Tatton

[Devil Wincarnate]

I am intending to write something about Tatton, my neighbouring seat. But if anyone feels they know it particularly well, I am happy to cede and/or assist.

[Devil Wincarnate]

Cheshire is plagued with constituency names that do not easily give away the scope of the seat. Tatton is one of those, and together with parts of the neighbouring seats of Macclesfield, Altrincham & Sale West and Cheadle is often referred to locally as being the Manchester stockbroker belt. This gives away that the seat is rather wealthy- indeed, it is by several measures one of the most affluent patches outside London, and certainly the richest in the North West of England. Knutsford is often cited as the most expensive town in which to buy a house in Northern England, and Aston Martin sell more cars in Wilmslow than anywhere else. The name of the seat derives from Tatton Park, the stately home near Knutsford which is best known for hosting a major RBS flower show, and which sits on the site of the lost village of Tatton. The hall itself has historical political significance, being once a seat of the Stanleys (later Earls of Derby) and then a branch of the prominent Egerton family, raised to several dukedoms. However, the modern constituency is focussed upon the settlements of Knutsford, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge.

The area is economically diverse. In popular imagination, it is a mix of commuter belt and playground for professional footballers, ironic for a seat with no professional sport whatsoever. The “Golden Triangle” between Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Prestbury is infamous in popular culture for supposed nouveau riche excess. However, this is not where the local wealth derives. The seat sits in the shadow of Manchester Airport and supports many of its associated industries, and has major bases for pharmaceuticals and finance. Wilmslow is home to Umbro sportswear and the Information Commissioner’s Office, as well as being the main site of Royal London insurance; Over Peover near Knutsford hosts an enormous Barclays campus. Tabley is the home of the Cheshire Showground. There are nonetheless pockets of deprivation, particularly in Handforth and Wilmslow where several overspill estates for Manchester were built.

The constituency first emerged in 1983, cobbled together from parts of the abolished seats of Knutsford, Northwich and Runcorn, as well as the still-extant Cheadle. This gives a flavour of the geographical breadth still involved. The original boundaries included most of Northwich, but this has been peeled off and assigned to Weaver Vale, with the exception of a few of its outlying sections. In its early years, the contests were between the Tories and the Social Democratic Party, with Labour trailing well behind- a candidate of note in 1987 was Hazel Blears, later MP for Salford and a stalwart of the New Labour era. The Conservative MP, a Welsh barrister named Neil Hamilton, consistently achieved large majorities despite being a relatively controversial figure for his hardline stances on a number of matters- Tatton was the fourth-safest Conservative seat by 1992. However, it was not Hamilton’s political positions that put Tatton on the map. Instead, he found himself embroiled in the Cash For Questions scandal, an affair that is sometimes seen as emblematic of the crumbling of eighteen dramatic years of Conservative rule.

(NB: I’m not going to go into the details here, as I’m not sure it really adds much to the description of the seat)

In 1997, Hamilton found himself opposed by an unlikely candidate, Martin Bell. Bell was a famed BBC war correspondent, son of the inventor of the Times crossword and brother of Anthea Bell, an esteemed translator known particularly for bringing Asterix to English. Bell had no links to the area, and his candidature came out of the blue. The Liberal Democrats and Labour stood aside in his favour. In an appalling night for the Conservatives across the country, Hamilton found his majority swept away, and Bell turned a 15,860 Tory lead into his own of 11,077. Clad in his trademark white suit, Bell promised to serve for only one term. He kept to this pledge, and moved onto Brentwood in Essex in 2001, where he lost.

Enter George Osborne. A former special adviser and speechwriter in the late Major years, his arrival saw Tatton revert to the Tory fold. Several independents contested the seat in 2001, but none managed to ride the Bell wave. Osborne quickly rose through the ranks, joining the Shadow Cabinet before the 2005 election, and would serve as Chancellor in the Cameron government, before eventually retiring from Parliament at the 2017 election. He is now known as the editor of the Evening Standard.

2017 saw the seat held for the Conservatives by its present incumbent, Esther McVey. A former television host, McVey lost her seat in Wirral West in 2015 before crossing the Cheshire Plain to take up Tatton. Her current majority is marginally higher than any achieved by Hamilton.

Labour remain the principle if distant challengers to the Conservatives. Despite being a middle-class, Remain-voting seat, the Liberal Democrats have never been able to really establish themselves. At a local level, the council wards in this seat are not as monolithically Tory as would be expected. There are independents and ratepayer councillors in Alderley Edge, Knutsford, Handforth (which unusually has one of each), and most of Wilmslow.

[Pete Whitehead]

I didn't know that about Anthea Bell

[Deleted]

" but none managed to ride the Bell wave."

Or, indeed, the Bell curve. 🤓


I'm so, so sorry.

[LDCaerdydd]

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

[Devil Wincarnate]

Apr 29, 2020 0:10:08 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

There were once more were there not?

[yellowperil]

Can I play the pedant and point out that Devil Wincarnate has fallen in to the good old principal/principle error in his  final  paragraph. That context has nothing to do with principles. He is talking about the Labour party.

[lbarnes]

Apr 29, 2020 8:37:20 GMT @barnabymarder said:

Do you really have to? I am a member of the Labour Party and I have principles coming out of my ears and so do many other members.

Yes, he really has to.

[yellowperil]

Apr 29, 2020 8:37:20 GMT @barnabymarder said:

Do you really have to? I am a member of the Labour Party and I have principles coming out of my ears and so do many other members.

Oh I am sure you do. Just a gentle little joke to lighten a spelling correction. At least you don't have principals coming out of your ears,which would be embarassing.

[bsjmcr]

Apr 11, 2020 12:28:46 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

2017 saw the seat held for the Conservatives by its present incumbent, Esther McVey. A former television host, McVey lost her seat in Wirral West in 2015 before crossing the Cheshire Plain to take up Tatton. Her current majority is marginally higher than any achieved by Hamilton.

Not quite as high as Osborne's 2015 majority though. Plus if anything, she managed to shed votes in 2019 rather than gain them, Labour's decline flattering her majority. Yet it annoys me that she managed to accumulate more votes in number than Osborne ever did. Disappointed in the people of Tatton after the great sense they showed in 1997, they didn't see through this parachute job. Okay, Osborne wasn't local either but I can imagine was decent locally, talking about the Northern Powerhouse and conveniently diverting the HS2 line, and his economic policies probably went down very well here, rewarding him in 2015. I guess the latter applies to her too, the part she played in Universal Credit was probably used against her in Wirral leading to her dramatic exit there, but perhaps not an issue that would bat many eyelids here. 

[owainsutton]

Apr 29, 2020 0:10:08 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

Can it really be claimed that it's named specifically after either Tatton Hall, or Tatton Old Hall?

The parish of Tatton does still exist.

[owainsutton]

Apr 29, 2020 1:35:51 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

Apr 29, 2020 0:10:08 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

There were once more were there not?

I can think of Liverpool Exchange, and am now looking for others.

[owainsutton]

Jun 1, 2020 9:35:44 GMT owainsutton said:

Apr 29, 2020 1:35:51 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

There were once more were there not?

I can think of Liverpool Exchange, and am now looking for others.

While Liverpool Exchange took its name from the railway station, I'm not sure about Manchester Exchange. Was it named after the Royal Exchange, the railway station, or was a geographic area known by that name by the time the constituency was created?

Barnard Castle would be cheating, of course.

Westminster Abbey.

[owainsutton]

Tower Hamlets, perhaps? Again, it depends whether this was already a vernacular term for the area or a newly-coined name.

[pl]

Jun 1, 2020 10:07:36 GMT owainsutton said:

Tower Hamlets, perhaps? Again, it depends whether this was already a vernacular term for the area or a newly-coined name.

If memory serves, it was an early modern name for the areas - "the Hamlets" - to the east of the Tower, which had an obligation of (military) service to it.

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2020 1:35:51 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

Apr 29, 2020 0:10:08 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

There were once more were there not?

The old St George's, Hanover Square seat sounds like it was named after a church.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Jun 1, 2020 11:49:08 GMT @conservativeestimate said:

Apr 29, 2020 1:35:51 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

There were once more were there not?

The old St George's, Hanover Square seat sounds like it was named after a church.

After the parish, really. The church is still there, just to the south of Hanover Square.

[gwynthegriff]

Apr 29, 2020 0:10:08 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Tatton along with Brighton Pavillion are the only two constituencies named after a building.

I would have thought the name is drawn from the Tatton Estate or Tatton Park rather than any building ?

[gwynthegriff]

Jun 1, 2020 9:58:23 GMT owainsutton said:

Jun 1, 2020 9:35:44 GMT owainsutton said:

I can think of Liverpool Exchange, and am now looking for others.

While Liverpool Exchange took its name from the railway station, I'm not sure about Manchester Exchange. Was it named after the Royal Exchange, the railway station, or was a geographic area known by that name by the time the constituency was created?

Barnard Castle would be cheating, of course.

Westminster Abbey.

Liverpool Exchange station was presumably named after the adjacent stock exchange which predated the station?

[Chris from Brum]

Jun 1, 2020 11:49:08 GMT @conservativeestimate said:

Apr 29, 2020 1:35:51 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

There were once more were there not?

The old St George's, Hanover Square seat sounds like it was named after a church.

The long-defunct Birmingham All Saints too.