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Post by heslingtonian on May 20, 2023 21:09:22 GMT
Thought this might be worth discussing. Obviously not talking about the fringe candidates e.g. "Buy the Daily Sport Party" and the like but which of the main party candidates have been especially bad and by being so bad potentially changed political history?
For example, if Maria Hutchings had not been such a terrible candidate could the Conservatives have won Eastleigh in 2013 and might that have slowed UKIP momentum having a knock on impact on Cameron agreeing to the EU referendum?
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Post by johnloony on May 20, 2023 21:38:30 GMT
Peter Tatchell has been more prominent, more famous and more successful as a campaigner and civil rights advocate over 40 years, and as such has achieved far more (and helped to change public opinion more) than if he had been elected as a Labour MP and served on the backbenches for 30 years. I once asked him what he would have been like if he had been elected as an MP in 1983, and he said that the Palace of Westminster is a great civilising influence which would have made him go native and less radical.
That’s just the first thought… now I need to check my lists over the last 40 years to see who else there is…
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Post by johnloony on May 20, 2023 21:45:18 GMT
1987 Greenwich: Deirdre Wood (Labour): if she had stopped Rosie Barnes being elected, then the continuing SDP after 1988 would have been a slightly less significant force
That was a bit of a tenuous and desperate thought, but anyway
I remember the Lib Dems being disappointed at not doing better in Vauxhall in 1989; if they had somehow managed to win then Kate Hoey’s career might have been derailed and less prominent as a Labour Brexiteer. I don’t think that was specifically the fault of the candidate though.
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Post by johnloony on May 20, 2023 22:01:14 GMT
I’m thinking that the number of possibilities for this thread is limited. It has to be someone from a party which might have had a realistic chance of winning, in slightly different circumstances. In other words, where the result of the by-election was marginal or was gained by one party from another. In most cases, it’s not actually the fault of the candidate who lost / came second.
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Post by johnloony on May 20, 2023 22:12:18 GMT
Littleborough & Saddleworth, 1995: Phil Woolas (Labour) might have got elected 2 years earlier than he actually did
Winchester 1997: Gerry Malone being a bad loser was arguably why the by-election even happened in the first place
Bromley & Chislehurst: Ben Abbotts (LD) was probably the ghastliest main-party candidate I’ve stood against. If he had won, Bob Neill’s career would have been delayed or diverted.
Another thought: even when there is a bad candidate, and even when it’s the candidate’s fault that they lost, the consequences in the long term are usually fairly minimal anyway in terms of what would have been different.
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Post by uthacalthing on May 20, 2023 22:21:50 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question.
The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question.
Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate.
The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988.
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Sibboleth
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Post by Sibboleth on May 20, 2023 22:47:33 GMT
The canonically correct answer is surely the unfortunate Arthur Griffith-Boscawen.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 20, 2023 23:02:42 GMT
Can I put in a bid for Tony Cook, SDP candidate for Darlington in 1983? Was probably heading for victory until it became clear what a chump he was.
Julian Davidson, Conservative candidate for Newbury, was a dud - I think it was him who claimed a local connection to the seat on the basis of having driven through it quite often.
Manuela Sykes was an impressive Liberal byelection candidate in Ipswich turned to a terrible Labour byelection candidate in Uxbridge.
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batman
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Post by batman on May 21, 2023 6:47:56 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate. The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988. I don't often agree with you but Bob Gillespie was very poor. Think that's a pretty good shout |
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2023 7:23:53 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate. The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988. IIRC Winchester 1997 wasn’t really a by-election but a rerun anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2023 7:27:25 GMT
Neil Shastri Hunt comes to mind, although the Tory candidate in Tiverton& Honiton last year also did not exactly was star quality.
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Post by iainbhx on May 21, 2023 7:33:10 GMT
Neil Shastri Hunt comes to mind, although the Tory candidate in Tiverton& Honiton last year also did not exactly was star quality. Shastri-Hurst was a very poor fit for a by-election candidate for that seat. I know how bad one of the other two short listed would have been so I presume the "local" candidate must have been truly tremendous not to have got it. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 21, 2023 7:48:30 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. IIRC Winchester 1997 wasn’t really a by-election but a rerun anyway. There is no such thing. There is no separate category of “rerun election”. There are general elections and there are byelections. Winchester in 1997 had a general election won by 2 votes and then avoided, followed by a byelection won by 21,556 votes. |
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 8:11:51 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate. The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988. That's the Primal Scream guy's father isn't it? Why was he so bad? |
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 8:13:51 GMT
If I recall correctly the Conservative candidate at the Romsey by-election was pretty terrible and arguably a better candidate would have held the seat.
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batman
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Post by batman on May 21, 2023 8:59:37 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate. The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988. That's the Primal Scream guy's father isn't it? Why was he so bad? just totally hapless & inept. |
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Post by greatkingrat on May 21, 2023 9:05:12 GMT
I think people are exaggerating the effect of candidates, I suspect a lot of voters couldn't even name a candidate unless it's someone high profile like George Galloway.
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Harry Hayfield
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Post by Harry Hayfield on May 21, 2023 9:14:00 GMT
If we are talking about the worst mainstream party by-election candidate, then could I nominate Alec Kellaway, the Lib Dem candidate in Newham North East (1994) who defected to Labour a few days before the by-election and in effect removed the Liberal Democrats from the ballot.
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batman
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Post by batman on May 21, 2023 9:29:14 GMT
this ensured that the Conservatives got second. I believe their candidate achieved prominence later on.
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on May 21, 2023 9:42:11 GMT
From a Labour perspective Tatchell, Wood and Gillespie are all decent shouts.
It was because of those disasters that the national party took much greater control over selections for parliamentary by-elections, the effect of which was seen in Vauxhall just half a year after Govan. Which brings me to a more recent example - it is doubtful if Labour could have held Hartlepool with any candidate when that byelection was held, but the person the leadership decided on proved to be hopelessly ill-suited in almost all respects.
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