Ryedale. Local election results at a district level show limited relevant trends for parliamentary purposes. Small ‘c’ conservative independents do very well in the remote areas while the old Liberals are very active in Pickering and regularly secure seats there and in Cropton. The Liberal Democrats are active in Norton but their challenge has been blunted somewhat by some very young enthusiastic local Conservatives (the former Liberal MP Elizabeth Shields, aged 90, lost her Norton East seat in 2019 after 39 years service). Labour has won a seat in Kirkbymoorside as recently as 1999 but since then no successes despite a growing number of candidates. At a county level the only marginal division is Pickering which is a Con:old Lib battle; the rest are either safe Conservative or Independent. Despite all of the above, one recent big political issue which crossed party divides was a strong and vocal opposition to fracking when tentative drilling was approved in Kirkby Misperton early in the Cameron administration.
So does all of the above mean the history of parliamentary elections in Thirsk & Malton is somewhat predictable and straightforward? Yes it is a very safe Conservative seat and not one to look out for on election night. But a bit like a solid pork pie, its psephology might be quite dull but occasionally the right seasoning is found to spice up the story. In 1929 the sitting Conservative member Sir Edmund Turton died unexpectedly one week before close of nominations for the General Election. By then, the posters had been printed - “Vote for Turton”. The story goes that rather than face the expense and organisation of new election materials the family rootled around and found a willing volunteer with the same surname: a fresh-faced 25 year old called Robert ‘Robin’ Turton. Given his lack of preparation he might have been expected to sink without trace, but in fact his stamina kicked in and after a medium-ranking ministerial career he ultimately became Father of the House in 1965. He was supposed to retire at the 1970 GE and the local association had selected as his replacement a 26 year old debonair old Etonian, who at the time was making his presence known locally as a newsreader on Yorkshire TV’s Calendar programme. Given his later notoriety this aspect of Jonathan Aitken’s story is often forgotten but in 1970 he got into hot water over the leaking of secret papers to the Sunday Telegraph & a right-wing Tory MP and ended up on trial. Despite being acquitted, this was all too much for the gentle backwoodsmen and tweeded ladies of Thirsk & Malton and he was dropped: Turton was asked to stand again.
If we whizz forward to the re-birth of the constituency in 2010 there was a moderate degree of tumult when sitting Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh defeated the sitting Ryedale MP John Greenway for the nomination (her % territory in the new seat was a distinct minority compared to Greenway's claim). In 2010 McIntosh had to wait 3 extra weeks to become the MP as the UKIP candidate died after nominations closed; the resulting deferred election was probably only remarkable for the unique sight of Harriet Harman campaigning from a London bus in Thirsk Market Place. I am confident this experience is something that will never be repeated. This wasn’t the only by-election in living memory to take place within the bulk of the seat. In 1986 the aforementioned Mrs Shields managed to score a convincing victory in Ryedale for the Liberal Alliance. A year later at the General Election normal service resumed.
After 2010 normal service did not resume in Thirsk & Malton. Those seeds of discord over that initial selection battle continued to germinate and by 2013 McIntosh was effectively estranged from her association. After much manoeuvring she was de-selected and promptly threatened to run as an independent. This fizzled out when David Cameron promised her a peerage if she went quietly. She was replaced by Kevin Hollinrake who has held the seat comfortably in the last three general elections by an average margin of just under 40%. Thus in three generations the local Tory story has gone from the Member of Parliament being a local squire & landowner, Sir Robert Turton of Upsall Castle, through to an estate agent called Kevin. Some may see this as illustrative of how Conservatism has evolved over the same time. Nevertheless it is easy to say that whomsoever that party chooses as candidate in a General Election for the foreseeable future, they will find a secure birth here.
